lindanettechallenges

  Photographed: Gunnar Baum (father of Anette) Two weeks ago, Anette and I started on the Türi-Tori downriver race (78 km). The whole arrangement that Märt Maipuu did with his team was great. Organizing a competition in these difficult times is definitely a big challenge. We as participants were free to choose the start date and time between 08.05-16.05. It was sincerely honorable for us how Märt Maipuu, the chief organizer of the Türi-Tori downriver race , and his team welcomed us. The message that we are making a great honor with our participation was something that warmed our hearts and at the same time caused a bit of awe, because we do not consider ourselves to be the top-top marathon paddlers in Estonia. Rather, we think we are still green :)   The main competition date was Saturday (08.05), but our start on that day was not possible. At the end it was very good that we could choose another time for our race. On Saturday, Anette had the first paddling cup competition in ...

The year 2021 is here, also the end of February - the most important since the beginning of the year and an overview of 2020. We opened the year with dignity with Anette on January 1st - we went kayaking! 😊 01.01.2021 Pärnu River 04.01.21 we went back to Jõulumäe Sport Centre to do another training camp (we were in the camp at the end of 2020). That was awesome and I hope to give you a more detailed overview someday, because I don't want to prolong an already long blog post.   09.01.21 Training Camp at Jõulumäe The most important information I want to point out is that on January 24th, it became clear to Anette and I that we are not going to the Yukon River Quest this year either. The competition can be held primarily for locals. 85% of start-up fees are refunded to foreign teams. The waiting list can be re-registered, and if the travel regulations become clearer and there is an opportunity, it would be possible to go to the competition this year. We made the decision not to plan...

Exactly "What's coming, is coming ... but in full,” I said, hugging Anette early on 05.09.20, just before we headed to the start of the 15th Võhandu Marathon . For Anette 4th time on Võhandu Marathon. In the previous three times in K2WOM class (certain wins in her class), but this year for the first time on Võhandu Marathon with me. For me 7th time on Võhandu Marathon. In 2014 and 2015 in K2WOM class with Hanna Riive, in 2016-2019 in K1WOM class (2017-2019 wins in my class), this year for the first time on Võhandu Marathon with Anette. Shortly before the start, I bring out the night before the Võhandu Marathon. On the night of the third of September, against the fourth, I dreamed how Anette and I paddling around Lake Tamula in a group of leaders. In my dream, I also dreamed of the idea "it would be super if we could reach the podium overall", but I quickly buried the idea, because it was still (as always) too unrealistic. Then the dream went on with a rather detailed...

Hi to all of you! As promised at the end of the last blog post, we will share the steps to Yukon River Quest that we have done till the beginning of 2020. Here, let´s continue with October 2019 At that time we were pretty sure we are going to be presented on Yukon River Quest 2020 but beforehand we needed to deal with one real key action - registration. I am coming to this story separately. But at this period we also knew that preparation counts and long-distance challenges will be supportive of our performance on Yukon. From left: Anette, Robert, Linda (42+ km finish) So, we decided to take part in our very first (running) marathon “Estonian Wilderness Marathon 42+k” (check more about it here: ESTONIAN WILDERNESS MARATHON 42+K/25K ). We did/do not consider ourselves as runners. To think back on our sports backgrounds, both of us (me and Anette) have done mostly sitting sports from childhood. But we liked the idea of moving on foot while being in nature and on tr...

First, happy New Year for all of you! 2020 has arrived, it is a big year as this is the Olympic Games year but for us our own biggest challenge ahead on the World´s Longest Annual Paddling Race in Canada. Let´s give you an idea of how and when our journey to Yukon River Quest 2020 started. It really started from the Gauja XXL 2019 river race (03-05.05.19, Latvia)…. Somewhere on the Gauja river BUT…. I (Linda) remember myself hearing about the Yukon River Quest competition in Canada a few years ago (possibly in 2016, thanks to Ahti). Mentioning that it is the longest annual river competition in the world made it very attractive to me. From that moment I knew that one day I will go to this competition as being a big fan of long river-paddling competition. What I also knew at that time was: I need to find a kayaking partner with who I would dare to take part in this challenge. Anette: “I got to know about Yukon River Quest in 2017 when our Estonian men started sharing the...