Still up… Hellström in front and Veijalainen behind. Pic: Jyrki Repola.
At around 13K I ran at the back of a group of 4-5 runners. Speed bump on the road. I didn’t notice it. I fell. “Fuck!” was all I managed to say. Blood on the knee, blood on the elbow, blood on the nose! For a quick second I thought about doing Viren and return to race, but as my knee signaled it may have got some damage I quit.
Some speculation. The race started out with pretty constant sub 1.12 speed. I was feeling the muscles of my both legs were far from perfect but otherwise running was easy. After around 10K it started to feel better. Either the pace slowed down or my legs were just warming. Just before the accident, after 12K mark, I took my caffeine-powered gel. I was having a feeling of “now the race is about to start…”. And then it all went down… The group I was running with clocked in times in between 1.12 and 1.13. It would have been my personal best, no doubt on that. But clearly I wouldn’t have achieved that sub 1.12 today.
Next up probably Länsiväylä. On condition these scarfs do not take a toll on my running, of course.