On culture

This weekend I had two pretty shattering culture-related experience and would like to share those with you.

The first one occurred on Saturday. I was driving through southern Estonia. It was about -20 degrees C, the sun was shining, the road was perfect, the country was all white and I had 320 bhp under my right foot. Even more, I had the CD from Metsatöll and RAM performing works of Veljo Tromis among others in my changer. Let me give you some background. Metsatöll is an Estonian pagan/folk metal band that has gained a considerable following in recent years. They have managed to fuse very sincere and simple, yet powerful, lyrics with oldschool metal sounds that are combined with old natural instruments. Very impressive. RAM is the only professional male choir in the world. Imagine a 50 strong party of men singing of their ancestors, old gods and harsh nordic nature. Veljo Tormis is the man solely responsible for me becoming a metal-head. This happened after I saw his The Curse Upon Iron performed by Tõnu Kaljuste and his choir on TV. If you have not had the pleasure, I suggest you imagine O Fortuna by Carl Orff. Imagine this being performed in dark winter's night by roughly 30 young people clearly enchanted by the whole thing carrying torches and singing around a fire. Insert the most powerful lyrics you can imagine. Add shaman dums. That gives roughly a third of the experience. Having all of those components - RAM, Metsatöll and Tormis - thrown together in a live performance is something that one can't put to words. They did both Litany to Thunder and Curse Upon Iron and I floored it with sun in my back and bitter cold Estonia rushing past. That was just perfect.

The other culture shock I had was related to mr. Tolkien. I got my hands on my old copy of Estonian translation of The Hobbit (1977) on Sunday. It barely resembles a book any more and wears many stains resulting from the nasty habit of reading while eating I had as a kid. The illustrations by Maret Kernumees have defined how Gollum and Smaug looks like for me (considerably different from other illustrations I have seen and totally different from the movie) and perfectly accompany the text. Also, the translation is very good (as opposed to the horror put among us with the Trilogy). I don't know whether this is because of the nostalgic value, the fact that this was the first Estonian book I have read in a long time (being put off by the same horrible translations) or the fact that this is a work of genius, but I swallowed it in a day and enjoyed every last minute of it.

In essence, I got very little done during the weekend but I still immensely enjoyed it.

London calling

It has been a while since the last post. Seems the frequency of me getting time and urge to write is correlated to the amount of work I have to do. So this must mean I have a lot to do right now, which is good. I have also been working on an article on architecture role in the organization but it is a longer post and still needs work.

So, am in London again. Firstly, let me tell you about this wonderful hotel I was staying at. And no, they are not paying me for this and this is no spam. The place really is that good, I probably had the best hotel experience anywhere in the world. The place is called Ambassador Hotel Bloomsbury. The room was very tiny but well laid out and OK for one night. It is a fairly modern place with nice design touches everywhere but unlike some places it still manages to be perfectly functional: you never have to look for anything, it's just there. To top it all up, the breakfast was astounding: very nice choice of mainly French products combined with elements of traditional English breakfast. Just perfect. The only gripe really was that there was a door close by that sent shivers through my room every time it was closed but that didn't happen that often so it was OK.

This trip has been very nice otherwise, too. The weather is beautiful with blue skies and just a little bit of frost to keep things winterly fresh. After landing in London City Airport I decided to go for train + tube instead of a taxi which takes ages and costs a small fortune due to miserable traffic in the mornings. Have not dared to do so before because of general distrust in public transport but boy was I wrong. The train arrived in 2 minutes (in perfect accordance with the posted timetable), was fast, clean and reasonably crowded. Why on earth is public transport in Tallinn slow, unreliable, smelly, always crowded to the max and you have to walk for 45 minutes before you get to it.

Anyway, the train took me through Docklands which is a mess of industrial estate, huge old residential blocks, four level junctions, playgrounds and branches of Thames. Does not sound like much but is strangely beautiful to look at. Would love to go there for pictures some time.

