Initially Danish Spring was supposed to be
my season opening and I was quite excited about it. To be honest I took a bit
of head start already in Portugal a few weeks earlier but it was still part of
my recovery and I wasn't really racing there, well at least not before the last
day... In contrast, Danish Spring was all about racing. I had told everyone so.
I had even told our head coach in the Finnish team (when informing him about my
pelvic fracture months ago) that if everything went well I would start my
season in the Danish Spring and try to do well there. This of course meant that
I suddenly had enormous pressure to perform!
I didn't have a clear execution plan before
the middle distance but thought that it would be eyeballs-out-type mad racing.
Everyone knew that it was going to be fast but no one seemed to care about the
technical challenge. It turned out to be fast but at the same time quite
technical with short legs, sharp turns and well-hidden controls. I was lacking
confidence in my speed and felt that I needed to run a bit overspeed if I
wanted to keep up with the other girls. This meant that I was a bit in a rush most
of the time and wasted quite a lot of time and energy in unnecessities. But I
am proud that I managed to hold it together even if I lost 15 seconds here and
there. Some small errors, slight overshootings and hesitation but no major
mistakes and as a whole a decent performance and a respectable 8th place. A result
that gave me confidence for the long distance.
Next morning I felt much more confidant
before the start because I didn't need to worry about my speed anymore. I knew
it was good enough and it would be all down to technical performance. Still, a
few minutes before the start I was again very nervous and had butterflies in my
stomach. But in a good way I guess. I didn't get the first control quite as
beautifully as I wanted to but after that it started to roll. It was important to
get the short legs in the beginning right and after that I accelerated and enjoyed
the flow. I enjoyed all about it: the course, the terrain, and the feeling to
push hard. At the end I was quite exhausted (the way you should be after a good
race) and had some difficulties with the second last (contours getting more and
more vague and amorphous in my eyes) but apart from that my run was near to
perfect and I was very happy with it. My smile got even wider a while later
when I realized that I had beaten everyone except Maja and Eva. Another
hard-to-believe result after the injury!
Last but not least, I want to thank people
around me (friends and rivals) for support and patting on the shoulder! I had
some pretty hard winter months and it was great to see fellow competitors being
genuinely happy for me for my comeback (I guess we've all been there and know
how cruel life can be sometimes...). Sappy or not, I'm touched by the fact how
supportive our competitive society is!
Interviews with the top3 women right after the
race here
All results, maps and tracking here
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| Secret weapon of my preparation: searching toughness from the north! |
P.S. There are many ways to the top. Those
lazy athletes relaxing on a parking slot in my previous blog represent the very best athletes of their countries and you will find them all
running European Champs. Go Lillomarka!
P.P.S. My good results were indeed noticed(!) and I got selected to run World Cup in Spain!! It's not EOC but it's still
great!! :D
