Konstantin Santalov: at every "hundred" I told myself that I was running for the last time. Just two seconds at a hundred kilometers

On May 15, in the French town of Chavaniers-et-Payers in the province of Vendée, the 13th World Ultramarathon Championship will be held, in which Russian runners will also take part. Despite the fact that the first world championship was held in 1987, such races have been held in Russia only since 1991. However, having barely appeared on the world stage, representatives of our country immediately became trendsetters. The very first world championship with the participation of Russians - in the Spanish Palamos in 1992 - became a triumph for them: Konstantin Santalov and Nurziya Bagmanova won the championship titles in the individual competition, and our men excelled in the team competition. For 7 years, the Russian team has become the most titled both in the world and in Europe: the Russians have 18 medals in the individual numbers of the world championship program, including 9 gold, and 15 championships of the continent

Santalov, who became a 3-time world champion in the individual competition, a multiple European champion, a 4-time Russian champion, and also a world record holder, is one of the strongest super marathon runners: suffice it to say that he showed 13 out of 50 best results at a distance of 100 km.

This year, the athlete took on a new role for himself - the organizer of the competition - at the 9th Russian 100 km championship held in mid-April, which took place in Chernogolovka, near Moscow, where Santalov now lives. By the way, this super marathon race has every chance of acquiring international status in the near future: the participation of such a celebrity in it should attract attention to the tournament in many countries of the world, especially if the marathon is named after Santalov.

Konstantin, how do people come to the conclusion that the distance of a classic marathon - 42 km - is too short for them?

When a person runs long distances for 5 or more years, qualitative changes occur in his body. He is so drawn into the process of running that he can no longer live without it. Running becomes a drug. I didn’t run for a couple of days - you feel discomfort. And sooner or later there comes a moment when you feel: at this distance you will no longer be able to show the result that suits you. After all, we run to win. I showed time in the marathon around 2:14. The result is not bad, but it was not enough to compete with black athletes. Yes, and in Russia with him it was impossible to get into the top three. Then I tried myself on a longer distance and realized that this was mine. In a regular marathon, I could not keep up with the best, and in the ultramarathon, I was ahead of almost everyone.

- That is, we can say that the marathon and ultramarathon different types sports?

In general, yes. Of course, all this is running, but... At our competitions, marathon specialists often go to the start along with super marathon runners - and as a rule, they do not achieve anything worthwhile. They decently run about 50 kilometers, and then often leave. Well, judge for yourself, how can a sprinter compete with, say, 800-meter runners? And compared to super marathon runners, marathon runners are sprinters.

At long distances, black athletes are traditionally the strongest, but white runners are in the lead in the super marathon.

There is nothing surprising. Black athletes are probably closer to nature, so they start to show good results much faster, they do not require the same large amount of training as whites. But for an ultramarathon, natural data alone is not enough, you have to train for years. I've been running for 20 years.

- And what happened to you in Chernogolovka? (Santalov got off at the 48th km. - L.Kh.).

- Felt unimportant. Of course, he could have resisted and, it is possible, he would even have won. But a lot of effort was given to the organization of the championship. I managed to get enough sleep only on the eve of the competition, and before that, for two weeks I slept 4 hours a day. And there was almost no time to train: every other day I ran for an hour. You have to practice at least two hours a day. In addition, when the psyche is not sufficiently prepared for a long run, the body works for wear and tear. For a long distance you should be ready both mentally and physically.

- What do you have in mind?

- 100 kilometers run not with their feet - with their heads. After 30 km, the legs fill with fatigue, it becomes bad, and then you start to fight with yourself. You can’t feel your legs, you don’t want to continue, but you still have to run 70 km! Then the mind and psyche can save. Of course, troubles do not always begin so soon: it happens, and after 100 km it is fresh as a cucumber. But sometimes even after ten kilometers there is no strength to move the legs. I recently started in France for 100 km. I didn’t immediately run: after all, almost without a pause, I got from the snow to the asphalt, and even in the heat. However, he endured and won. But such extra efforts are undesirable. Running should be fun. And torturing yourself is wrong.

- Let's go back to that very 30th kilometer. What to do when there is no more strength?

You have to be able to concentrate. Best of all in wrestling, on rivals, in order to distract from thoughts that you have run out of strength and you have to go! When everything hurts, you can’t think about it, you should do other things: drink on time, eat, follow the gap from competitors.

Is this the second wind?