All in all, it has been great (Estonian Air still has a chance to mess it up but hopefully they won't) and there is a growing feeling that I need to come for a weekend and take a ton of photos.

Please take my money

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How to become an arhcitect? Huh?

I was so outraged by an article referenced by TSS that I just could not help put create this post. Would you believe it, that somebody actually goes out and defines how to become an architect. What the heck is that? It's like trying to define how to become an artist or how to compose music or how to become a leader. Sure, there are technical skills to gather and you must read and have experience and all that but at the end of the day it comes down to sheer talent. Of having a vision and being able to execute on it. Anybody claiming they have guidelines on how to become one or in fact who an architect is and what it does clearly does not understand organizations and the software development process.

There, I said it. Luckily enough there is still hope as some comments on the page seem to reflect the same viewpoint.

Will go and try to calm down, promise.

Revelations

Was in Tartu last with Mari last week for several reasons, one of which was to go to see "Kits õnge ja viiuliga", which is part of the Artists trilogy by Mart Kivastik. Although some critics say the play is no good, I must object. I have never ever had such an deep-reaching experience before. Aleksander Eelmaa managed to play the role of Elmar Kits with such a clarity and sense that I thought I was looking into a mirror. It was all there. My fears, my feelings towards things unfinished, aging, friends, desires it was all there.

During the pause I wrote the following. I meant to post it separately but figured one would need some context:

I do not know how to deal with debt. I just keep on giving and giving and can never find a suitable time to ask for it payed back. There is not even a thought of that. Although I need it, badly. I need it.

I have never had many friends. The few there were have grown apart or have been forgotten. I don't want to forget, I still remember them but can't find a way to tell them. What would there be to say anyway?

But still I remember the friends and the times we had.

"Tardo liin, va pordumaja"

Huh, guess visiting Tartu makes me nostalgic.

To make it short: to learn most of things about me, go and watch that piece in Tartu or Vinnistu. And Mr.-s Eelmaa and Kivistik (also Tõnu Oja) are a bunch of geniuses.

Rebellion in wonderland

Do you know the feeling that somebody asks you a question about a decision you have made and you can't remember why you made that decision? Even more, with every question your decisions seems more and more unwise. Well, I just had this experience.

I have designed (actually put down a design that a team has come up with) a system that involves separating front- and back-end systems with a layer of request-response queues to improve robustness. The system has been mostly built already and is due to go into the QA cycle when some people in operations started asking questions about why we needed these queues. Indeed, as there has been a while since I was deeply involved in the design details, I could not come up with a better answer than "This makes the system more robust" without believing it myself. We ended up giving the topic a good brainwhacking and ended up with a decision to proceed as planned.

I guess this is something every project faces: at the very end somebody questions a decision nobody actually remembers reasoning for and manages to convince enough people that a design change is necessary. The only wise thing to do at this point is to note the suggestion and proceed as planned, because the cost of (and risks associated with) change goes up exponentially as the time goes. Hence, even small changes can prove disastrous at the final phase of a project. Ah, but the temptation is big and the guy might actually be right and if you as a project manager have not noticed the rebellion early enough a lot of people might already be infected and support the change. Tough luck, this is what you get for becoming a project manager. Or an architect.

In London once again

Am in London again. That's not a big deal but I'd like to share two things with you. The first is the Danubius hotel I'm staying at. What a roach-hole! Never seen a TV that is so small and with such a bad picture, the shower has about third a inch of travel between bitterly cold and boiling hot, the reception is strange and unfriendly, at some point there was a loud bang in the corridor and minutes later the manager called to check up if I was OK and so on and so forth. Just crap. Stayed just one night and I actually need very little so no biggies.

The second thing is the experience of this morning. The hotel is located near Regent Park and there had been a inch or so snow during the night. That made for a wonderful walk, it was really beautiful. Got up real early so the city was still relatively quiet, the birds were singing and it was all nice, fresh and calm. Very exhilarating, indeed.

