.: Print Version :.

When asked if she ever wakes up in the morning and doesn’t feel like running, for a moment Finnish runner Minna Kainlauri didn’t seem to understand the question.

It wasn’t the language barrier.

“No,” she said, then thought for a moment. “Maybe a couple times during the year. Maybe I’m addicted.”

For the 35-year-old native of Espoo, Finland, who’s in Coos Bay for today’s Prefontaine Memorial Run, running is a way of life. Kainlauri hopped on a jet plane, flying 5,000 miles around the world to run 10 kilometers. She’s fresh off the Sept. 8 Singapore Marathon, where she finished 23rd with a time of 3 hours, eight minutes, 21 seconds. That came less than three weeks after her second-place finish in her age group at the Helsinki Marathon, which she ran in 2:55:22. Kainlauri regularly runs a sub-3-hour marathon — as she she showed in the Stockholm Marathon in May with a time of 2:58:45.

Her training schedule is a full-time job.

“It’s some kind of style of living,” said Kainlauri. “I can meet many friends and visit many places.”

Kainlauri’s in Coos Bay as part of a runner exchange program between the Prefontaine event and the Lasse Viren Run, which takes place around the same time in Myrskyla, Finland. For more than 10 years now, runners from each event have swapped places in honor of a friendship Viren and Pre developed — they competed at the 1972 games in Munich — and Pre’s relationship with the international community. The American end of the exchange was Linda Hartman, a runner from the Klamath Falls area.

Kainlauri has been running competitively for 10 years. Her day starts with an “easy” 10K run in the morning.

“It’s just to relax,” she said.

Then it’s a full day at work as a physical therapist and then a more serious run afterward. Kainlauri’s summer training schedule has involved 140 kilometers a week.

“You have to like to train,” she said.

There is at least some running in Kainlauri’s blood. Her great uncle, Aarne Kainlauri, was a distance runner who competed in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. But mainly she picked up running as a lifestyle and way to travel the world, meeting good people along the way.

Kainlauri said everywhere she goes, she sees similarities in runners around the globe.

“We are very friendly and open-minded,” she said. “Many runners like nature, also.”

Kainlauri usually travels to races with friends or with her boyfriend, who lives in Oslo, Norway. He’s not a runner.

“No,” she said with a laugh. “He’s different. But he likes to watch the races.”

For this visit she’s alone, though, and looking forward to meeting some people in today’s race.

“I’ve met many, many runner friends,” she said of past races.

She said she expects today’s course to be challenging — there are plenty of hills — but she’ll prepare for it the way she usually does for all races.

“I’m trying to relax. I’m thinking about the course,” she said.

Afterward, Kainlauri plans to take a look around the area, possibly by bike or car. She wants to see Crater Lake.

But first things first — there’s a race to run, for Kainlauri and more than 1,000 other people.

“I heard something that it will be really hard,” said Kainlauri, flashing a big smile. “It’s not so fast, maybe. I’m here to be doing my best.”