Elīna Krēmere | 22nd June, 2019

Greeting to The Doorknob of Sīmanis’Church

21:15, June 21st

I’ve awoken from another evening nap. My stuff is packed in a RIMI carton box and already divided up into bags., the food box is where it’s supposed to be, the bag is packed, the water system filled up, the light charged and so on and so on. The only things I still must organize are my internal organs and brain halves. Stress. I’m a little dizzy and there are butterflies in my stomach. It feels as if I’m still dreaming, even though I’m already in the car and on my way to the main building of the university of Latvia. The feelings are extraordinary, and they were followed by extraordinary events...

23:00, June 21st

I’ve received my envelope; the security equipment check has been passed. And I’m nervously clinking my light on and off, remembering how a year ago I was standing on the other side of the table annoyed when someone couldn’t find what they need in 3 seconds. The registration procedure finished, and we’re sitting outside, mom and I, just by the entrance. At this moment I don’t really want to talk to anyone, I enjoy those crazy butterflies and something similar to tears in my eyes. I do cry, mom rants at me, that I can’t sit calmly while she tries to weave my hair in front of the university. I still don’t believe all this.

Matīss gives the safety announcement, half of which I miss completely. I couldn’t really concentrate. I didn’t hear anything, just felt weird. How would you feel when the moment you’ve been waiting for 3years FINALLY comes?

23:45, June 21st

I tell everyone on Facebook about my Riga Valmiera plans and put my phone in my bag. Everybody around me is chatting, laughing, taking photos, and playing music. I couldn’t do any of that at the moment, I was too emotional. Mom had already gone home, to go to bed. I’ve been left alone with 150 other people, who are all bigger (and probably more experienced) than me.

What’s the point of hike/run anyway? To help the spirit of running hikes Undīne of course. At first, I promise not to worry about the finishing time, I just have to reach the other side of the country. 5 minutes til start… 3, 2 and now it’s seconds. What have I signed up for?

00:00, June 22nd

The starting shot fires (I don’t even remember if there actually was one) and EVERYBODY took off. At first, I had planned to run for a bit, but definitely not that fast. Where are they running? One after the other people are passing me until I make the oh so important decision not to look at others. Overestimating my abilities at the start has never been in my taste, but I do know how easy that mistake is to make. One traffic light, the next, I don’t want to stop at each red light, but have no choice. And so, I’ve gotten to the VEF Bridge. There are many observing this running trip, I get to speak to some of them on the way. I hadn’t even finished the first 10km that I had already begun to eat. I didn’t get to eat something before the start, so I had to make it work.

1:43, June 22nd

Slowly I made my way through the streets of Riga arriving at Jugla. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be expecting me there, but I was wrong – the music, the hordes of positive volunteers were welcoming and motivating. It felt nice. I tell them that last year I had been in their position. We chat for a bit and then I continue thinking about how much one’s live can change in a year. From an organizer and volunteer, I’ve become the one running the crazy long distances, who in 2h has managed to get to the Tallinn Freeway.

It was both dark and light outside, trucks were driving past us, and I was continually asking myself to do they have nothing better to do? Just ahead of DEPO I catch up to Luīze, who had been marching before me for a while now. We commence a lengthy discussion, and many are running past us. We speak about anything that we can think of. I try to help Luīze to the best of my abilities. At half past 2 in the morning I remember promising to call my mom – so that she’d be at Garkalne to meet me at checkpoint 1. I call, to wake her up, I apologize and tell her that it’s time!

Barely half an hour passes and I’m there at Garkalne and looking at my phone I deduce that I won’t be meeting up with my family. See, it turns out mom didn’t believe that I’d be there so quickly and so she wasn’t in a rush get there either. It sure did hurt me a little (we had an agreement!), but I do find the strength within me to head to CP1.

3:10, June 22nd

I’ve arrived at Garkalne! I eat all that I can, fill up my water supply, as well as meet up with Aija the photographer. I complain a little about the lack of broth, as I felt it would’ve come in handy.

3:32, June 22nd

I don’t linger at CP1, I am back on the road, making my way on the freeway and I am truly happy seeing the remarkably unremarkable VOLVO, with my brothers sleeping in the back and mom at the wheel. They follow my location live and tell me that they’ll wait for me at Sēnīte. What a pleasant surprise :)

The woods surround everything, but the skies are a little lighter than before. My speed is somewhere in between fast walking and running. If I see something important, I run for real but other than that I’m taking it easy. The runners before me were good motivation, I gain on them and pass them cheering them on. I’ve also come up with a motivational phrase for myself:

"I’m running until I can’t take a step no more"

And so, trotting onward I’ve reached Vangaži, Sēnīte isn’t a long way away anymore. I reminisce on working at the checkpoint last year as a volunteer. Then I really did enjoy working for and serving all the runners, too bad, that the faster ones didn’t choose to stay there for long.

Video and Text Side by Side

5:05, June 22nd

The kilometers through the dark, lonely, and long freeway passed terribly slow, but I fought it through. I fought myself, I fought boredom. I promise myself to put some music on for myself later and I also remind myself, that someone is waiting for me at Sēnīte.

When I run into CP2, everything goes according to plan, how we had planned to do everything at CP1. My brother fills up my water, checks the food in my bag, mom takes care of my feet, applies some band-aids (they weren’t necessary this time). Here I changed my socks and shirt because the morning was a little cold and I wasn’t looking forward to more hypothermia.

We finish up in 10minutes and I once again eat everything I can and keep on. The next part of the distance was short, and I enjoyed that.

5:47, June 22nd

Meeting mt family as well as music and the sunrise helped a whole lot in keeping my spirits up. I’ve completely forgotten my tears before start and the anxiety, now all that I’m thinking of is keeping on and finishing. And just how good that’ll feel!

