A
Anders Lustig
Guest
The winningest marathoner in Sweden won five marathons out of the eight he ran in 2003, and he is a
40-year-old engineer who works full-time at Volvo (and is a father of three).
Granted, his victories came at small Swedish marathons in places with such quaint names as Öresjö,
Arvika, Bromölla, Vänersborg and Växjö - but all but one were under 2:40!
(27th Apr 2:49:16, 10th May 2:38:16, 6th Sep 2:38:16(sic!), 20th Sep 2:37:50 and 18th Oct
2:35:16, a PB.)
Reima Hartikainen - the name tells us that his roots are in Finland
- took up running in 1998,
made his marathon debut in 1999, went sub-3:00 the same year and sub-2:40 two years later.
He trains twice a day four times a week and races often, 35- 40 races a year, and his weekly mileage
is 100-140K. He has two quality sessions (an interval and a tempo run, the rest are easy runs) per
week, except between two close marathons. He hopes to go sub 2:30 within two years.
Yikes! If I try real hard I can think that his times are probably a bit "shallow" - "Now what could
he have done if he´d raced less?" - but the guy started running (because his wife did and he
wanted to back her up) the same year I did!
FWIW there´s another swedish guy who started running in 1998 "at the age of 38, because I couldn´t
climb up stairs and keep talking on my mobile phone". In 2000, he debuted in Stockholm (3:30) and
ran in New York (3:08). In 2001, he ran seven marathons - including three within five weeks, all of
which he did under 2:50! In 2002 he ran ten marathons, with a PB of 2:45...
Anders
40-year-old engineer who works full-time at Volvo (and is a father of three).
Granted, his victories came at small Swedish marathons in places with such quaint names as Öresjö,
Arvika, Bromölla, Vänersborg and Växjö - but all but one were under 2:40!
(27th Apr 2:49:16, 10th May 2:38:16, 6th Sep 2:38:16(sic!), 20th Sep 2:37:50 and 18th Oct
2:35:16, a PB.)
Reima Hartikainen - the name tells us that his roots are in Finland
- took up running in 1998,made his marathon debut in 1999, went sub-3:00 the same year and sub-2:40 two years later.
He trains twice a day four times a week and races often, 35- 40 races a year, and his weekly mileage
is 100-140K. He has two quality sessions (an interval and a tempo run, the rest are easy runs) per
week, except between two close marathons. He hopes to go sub 2:30 within two years.
Yikes! If I try real hard I can think that his times are probably a bit "shallow" - "Now what could
he have done if he´d raced less?"
- but the guy started running (because his wife did and hewanted to back her up) the same year I did!
FWIW there´s another swedish guy who started running in 1998 "at the age of 38, because I couldn´t
climb up stairs and keep talking on my mobile phone". In 2000, he debuted in Stockholm (3:30) and
ran in New York (3:08). In 2001, he ran seven marathons - including three within five weeks, all of
which he did under 2:50! In 2002 he ran ten marathons, with a PB of 2:45...
Anders