- Yes, there is no second wind! This is complete nonsense. Visibility. As a rule, the first half of the race is much faster than the second. Suppose a person runs fast, but at some point his speed begins to fall, and 10-15 minutes later the body begins to recover and an illusion of a surge of strength appears.

- But such differences are undesirable?

- Naturally. You have to run at the same pace all the time. At the championship in Chernogolovka, we ran the first segments of 10 km in just over 37 minutes. And the last winner Anatoly Kruglikov passed in 41, 44 and 45 minutes. Imagine with what difficulty this distance was given to him because of such a difference! But Alexander Motorin did not start very fast against the background of others, but he ran evenly and eventually took second place. This is what uniform running and a competent attitude to business means.

- How many years have you been performing at such high level?

- Since the 91st. During this time he won about 25 international ultramarathons.

- Do you train on your own?

Yes. The experience is great. In addition, I almost graduated from the Institute of Physical Education: I was too lazy to take state exams, and there was no time.

- Is this sport developed abroad?

- There are several very popular 100 km races in the world in Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy. At the start of the most famous "Komrads" in South Africa - 16 thousand people come out. This marathon, however, is not entirely sports, as even its name "Comrades" speaks of: any help is allowed, a friend can almost be carried to the finish line by hand. Sort of like a Camel Trophy. But those who have run through Komrads at least once are treated there in much the same way as we once treated the Heroes of the Soviet Union. Such races have been held for almost 70 years. IN European countries there are an average of 2 thousand participants, which is also quite a lot. After all, you still need to decide to go to the start of the 100-kilometer distance!

- But for you it is already almost work?

- When there is no competition for a long time, I start to get bored. I have to fight, run, fight with myself, with rivals. At major international tournaments, 15-20 runners of approximately the same level gather. That's where the real struggle is: everyone is watching each other, no matter who runs away. Terribly interesting!

- So, the ultra-marathon is not self-torture at all, as it might seem at first glance?

- This is the same run, only in a different mode. In a traditional marathon, the athlete gives all his strength and then recovers for a month. And in the ultramarathon, the optimal pace is set, along the way, athletes take special meals. If the body is able to quickly absorb food, then a person can run long distances. If not, there's nothing you can do. Another thing is a daily or 6-day run. This is self-torture. I once ran: you sleep only an hour and a half, the rest of the time you are on your feet.

“So you can still sleep?”

- Certainly. Sleep and eat as much as you like. But the rivals are running at this time.

- Even marathon runners sometimes leave the race due to the fact that they wash their legs a lot. And 6 days to run ...

After this remark of mine, Konstantin exclaimed:

I don't even remember if I have toenails! and began to take off his shoes. Then he continued philosophically: Sometimes, when you run a lot and often, they don’t even have time to grow back.

- And how long are you going to live like this?

- And I have no other choice.

- Why?

- Congenital heart defect. When I run, my resting heart rate is 32-36 beats, and if I quit, it drops below 30. Therefore, I have to run all the time. Not necessarily, of course, 100 km. However, someday you will have to do something else. But be sure to be serious. Naturally, running will fade into the background. However, as long as I am able to play for the Russian national team and be among the top three winners at the world championship, I have no right to stop performing.

- Yes, you are a fanatic!

- In no case. Of course, you need to train a lot, but you need to be able to relax. Some of them drive one and a half thousand kilometers a month! It's useless. So you can be left without family and friends, and a person should have something in life besides sports. Sport should bring joy, not replace everything else.

- How do you recuperate?

- And I start drinking beer.

- Beer?

- Yes, 5 liters a day.

- But why beer?

Because I love him. Joke. In fact, this is vitamin B in its purest form.

- Were you satisfied with your ultramarathon in Chernogolovka?

- I guess, yes. We used a slightly different judging system, and it worked great, we didn't have to place 40 people around the track to track the run. We only had four judges. Thanks to the guys who made a special computer program.

- And what are the prospects for the tournament?

- I really want foreign masters to come to it. My dream is not just to hold the next Russian championship in Chernogolovka, but also to make this run a traditional international one. Or even organize the European Ultramarathon Championship there in the coming years. There are all possibilities for this.

Prepared by: Sergey Koval

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Konstantin Santalov is a unique athlete in the history of world athletics. The Russian won the title of world champion three times in the 100-kilometer run, repeatedly became the winner of the national and European championships, and won competitions in the 100-kilometer run more than thirty times. The 49-year-old athlete, in a conversation with a special correspondent of the R-Sport agency, Oleg Bogatov, spoke about vivid episodes from the life of super marathon runners, victories and retirements, friends-rivals, fights at a distance and lung benefits alcohol in preparation for starts and recovery.

