White Nights marathon St.Petersburg (25.6.2005)
The event is called White Nights marathon and it is run in the Midsummer (Juhannus) evening at 17:00. In Finland, mid-summer is the 2nd most important national holiday after Christmas, and it is usually spent in summer cottages having sauna, eating sausages and drinking beer somewhere aside one of the 100.000 lakes. For me, the day was going to be quite different. The marathon itself is relatively small: 393 runners completed the race in 2005.

Before the marathon, we visited beautiful Valam monastery located in Ladoga Lake, and St. Petersburg including the fantastic Peterhoff summer garden. During the trip, besides trying to host the trip, I also focused on fuelling myself with high-carbonated food as I was informed that this was a good way to prepare for the marathon. I hardly knew what carbonated food was because I did not see this brand in our local shops. But I then found out that it meant bread, pasta and rice, whereas meat and fat were the bad stuff. During the race day, I was in the belief that I was supposed to eat and drink very little before the race.

The start and finish place of the Marathon was at the plaza near Hermitage palace. I did not hurry to get into the starting area, and was the last person to start for the race. My race strategy was simple: run slowly. During the early part of the race, I developed a tactic to "follow" some slower runner. When I passed a person, I made it sure that he did not drop back and tried to maintain the same pace. Usual tactic to run faster is the opposite, to catch somebody and then find a new target. So I had kind an opposite tactic in this sense. Basically I ran along a bunch of old timers in the early part of the race.


Despite my slow pace, the first 10 km was somehow difficult. Just before the race I had seen people drinking water, and I had realized that my method of avoiding excessive drinking was probably not a correct one. Understandably, I started to feel thirsty rather soon. I did not worry as there were going to be many water points during the course, and I could start to correct this mistake.

The first expected water point was at the 10 km distance but it happened that when I reached there, they had run out of water. The runners were desperate to seek water from table with empty cups but the grand mother just lifted her shoulders, opened her arms, laconically told to complain "organizatsija". The young police officer standing by tried to share from his own water bottle as a desperate attempt but it was clearly not going to help much. I realized there were not going to be any water here and was going to continue without. Luckily the grand mother had some pieces of bananas hidden under the tablecloth.

With the taste of banana in my mouth I was motivated to run further but was seriously considering to drop-by to the next kiosk or shop to buy water. Luckily I had taken a few Rubbles into my pocket just in case. I passed by a kiosk at least once or twice but resisted the temptation. Finally at the 15 km, there was plenty of water. Two cups of water was enough, and my running had started to feel much better already.

The first half of the course (map) went along the rivers and channels and through the islands in the North Center. I do not remember the exact places but we passed Aurora, Petropavlovskaya among others. My relaxed running pace provided me with the time splits of about 1:00 and 2:00 for the 10 km and 20 km marks, approximately. And I had time to look around and really enjoy the scenery fully.

The half point of the Marathon at 21 km was also turning point for my race. When I reached the half-point I felt very fresh like I had just started. My one-person support group was also there waiting for me and asked about how I felt. I showed my both thumbs-up and I felt really good, better than ever before while running. I was now absolutely confident that I was going to make it to the end. This gave me a big confidence boost and I started to run much faster.

The next 10 km went really fast and the km markers come faster than expected. Between 20-25 km I was passing-by, or should I say flying-by the other runners. This gave me even more confidence but for others it was probably the opposite. I had heard that the marathon starts after the 30 km. At this moment, I started eagerly wait for the 30 km mark so that I could start my marathon! At this point, I also changed my strategy. I wanted to catch up some lost time in the slow first half to get some better finish time instead of only getting there. For the third stint (20-30 km), I spent only about 45 minutes.


This part of the course went along the smaller streets and along the Fontanka channel, which were closed from public traffic. Crossing the bigger streets was also organized smoothly. When runners approached the crossing, police first stopped the traffic going from left-to-right. When the runner had crossed the street halfway, the other direction was stopped also but the cars behind you started to move already. It was little bit scary at first but it worked perfectly all the time.

Once I reached the 30 km mark, I then started my marathon and increased my pace in an attempt to make 12 km final spurt of some kind. The race was now progressing along the Nevski Prospect but unlike most of the course so far, it was not closed by public traffic. It is the main street in the city center and it was rather busy. At this moment, I was running alone among the cars without seeing any organizers, or any others runners either in front or behind me. The course was anyway marked so I just followed the orange dashed line at the rightmost lane (bus lane), which was empty most of the time. Sometime I needed to jump to the sideway to avoid occasional bus coming through.

I managed to keep my fast furious pace about 2-3 km until I reached the huge traffic circle at the Moskovski railway station. The orange line continued directly through the circle but a miracle (or Mohammed) would have been needed to stop the traffic there. I could handle the traffic at Nevski Prospect but the circle full of cars was too much. I guess I might have been able to squeeze myself in and get through the traffic if been brave enough but I became chicken and decided to go around. There I was, a marathon runner who was waiting in the red lights in busy St. Petersburg.

Eventually I get through the traffic circle but my running rhythm and the big boost were gone so I decided to continue with normal more relaxed pace. This was probably a good choice as I started to feel little bit tired. It was my first marathon after all. Since the 28 km I had started to feel in my legs that "some exercise" have been occurred, so from now on, I was back to the cruising mode just to reach the goal.

Once I reached 35 km mark, I realized that it was not only 5 km left but I had to run 7 km more. This was little bit un-motivating. I simply had forgotten the additional 2 km and 195 meters beyond the 40 km. The last 5 km were along the Neva river and this was the part of race when I first time started to feel tempted to walk but I kept running by strength of will. I kept catching other runners, which I then followed for awhile before passing-by. Almost without an exception, the other runner stopped running and started to walk immediately I passed-by. Catching others is very motivating but it seemed to be very un-motivating for the other, as well.

The final kilometer I carried a large Finnish flag given me by my one-person support group. This gave me some spontaneous cheering from by-passers. Then for the final 200 m I made a good 200 m spurt passing by two more runners. The announcer declared all finishers by their name but funnily in my case he was silent. The reason probably was that I did not wear any shirt and my number was therefore on the side of my shorts, which was invisible for the announcer.

But I had done it! Me and the flag have just completed my first marathon with the time 3:53:33. With this time, I was the best Finnish runner in the marathon - achievement which I would not have reached in Stockholm marathon as about 5000 Finns run there every year.


After the race, I could not eat almost anything because of upset stomach. The following few days I was also walking like dinosaur, especially any stairways downward, which I walked like my feet were two wooden stocks. But I was just happy. Mentally the marathon was really rewarding, and I warmly recommend the experience to others, as well. Probably the slow start was the key to success in my case, and to the relatively easy finish.