Pushed myself in Tartu Kevadjooks, but the first race of the year proved as difficult as always.
Sports year 2016 was quite busy. In total I crossed 3228 kilometers: running 1100, cycling 1150, skiing 475, kayaking 251 and walking 247. Milage-wise the year was an improvement over several previous years when I did less than 2500. Yet, what has to be taken into account is that this year I did pretty much close to none bodyweight exercises and yoga whereas in previous years I did tens of hours of those.
Haanja Suusa100: 100km FT skiiing, 6:09:47, place: 17/42
From sports perspective these were the highlights of the year:
1) Successfully completing Võhandu Maraton kayak race.
Considering that the beginning of April was the first time I ever kayaked, it was a great deed that just a few weeks later me and my friend Mart would finish the arduous 100 km long Võhandu Maraton. Yet we finished it and I think we did it in pretty good time for first timers: 12 hours and 8 minutes gave us 183th place out of 609 finishers.
I was expecting <1:35, but not that close to 1:30
2) Running a 1:30:14 half-marathon in Helsinki Half-Marathon
That was the closest I’ve been to the 1:30 line in recent years. What makes this result especially satisfactory is that the weather was quite warm and the track pretty hilly. The same day there was another half-marathon held in Narva where many people I know trashed their personal bests in close to ideal conditions. I can only imagine what my result could have been, had I chosen to run in Narva instead of Helsinki.
This win was paid for in the marathon and half-marathon that I had to run shortly after.
3) Winning yet another half-marathon in Ida-Virumaa Staadionimaraton
Ida-Virumaa Staadionimarathon has become one of my favorite events of the year. Not only for the reason that due to relatively small number of participants (10-30) I’ve regularly made it to the podium, but also for the excellent organisation, camaraderie and cool overall concept.
This year I won the first of the three runs, but due to competition I had to run it a bit faster (1:38) than initially planned. This made the following marathon and half-marathon much harder.
The man on the right is my father who, being 60 years old is still physically active
4) Successful completion of several demanding undertakings.
In addition to Võhandu Marathon I also skid 100km for the first time in my life, in Haanja Suusa100. Time 6:09 is quite good for the hilly track in Haanja. In addition to that, I ran 84,4 km in 20 hours in Ida-Virumaa Staadionimaraton and in the beginning of June did Helsinki half-marathon (21,1km run) and Tampere Pirkan Pyöräily (134km cycling) on two consecutive days. Last but not least, running Rõuge Trail Run marathon with >1000m total elevation gain proved to be quite a challenge, too.
For this year I have set goals in other areas of life that precede the ones of sport. Yet I do think 2017 a good year to run over my mediocre PB in marathon (3:23) and perhaps run my first official ultra-marathon. Let’s see how it goes.:)
Lauri Antalainen 