Can't understand the Brits, though. The morning news made the situation sound like a total catastrophe with phrases like "freezing cold" and "treacherous driving conditions". Jesus, I saw a couple of guys jogging in shorts and I barely had to zip my coat. Anyway, it was just beautiful!

Teaching is complicated

Am writing this while three groups of students break their heads (all female, by the way) over the project planning exercise I gave them. This is quite fun, actually: talk about something you know much more than them, answer questions and make up tasks that should be challenging to work on in groups.

Well, it is more complex than that. You actually take responsibility for

1. not wasting their time, this is an evening course and staying in school beyond 9pm better be worth it
   
2. not wasting their money, they need to be able to actually use the things they learn later
   
3. not teaching them stuff that is plain wrong or does not apply to the subject
   

Making sure none of this happens is not easy. Even with something as easy as project management for beginners which is what I am teaching this semester.

Makes me wonder, if I should continue the old series of posts about project management principles.

Health issues

I went to see a doctor this Friday, a cardiologist.

She took the stethoscope and listened to my heart. Then rushed out of the door and came back to call me along to "try to do a quick test". The test turned out to be something that has to do with ultrasound (I won't even pretend I can tell it's name or precise function of the machine that did it) and after 10 minutes the doctor had a confirmation for her suspicion. The valve that sits in the heart in front of the aorta is supposed to have three blades, mine has only two. A fairly common condition people are born with, apparently. Additional tests will have to be taken, of course, but the doctor operating the diagnostics machine shared her opinion.

Approximately half a year ago my wife started to feel pain in her right knee. Up to the point where every step was accompanied with a slight cracking noise and caused her serious pain. She, of course, went to see a doctor who claimed that a non-prescription joint-strengthening drink every night and some spinning (!) would be all that was needed. She refused to believe, sought a second opinion, had a surgery (apparently, a piece of bone had come loose in the knee) and is already feeling better, thank you.

So why am I writing this in my blog? Well, for once I feel pretty strongly about not being to do a MTB race ever again. But above that, I have had _tw0_ thorough medical checkups within last 6 years, both of which gave me clean papers. Knowing admittedly very little about medicine, I refuse to believe that something a specialist could spot within minutes would have been impossible to find out during those checks. Both of these checkups were performed by the local Medicover branch. And the first doctor my wife talked to was also from Medicover.

Hadn't I had an arrhythmia and talked to a doctor, I could have collapsed on the first race in the spring. I don't want to think about what a loose piece of bone does to a knee under regular spinning exercises.

Sure, nobody got hurt, but this is yet another example of people not doing their job properly (have a post forming in my head about that).

Hope you guys are fine!

Photography: is there such thing like too much photography?

It is done. I just uploaded last of the images and took at the Lightroom beta (it rocks, by the way). The shoot contained no less than 924 images. That's quite a lot for two and a half days. It actually feels like I have had enough, it's too much. Funny, never thought such a thing was possible, but it is. One of the reasons might be that the other guys were, based on what I saw, taking much better pictures. Also, it is physically challenging to carry a camera around for 14 hours. The conditions were also very poor: mostly a darkish room with a very high ceiling so nowhere to bounce the flash off from. Had to use high ISO to get anything resembling of a portrait.

Anyway, I am tired as a dog and will leave sorting of the images for the weekend. And can you guys see them? No, it was a closed event and no images can be published, sorry.

Copyright issues

Some things need to get out: I think I just figured out (actually thanks to the post from yesterday) why I felt so hurt when a darn tabloid published one of my images they had snatched from flickr despite of clear copyright notices. This image is a piece of me: it is firstly a personal thing and only then something I choose to show others. It has history, it has emotions associated with it, it means so very much to me. The image itself is not very spectacular but same feelings apply for all of them.

The tabloid (published by Presshouse, god bless you, fellas!) chose to pay me around $20 for the image. From consulting some friends with a law degree I learned that I could hardly expect more. You see, even if I go to court, the judge will most probably only state that I am to paid the "usual" fee. Well, and it is something like $20 around here.

