This race report was sent in by an MTA Podcast fan Estonia named Joonas Püvi.

As you can imagine, all big marathons in Estonia have been cancelled (well, you can still run them virtually), so I wasn’t able to run my planned Tallinn Marathon.

Two weeks before the previously scheduled run I was double checking the marathon calendar and to my surprise, I found a small marathon still happening!

Not virtually, but physically!

Kihnu Männäkäbä Maraton 2020

A truly magical marathon on a small island in the Baltic Sea called Kihnu took place roughly two weeks ago. Kihnu island has a total area of 16.38 km2. Despite a very small island, a full marathon consisted of only 2 laps!

When I was collecting a bib in the evening before the start, the race director asked me: “So, what time are you expecting tomorrow, Joonas?”

I replied to him with a small uncertainty: “Well, I wasn’t able to do my tapering properly as I decided to run this marathon 3 days ago, but I still expect to finish at 3:50:00.”

My previous PR was 4:13:03, so a good 23 minutes.

So, the next day… the weather conditions were almost perfect: cloudy, 59 °F with a little too strong wind.

At the starting line I pep talked myself and repeated “You have what it takes to run a marathon.. you have what it takes to run a marathon.. and change my life”.

I loaded myself very carefully at the aid stations and felt strong until the end. I managed to run a negative split and I finished at: 3:49:56!

Thank you Trevor! Thank you Angie! Thank you all the MTA team for inspiring and educating.

We all tend to take these ordinary things we do everyday for granted, but Trevor and Angie, I hope you understand how much you both have given back to society and literally change so many lives in a positive way.

Best regards,
Joonas