#24 – 50 runs in 100 days – Just run edition

Today I woke up at 3.30 am and WHY did I do that? Because it was time for Hallands ultra 50K in Halmstad and I would be picked up at 5.20 am

So breakfast and pack the last things and then it was time to get down to the ride

Mats Bergenhorn drove us to Ekeby where we switched car to Jim’s and then Thom Leiding was also in the car.

We got to the parking lot around 7 so we had time to stretch, get into the woods and pee and talk to some other ultra Runners and runners that would run their first ultra race today.

We started 10 min later so everybody could get to the toilet.

Today we had to wear a chip around our fingers. They had changed the route a bit so we ran in a loop and then got back to where we started and then continued on the regular route.

Perfect weather and what was different was that I was not one of the last persons, ahd company most of the way to Halmstad

The route was changed a couple of time more during the day.

My goal this year was to finish in 7h but to be honest I wanted to finish under 7h.

Someone had a peptalk with me yesterday and was sure that I would finish with 7h but felt that I am a much faster runner today and just ran faster this time. I guess I listened.

At around 25K I started to get tired in my right calf but ran til I coulnd’t run anymore and started Walking and wet my hair. Something I learned last year was to never stretch if you have tired legs, just start to walk for a short time and start running again and it works.

I got tricked, because before we got to the fuel station when it was 13K left we were rerouted due to the change this year, all of a sudden I felt familiar and realized that I was running the last 1K Before the finish line and started to wonder if I had run wrong (I knew that I had followed the route).

When it was 13K left the time was 5.22 and it felt that I could even finish under 7h even if I knew that it would be some walking but it couldn’t take 2h.

We have to ”run” up stairs and I walked backwards and then you have a nice view before you continue.

At the last fuel station the running coach that I ran with (she was suppose to be last) so I talked to her and she said that it goes much better this year 🙂

I had problems at the end running down with my tired calf walked and walked uphills and ran the rest and finally I knew that it wasn’t much left and told myself that I would run and not stop til I ran through the finish line.

This year I finished with 6.40.50, 40 min faster than last year. I am so proud of myself.

Changed and then had a hamburger, a non alcoholic beer and then got a ride down to the parking lot

This is how my feet was afterwards under my socks

Distance: 50K, time: 6.40.50h, average heart rate: 143, average pace: 7.21 min/k, max pace: 5.24 min/k, cadence: 164, VO2 Max: 28ml/kg/min