- Konstantin, did you have serious health problems since childhood?

They were, and remain. I have a congenital heart disease - there is a hole in the septum between the atrium and the heart. It is small, maybe literally the size of a two-kopeck coin. And it turns out that venous blood is mixed with arterial. But this is dangerous if you start, for example, to engage in a barbell, where there are explosive loads. Because a large exhaust of blood can lead to a rupture of the heart. And I was engaged in cyclic sports in which the load is dosed optimally. But art-venturial blockade is a more serious danger, because in this case, one out of seven heartbeats, roughly speaking, falls out for me. But everything seemed to be going well.

- Maybe such a good endurance is genetic?

No, no, it happened by accident - I started to study athletics only at the age of 13. My father is a military man, and he was often transferred from one city of the USSR to another. I was born in the Ukrainian city of Verkhovtsevo, and then we moved to a place in Kazakhstan, located 30 kilometers from Alma-Ata.

And soon it became known that in Alma-Ata there are sports boarding school, and the gym teacher said that I could go there. What is an officer's son? You hardly see your parents, because they are already at work in the morning. And the decision to try to live alone, to escape from parental care, also played a role. The competition for the boarding school was crazy - a hundred people for a place. And at first I did not break through, failing to meet the standards at distances of 100 and 300 meters and in the long jump. But my father said that I could run long distances, and I ran the "three-kilometer" one more time. They didn’t take me right away, and in December they called and said that one place was vacant.

And at first I was a pretty mediocre runner, because guys my age performed much better. My friend Sasha Saprykin and I lost about five seconds to them in the 1000m, which is a lot. But it often happens that someone who develops quickly, then abruptly stops. And we slowly, slowly, went from "dummies" to a good level, eventually becoming "international" (in the 100 km run).

- Didn't you go in for sports until the age of 13?

No, of course, he was engaged in freestyle wrestling. Remember Daulet Turlykhanov (two-time winner Olympic Games)? He is a year older than me, and we were like brothers. It's a shame that he was not given first place at the Seoul Olympics - there he was just handsome. But for political reasons, it was impossible to give the victory to us. When I fly to Alma-Ata, we will definitely meet with him - we have not seen each other for twenty years.

- Which best result was in a boarding school?

I became a first-class athlete and was a member of the youth team of Kazakhstan, won the republican championship in cross-country and became the winner of the championships at other distances - "three" and "five". And even won the championship of the USSR in the line of "Harvest" - remember, there was such a sports society?

Kostya, the boarding school seems to be asking sports way development, and you have chosen the Alma-Ata military combined arms school. Because of the father's influence?

No, it's not really about dad - it all happened for the reason that a good running team was being created there. First I came, the next year Sasha Saprykin was brought up. Then others. And when we created the national team, then for four years in a row we won the USSR championship among all military schools in the country. It is curious that our team included four cadets and two ensigns.

- I heard that when you got into the USSR national team, your competitors were bewildered?

Yes. Not only was everyone laughing at me in our country, the whole world was laughing at me. Because with a height of 169 centimeters, I weighed 64 kilograms, and my lean rivals are usually 53-55. And, for example, I was constantly taking doping tests. Because a normal person cannot run 100 kilometers twice in a week. Why did I start so often? Because when, for example, I performed in Belgium, our leader called me and said: "You need to go to France - you just perform there for the image of the country and you will earn something yourself." And so, all week after the last start, you only restore your strength - you drink beer or red wine.

And what, by the way, is a good means of recovery after 100 km? I heard from marathon runners that beer helps a lot...

Yes, beer is a good option, but wine also helps a lot. Because beer speeds up the metabolism, and after the race I sometimes can’t even go up to the second floor - my legs just don’t obey. And if we talk about that second start in a week, then I thought - after a hundred meters it’s somehow inconvenient to go, I’ll run ten kilometers and get off. And sometimes the legs do not obey at all - sometimes the muscles are not just "clogged", you touch them and experience such wild pain. And from the start, I try to get ahead, accelerating everyone at a speed above average. If, roughly speaking, average speed 10 km is 38 minutes, then I run the top ten in 35 minutes. And competitors are surprised - where is he so rushing, he ran the “hundredth” only a week ago? I will “shake” them all and then let the opponents go forward, joining behind them. We run 10, 20, 30 kilometers, I am a few minutes behind and I don’t try to overtake them, realizing that if I catch up now, then I’ll just get off.

