24 hours of running on a 1K loop
My thoughts pre- and post-24 hours of running on a 1K loop in Gothenburg, Sweden (March 27th 2021). The event is called Pace on Earth Invitational.
Before:
It’s crazy to think that it’s already been 7 years since I ran my first ultra. I was 20 years old. A baby! A little kid who didn’t know what was coming for her. Time really does fly...
A couple of weeks ago my dear friend @hallneby told me he’d come up with this genius idea of gathering a couple of friends (corona-friendly of course) to run 24 hours around a 1 km track in Gothenburg. Well, the race is taking place this Saturday and I’ve turned out to be one of those friends who said yes to the challenge.
So this Saturday at 10.00 I’ll be taking part in the Pace on Earth Invitational to see how far I can run in 24 hours. This should be fun! And possibly a tiny bit intimidating... Anyhow, I’m excited to finally push my limits again.
After:
A part of me wants to say that I failed, but what does it even mean to fail? Up until an hour before start I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to run a few km, due to a climbing accident on Tuesday where I hurt my left knee. Plus, saying yes to participating in the challenge was a spontaneous decision and not exactly something my mountain legs have - ever - prepared for...
I wanted to run at a steady pace. I started thinking I could make it to the magical distance of 100 miles. In the end I wasn’t able to do any of those things. But I learned this: in order to make it to the finish line, sometimes you have to let go of trying to prove something to yourself and others. So I guess my biggest success was not giving into my will to quit when things started to feel utterly pointless.
In the end I made it 137,5 km, where a majority of the last 10 hours or so were spent walking because that was the only thing my knee would accept.
2 other things I learned from this experience:
— I will never again say that “24 hours is not that long”.
— If you run in a circle (i.e. a 1K loop) for long enough, you can witness a giant puddle of rainwater completely disappear.
Thank you to @lapersista @weselle @orthae @hallneby for believing in me, and for everyone else on the course who kicked ass out there! PS I think I’ll stick to the mountains next time 😂
I didn’t have to stop a single time to change shoes or socks thanks to @scarpaspa and @underpressuresox!