Finished Ultra Marathon

Odysseus

Hi all,

I just completed the Lapland 100k Ultra Marathon, a great event, I have to say. I'm very happy with my time which was 12.18, initally I was thinking that it would be about 14 hours, so I'm well pleased with that:D


The race started at 22.00 local time on Friday night with a mixture of runners, walkers, and cyclists. The great thing about this race is it is 24 sun light over here at this time of year, which I think makes a big psychological difference over running all night in the dark.

The course itself is difficult, after 5k the it becomes a gravel path until the 57k mark, with lots of hills. After that its back to tarmac, however there are still lots of hills. I found the gravel sapped my strenght and made the last 40k very hard. However, it is a wonderful place to run, nothing like running at 6am and seeing reindeer cross in front of you.

Its a big thing every year and people in the villages stay up to support the runners, all the water stations, which supply fruit, bread, sports drinks, and coffee are run by volunteers. I know I'm still on a buzz, but if anyone is thinking of doing an ultra in a different country, I really recommend this one, the people were amazing. The race was won by a chap from Germany in an amazing time of 7.48.

So that's the completion of my six months of hard training, until of course I find out what I'm doing next, my grilfriend reconks I should be banned from the internet:D so I won't keep finding mad things to do. Thanks to everyone who answered my posts over the past few months, giving me help, advice and support.

Cheers

Mad Mike

Congratulations.

As someone who can just about manage a gentle jog from my PC to the fridge and back I can only say I am speechless with admiration. You do know that Pheidippides the guy who ran the very first marathon (a piddling 26mile one) dropped dead on the spot immediately afterwards?

yomchi

Nice achievement! You must be kinda fit so... :-)

Odysseus

Cheers lads, You would'nt think so if you seen the way I was walking yesterday, then again there did seem to be a lot of stiff people walking around here as well;)

Reyman

That's 60 miles, wow!

Out of curiousity how much bodyweight did you lose by the end of the race?

Odysseus

Reyman wrote:

That's 60 miles, wow!

Out of curiousity how much bodyweight did you lose by the end of the race?

Not sure mate, just weighed myself there 24hrs after finishing and I'm back at my normal 70kg, in training I think I may have lost 1.5-2kg on long runs, i.e. up to 80k, but would regain it rapidly. I maybe wrong but I think its mostly fluids that you loss, so loads of water brings it back up sharpish.

EPO_MAN

Odysseus wrote:

Not sure mate, just weighed myself there 24hrs after finishing and I'm back at my normal 70kg, in training I think I may have lost 1.5-2kg on long runs, i.e. up to 80k, but would regain it rapidly. I maybe wrong but I think its mostly fluids that you loss, so loads of water brings it back up sharpish.

fair play - how much fluid did you drink??? ha ha - maybe i'l leave that discussion in the past

congrats again.

Odysseus

EPO_MAN wrote:

fair play - how much fluid did you drink??? ha ha - maybe i'l leave that discussion in the past

congrats again.

Cheers mate, nice one;)

Chucky the tree

Crikey. Fair play.


How did you find out about it? did you just see it on the net and think "Sure i might aswell give that a bash"?

Is their a site dedicated to them? How many of the ultra marathons are there?

Odysseus

Chucky the tree wrote:

Crikey. Fair play.


How did you find out about it? did you just see it on the net and think "Sure i might aswell give that a bash"?

Is their a site dedicated to them? How many of the ultra marathons are there?

Hi mate,
Found out about on the internet, can't remember what I was searching for, but that's why my grilfriend reconks I should be banned from the internet, I see stuff and think I'll have some of that:D From talking to others at the race there are lots of them, 12 each each year in France, but you have to run with a torch on your head, that's the good thing about Lapland. The website is www.laplandultra.nu

zAbbo

Well done, thats something else alright.

Transform

Massive respect - well done and take a well deserved rest.

Puts my 25km run on saturday into perspective!

justsomebloke

hey congrats on an amazing achivement. Just as a matter of interest how did you find the nutrional aspect of the race as you have to deal with no only running for hours and hours but also feeding yourself without it hopefully effecting your running which bring an added difficulty to an already hard race. Also jsut as a matter of interest did many people drink the coffee and the stations

kindle

Wow! well done!

racso1975

Jez that is some acheivement makes me think that this triathlon i'm training for is a bit wuzzy. I cant believe the wo won it did so in 7hrs 48 mins that is unreal as is the person who came last that took 22hrs to do thats a never giv up attitude!!!!!!! How long were u training for?

t-ha

Odysseus wrote:

nothing like running at 6am and seeing reindeer cross in front of you.

except maybe gliding along painlessly on a motorbike at 6am and seeing reindeer in front of you?

Well done anyway mate - you're clearly a nutjob. Seriously, I used to do marathon kayaking, and I cannot comprehend the level of pain involved, not only in doing the race but also in training for it.... nutjob...;)

Which lung gave out first?

Odysseus

Hi all,

Cheers, to try answer some of the questions, jsb my food intake during the race was three mars bars, which I hate, some choclate from the stations, and I was chewing on brazil nuts as I ran. I used to find in training that I would get craving for food, but not this time, had eaten loads of pasta that day.

Rasco I was training since Janurary, in fact my frist post was boards was seeking info about training. t-ha your right I am a bit of a nutjob;) , and fuuny you should say that about the bike, I'm a biker myself and was thinking the same thing about that, hard course to run, but would have been lovely on my bike. My lungs did'nt give out, but all the other runners were amazed that I'm a smoker, the group from Iceland would'nt leave without a group photo with the crazy Irish man smoking. All jokes aside I have to say it was a great experience, and I'm getting to the stage where I hope to quite soon. Once again thanks to everybody who helped with the training.

Edit


About the coffee jsb, I did'nt partake myself, though I could of killed for one each time I seen it, I did'nt notice anyone but if they have it there each year, some must. I was too concrened with my hydration. Transform peoples runs are always relative to what they train for I suppose, I planning the Longford and Dublin marathons next, so my long runs will now drop to 30k, with the odd 40k.

PDD

Wow mate Congratulations on what is truely a momenteous achievement, you now stand as a shining example of what the human mind is capable of putting the human body through either that or a serious adrenaline junkie! Seriously though that is amazing.

iregk

That is a truely top class achievement well done Odysseus.

I'm curious, the amount of training required to that must have been huge. I ran the dublin marathon in 2004, a mere 40k and that took some amount of training to run that. I cant even imagine what is needed to run 100k and to do it in just under 8 hours (i know that wasn't you) must be immense... the guy was surely like a twig...

soma

Great stuff Odysseus - I really enjoyed looking at the official webiste too (reading some 'testimonials'!).

PS It's hilarious how your name sticks out in the list of competitors

Odysseus

soma wrote:

Great stuff Odysseus - I really enjoyed looking at the official webiste too (reading some 'testimonials'!).

PS It's hilarious how your name sticks out in the list of competitors

Cheers, yeah I noticed that myself, but as the only Irish person in it, there is nothing you can do. Just out of interest, have a look a the French 70 year, Its amazing, that was his 513th 100k run:eek: Now you have to respect that.