In a super marathon, you constantly set goals - to reach one mark, then the next. And you constantly listen to yourself: if you feel that you have strength, you set a new task. After all, what is a 100 km run? Yes, you have to be ready physically, but the distance is run, relatively speaking, not by your legs, but by your head. Yes, it’s insanely hard, and I just hated myself every time at a distance. I cursed everything and said to myself: that's it, this is the last time, I'll never run a "hundred" again.

And in that case, I ran and ran, someone gradually descended, at the 93rd kilometer, the world record holder from Belgium, Jean-Paul Prat, fell off. By the way, he apparently thought that someone else was catching up with him and was very surprised to see me. Because on the 57th kilometer I was four and a half minutes behind him. And he was so offended by fate that he lost seven minutes to me for seven kilometers - he just got up.

- What year was that?

In 1993 at a commercial launch in Amiens. A year earlier, I won my first world championship. By the way, do you know about the famous fight that then thundered all over the world?

- No.

It happened in 1993, in Belgian Torhout. The same Belgian, South African Charl Matheus and myself run in the group of leaders. And before, after all, so many people went to the starts ... And we already

we run 40 kilometers, and they start swearing among themselves. I yell at them "Shut up!", but they do not calm down. It turned out that the Belgian in 1989 won a very important start for the South African in South Africa, and after that he was disqualified for a year for a ban on participating in starts in this country - as part of the fight against apartheid. And Charl was soon caught on ephedrine. And here they are on the track began to conflict with each other.

I again shout to them: "Guys, shut up, look, in 40 seconds a crowd of 40 people is running behind us." And first, Jean-Paul himself hit Charl - allegedly because he splashed water on his back, and then his huge brother jumped onto the track and also tried to hit the South African. I had to swing to besiege him, and it seems that I succeeded (with a smile) - Jean-Paul's huge brother fell on the track with a fright. And a fragment of our fight was played on television all year.

A group of pursuers caught up with us - everyone, apparently, was interested in seeing what was happening with us. And I feel like I can't run anymore. They ran ahead, and I could not catch up with them for four kilometers, although I was only 20 meters behind - my legs were hit hard. But then he slowly dispersed, caught up with the leaders, and as a result, Charl retired at the 72nd kilometer, and we fought hard with the Belgian, and I eventually knocked him out. I brought him one and a half minutes, having gone into the gap at the 78th kilometer, and he was disqualified for a fight.

- Aren't you disqualified?

No, I didn’t fight, but I tried to protect Charl - I beat the person who attacked. And then, after the disqualification of the Belgian, by the way, another runner from South Africa became the second, but he lost ten minutes to me.

- Have there been situations when at a distance of 100 kilometers the fate of the race was determined only at the finish line?

Yes it was. At the French Championships in 1994, again we are running ahead with Jean-Paul. Each circle consisted of 20 kilometers, and the track is designed so that when you run downwind, you run a kilometer in 3 minutes 20 seconds, and against a hurricane windmill - in 4.20. And our skinny athlete Kokarev ran with us, and if we put him in the lead, then we are already at the line of 4.40. And we constantly changed the first number with the Belgian.
And three kilometers before the finish line, we are confidently leading the three of us. I accelerate sharply, Jean-Paul rushes after me, and we "cut down" Kokarev - in this segment he lost to us for about a minute. We run into the city, and suddenly I feel that my leg is cramping. You can’t get up, I turn around and start looking into the Belgian’s face - how is he doing there. I see, he rests, and I also rest with the last of my strength. I turn around again and see - that's it, it's broken. And then he lost me only two seconds.

- Just two seconds at a hundred kilometers?

Yes, two seconds. And he, by the way, was then offended by me at first. He says: "You are not my brother - how can an elderly person (and he is seven years older than me) make faces at the finish line ?!" But then we were already laughing together when I said: "Jean-Paul, I did not laugh, it was from a cramp that I got such a grin, from pain."

Have you run marathons before?

Yes, starting from 1986, when at the age of 21 I got into the national team of the Soviet Union - just before the Goodwill Games. But I didn’t manage to perform at them - for unsportsmanlike reasons.

- How then?

I was graduating from a military school, and our boss, before the formation, expressed himself a little incorrectly in my address. I instantly freaked out and started chasing him along the parade ground - in front of the entire battalion. And they slapped me with ten days of arrest. I had an explosive character, and this then affected - I sent the head of physical training of the school to hell by phone. Because he wanted to send me to serve, and I was already almost a lieutenant and wanted to play sports. And instead of sports, then for a year and a half, in 1986-1987, I still had to serve in a military unit - in the mining town of Saran, 30 kilometers from Karaganda.