So there's a question: is it just that one could go and take my innermost feelings and thoughts and push it out in the cheapest and dirtiest way possible and get away with no consequences whatsoever?

On photography

I discovered this cool thing called Blurb that allows you to turn your pictures into an actual physical book. Initially I just figured to give it a try and imported a couple of sets from my flickr account but that thing started to look positively nice so I went through some trouble by adding some poetry I found matching (thanks, google) and doing some editing on the pictures. The whole thing turned out to be something I really liked and so I showed it to my wife. Well, she found the whole thing artistically nice but fairly depressing. Which lead to a discussion on what messages do my images convey.

Well, screw that. Why do my messages have to convey any message? One could argue that even standing in a room facing the wall is a form a communication and thus a set of nicely printed images even more so. The truth is, I do not care. You can take a look my pictures any way you like. Whatever emotion you get is yours, not mine.

I like taking pictures, and I like the process of editing them. I also like to toy around with gadgets and I take huge joy in top-grade engineering that Canon pro lenses are a prime example of. I like wandering around in the nature and I like the silence and the knowledge that there is a hidden world I at least know to exist as opposed to most of other people. The camera is a protective device that distances me from situations I am not comfortable with (like parties and social events). The camera makes me different, allows me special treatment. This is why I take pictures. The picture itself is not primary and the emotion it conveys is even less important.

The question then remains, why do I post them on flickr or try to put them to a book? It comes down to my vanity. I like when people look at what I have done and find it beautiful. Pure vanity, a yearning for somebody to come and pat my back saying "good job" or "good eye you have there".

Of course there is no way to avoid one's feelings and emotions pouring into art they create. It is true that some of my best images are black and white, contain few people and tend to be on the dark on the mood scale. Well, I guess this is what I am. Slightly depressed (and depressing), a bit superficial and pretty ignorant of everything one supposedly has to know about Art like the names of famous photographers, the colour theory and the one of light and so on.

It has been a while

There has been a considerable silence here. Well, for a reason. It seems that being part of a bubbling boiling rocket-riding team of top engineers bound to change the world tends to take all of your time and most of your mental resources. As the rocket-ride trajectory is flattening and the company is getting more mature I have started to miss the possibility to express myself.

Also, Sten pointed out that after going through his feed list he noticed the date of my previous post. Well, it's time again.

MTB: The Otepää marathon

After a lengthy pause there was a decent marathon to ride and I took the opportunity. I mean, there was also the Värska marathon, but the organizational side was so horrible last year I chose not to go. If anyone reading this was there this year, please post some comments.
So, back to the Otepää marathon. The race starts on the worldfamous Tehvandi sport center (they host WM stages for cross-country skiing there) which has plenty of parking spaces and overall good facilities. As opposed to the Tartu marathon that starts at the same place this one also ends there, which is good. The only downside of the location is the long start coridor which makes people that were late with registration wait for an eternity before they can actually start riding.
From start on the trail goes through the city allowing for the riders to spread up. After the city, it's a couple of kilometers of wide asphalt that makes for good overtaking oportunities. This is not for long (otherwise it won't be a MTB marathon, would it?) and by the 20th kilometer you are experiencing the full beauty of the countriside which contains mainly of slopes. The ascent on the 22. km is the toughest (Harimägi, if you can be bothered) but not the only one. Actually the whole distance between 20. and 30. km is one big ascent followed by a steep descent. Pay attention here: the downward slopes are fast and usually very bumpy. For the first time I really understood why people invest into real good forks. After you have managed not to break your neck tehre, it's all pretty nice and smooth till the end. There is even a strech of good tarmac around the 44th km. If you still have some power left, it's a good place to pass some people who don't (I did pass two:)). The last part of the track turns back to the woods and is of no particular interest. However, this year the final kilometer was really wicked. You reach the stadium, see the finish line and forget what the computer's been saying: it must be the end and yes, you have to catch that last one guy and indeed you do. Turns out the computer was right about the distance after all and you are taken for a last strech up and down some hills along a narrow path. Which is the place where you run out of your last and the guy you triumphantly passed 100 m back leaves you standing. Nasty.
It's actually a quite nice track as it's real fast (helped by relatively try wether this year) but still has a total ascent of 655m according to my Polar which is a tad short of the nearly 800m of the Haanja marathon but way over an average of 450 or so.
As Blogspot is now allowing to add images to the posts (way to go!) I can finally show off my fancy hardware and share a track profile.

