Race Report: Ülemiste Ööjooks 2024

What the gut? That’s probably the best way to sum it up, but let’s start from the beginning.

I signed up for Ülemiste Ööjooks very spontaneously. I had a lot of races on my schedule for this season. But at the end of last year, I was faced with an injury to my right external oblique muscle. The injury spread to my leg and hip, making it impossible to run or even train properly. I was forced to stop running for two months, before I was able to slowly get back into training. It took some time before I was able to train at full capacity again.

Luckily everything is fine now, but of course my speed has suffered a lot. My only target race this year is the half marathon in Tallinn in September.

But I wanted to do a race before the half marathon to test where my speed is under race conditions, so Ülemiste Ööjooks was the perfect timing.

At the beginning of the week, I felt very good. My legs were fresh and the overall feeling was light. So I was looking forward to the race on Friday.

But sometimes things happen.

On Thursday, I got gut issues. I don’t really know why, because I didn't eat any different and obviously didn’t do any experiments in race week. It’s the worst timing if you want to race the next day.

I was hoping it'd be better by Friday. And yes, it was better, but I could still feel it a bit. So I knew this run wasn't going to feel easy.

On the start line I was a bit nervous. Firstly, because it was my first 10k race of the year. Secondly, because of this big unknown and I was wondering how my gut would feel during the race.

The course of the race consisted of two 5-kilometre laps through the office district of Ülemiste. Overall, a very flat course with a few corners and turns. We also had to pass through a multi-storey car park once. In other words, once all the way up and then down again. That was the only real elevation gain on the course.

My plan was to have a consistent run at a relatively fast pace. Go a little slower on the first lap and then pick up the pace on the second lap. I knew I wasn't going to run a new PB that night. But I wanted to stay somewhere between 50-55 minutes. That was realistic, considering where my speed is at the moment.

I had a good start. I also went faster than I wanted to. I’m a racer by nature, so I thought, let's see how long I can keep this up. Obviously, I couldn't sustain it for the whole race and I had to slow down a bit as the race went on. I’m still missing a few more training speed sessions. And well, I didn't feel very light because of the problems mentioned above.

But that’s how it goes. Sometimes it’s your day, and sometimes it’s not. I've been around long enough to know how to deal with those situations. So, I just focused on delivering a solid race and giving everything I could on that day.

The course was generally nice to run, but rather technical, with lots of speed bumps, twists and turns, and sometimes edging around Bolt scooters. On the second lap, the walkers really got in the way. But that’s an issue we face every time, when the course consists of several laps and walkers are allowed.

I finished the first lap in about 25 minutes. So my plan worked to some extent. However, when I set off on the second lap, I was glad that I only had to run the lap once more.

But on the second lap I could feel my little problem maker. I had to slow down a bit to avoid any major problems. I've had problems like this before during runs, so I knew that it would help and go away after a while. It was the same here.

I don’t know why, but in 10k races, kilometre 7 is always my slowest. It is kind of my thing. And here as well, kilometre 7 was my slowest. (Note to self: Work on this!)

On the last 1.5 kilometres I found an easy rhythm, slalomed around all the walkers and then hit on the final stretch. I picked up the pace, and the closer I got to the finish line, the faster I went.

Then it was just one more turn to the finish line. I was ready for my final sprint. My legs were ready. My whole body and mind were ready.

I accelerated and then I looked in front of me and just saw this massive crowd of people standing right on the finish line.

It was a backlog as everyone queued for the medals and goodie bags.

Seriously, I’ve never seen anything like that in a race before.

I thought, okay, what am I going to do now? Obviously I couldn't really do my sprint because I was going straight into a huge crowd. So I had to stop quite abruptly just before the official finish line. Not ideal. Also, we all wanted to cross that line for the official timing. As you can imagine, this caused a lot of panic, confusion and complete madness.

But somehow I managed to squeeze myself onto the line to officially finish the race.

I finished in 52:26.

Considering where I was at the beginning of the season, I can be very satisfied with that. Of course I wanted to go faster. And I know that if I had felt better and lighter that day, I could have gone faster. But this keeps me optimistic and motivated. I know where I stand now. And I know what I need to work on.

Even though I had some issues, overall it was a good run.

On a very positive note, I could see and feel how my running economy has improved over the last year. Due to a lot of strength training with my coach and also working on my running posture, I felt a significant change and improvement. I run easier, with a better stride and much more efficiently.

Also, I was told after the race that I looked so easy and comfortable. Thanks for that! Compared to how I actually felt, there's still a lot left for the next race, I guess.

Bring it on!

Katharina at Ülemiste Ööjooks, 2024.