Tartu 2011

by Boris Petroff

March 26, 2011

Usually the main question a week before the marathon is “Do we have snow?” or “Are the tracks ready?”. This year we are in a different situation. The tracks are in perfect condition, but the weather forecast predicts nearly -20 for the race day,” comments Race Director Indrek Kelk. “Such temperatures affect all the skiers and that’s why we are considering moving the starting time. So the weather would be a bit more tolerable,” he adds.

Fortunately, it was not too cool the race day : -20°at 10 o'clock, but sunny, no wind. Tartu marathon is a real popular race with Estonian skiers happy to be there. This year 31 countries were registered  and more than 8000 people did the 63 or 31 km ! A record for this race. The journey is very nice, particularly the first forty kilometers.  Only one problem : the meal after the race is outside and when the temperature is still minus 15° it’s not a real pleasure….

And it’ s possible to run the 63 km, to wait at the middle race the family who decided to run the 31 km and finish the race together : that is what Matsuyama family did. And the young Suomi  (eleven) was very happy to get his fourth Worldloppet stamp with his parents Tomoko and Minoru.

Results:

63 km race:

31 km race:

This page was last revised on September 22, 2011