  |
|
|
|
Running, running tips and runners true stories are what this column is all about.
Go here for a complete list of running links. If you are looking for a good cause and want to help a runner who is helping some very special people, take a look at her Letter to All. Be sure to check out the letter I got from a first grade class at the end of this article! I hope my readers enjoy this interesting story as much as I did! by Michael Sandrock Eino cackles as the temperature in Lasse Viren's sauna gets hotter and hotter. Soon, sweat is beading up on our bodies, and I have a vaguely uncomfortable feeling that I may never get out alive. Viren takes a scoop from a wooden bucket and pours water on the rocks, making the heat even more intense. Eino stands on the top bench to get closer to the ceiling, where it's the hottest, and I wonder at what temperature blood begins boiling. Through a small window, I see pine trees waving invitingly. "Get up here!" Eino yells. "What are you, some kind of vimp?" I look pleadingly over at Viren, who simply shakes his head. "This is the old-style kind of sauna. It's woodburning, not electric," Viren says, explaining how he heated the rocks for several hours with a wood fire, allowing the heat to build gradually and giving the air a nice smell. "It's much better." Finally Viren opens the sauna door, and we run across the grass and jump in the lake, feeling the clear water cool us down. After swimming for a bit, we climb out and towel off. Viren smiles. "Now you know what a real Finnish sauna is like." And after taking a Finnair Sports Tour to the 22nd annual Lassen Hölkkä — Lasse's Run — we know what Lasse Viren and Finland are like. There were 17 of us at Viren's brick house on the lake outside the small Finnish village of Myrskylä this September afternoon. Earlier in the day we had been among the 1,000 people taking part in one of the most famous races in Finland. Lassen Hölkkä was started in 1974 to honor Viren's 5,000- and 10,000-meter gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The race has been held yearly ever since, and Viren always runs, though he no longer wins (as he did three times). Past runners include Miruts Yifter, Gaston Roelants, Emiel Puttemans — and now us.
The copyright of the article An Adventure With Lasse Viren in Running is owned by . Permission to republish An Adventure With Lasse Viren in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
