Annemari Kiekara loves running.
Annemari Kiekara45, is Finland’s strongest player, if track and field achievements are used as a metric.
– Working days are from seven to four. First sorting and then distribution. I like my job. And people have been very receptive when many people come to chat, Kiekara says.
Kiekara has been working as a mail carrier in Uusikaupunki for just under a month. He delivers mail with a bicycle cart, so the work could be characterized as quite physical.
– Sometimes there have been angry watchdogs, but nothing bigger than that has happened.
With her maiden name Sandell, the runner who rose to the top of the sports community in the last millennium will hardly face angry watchdogs at the Munich European Marathon on Monday, but you have to run hard anyway.
– I’m going to get the second best marathon time of my life, says Kiekara, who set his record of 2:35.12 in 2000.
This season, at the Rotterdam Marathon, the clocks stopped at the second best time of the career, 2:39.46. The SE result of the age group ranks 80th among European women’s results this season. Joan Chelimo Mellyn and of Lonah Salpeter The times starting at 2.18, the ones from the old continent are in the 2.22 times and Alisa Vainio domestic leader 2:29.56 (21st in Europe).
– I haven’t had a successful marathon in my career, so I don’t think a record is impossible after, say, a healthy training period of a year. But what do I decide about the sequel? How can I run after work and other patterns?
A long break
Endurance runner Annemari Kiekara works as a mail carrier. PASI LEISMA
The last time Kiekara participated in the prestigious athletics championships was in Seville in 1999.
– I’m in Munich because I love running and I got in because of the ranking. The best pleasure comes from good training and successful competitions, but the best moments in life are the births of my children. Family and children are the most important thing in the world, says the mother of 18-, 15- and 12-year-old children.
Kiekara made a return to the national top in 2019–20 and the goal was the Tokyo Olympic Games 2021. Last summer was watered down by hamstring problems, so in September 2021 Orthopedic Lasse Lempainen did the operation. It worked, because this summer the woman has been able to run without pain.
– I am grateful to Lasse. He didn’t give a guarantee that the back thighs are better. But at least that’s what he promised, that he can run with those being coached.
Annemari and her coach husband Mika Kiekara run running school activities. They recently moved from Koski Tl to Uuteenkaupunki to a two-room apartment. The couple is looking for a detached house in the automotive industry area.
In the alpine hut
Annemari Kiekara, born Sandell, last competed in the prestigious athletics championships in 1999. Photo from the 1998 European Championships in Budapest. German Irina Mikitenko in the photo ahead of the Finn. AOP
Although I enjoy working at the post office, I would prefer Kiekara to be a professional athlete.
– If the selection for the European Championships had come earlier, I would have been high and I would hardly have gone to work at the post office.
In the spring, the athlete lived and trained in an alpine hut in Helsinki at the capital region’s sports academy.