NE — Having your foot rebuilt at such a young age sounds scary. Did the rehab make you aware of what you’re capable and how much you can push it by going running?

JL — Yeah, in a way it showed me how our bodies can fall apart so we gotta make the most out of it while we can and that we have some limits which we should respect and some which we definitely shouldn’t.

All the doctors told me that running wasn’t an option anymore and that I would only break my foot by doing it but I didn’t believe them. I at least had to try and then see what happens. So it was basically testing through trial and error which resulted in countless of hours of reading and many breaks when the foot didn’t liked what I was doing.

And slowly it started to pay off. I saw that my body, minus the injured foot, and lungs were built for running, how much I enjoyed and started to understand what running was all about and what I’m capable of.

What really lead me to start Unbowed RNNNG was that I realized people aren’t really after getting free stuff at brand driven events or trying year after year to improve their PB’s. They’re searching for like minded people whom they could hang with also after the runs and outside running. They’re also looking for new goals which were a bit outside the box, something that would be an experience.

Experiences like we did couple years ago when we ran 170km relay from the Paavo Nurmi statue in Helsinki to the Paavo Nurmi statue in Turku. We celebrated with a really good dinner and drank beer until the morning.

NE — I remember seeing a training log from Paavo Nurmi and one entrance said „running in deep snow“. I loved that, harsh Finish winter, running in deep snow becomes your task for the day. Now it seems like Scandinavia has a science focused approach, looking at what the Ingebrigtsens or Blummenfelt are doing in Norway, Maurten from Sweden… Is this a current trend, something you’re subscribed to as well?

JL — Science is helping us a lot to understand different approaches to running and for example shoe development has helped me and my injured foot a lot. Back in the days when I was still chasing PB’s and trying to improve every single metrics it mattered to me as well but not anymore. Double threshold’s and nutrition innovations are interesting, but pure metric tracking isn’t for me anymore. I see myself running in deep snow after footsteps of Paavo Nurmi.

To me running is a way of life and just like life, it doesn’t have a straight easy path with no uphills. Running is an entity which constantly change its form and the only thing that is certain is that running will always be there with me. It’s a part of my life just like family or other important things and I have to keep everything in balance which means that they all have their part in equation but their importance differ depending on what’s good for me and the ones whom I share my life with.