Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Terä ready for 10mila

Vaajakosken Terä made last minute settings to 10mila teams and will run on following order:

Team1:
1. Antti Anttonen
2. Jouni Kahelin
3. Timo Joensuu
4. Jani Lakanen
5. Lasse Kautto
6. Aapo Summanen
7. Juha Sorvisto
8. Pasi Ikonen
9. Jonne Lakanen
10. Anders Nordberg

Team2:
1. Toni Saari
2. Petteri Huikko
3. Antti Turpeinen
4. Heikki Kettunen
5. Jarmo Puttonen
6. Juha-Matti Huhtanen
7. Matti Kärkkäinen
8. Timo Sivill
9. Urpo Kallunki
10 Kimmo Kaario

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Second Strongest Man by jaMMu

StrongmanRun is the mother of extreme runs. It was held for the 5th time this year and first time in bigger arena, Nürburgringen F1-arena. The event has grown to a huge happening. In the last year's arena 7000 people were maximum amount to have a safe race. This year 10940 "grazy" men and women were participating and much more would have liked to be among us. This was the amount of people organisers dared to take in.

For most of the competitors StrongmanRun is a survivol race. You just want to be strong enough to get through the whole course. This year the challenge was two times a 10km loop including 14 special obstacles made for the race.

A year ago I heard from Tero Föhr (top orienteer) about StrongmanRun. I also heard that Daniel Hubmann (world champion in orienteering) had won the similar race in Switzerland and that in the end of May 2010 is the first ExtremeRun in Finland, in Hakunila/Vantaa. I checked the race in the internet and decided to participate instead of running SM-sprint in orienteering. I wanted to have a new experience and I got a huge one. I also won the race and heard the possibility to travel to StrongmanRun in Germany.

Two months ago I heard of the trip to Germany and decided to be among the Finnish team. We were 13 people traveling together from Helsinki to Frankfurt and there by the ride of organisers to Nürburg. Everything was VIP by Fisherman's friend, the company that owns StrongmanRun.

It was nice to travel with people that are not athletes or at least orienteering athletes, but want to challenge them physically and mentally anyway. For me the competition was more important than the others and I prepared myself as good as an important orienteering race. The only question was that nobody actually knew anything about the new course of StrongmanRun. When travelling to Nürburgring I knew that there's about 10km course with 14 obstacles (drawn in the internet), which we have to get through twice. Last year the winning time was 1h 41min, so I knew to wait for a challenge like in long distance orienteering.

I was ready for the challenge and felt that I could fight for top positions, despite of I didn't know how good the men are there. After last year's ExtremeRun I knew that this kind of race is suitable for me or I'm quite good in this kind of new species of running sports. I believe that many orienteering athletes are very good in this kind of running competition. I recommend to try after my ExtremeRun and StrongmanRun experience. You'll love it!

Before the race I was thinking of how to handle the start. The solution came in the evening before the race: I was taken to an elite group of 50 men and women, that were allowed to start in front of the others.
After that I had a relaxed sleep. In the morning I checked the course that I could run or walk to. It took 50min. and I felt very good. The obstacles looked much easier than I had expected, but also very narrow places for almost 11000 runners and walkers. I thought, there will surely be lots of trafic jams in some of the obstacles in second loop.

The day was nice, course was wonderful and landscape very beautiful. Nürburgring is located quite high on top of a hill area and for me it was a suprise that F1-track included something like 50m of altitude difference. The course of Strongman had twice of that, approx. 100m altitude difference.

There is some rush, when 10940 people are getting ready for a masstart and atleast twice as much are getting ready for cheering them. I did my warming up routines and checked the start area. Over 30min before the start there were thousands of people waiting behind the gate to get started. Huh huh, I was glad that I could warm-up more.

The atmosphere was quite like in Jukola-relay, but you can imagine what the feeling is like, when seven times more people start together compared to Jukola-start of 1500 men. It was quite cool weather, approx. +12C and sun was shining only now and then. I tried keep my jacket as long as possible, but eight minutes to start I put it off. At the same time gate opened and people came through to elite area. I had a little hurry, but was able to push myself into third row or something. Almost made a big mistake there, but I was ready to start. For seven minutes I only could stand still before the start, but so close to each other it was warm enough.

