Already five years I have put myself to a different competitions and to be honest that jubilee started with last year’s city run Viljandi. This year the Great Race Round Lake Viljandi, Night Run Rakvere and Tallinn Marathon will be also among my first jubilee runs

.I chose Motorway Run Haapsalu to start the season. Haapsalu brings up some nostalgy for me because of the first school years I spent there. Haapsalu is also a lovely resort town. The reason why I picked this run to my calendar was the analysis of last year’s results. – It seemed to me that I was not able to keep up with some competitions and I had the feeling of training session not of a competition. This year I decided to take part in some easier competitions before the more important ones and Haapsalu was very much suitable. I made another change in my training process – visiting a spa center. I would like to thank Karin and Raul for tagging along with me. Of course I would also like to thank Mari-Liis who is taking care of my muscles.

The Athletes have a habit to ask about their aim of time result before the start and there are various answers 😀. Of course I had sat a goal in my head and it was not to make the run over 45 minutes.

Todays start came quite sudden and when I looked at the final protocol later then the start was really given earlier by one minute. At first we had to make two rounds on a stadium. Most likely it was the most uncomfortable part of the run because when 300 people start to run at the same time on a 400m circle then it gets pretty tight 😊. Compared to stadium in Viljandi the situation was good at the gate because there the gate situation gets much tighter. – Like a plug on the way.

Relive ‘Haapsalu 06.04.19’

First three kilometers went quite well. – I could keep up the tempo what I chose and I even decreased it in order to make it till the end. Finishing the third kilometer a man ran behind me. From fourth till sixth kilometer my run was according to my expectations. A quad passed by me and I decided to follow them and also the one behind me was still there like a burr 😊. I noticed that the stride of the quad suited me no longer so I wished to speed up and I hoped to catch another group ahead of me. I had a plan and I accomplished it and got rid of the quad. As a negative surprise a breeze came and ruined my plan. Soon we reached a drinking point and there some stayed behind and some came pass but the burr stayed with me. From sixth till eighth kilometer it was much harder so my spirit started to give in and the burr was still pressing on me on the neck behind. – He then decided to rudely raise the tempo and ran ahead of me. – After I had pulled him along 7,5 kilometer he did not even invite me to come along and so he took off. The last two kilometers brought some brightness to my eyes but before that I still had a heavy sigh when I saw a railway viaduct ahead of me. When I actually got there then it was more of a fun because the burr who ran away before was now like coming to meet me backwards. When we reached the sign of the ninth kilometer I sped up and the burr could not keep up with me anymore. Reaching the stadium I caught more three athletes. Last 100 meters I really raced so they would not catch me before the finish line.

Delivery and translator Heleni Juht