Long long time ago I already decided that this time I will be smart and book my entrance to the Engadin Skimarathon far ahead. After all I have been participating this event so regularly that only work trips or similar were going to make me miss it. Luckily though my travel activities stayed low as expected and I was once again ready for Engadin Skimarathon!
Due to some lack of snow this winter, I was once again very happy that I arrived a few days ahead of the marathon so that I was able to enjoy the beautiful tracks in the Engadin. Even the weather started to improve so that at the end of the week we had plenty of blue skies and sunny conditions all-day long.
This year it was only my father and myself participating, but the main rituals were still the same. Maybe we spend more time visiting the Swix and Garmin booth when we picked up our racing bibs, but all the usual running around, packing, positioning the car and everything was executed as any other year. We even participated a wax seminar organized by the cross-country center in Pontresina. And allthough I have learned a great deal about waxing skis from my father it was nice to see the practices of another expert in preparing skis.
I had no specific goals for this time except enjoying my race and making it all the way to the end. It might have been the high altitude or other influences, but somehow I felt tired and exhausted in the beginning. As a consequence I just decided to take it more relaxed and go at a comfortable pace… In the end this might have been a wise choice as this left me some energy to deal with the hills closer to the end.
With a final time of 2:39.01,2 I might have been once again a bit slower than last year – it was nevertheless a wonderful experience. And after all this time put me on the 18th place out of 65 people from Finland ;-)
Time for something new?
People who are keeping track will know that this has now been the 13th time that I participated the Engadin Skimarathon. It has always been a fun more or less family event as everyone would come together and do the whole marathon. Living in Finland has made logistics a bit more complicated and more and more people are moving on looking for other challenges… It might therefore be the time for me to consider something new… maybe something in Finland? I have been looking at the Finlandia Hiihto, which will take place 28th of February 2016 – with 50km a bit longer, but still very interesting and much closer to Helsinki….
Looking back on 13 races, one can clearly see the variation between years – partly due to each year’s weather conditions, but to a big share also due to my personal fitness level. Best year was all the way back in 2002 when I was apparently in great shape (as I was still an active swimmer). It still bugs me that I missed the two years in between due to my work trips to SE-Asia – but that’s just life…. In the end it was always a great time!