The pictures I use in the text are from the pages of StrongmanRun, Runner'sWorld Online and Nacht Agenten. Thank you for sharing the fotos.


"It's the final countdown" - piece of music gave us the rhytm to start 20kms hardcore running experience.
The first km was downhill on F1 track asphalt and the speed was surely fast enough. I checked my Garmin after 700m and saw the speed 2:56/km. Fast enough for sure. Start went ok for me and quite soon I took the third place. The first km was just running on asphalt, only a little uphill and time for km was 3:01 - heheh...we'll see was it too fast and furious.

The second km had more to offer than just running on asphalt: the first obstacle "Double trouble" included tires and hay bales (height of 1,6m), both three times over. Then we ran downhill on a sandstony slippery ground for 150m and then up about 30 stairs of F1 track public seats. Out off the arena gate and steep downhill. Second km still very fast 3:21 (6:22/2kms) and I felt the speed, but I couldn't help thinking that my shape is good enough and the becoming obstacles will give me some time to recover :)



The third km started with the second obstacle "Devil's playground". It was a small motocross bana with
steep ups and downs and curves, some unstable ground and mud. In the end was a very steep but short uphill. After that was a nice lawn field area uphill and downhill. The third km was 3:20 (9:42/3kms) and one guy (Florian Neuschwander), who ran very strongly left me and Knut Höhler (the winner in StrongmanRun 2009 and 2010) about ten seconds behind. I knew my speed was in the limit and other competitors were quite far behind us.


The fourth km started with the third obstacle "Cool down". There was a tarpaulin on a field and water running on top. It wasn't as slippery as I expected and I could run through it and jump over a-two-meter-wide ditch (water in it). Together with Knut we ran on lawn field to the fourth obstacle "Cliffhanger". There were narrow pipes to take yourself by your hands over a hay ditch. It was easy job, just 4 times grip by your hands. Of course, you have to able to lift your body weight. 4km 3:39.


The fifth km was nice but quite tough running on unstable field and path, but nothing special. In the end of
the km there was the fifth obstacle "Down under". Water was very cold, maybe under 10 degrees, so after that running wasn't relaxed anymore. Florian was running about 10-20 seconds ahead of me and Knut all the time. Other competitors were quite far behind. 5km 3:50 was a bit slower, because of water-walk under the logs of trees in the end of km.


The sixth km was very tough with uphill almost all the time and some sandy and rocky areas - very nice for an orienteering athlete. After the shower of cold water there was the sixth obstacle "Hang over" - a net over the large hole. The speed wasn't fast anymore. 6km 5:14! Knut was better than me on "Hang over", but after that on sandy and rocky area I started to get rid of Knut a little in the end of the km, but the distance to Florian ahead wasn't any shorter.

There was about 100m of climbing during 5-7 kms. In the end of long uphill there was the seventh obstacle "Schicksalsberg". Four bales of hay, height 1,5m. After a long uphill there were not very easy to climb over, but this surely was my obstacle. I think I cought some seconds to Florian and was something like ten seconds behind after 7km 4:06, when we were closing the F1-track and downhill 30 stairs of public area.
The eight km included the faster part, but one uphill with the eight obstacle "Kiesimancharo". There was sandstony dunes on track, soft and nice, also tough. 8km 3:44. The situation was like that we were all running alone: Florian 15s. ahead and Knut 15s. behind me.


The ninth km has two obstacles "Eilder nordwand" and "Fischernetz". For me this ninth obstacle wasn't very easy to figure out. There was some sandstony ground, but nothing special. Tenth obstacle "Fischernetz" was the hardest one with cold swimming and climbing the net and steep downhill too. I felt cold and num in my muscles after that and calves were hard already. Well, they warm again, I thought, but wasn't very sure, how the second round goes. 9km 4:26.


The tenth km (tought last) had all the final four obstacles left, but otherwise it was very easy running on flat competition area up on F1-track. The eleventh obstacle "Dirty dancing" was muddy area, but it was harder than I expected, so just a little mud up to ancles. The twelth obstacle "Stairway to heaven" was 10m high pile of hay bales. Quite tough challenge. The thirteenth obstacle "Hotwheels" was lots of tires on each other and it was hard on tired legs. Last obstacle was "Alcatraz". Approx. 20m under 70cm high cage. I didn' have to crawl, but it was a challenge to upper body. 10km 4:04.