Redefining the triangle

To my major surprise people actually read my blog and I actually get some feedback :) One of the most useful ones was by Asko who pointed out that the Project Triangle of Death is in fact a rectangle. The corner I was missing is Quality. My first thought was to object as this aspect is included in the Functionality but after I while I got the point. Come to think of it, how often have you seen people actually considering what quality the delivered product could be? Everybody want's créme de la créme, does not want to pay for it and ends up with something rather less splendid. But this whole process of determining functional quality is rarely implicit. Yes, sure, people to project quality management all the time and even agree if you tell them that patching something together is cheaper than building anything solid. However, quality seldom participates in critical decision-making and hence deserves a place in the Project Rectangel of Death.

P.S. anybody having a suggestion for a less morbid name for this thing, please feel free to e-mail me :)

On agile development

I will be changing jobs in a couple of weeks. This wouldn't be anything to brag about if it weren't for the huge contrast between them. From managing IT in a state agency in a EU country to helping to let the whole world talk for free (that's Skype for the unknowing amongst you). From a strictly regulated and rigid environment that has been very successful in terms of delivering software to a free-flowing and agile environment that has also a shining success to present. Thinking of it, a question rose:

When doesn't it make sense to go agile?

By agile development I mean production of software according to the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and no I don't think there is something like purely agile or rigid methodology. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of XP and I have been trying to implement things like small iterations and release planning but we ended up with something rather contrary to the Manifesto. Surprisingly enough, it works.

Could it be enforced specifications?
Working for a state agency in a EU country means that lot of the development resources go towards creating software that is either supporting a centrally agreed upon business process or has to talk to similar software in other member countris. In both cases you usually get delivered a pile of binders full of functional specifications and test scenario that have to be meticulously followed. Hence, no user stories, no tight customer envolvment (and sometimes it's all chinese for them, too) and no change. By the way, the purists among you should actually try to read 300 pages of functional test cases to understand what a system does :)
On the other hand, you get the best acceptance tests you can imagine and they sometimes even come with automation tools. Also, getting to know the system together can really draw the team together so customer envolvment can be achieved. The specifications usually do not cover how the system should look upon the screen and there are always things that are either not needed or have to act a bit differently because of the legal environment so there could actually be room for some change after all. Ergo, the enforced specifications alone can not be the reason not to do agile development.

Could it be the sourcing model?
As a state agency you are not free to choose whom you work with or how you choose them. Instead, you have to follow the procurement laws that tend to come bite your ass as soon you don't pay attention. Ever seen a deadline closing on your 1 mln euro project while a crappy CMM level 1 company is protesting your whole tender dossier in court? Also, unless you want to start arguing with all kinds of enforcement agencies ("what do you mean, collaboration over contracts?"), you have to be able to specify the whole project (including time schedule and budget estimates) in the Terms of Reference and, even worse, stick to it.
Even if you do the whole thing in-house you still have to live with the people you have. State officials are rather well protected (at least around here) and rather badly paid so assembling a good team might prove difficult.
Doesn't sound too promising for agile development does it? Actually, it could be done. There are ways to get a long-term framework contract going so you can build trust that feeds the collaboration, people can be trained and it is usually possible to shield the individuals and interactions from the cold breath of the tender process.
Once again, this can't be it.

