#14 – 50 Runs in 100 Days – Autumn Edition

Nov 4th I will run a race called ”Double Death” (=Dubbeldöden), a 44K ultra race with with a total altimeter of 2000 m. I have been prepared that I will run in the dark and needed to invest in a very good headlight. This race is on Kullaberg and it will be pitch dark.

I asked my running buddy Lars what headlight I should buy, he is running a lot in the dark and have good equipment. He suggested a Lumonite Air 1500.

When I signed up for this race I thought it would start around 9 am , at the latest 10 am and then would be 1-1.5h in the dark and I was ok with that. But then I found out that it would start at 12.30 which would mean I would be 3.5 h in the dark, now I started to doubt myself.

Kullamannen consists of many races and I have run the ”Death Zone” twice and know that I can do that and needed a new challenge, decided to sign up for two laps and also the experience of running in the dark and have prepared for this during the year.  From that day that I found out that it would start after lunch I have thinking a lot of my safety. This is a very tough race, technical difficult, it could be very wet (wet stones) and gooey. Part of me have wanted to just run one lap but then I get angry at myself because this is what I wanted.

So I wanted to test this headlight and what better company could I have then running with my running buddy Lars. I asked Lars if we could have a night running with my new headlight so I took the train to Tjörnarp and met him at the train station. Put the headlight on and off we went.

Of course we needed to do this when it was dark and I put on my headlight and wow what a light. Lars who is a much faster runner than me got a very fast pace from the beginning and I just had to try to keep up with him, got breathtless. We would run around 16K.

Of course it was a lot of running talk during this run. We both still remember that day when I went with Lars to Vallåsen where we ran up and down the hill called Halmstad (no 11 on the map). I never thought that I would keep up with Lars, with his pace, never thought that I would be able to run as many laps as Lars but I did, that was one of the toughest runs I have done.

Part of this route that we ran was on Tjörnarparen that I will participate in December, a 50K ultra race, starting in Tjörnarp, but I also ran at outside of Tjörnarparen so I saw other parts as well.

We also talked about The ”Double Death” and my doubts and Lars asked what I am afraid of, the dark? No I am not afraid of the dark but I am afraid of my safety, Lars was wise, it is so true, if I think that I am going to injure myself I probably will so no negative thoughts.

This turned out to be a threshold training, I have never run a trail run so fast as I did. Good to run with somebody who is running faster with you, I also ran up a longer hill, if I have been running alone I would have walked.

At the end when it was 2K left Lars said that now we have to get up the pace so you do not miss the train, they go once in an hour. So I had to keep up with Lars, was very close to respiratory distress. And then when we got to the train station he said that now it is 15 min left, he tested me and I managed.

One time Lars asked me if I was thinking I was running in the dark and to be honest it was almost like running during the day except that it was night, I fell one time but not because it was dark, I have fallen during the day time.

So now I have finally made up my mind to do those two laps

Distance: 16.46K, time: 1.53.29.4h, average heart rate: 157, average pace: 6.53 min/k, max pace: 5.33 min/k, cadence: 168, VO2 Max: 30 ml/kg/min