The makeshift walking stick did help keeping balance between CP2 and CP3.

6:35, June 22nd

How far am I? Where am I? What is going on here? My family greets me, and I realize that it is time to put on the shirt gifted to me by Andris Ronimoiss. The one enhanced by his blessing and trust. It did feel good. CP3 is very positive as always and once again I’m ready to get back on the road in 10 minutes, this time I pick up my walking sticks as a 20km stretch of craziness awaits me. I realize that it’ll be rough, as for me the breaking point usually comes just around 50km

I head onward, I am tired, but once again music and positive thinking help. At first, I really was heavily relying on the walking sticks, but reaching the 50km mark made me get back to running for a bit. The morning sunshine warmed me up.

I meet Justīne, my newest conversation partner, she tells me about Greek mythology and history, and I try to keep up. I love listening when I don’t feel like talking myself. And together, running, and then walking, but always moving, we’ve made good progress.

9:44, June 22nd

Brasla, brasla, braslaaaaa…., yes, finally. I’ve completed the third part without breaking down. I’m more than elated about that, I allow myself to spend a little more than 10 minutes at CP4. Here, I find out about everybody who has quit (several of them my acquaintances), I also find out about Edijs finishing already. He’s insane, but me? I’m half-way already! :)

10:00, June 22nd

I’m annoyed, coming out of CP4, I wanted to stay for a bit more. The next part of distance I decided to run. As in, gather all I can and finish those 13km as quickly as possible. I catch up to Justīne, who had left the checkpoint ahead of me, and I let her talk once more. I attempt to collect all the strength and power within me, so that I can really power through my dear Straupe and Plācis, where I’ve been to many, many, many orienteering practices with the team “Meridiāns”. I remember how we’d skate on the freeway at winter and climbed the tower at Plācis.

- small excerpt from Justīne’s blog http://www.noskrien.lv/blogs/pedejas-finisetajas-pirma-ultra/ -

“At one point my path crosses with Elīna, a young, highly positive lady, who wants to become the youngest ever contestant to finish R-V. And honestly, she’s quite intelligent for her 18 years. The next to CPs we reach together, mainly walking, but running downhill. Running with someone is much more motivating, you get to have conversations! When it appears that Elīnas mood has tanked, I start telling her everything I know about the Leningrad blocus, I have no idea why. Maybe to show that one is capable to so much and that we’ll be fine. But is it a good idea to tell someone running an ultramarathon about eating wallpaper glue? I don’t think so…”

12:46, June 22nd

These 13km, however, took us 3 hours to complete. I realized that I was damaging Justīne’s good mood and so I let her run ahead. Meanwhile I’m telling myself that I’m sleep deprived. I need to sleep for 10 minutes, yeah right, that may be one of my worst ideas EVER - 40 minutes pass by and I don’t even notice, it feels as I’ve lost them. After this break, it was hard not only to wake up, but also to get up, it felt as if I’d had no rest at all. I almost started crying while getting up, I wasn’t thinking of quitting, but sleep was needed. I had no idea what to do with myself and so I moved forward.

16:42, June 22nd

17km to Rubene? They were so boring and slow, in the most direct and horrible meaning. The main moment of this distance was when my family sent me a motivational video, which inspired me to run for a little while. I got dizzy not far from the Rubene CP and I set down at the side of the road. Anita, who was driving by came up to me and said: ”Child, what are you doing in the middle of the freeway?”

It was the little things that motivated me at times, they were the reason, why I even kept on moving forward. There wasn’t any talk of speed here, especially as I sat down at almost every single bus stop for 3 minutes or more. This was about survival, not giving up and continuing, no matter the gait. It was very hard, especially as I was doing it alone.

1,5km before Rubene I meet my brother once again, he had run towards me. He tells me that our friends the Grīviņi couple, has arrived to greet me. This news is enough to make me cry and motivate me enough to make my way to Rubene in the end. When I get there, not only is the checkpoint closed, but my friends and family have left. I am sad, but not sad enough to stop thinking about the finish line. I was tired but feeling a little better.

17:56, June 22nd

There’s not much of the distance left to go. I collect the last will I have, and I continue. My brother comes with me for the last 3km. I really am moving very, very slow, but at least I’m not going back! A friend came to visit me 10km ahead of the finish line. He had promised to come to entertain me, and so he did, he didn’t really manage to improve my tempo even though he was in a car. But when I did run for a bit, he was so supportive and came with so many compliments that I truly did start feeling powerful. At one point I notice the 100km mark in the distance. There’s a warm feeling in my heart. I wasn’t expecting the welcome I received there but it did feel great.

Every step I take from now on, I’ll be partaking in the longest ultramarathon of my life

We get to Valmiera at around 19:00, right about when the control time was ending. It doesn’t worry me too much, I mainly just wanted to finish. The streets of Valmiera were slow, so slow, one after the other. I can’t run at all anymore.

The finish line! 19:46, June 22nd

I’m here! I don’t believe it but I’m here! In Valmiera! I was thinking I’d be going into hysterical crying when I couldn’t go on anymore, but I held it together. I can’t even describe the feeling. I was fulfilled, crossed R-V off my bucket list. The people at the finish line were fascinating. The lady with the mic approves that I’m the youngest contestant, to finish. Of course, I can’t really walk anymore, but it’s nothing compared to the butterflies in my stomach. Even while writing this and remembering the feeling, I start crying a bit. Honestly, to me, these 19 hours still feel like a hazy dream.

The finish line spectators were fascinating! The lady on the microphone also confirmed that I was the youngest participant to finish. Walking, of course, is very difficult, but it's nothing compared to the butterflies in my stomach. Even as I write and recall those emotions, tears well up in my eyes. To be honest – these 19 hours still feel like one big dream...