What else?
As developing good tax and customs software has not been an easy task, there are lot of other difficulties that could be used to argue against the use of agile methologies in state agencies. However, if inspected closely, most of them turn out to be of purely technical manner or could be overcome with some well-directed effort. Hence, the answer must lie somewhere else.
It seems that it all comes down to the organizational culture. Governmental agencies usually have rather high centralization and/or formalization (google Roger Harrison to get an idea what i'm talking about) creating a mostly role or power based culture while agile development assumes orientation towards achievment and support (low centralization/formalization). So we end up with a rather worn-out statement that you should always choose the right tools for the right task. In our case, choose the development methodology to mach your organizational culture and, to answer the question stated in the beginning, it does not make sense to do agile development unless your whole culture supports that kind of thinking. Simple isn't it?

MTB: Haanja marathon

It was a while back (19th of June, to be precise) but I haven't come around to writing about it. The most prominent feature of this race was a total ascent of 785 m which is aproximately twice as much as an ordinary Estonian MTB marathon. for example:

Race	TA
Haanja	785
Tallinn (Kõrve)	415
Mulgi	525

In terms of organization and track preparation everything was excellent. The track combined steep slopes and woodland with gravel roads giving anough oportunities to rest. There is nothing much else to say about the race as there were no specifically dangerous sections and anyway, I was too busy pedalling uphill to note anything :)

MTB: Tallinna maraton

Abstract: Yet again a marathon I could successfully finish (I had a nasty accident last time). It was great fun but again, it feels kind of snobby to write in English about something so utterly Estonian.

Tallinna Rattamaraton
Rada oli tõesti hästi ette valmistatud ja väga mõistlikult üles ehitatud: tehnilisemad tõusud ja metsavehe vaheldus kenasti maantelõikudega. Selles mõttes oli tegu täieliku vastandiga Mulgi maratonile, kus kruusalõigule on vahele pikitud mõnisada meetrit heinamaad mis läheb uuesti kruusaks üle. Ei saa öelda, et see kuidagi kergem või raskem oleks, aga mulle meeldib nii rohkem.
Espordi foorumis (www.esport.ee) küsis keegi rehvide kohta ja sai vastuseks, et Kõrvemaal ei ole kunagi porikummi vaja läinud ja ei lähe seekord ka. Paraku taas kord näide sellest, et seesinane foorum on käest ära, kuna kusagil 20 ja 30 kilomeetri vahel oli _väga_ palju mudaseid kohti ja ka muus osas ei olnud rada just kuivemate killast. Kui ei usu, vaadake pilte (näiteks see). Kokkuvõttes kulusid porikummid täiesti ära, ilma oleks üsna raske olnud.
Nagu öeldud, oli rada väga hea ja konkreetseid nõuandeid ohtlikest või keerulistest kohtadest anda ei olegi. Ainus kindel nõuanne on mitte alustada lõpuspurdiga liiga vara. Viimasel viiel kilomeetril on kuus rämedat tõusu (20, 15, 10, 20, 10, 15 meetrit kõrguste vahet), nendeks on vaja jõudu varuda.

Photo: The Budapest file

This opens something I hope grows into a series of photography-oriented logs of places I happen to go. Hence:

Taking pictures in Budapest, Hungary
This is a wonderful city to take pictures at. I was there on 26th and 27th of May. It was unexpectedly hot, the weather was perfect and that set certain limits to photography. By 8 AM the light was already too harsh and sun too hot for any photography. I have been in Hungary once before in November las year mostly concentrating to the area around the Heroes' square on the Pest side. This time it was Buda and Danube. As the city is situated on steep banks of the river, the best time for photography depends on the precise location. Here some tips:

• The wonderful Parliament building is the nicest before 6 AM with the sun rising behind it, shortly before sunset around 8PM and after 9PM when the lights come out. The setting sun illuminates the Pest side only briefly as the western bank of Danube is rather steep and covers most of it.
• The Buda castle (and most of the Castle District) looks very good around 6AM with the rising sun iluminating it. In the evening it gets into shadow fairly quickly.
• The Fisherman's Bastion silhouettes against the evening sun under some angles and as it's built of white stone sunrise looks spectacular in early light.

