The year 2018 starts to wrap itself up and the competition calendar starts to run out. There is only one competition left – Saaremaa three days run.

Last year was the first year for me to participate there and this event made very good impression on me. Good memories from last year pretty much nailed this competition to my calendar. Saarenaa is the last chance to beat my current record.

First day

On my way to Saaremaa my nerves were pretty tense so the idea of having a nap did not come to practice. – Usually I sleep like a child. When I got there I took my number out and sat off to my place to stay in order to prepare myself for the run. The commotion inside me grew more before the start. Usually it is a good thing because it brings a little adrenalin and it is fun.
The first start pistol did not sound right but the second was more like it so the first day of my this year’s last running competition had started.

I had ran few hundred meters when fellow member Henno was running next to me. He suggested the idea to run in tempo 4:20. It was suitable for me although after 4-th kilometer Henno went on his own. I was speeding up as much as possible. – I was able to raise the tempo even two kilometers before the finish line. Big thanks to Henno because he was a big help to me. The finish time was 00:43:03 which is also my new personal record running 10 kilometers. But “one fly has to be in the ointment” and this is the 3 seconds. 😀

Relive Saaremmaa I päeva

Second day

At night I couldn’t get to sleep. I turned and tossed in the bed and when I finally fell asleep I heard the alarm. I ate till I was really full because the distance to Sõrve peninsula was 16, 195 km. I started the run together with two fellow members – Henno and Heigo. Unfortunately 3 kilometers later they went ahead and I was afraid to go together with them. I felt ashamed because I should have more courage to take risks. Unfortunately I remembered “the fall” at Tallinn halfmarathon too well.

To my delight I was able to keep the tempo under 5 minutes the whole run. I have some kind of an error towards long lines, some kind of a boredom appears or something like that. One part of the track I ran behind a foreigner at the drinking point I saw Hanno at the horizon. I decided to catch up so the foreigner stayed behind me. Those 5 kilometers reminded me of trainings at the Kääriku camp where the rises had to be ran fast and falls had to be ran slow 😊. – This was the feeling that I could actually accomplish those things. The time result of the second day was 01:57:38. Compared to last year I had beaten my own result by 3 minutes.

Relive ‘Afternoon Oct 20th’

Third day

I can say that I was mentally “empty” so it was really hard to motivate myself. I had to run those last 16 km and it was great effort. The start was so difficult for me that I don’t even remember the beginning of the run. My goal was to keep the tempo on 4:40 but it did not work out because I had to take “a bathroom break”. After that I got more will to run and I started to strive again. After drinking at the deinking point I got a spark in my eyes again but it turned out that the sport drink did not fit together with the breakfast what I ate and my stomach started to “turn”. When I had been through with 10 km – it could be said that the run is done. Last 6 km were more like running-walking. The time

Relive ‘Morning Oct 21st’

Delivery and translator Heleni Juht