- There, of course, you had to forget about sports?

I missed half a year, had a little rest, and then started running again. And at the USSR Championship, I showed in a marathon good result, becoming the fourteenth - after such a serious pause. With the result of 2 hours and 14 minutes - quite a bit was not enough to reach the international standard.

Was the decision to leave the army out of resentment or was it conscious?

Of course, consciously - I wanted to run. And for training, he ran away to "AWOL". And after learning about this, two commandant's offices constantly hunted for me - our combined arms and border schools.

- And what specialty did you get after graduating from college?

Rank - lieutenant, specialization - mountain military training. And for two years I led a special company, preparing the guys before being sent to military operations in Afghanistan.

How many of them died?

A lot, out of 102 of my graduates - more than 30 people in the last two years of the war.

- And how did you decide to compete in the hundred-kilometer race?

Basically, by accident. The guys and I sat in the sauna and read the article. Our famous ultra-marathon runner Nail Bayramgalin wrote that someone set a world record in the 80 km run. And I told the guys: "Yes, I will beat this record." And we argued, and because of this, I began to prepare for the 100 km run. Only because of the dispute, otherwise I would have run a marathon, as before.

- Was there really no jitters in the 100 km run before the first world championship?

Of course, there was, there is always jitters. And not even in terms of fighting rivals - you just once again have to rape your body, to put it mildly. And after four hours of running, your legs just refuse you - they don't want to run. By the way, why can't Africans run like this? long distance? World champions in the marathon, winners of the world championships, and winners of the London Marathon came to the start with us ... But they are not enough for the last one and a half to two hours - they do not have enough endurance. Because they run by virtue of their natural data - they have nature and a little fitness. And we run on the basis of good fitness, and then - to whom God gave what.

Three victories at the world championships - which one was the most difficult? Although I understand that none was simple ...

The third was very difficult - in 1996. The fact is that one of my legs was "non-working" - I injured it two weeks before the start. The nerve was compressed, and there was no conduction in the leg, but then it seemed to let go a little. And I, to my misfortune, in the Moscow region hacked to death with stayers - in a ten-kilometer run. And I lost quite a bit at the finish line, but there was a recurrence of the injury, and I was slashed again. And when I went to the start, I said to my wife: “Valya, freeze my leg all the time, otherwise I won’t be able to run. But I can’t lose at the World Championships in my country.”

And then they also started at 10 in the morning - we ran along the Frunzenskaya embankment, there was a terrible heat, 28 degrees and a dry wind. And around there are no trees, no shade - nothing, open area, and we started to run hard, the track is even. And the people immediately rushed forward, and I held them back, saying: "Guys, there is no need to rush, let's calm down. Because now the heat will intensify, and it will be hard." Someone then nevertheless ran ahead, for four or five minutes, but then we carefully "ate" them with the whole crowd.

And somewhere on the 65th kilometer we ran ahead with the Pole Yaroslav Yanitsky. And I stopped at every five-kilometer circle, and Valya froze my leg, because I didn’t feel it at all - and five kilometers was enough. And the Pole, who periodically tried to run away from me, but he couldn’t do it, kept asking: “What is she doing to you?” And I let him go with the wind, and catch up with the wind. And he says to me: "I also need to add, let Valya freeze me too - I agree that you will be the first, and I will be the second." "Okay, let's do this: a strong group is running behind us eight minutes, and now we will slow down a bit, one minute on each five, rest and look at the situation."

And in the end we reach the 85th kilometer, Valya freezes us, and the Pole gets up - he cannot run further. But in the end, we still “sailed” to the finish line - I became the first, and he was the second. Janitsky lost to me about three minutes in the last 15 kilometers, and his group of pursuers did not get it literally for some 30-40 seconds. But I dragged him to the 85th kilometer, and with the help of Valya's frost, he still became the second. Can you imagine how unlucky the guy was in general - he became second at the world championships five times ?!

- Kostya, are there three-time world champions in the 100 km race in the world now?

It seems to be not. I am the only one, it seems - the Italian Satori could become three times, but, if I am not mistaken, he still could not. Now, after all, the results have become lower - our galaxy is gone. But then we hoped that the "hundred" would become Olympic distance and tried to "shove" it wherever possible. And now they win at the world championships with a time that we would have had the sixth or seventh result. After all, then only about twenty of our guys went to the start, the Germans were not bad, the Poles were good, the Brazilians, the Belgians.

