Tallinna maraton
Täysillä loppuun saakka - full speed to the end
11.9.2016


Summary

Finish time: 3:12:15
Ranking: 137 / 1777
Pace: 4:38 min/km
Weather: 14 C
Results

Race report

I wanted to run one more marathon somewhere in Europe. I had already completed both St.Petersburg and Stockholm three times each, but never Tallinn despite it is also our neighbor capital. Good memories from Tallinn O-Week in 2015 (orienteering) was an inspiration and made it an easy choice to join. A weekend trip by Finnair (Joe-Hel) and Tallink (Hel-Tal) would be suitable. What a nicer plan than enjoying Tallinn old town, and running a marathon.


I arrived Friday evening just in time before the expo closed. There was 5 km We Run Tallinn youth run event (for people with age 13-29) just about to start. I followed the runners at the end for a short evening jog. The next day I just relaxed by having short walk in the old town and rested in my hostel.


Marathon started 9.00 sunday morning. The route had two 21 km loops to Pirita along the Pirita tee. Nothing special to report from the start. Around 10 km I was feeling particularly good and was pacing about 4:30 min/km but soon after at 14 km started aching. This and the slight wind slowed me slightly to 4:40 min/km but mentally I felt much worse as people started passing me. I became frustrated: is this again going to be my race story?


Then a bigger group caught me around 18 km on the way back to the city. It might have been the 3.15 target group but not sure because I did not see any balloons or signs. Anyway, I joined the group. This is not my typical habit but it helped against the head wind and was the key factor to keep my pace better. It started to look like I could follow these guys for the rest of the race. The course was complete flat except the halfway in the downtown. Instead of hanging in the middle or at the back of the pack, I started to be in the front line. In fact, I felt the group became too slow in the uphill part. I had recovered from my earlier problems and felt strong again. At the top of the hill, I decided to leave the group behind and continued my new pace - but wondering whether this was a wise move or not.


The way back to Pirita I ran by myself. Everything went well and my pace even improved to 4:20 min/km. Somewhere at 30 km the wind and aching got me again. A guy from Jyväskylä passed me. We chatted for awhile and he tried to motivate me. I told him that I was having a slight weak moment and urged him to go ahead and that I would catch him later when my problems would disappear. Ha! This would never happen and everyone knows it. Soon he disappeared somewhere to the horizon.

My pace seemed to have drop down to 4:35-4:40 when somewhere at Pirita a skinny Finnish lady passed me. I joked that I would follow her for gaining wind protection but that she was too slim for it. Not sure how she took my humor as I lost her immediately at the next drinking point (I stopped drinking, she did not). Later another faster guy passed me and I started to follow him. This was the start of the success story of my reace. Together we started to pass others - one by one - and I was able to give my maximum effort from now on. They say that marathon starts after the 30 km. And I had just started it. I was now going full speed from now on all the way until to the end. I felt strong like superman.


Sorry there are no pictures of my pace-makers but I felt really lucky. My pace-maker was fast but not too fast as I was able follow. At least the windy part. Once we reached the city and away from the tail wind he become faster and I had to give up and let him escape. However, just a few minutes later a saving angel came behind in the form of another pace-maker - this time even faster and more furious than the previous one. Surprisingly, I was able to follow him and get back to the "maximum attack" mode. During the last kilometers we catched even more runners - including my previous pace-maker! Eventually we catched also the Jyväskylä guy as I had promised. He again gave some supportive comments. I had no energy to talk, just passed him, waved hi and kept on going with my super pace-maker. Physically I was exhausted but mentally I was at the top of the world - in the maximum attack mode giving 100% and maybe more. Eventually I had to give-up following this train as well, but only for a short time.

So who saved me next? The uphills! We had just reached the downtown city which had the only elevated parts of the course. I had very little extra energy remaining but I still kept pushing. Stats shows that I was pacing now amazing 4:00 min/km - for the uphill - wondering how much errors the GPS added here to make me look even faster than I really was. At this point, I surely did not feel strong anymore, however, I kept on pushing. Mental strength was still there. We had anyway reached the city already, and there was not much more to go.


Somewhere along the uphill I caught my super pace-maker again. This time I passed him. In the final corner before the freedom square I caught few others - and passed them all. I was feeling like a winner ahead of anyone on sight towards the finish line. My race number had already got deattached earlier from my shirt and I was just carrying it in my hand. For the final sprint I wanted to glue it back on my chest just relying on the sweaty shirt but, of course, dropped it down to the ground. I had to stop to pick it up, but kept on going still as the winner.


My finish time was 3:12:15, clearly the best of the year and better than any other marathon since London 2014. I was very content about my run, especially that I had managed to push all the way to the end. In total, there were 15.000 runners of which 2133 completed the marathon. The other runs took place different time or day, so the course was never over-crowded, but there were still enough fellow runners to share the experience, and in this time, to have all those ad hoc pace-makers that really helped me to run faster than I would otherwise had done.

Splits

Dist    Time            Rank

10km    0:44:54         209
21km    1:36:33         229
30km    2:16:42         180
42.2km  3:12:15         137

Summary

I felt like having ran full speed all the way. There is saying that the marathon starts at 30 km, and yes, this is how I felt about my run. From that point on, I had pushed all the way giving 100% effort. As a result, I even made negative splits! The second half (1:35:35) was about one minute faster than the first half (1:36:33), which is very rare. I think I have achieved negative splits only twice earlier: my first marathon in St. Petersburg 2005 and Joensuu 2006. I was content.