The day I tried to be a timberjack

I have had easier ways to spend my Saturdays than by doing the activity I got involved last Saturday. We spent about 4.5 hours in woods lifting and dragging logs in piles. Dude, that's serious business with these muscles... Btw. at the same time real runners were running at HM nationals in Kuopio.

Running-wise I have got mentally over of all the disappointments (DNS at WMAs and DNS at Karhu-viesti) and been able to turn my eyes to the future. After spending Saturday as described I was hurting like hell yesterday (and still today, too). Still, I was able crank myself on the road in order to race yesterday. The forecast was quite clear already during WU - total meltdown. During the strides my legs started aching because of high concentration of lactid acid in my body because of Saturday's "cross-fit" exercise.

At the race I was able to run according to any decent racing plan about 1.5 kms and thereafter legs were just shutting down. I didn't fall so much behind of my current shape but there have been easier ways to prove that. One thing becomes clearer and clearer... I'm getting faster in getting slower.

Road relay

The legendary Finnish road relay, Karhu-viesti, is around the corner. Our club was almost able to have two male teams in addition to our female team. We were supposed to have two Kenyans running for us, but another one of them is racing for a spot on their olympic team in 10000m. That's fair enough, right? Have a great race, Lewis. Anyway, our club is back in business after couple years's streak of absence.

After missing my chances to race at WCs, I was able to reach the starting line in Somero on Monday. This low-key race was somewhere between 6.8 to 7k. Two national team -level milers and one machine-like ultra runner took the podiums, but I just was happy to be around. Now I sincerely hope that we get our logistics working fine, and even I would also be able to race next Saturday.

[edit:] No relay race for me. I'll be handling the logistics for female's team.

I almost ran at World Champs

Today was the day. 3000m at Master's (35-39 age group) World Championship in Jyvaskyla, Finland. Everything was set, and even I was at the scene early enough to register myself and enjoy the international atmosphere. I even had my brand new national team outfit ready. I enjoyed the company of Kero brothers and T "the machine" S during the warmup. It was snowing heavily.

But after all the trouble I did not start the race. Not even if I was only half meter away from starting line at the right time. I just wasn't allowed to start... What happened was that the organizers registered me for Sunday's HM, not for today's 3000m. Even if I specifically asked them to do otherwise. This mistake was realized only 10 minutes before the start during the calling. Thereafter, I ran with one member of huge organizing team back to the registration desk. There they slowly made several phone calls in order to reach the head judge and explain the situation. Finally, they got me in the race and this happened only because the organizers made the mistake, not me. But I thank them for helping me here.

When I got "you are good to go", the start was in 3 minutes. After this unexpected cool down I ran pretty fast to the track, and for my surprise I was at the start at the right moment. It felt great. They started to yell competitors' name and put them in line. List ended without my name and since they didn't have updated starting list my first race in WMA Champs finished with DNF (even if it really was DNS).

Nice.

At least we had great pizzas in the evening...