Ultravasan90 race report (EN)

Saturday 22 August 2015 the alarm started to ring at 03:45 time to get up and to get ready. Thanks to a good planning and a helping wife I was able to be at the start at 04:30. Since I was running in shorts I finally got use for the Sri Lanka’n sarong and an old IFS shirt as warmup clothes. There were only about 900 of the 1350 registered that started on the 90km distance so the entrance to the start field was easy and it felt magic when all started to clapping hands the last minute before the start.

The race begun with a 3km uphill asphalt surface with 300m inclines. Now it became a gravel surface and we have left the morning fog below us. After a while the surface finally became trails and we got a beautiful reddish sunrise the many stopped to take pictures of.

At the first checkpoint “Smagan” I got my first coffee for a week and pored some cold water so I could drink it (almost two weeks without coffee and sweet drinks was over). Since I took it easy uphill I felt that I had good strength and started to speak with two other runners.

At the next checkpoint “Mangsbodarna” they serve food so I took pancakes and a bun with sausage (weird combination but it was easy to eat while running).
The two other runners that I spoke with had the same pace as me and we talked about the race and everything else.. One had a cottage close to the Vasaloppet track so we got us a personal guide telling us about sleepover cottages and the track coming in front of us (he had made several of the cross country skiing race and worked as a volunteer during the race).

At the checkpoint “Risberg” my wife and children was standing and I dropped some unneeded gears like headlamp and jacket. I was constantly taking better and better places and after 3h 35min I was still feeling good.

At the next checkpoint “Evertsberg” after 47km running there was food again and a drop off point for change of clothes, here I changed shoes and left some more unneeded clothes. Me and the two other runners kept talking and it was a good way to keep you alert now when I was coming up to the longest distance I ever had run before.

At “Oxberg” checkpoint they started to put out sponges due to the heat, but i liked the standard garden sprinkler better because it was more effective.

At the next checkpoint “Hokberg” I change the water bag so I had 1liter energy drink (the brand that the race served doesn’t work well for my stomach so I carried my own). This was the last checkpoint my wife and children could visit.

Now the legs and feet started to become more and more stiff and the pain made us take more and more walking brakes. Our trio kept together and deciding when to run and when to walk (“from that flag we walk and from that pole we run”), we kept talking and pepping each other and it was a good strategy to fight our pains and keep the mentally and pace up.

The last checkpoint “Eldris” was passed and now I had problem with sweat and friction between the legs causing a burning pain “infantry fire”. It got more and more difficult but we kept on and the people standing at the side sheering giving some extra energy.

Now we were in Mora and when passed the last two bridges and came up on the asphalt to the finish, the public was standing on both sides and was clapping and sheering all the way. My family standing there and taking photos and sheering. We took our last strength and increased the pace in a sprint across the finish line.

Finally I had done it, 90km in 10h 17min. How unbelievable isn’t that. Receiving a medal and a finisher T-shirt and some more photos of me and the two other runners I ran with before we split up for our after run stuff.
Now I went to the food tent and tried to eating som “real” food but I couldn’t eat weary much , I also took some water bottles and a sprite to get the sugar. The carbs and water is needed after a race and I saw a person collapsed after the finish line and other persons getting Iv in the hospital tent.. Well a race ending with temperature above 24 degrees Celsius, the medical teams will have a busy afternoon.

Time for showers so I got my bag and headed to the bus, first obstacle how to be able to get on the bus. It looked like a tour for old people nobody had it easy to get on, first placing the bag inside and then use both arms to be able to manage the step. At the showers I sat down on a bench and the guy next to me was not ok (almost thought that he would pass out) I shared my sprite wit him so he would get better. This was repeated on the guy on my other side after I had taken the shower… In the shower I started to shivering and needed to stand there for a long time, well my body had consumed the recommended energy intake for 2,5 days so lacking of energy to heat the body is understandable. Now the bus back to the goal area and I hit the food tent again and took a coke and two water bottles and a banana in the hand and went to get my diploma.

Now to the family and the car travel to the rented cottage, another shower and then to the restaurant. O’learys sports bar ordering a burger pitcher of water and one BEER, I wasn’t able to eating the whole meal but at least drinking the beer. Now it was time for sleep to start recovering the legs after a long race day.

I DID IT.

Improvements possibility: the winner Jonas Buud was able to finish the race in 5h45min. So he kept a pace for 90km that I’m not able to keep in a 10km flat race, that is unbelievable.