I was a bit surprised that 10km was full and I had still almost 200m to go the finish and start area of F1-track. Florian was about 25s. ahead, so I thought that I just have to keep my second position on the other round. Even though I lost a bit my fighting spirit, I knew the second place would be very great achievement in this competition. Time for the first round was 39:27.

It wasn't easy to start the second round downhill on F1-track asphalt. Legs were cold, tired and calves were hard. Surprisingly, the start had been much easier. Time for first km on the second round was 3:24 without obstacles and mostly downhill, so running wasn't easy.

It was easy to overcome "Double trouble", but after already 1,5kms running on the second round first backs of last walkers started to show up. Already on "Devil's playground" I had to shout many times: "second round, excuse me!". People started to be worse obstacles than the real ones and I lost contact to Florian and same had to happen to Knut behind me. People were everywhere and I understood that there will lots of trouble in some obstacles. I heard later than some of the Finnish team had waited in some obstacles more than half an hour. Greetings for organisors that waiting isn't that fun!

The first obstacle that had more rush than permitted was "Cliffhanger". I looked that there was a wall of people. How can I go through. Here I said to myself: "go round, it was so quick and easy task in the first round". I ran around and checked, if it's ok. Nobody said anything and I couldn't see Florian anywhere.
My km times were to 2km 3:29 and 3km 3:39 and 4km 4:00, so I was 20s. slower than first time, when I passed "Cliffhanger" as it should be overcome.

Before "Down under" I saw an other wall of people. Then I saw a mark "pussy lane", and the back of Florian up on hill, approx. 30s. in front of me. I ran the pussy lane, which was about 150m longer than going through "Down under". I looked where Florian is and saw him once when he was running towards "Hang over". There wasn't any bad rush after "Down under", because it was quicker to get through. After that I didn't see Florian. Km-times were somewhat different because of the pussy lane longer route. 5km 3:33 and 6km 4:59. I tried to push hard on this part uphill.

The worst rush was at "Schicksalsberg" on top of hill. Most of the women had no power to pull their bodies up on the hay bales, so people were standing on bales and took hands of next ones. It is nice for survivors, but not nice for us, who try to compete for the victory. Hopefully next time there will be a lane for (metre wide or so) those, who are on the other round passing. I checked the obstacle and understood that it's almost impossible to go through. I ran around the obstacle in forest side and checked if it's ok. I didn't see Florian.

After that it was ok in every obstacle. The rush relieved a bit and obstacles were easier to overcome. I thought that there might be trouble in "Fischernetz" and "Stairway to heaven", but both went ok, despite a little slower than for the first time due to people. "Dirty dancing" was only obstacle that was surely harder than the first time. There was mud up to my thighs (first time only up to ancles).


7km 4:39, 8km 4:00 and 9km 4:21 (I started to push as hard as I could). I wanted to be sure of my second position. Ten km 4:30. People on the first round were slowing me more than tiredness. After last obstacle "Alcatraz" on sandstony ground just 250m before finish I heard that somebody was pushing hard on my back. I thought that somebody I had passed was speeding up on me. Well, it was, but not like I expected. I looked behind and saw Florian on my back. Legs were tired and sore, but I understood that we were fighting for victory of StrongmanRun 2011. As I saw earlier, Florian was stronger than me and I lost 4s. Not much but enough. I was still very glad of my performance. My time was 1.21.31, so second round was 42.04 and I had run totally 20,7kms. It meant that on the second round I had 300m more distance than on the first round. Half of that was the pussy lane, but other meters were the people, who had been obstacles of straight running.


The competition wasn't very fair, because of the mass of people at the obstacles. So what, there wasn't any prize money or else - just glory. The most important thing was the experience. I had great time and fun. I surely love this kind of running sport. After the race I felt like after a long distance orienteering competition, but calves were a bit more beaten. Extreme runs are great excercise for orienteering athlete and it would be nice to have more competitions like this :)

And we have one very nice extreme 10kms in Jyväskylä - Let's Run: http://vaajakoskentera.com/LETSRun/index.php

The results are here