Regarding the Fisherman's Bastion, it is the best place to take night shots of the Parliament building and the Pest coast but attention: on warm summer nights it is a popular spot amongst local lovedoves and finding a stable place for your tripod might be tricky. The bastion has a gallery with pillars each of which is decorated in a different way. Lot's of great detail shots to be had!

The Budapest is full of very well preserved or skilfully restored statues of white stone. The most prominent ones are different lions, four of whome watch the Lánchíd bridge and additional ones can be found scattered around the Castle District and lower riverbank on the Buda side.

One thing to keep your eyes open for are the dogs. Hungarians are fond of them and picturesque master-pet couples are commonplace. This means, however, that you are certain to step into dogpoop if you go strolling in the dark.

When going out to the Castle District early in the morning from the Pest side remember, that the historic elevator (looks nice and offers a spectacular view, btw) may not be open yet. The best alternative is a small rather well-hiden stairway across the street from the elevator entrance. It's quite a climb but the much longer route around the south end of the Castle is not easier (although it takes you by some beautiful lion statues)

Be certain to take a look at the Vajdahunyad Castle: it is not big, it is not that spectacular and it's a mock but is full of wonderful detail, especially in the autumn.

Some links:

• A professional-level gallery of commented pictures. Great for planning your trip http://www.earth-photography.com/Countries/Hungary/Budapest_photos.html
• My own set of pictures. http://photo.see.ee/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=48
  

MTB: Mulgi rattamaraton

Abstract: I am kind of into MTB-ing and rode a marathon yesterday. This post is in Estonian as if you can't understand it you are very unlikely to ever come in 100 miles radius of Viljandi to actually make any use of the information.

5. Mulgi Rattamaraton
Tjah, sai teine eile läbi sõidetud. See oli hooaja esimene pikem sõit ja ei osanud väga miskit oodata. Siiski on kevadel kõvasti trenni tehtud ja lootused olid üleval. Sõit läkski hästi, õnnestus isegi natuke taktikat teha, kuid aeg kaks minutit üle kolme tunni on liiast. Rada oli üsna kummalise raskusatmega: väga kiired kruusased lõigud vaheldusid metsaradadega kus oli sees ootamatult suured takistused. Kümmekond meetrit põlvini muda puujuurte vahel või aasa peal, mis on tegelikult läbimatud. Samuti on paaris kohas järskude servadega maantee ja muidu kraave.

Raja enda kirjeldus on saadaval siin. Keerulisemad kohad olid sellised:

• Rada algab asfalditõusedaga linnas sees. Tuleb peale passida, kuna vahel tekivad rajale kõrged äärekivid
• 10. ja 20. kilomeetri vahel on kilomeetri jagu mullateed, mida keegi on üritanud telliste ja liivaga parandada. Tulemuseks rehvitapja (telliste teravad servad liiva seest välja turritamas), kehvema esimese amordiga on lihtne kukkuda. Sel ajal on keskmine sõitja veel põhimassis sees, rahvast on tihedalt ja tuleb olla ettevaatlik
• Kahekümnendate kilomeetrite teises pooles on pikem lõik kuusemetsa alust juurikatega teed. Aeglane ja raputab, kuid samas kergesti läbitav
• Viimased kolm kilomeetrit lähevad üle põllu ja läbi ühe sügavat sorti järsu seinaga kraavi. Rada on kitsas ja aukudega ning lõpeb saepuru täis aetud mülkaga. Asja teeb keerulisemaks, et selleks ajaks on kätte saadud matkasõidu lõpetajad ja trügimist on üksjagu

Kokkuvõttes: ilm oli hea ja sõita oli mõnus, aga rada oleks võinud ühtlasem olla ning tüütu oli kümme minutit finishikoridoris aja (!?) fikseerimist oodata. Paneks teile siia ka raja profiili, aga nähtavasti ei õnnestu Bloggerisse faile üles laadida :(