Ghost finisher

Triathlon Long Distance European Champioship will take place again in Almere (Amsterdam, Holland) next week. Let's hope the weather will be less stormy than on 17th August 1991, when I took part in this Europe's oldest 'ironman'-distance race.

The whole week had been calm and sunny. The course was advertised as fast and flat. I was ready to set a new PR in under ten hours.

The race morning appeared stormy as hell. The waves in the sea looked like big hills. The 3800-meter swim was a blurred struggle for survival.

On the 180-km bike course the wind blew gravel on the wet roads. Both of my tubular tires were punctured. I carried two spare tubes, which I managed to install with cold hands. On the last lap both of my spare tires blew off as well. I had to cycle the last 40km with an empty back tube and the last 20km with a flat front tire as well. They were right, 'flat' described the course well.

The rain stopped during the run, but it was still windy. I ran a great marathon, finishing in 11 hours and change. It wasn't a new PR, but it was certainly a strong performance I could feel proud of forever.

Today I checked the website of Challenge Almere. They have all the old results online, so I searched for my name from the 1991 list. It wasn't there! Nothing about my lifetime achievement. I had always assumed I was a finisher, but I had never actually checked the results before. I have absolutely no idea why my result was omitted 26 years ago.

A philosophical question: Did I really finish, or was it just a dream?
     

Story of a Trophy

I found an old trophy with a plate: "Laulajan lenkki 64km 1995 IIIp Miehet".
Singer's Loop 40 miles 1995 3rd place men.

I was able to scan two photos of me running in this race. The cross-country skiing type large front & back bib was number 14. My minimalist gear included shabby shorts, worn-out shirt, huge sunglassed, white tube socks and thin-soled running shoes.

My 'Flock of Seagulls' hair was blowing in the wind. That style may have been fashionable back in the day.

I wondered what is the story behind this cheap trophy? Why had I kept it all these years? I've never been much of a materialist, so I tend to throw everything away.

Luckily I managed to download the Finnish ultrarunning magazine 'Ultrajuoksija' 2/1995. Editor Tero Töyrylä had published a few pages about the event with interviews and results.

This road race had been organized in Vammala (a former town in South-Western Finland, now a city called Sastamala) since 1990. The singer was one of the competitors: Mauno Lampimäki. He had recorded countless songs with his dance band. The start and finish was at Myllymaa sports centre. In 1995 there were thirty runners in the race, which was a big increase from previous years. Ultrarunning was definitely booming.

On Saturday, May 13th the weather was clear, cool and windy. After eight years of ironman-distance triathlons, this was my first ultrarunning race ever. In October 1994 I had ran my marathon PR 2:55. In 1995 I had increased my running mileage from 70 to 100 km/week. Two weeks before I had ran a 53km test training run with promising results.

I gave it my best shot. In those days I didn't eat carbs, so there was no energy supplementation whatsoever. I may have received a cup of tap water during the race, but that's all. The course was pretty tough. My marathon split was 3:20. The route was marked, but I wasn't quite sure where to go on two occasions. In both cases I was able to confirm the right direction with someone.

I finished strong in 5:04.08 in 3rd place. I don't recall feeling tired at all. Petri Orava won with 4:25.28 and Alf Granvik came second in 4:58. Maria Tähkävuori was the first woman.

I was happy with my ultrarunning debut. It had been fantastic to run with legends like the Montela twins (Kalevi and Olavi) and Kalevi Saukkonen (who has run over 2100 marathons). Mauno the singer finished as well. He probably sang too, but I had to head back to Helsinki.

I ran Laulajan lenkki again the next year, finishing 5th with 5:37:37, over 30 minutes slower time. I have never been able to run a faster 40-miler than on that windy Saturday in 1995.

MIN:D OVER MALOJA - Swiss Irontrail 2017

It's Friday night at busy Murtel cable car station in Swiss Alps. The doors open and a zombie drags his feet inside. His corpse collapses on a bench. He lies down on his back eyes closed while liquids slowly spread from a soft flask on the floor. Onlookers shake their head: another one bites the dust.

