Racing 2013 – Stage 1: Dubai International Marathon

          It all started in 2010 with Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and once I moved to Qatar, it broke loose completely. I’m talking about my passion for competition and races! It started rather inconspicuously with couple of local mountain bike races, than I added some road and trail runs, duathlons and at the end, after two years of building up my strength, endurance skills and racing appetite I ended up doing ultramarathons and long distance triathlon! Three year ago I wouldn’t even think that I would be aiming for sub-3 hour marathon or Ironman! But believe it or not…there I am! 

          Year 2012 was pretty intense already with Abu Dhabi long distance triathlon, Al Andalus Ultra trail, Borneo 100k ultramarathon and plenty of smaller competitions in Qatar where I posted some good results, but I feel that this year is even more dedicated to competing and challenges, because already now I have completely planned all my 6 weeks of holidays for the rest of the year and it mostly spins around some racing! All set and the stage is ready J Let’s go!

          And to give even more serious look, I bought a Garmin GPS watch to track whatever pleasure, training or racing movement I do. The best part of this device is that you cannot cheat on it and your real results are carved in stone on your online profile. I never really knew how much training I was doing, until now…and I’m afraid I might be disappointed with the reality J So when I returned from my Christmas holidays in Czech on the 1^st of January I started right away with training and getting ready for all the upcoming events. My first race was a fist edition of Doha Half Marathon on the weekend of 26^th of January.

          Now I will probably undermine everything what I just said or at least give it a less credible look, when I say that training is not my No.1 free time activity! Indisputable No.1 is one amazing lady I met here and nothing makes me happier, than making her happy! No.2 is kitesurfing, so every windy day off I go kiting. Then it is training No.3 which I also like very much a enjoy running, biking and even swimming is not that bad and I feel good after a good training session.

          OK…it is not Black & White like this and I try to juggle all three together to give all of them enough space, but when it comes to priority decisions, it is clear who gets my time J And unfortunately all of this juggling comes in expense of the last No. in my list and it is rest, regeneration and sleep L Which is not good and I’m still trying to find the way around it, but with limited success only! So now I think you understand why I will be probably surprised with my training quantity when I start really counting it! But isn’t the quality more important than quantity? Let the results show J

       One week before the marathon race weekend, I changed on the last minute my plans and registered for Dubai International Marathon instead of the Doha Half, because I found some more things I could do in Dubai, so the trip was worth it. The idea was to come to the start line straight from the airport, but then I found out that my friend Jaro would be staying in a house nearby, so I joined them for few more hours of sleep after my arrival at 3am!

          So on the foggy Friday morning at 7am I stood on the start line of my third Dubai Marathon. It was a familiar race, course and routine, I knew what to do so I was able to be at the front of the field in time and ready. Some people run 100k a week, but I managed !!ONLY!! 65k in three weeks before the race! And this is a big surprise to me already when I’m writing it! But still…I felt that I could beat the Personal Best and finish in 3hours and 15 minutes, 10 minutes faster than last year.

          And off we were into the cold and humid race day. In the crowd of people waiting for the start you didn’t feel it but once the field spreads after the start line, you could feel it like a cold wall! But I was in my standard long tights and long sleeve with bandana round my head, so I was fine and warmJ With the new Garmin it was much easier and accurate to monitor my speed and I settled on 4:30 minutes per kilometer, which ensured some heads up on the goal time and I was easily keeping it. It was actually more difficult to maintain a constant speed than I thought, but I always speeded up when I saw that I’m slowing down, so it was not much of a problem. It was happy running with music in my ears and kilometers were quickly falling behind. Every 10km I ate a gel and drank Gatorade and soon I was closing to the 30^th kilometer. I wiped dew from my eyebrows, put on sunglasses and start thinking about the right time to push harder to the finish!

           I still remember Jaro telling before my first marathon, that the crucial part is just after the 30^th kilometer! You may feel great, full of power, but there it just suddenly hits you out of the blue and you have to struggle to even keep moving. I experienced it in last two editions and this time I wanted to avoid it. But as it is always…things are different than they seem ;) 
          So from the kilometer 32 I changed the music to more aggressive beats and gently speeded up to 4:25 min/km. After 3 kilometers I felt that those last 7 I can blast and in a trance of some beautiful and energizing songs I was flying at 4:05 min/km. I took a Turbo snack (instant high energy shot for the finish) and enjoyed overtaking other struggling runners! 
          It didn’t come at km 30, but it came at km 37!! I have no idea what happened there, but my legs suddenly stopped and I was running at 5 min/km. And I couldn’t do anything about it! Such a strange and desperate feeling when you want to go faster, but the legs are just not moving. I remembered the last year’s last 5km. Like copy & paste…shouting, encouraging myself, sighing…but nothing helped and I was sadly watching the other runners overtake me back. Only difference was that I was here 10 minutes earlier J
    Like this it went until almost to the finish. There I saw my friend Kaupo and Triinu cheering and I somehow speeded up again and finished in 3:10:14! Stange huh? How could you possibly find the power again to run as you always wanted just because someone is yelling at you "GO JIRI GO!!"? And if the power was there why I couldn't summon it before? Mistery!
         Anyway...definitely mission accomplished and it was a huge improvement since 2012, but…I just can’t enjoy my successes very long, because I very quickly start thinking what went wrong, how to be even better and setting even higher goals.

          Three years ago when browsing through competitor list for Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and their best personal achievements I remember a guy who put there “Marathon Best time 3:08”. I remember like yesterday thinking “Man! That would be awesome to be that fast. I will probably never achieve it!” Well…never say never J Anyway…that’s for the next year…next stop: Abu Dhabi International Triathlon – Long Distance!