Being
patient. I hope you got my little wordplay here. Two weeks ago I got a calf
muscle tear and went to a health-care centre to show it to a physio and to get
proper treatment. I was registered as a patient there. But getting injured just
when the season is about to begin requires also a lot of patience. It’s all
about being smart and being patient. It’s not particularly easy, especially not in
the springtime when you are overexcited and anxious to get out there and race
after a long winter. There’s a Finnish saying “innoissaan kuin varsa kevätlaitumella” which translates into
English something like being as excited
as a foal on a pasture in springtime. Doesn’t sound nearly as good in
English but you get the picture. It’s about getting out and being able to run
and jump freely and wildly. Don't know the proper English version for it.
On the
other hand, you don’t want to ruin your whole season at this stage, and
therefore I chose to be smart and not to run JK. This year JK got a lot of
international attention and the start field was really good as many foreign
runners came there to prepare for the WOC. It was supposed to be an individual
season opening for me and I was really looking forward to it but now I just had
to adjust and postpone everything. To make it even worse, I couldn’t cancel any
of my reservations and chose to do the trip just for social purposes. Not a
good decision. Even if it was great to socialise and meet with friends there, it
would have been psychologically much easier for me to stay home and train
alternative than to travel there just to support others and do some short walks
in the forest. My patience is really not made for that.
The final
test of my patience was our flight back home, which was only about 8h delayed.
I’ve never been happier to get home.
At least it
was fairly nice weather, great company and a lovely B&B.