That zombie is me. I'm at the highest point of Swiss Irontrail 214km (133 miles), but not even halfway through. We had started 4am in Davos. We would have to run a counterclockwise loop with over eleven thousand meters of elevation gain to finish in the same place before 6pm on Sunday.

Quitting is not an option. You have to suck it up and design a way forward. I would have to descend down to Maloja by the big lake. There would be a house with a warm meal and a place to nap there.
I would regroup there and finish my longest race ever.

After eating and sleeping in Maloja I kept on going relentlessly. There were uphills and downhills. It was hot and cold. There were easy roads and technical trails. My feet sensed the terrain instinctively and adjusted automatically.

After another day and night I crawled up the final steep slope before Davos. It was extremely hot and I kept on cooling myself off in streams. Three figures stood on the cliff high above watching my struggle up.

It was Andrea Tuffli, who has directed Swiss Alpine events since 1986. I ran my first ultra-trail in Davos back in 1995 and returned many times for various races. He and the other two guys cheered excitedly, high-fived me and grabbed my arms.

"Congratulations! Do you always finish every race you start?", they asked. "No, but if you let go my arm I might finish this one", I joked and laughed. I kept on laughing the whole 5km downhill to Davos with people clapping and shouting everywhere, and tears of happiness pouring from my eyes.

Cortina Epic Week 2017

Epic.

A week in the heart of the Dolomites.

Our dreams came true.

Perfect weather.

Professional guides.

Ferrata climbing, skyrunning, trailrunning.

It was an experience beyond words.

Thank you Cortina d'Ampezzo.

We will never forget this epic week.

Mozart100

Mozart100 is an interesting addition to UTWT. It's not a new event, but the course is new. For the full 105km they now offer 4,700m elevation gain in one loop. The altitude is under 1,500m so no adaptation is necessary. I decided to give Salzburg a try.

The start/finish is at the historic town centre. It was convenient stroll to the 5am sunrise start from my 800-year-old hotel room. Altstadt hasn't changed that much since Mozart. Salzburg makes one feel young in comparison.

They checked the obligatory gear: a cup/bottle and a whistle. I chose to add foldable poles in my 125g vest. A headlamp was required as well, but we were allowed to leave it in our drop bag.

I put also some other stuff in the bag we could access at 33 and 75km. However I never needed any of it as the organizers took such a good care of us and the weather stayed ideal all day.

300 runners had plenty of space on the streets of Salzburg on early Saturday morning. The first 12km was easy until the first aid station. My problem was they were so well-stocked and accommodating that I wanted to stay forever.

When I finally said goodbye the gravity of the situation hit me. I quickly calculated that at this rate I wouldn't be able to run through the remaining eight aid stations within cutoffs. I was in an obstacle race with a twist: here the obstacles were treats.

Before the race I had worried the course might be too easy for me. Luckily that wasn't the case at all. Chatting with Mozart veterans, they testified this new course was much tougher. With one monster mountain in the middle and three beast hills to boot, finishing was going to take guts and Red Bull.

In Austria they drink Red Bull instead of water. It's like putting gas in the tank. It also tastes like gas. The solution came to me in the form of Red Bull Cola. I kept gulping it down while moving on steadily and not stopping for too long for any reason.

I don't know why but everyone seemed very friendly and talkative all day. Maybe the beer had something to do with it. Anyway the day went by smoothly. I had fun all the time. People seemed to be smiling and enjoying the lake scenery.

Almost too soon I found myself marvelling at glimpses of spectacular sunset over Salzburg on the last hill. I planned to finish in 16 hours and change, but they made me wait for the green light at a couple of intersections. Official timer stopped at 17:01:15. I'm pretty happy with that result, which placed me right in the middle of 200 finishers.

Mozart100 deserves congratulations for rising up to the challenge of producing a top-notch world class event. Their race organisation is superb with no shortage of brilliant individuals. I'm certainly tempted to race in Mozart City again in 2018 to see if I can race 100K against the sun and beat it too.