Eco Trail Oslo 2017 race report

I'M AN ULTRA RUNNER! 

Saturday was the EcoTrail Oslo race. The race this year includes five distances: 10k, 20k, 30k, 45k, and 80k. Marius ran the 20k and I ran the 45, but I'm going to say 45+ because my two gps devices both calculated at least 47km.

It started out chilly at Holmenkollen. Some of the 80km runners were passing through as we lined up to start. There they could get bananas and waffles and fill up on water.

The whole first half was lots of uphill on gravel roads and some technical terrain. I really enjoy the technical terrain, as it feels more like I can take little pauses and hop around. I have to concentrate a lot more on where my feet land, so I don't have much time to conjure up negative thoughts.

There was supposed to be an aid station after 15 kms (the first hill), but a mile after that I finally came to the aid station. All of the stations were off by at least a mile. It was hard to estimate how much water I was able to drink and if I really needed to choke down an energy gel or if they had real food. By the time I rolled into each aid station they were totally out of food, and it's not like I was one of the last people shuffling in! After the race, everyone who ran 45 kms and 80 kms complained about the lack of food and water along the course.

At 37 kms I saw Marius in the woods and it wasn't too long after that that I had my fans cheering me on! I was worn out, but they waited for me four more times to encourage me to the finish - thank you Mom, Dad, Marius, Rigmor, Tron, Katrine and Pancho!!!

 I shuffled through the last 10k trying to navigate through the crowded city. I think the race coordinators could have done a better job at marking the course, because there were a couple of other runners around me who were also looking lost and we were trying to weave through crowds of pedestrians.

After 6 grueling hours I crossed the finish line. I completed my first ultra marathon. My official statistics: 6:07:26 | 58th place in my gender | 17th in my age group (of 23 haha) | 268th place overall.

Happy that I was in the top 50% of women in this race. And I even passed quite a lot of people through the technical parts in the woods, which meant that even though I was in 314th place at 15kms, I finished in 268th ---- somehow I passed 46 people! Not bad!

I'm proud of myself for what I can get myself to do when I put my mind to it. Really enjoying trail running and looking forward to more races in the future, but I'm not sure I'll run a race longer than that one. Who knows.

[Setting out all of my gear...feeling like I both over and under packed]

[Snow and ice early in the course]


[Photo credit: Sportfotograf]

[Pancho geared up for me]

[Time for a pep talk]

[Runners at the finish line - tired but happy]



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