- And what is your best result for all years?

Six hours fifteen minutes.

- And what can be called a grandmaster level?

In the region of six hours and thirty minutes - in this case, you will always be in the top three at the World Championships. I exchanged the time "6.30" 12 times, the second, probably, is Prat, who ran out of this time five times.

- And why is the interest in Russia to this distance so lost now? And does anyone even run?

Yes, they run, but only a few. And their results are very low. Although they all prepare at the training camp, they show a time in the region of seven minutes, about the world record for women. And when men run according to the women's result, this, excuse me, is not the case ...

- How many people usually walk away after a 100 km race?

Two weeks - only after that you completely do not feel pain in your legs.

- When you run, you get very dehydrated...

I usually got up to eight kilograms. But the water balance in the body is restored quite quickly - in two days. Beer helps, but, of course, not ours, and real dry wine. To increase the level of hemoglobin, in my opinion, red wine is better.

- Konstantin, what do you think about while running, because in six extra hours can you go crazy?

You know, in 1996 Andrey Razbash asked me the same question in the Rush Hour TV show. And I answered: “During the run, I don’t even have time to think. I have my own alignment for the distance, I have to control the time at each stage, and six hours fly by very quickly.” And after all, while running, it is very important to learn how to change your running technique. At first you run with your shoulders tilted forward, and after about three hours you feel that the overload has gone. And you take your shoulders back, so you run the "top ten" - a completely different muscle group works. I didn't tell anyone about it, but after that "tens" you feel rested. If there were good students now, then I would teach them, and they would run the “hundredth” much faster than me ...

- Do you keep in touch with your former rivals now?

Certainly. And they already resent me, what's in recent years Five or six I do not fly to the World Championships. The same Jean-Paul is offended, other guys - the two-time world champion Brazilian Valmir Nunez, for example. We flew to him for three months - to prepare together for the World Cup. At first, he didn’t drink beer with us, and he didn’t eat our bacon. A week later, and we lived in the same apartment, he began to drink beer and eat bacon - and eventually beat us at the 1995 World Championship! Leshka Volgin from Vladimir, world champion in 1994, then became the second, and I retired at the seventieth kilometer. And he won against us - they taught him how to properly prepare (laughs)!

- Does beer really help in preparation?

Yes. Because there is a terrible heat, high humidity, and the beer comes out almost immediately. Two bottles a day is fine.

- When the Russian guys went to the start in a large group, did you have a common tactic - or every man for himself?

No, there was no single tactic, everyone fought for himself. We usually went to the start of six people, and three must run to the finish line. I won three world championships and went down six times. And once I ran third, and one of our guys was nearby. But I didn't want to be third, so I retired so that our guy could take the medal. And at the same time, we have never had someone in the team "choke" someone. At a hundred kilometers, this does not work out - everything is so complicated here. Because at such a distance, a difference of two or three seconds per kilometer is already felt. And if you sometimes see that your friend is not ready, but you are ready, then it is better to let him go a hundred or two meters, then he will believe in himself, come to life and also beat you. "Hundred" is a very subtle thing, here you need to clearly feel the state of your body.

- And what kilometers are the most difficult? Is it considered that a marathon, for example, begins only after 40 kilometers?

Usually from the 70th kilometer to the 85th. And after the 85th, you inspire yourself that you just went to the start and you only have fifteen kilometers left to run. Can't you? And when there are thirty left, it is still more difficult. Although you are going to run. And at the same time, I remember quite a few cases when the guys went off at the 85th kilometer, and at the 97th ...

- Three wins at the World Championships and six retirements. And which one was the most annoying?

And I did not divide them into offensive and not offensive, I have no one to be offended by. Three victories at the world championships are enough for me. The main thing is that one of our guys wins - the same Leshka or Grisha Murzin, so that the team performs well. And sometimes it happened that I didn’t win the World Championship, but won at all the other starts of the year.

- What could you say to young athletes who are now going to the distance?

I would like to wish them to understand that after the end of a career, life does not end and one must be prepared for this. In sports, we realize our ambitions and try to throw out everything that we have. But never under this need not forget, that then will begin another life. And it can be very difficult to rebuild, because you are used to one life schedule, and then everything will be different and much more difficult. And a person should be ready for this, because often athletes, having completed their careers, find themselves in a dead end and cannot find a way out. I wish this didn't happen.