Gotrun on Gotland – Ultra trail magic

Days became weeks, weeks became months, months became half a year – and I couldn’t get back to blogging. After this weekend though, chatting with running friends and running another ultra, I realised that during 2022 I already have close to an ultra race or adventure booked every month. Hopefully this year, will become equally as good as this first running trip of 2022 became and it’s something I want to document and remember for my own sake.

Check out what else I’m up to running wise during 2022

We had feared the worst, the tagline of Gotrun is (freely translated from Swedish) “Snooty, freezing cold and magnificent”. And its not without a reason, as Gotland (an island just east of Sweden), which normally during the summer is magical summer resort where half Sweden travel to, turns to a really moist, cold and windy place during the winter. Geared up with the latest warm and wind stopping running clothes from Salomon I was ready for one of my worst ultra so far. How wrong we and the tagline (apart from the magnificent part) was though. The sun shined the whole day, and we didn’t experience that much wind and I could do most part of the race run in my normal running shorts.

“We”, was a whole bunch with running buddies from Team Nordic Trail and Trailrun4fun, but primarily it was me, Martin and Anna who had planed to enjoy the day and let Anna and Martin break their distance record during a single race. They had both done longer on a backyard lets before, but felt excited and challenged to manage the whole day running without much rest.

The trip started on Friday morning where we took the car, and ferry to Gotland. Spending a few hours on the ferry, playing cards and chatting about the upcoming adventure. We had booked a small apartment close to the race start and was quickly settled in, compared the gear and made preparations for the day to come. After a short #runstreak on the beach and in the moon light it was time to fetch bib and enjoy a pre race pasta dinner at Pensionat Lövängen.

Just after our dinner – the runners who was set to run the longest distances 144K had their start signal to go off. They all looked super excited, and I was tempted to join them but it wasn’t what I had mentality prepared for. Next year perhaps. As the runners head out in the windy night, we took an early night to prepare for the 7am start.

7am – and we are off. Finally it was our time to run.

The 9.5 hours that we spent on the roads, in the forest, on the cliffs, together and alone was amazing. Sharing this kind of experience with people you like is truly amazing. We quickly met up with another running friend and spent the whole day in this small group of four runners, mostly alone the whole time. The morning quickly became day, and the the miles flew passed and it was quickly time to bring out the headlamp again before we happy and smiling got back the finishing line. We had run 72K and felt strong together the whole day.

After a quick shower, it was time to have a joint race celebration dinner and we met with runners from all the three distances during this race. 35K, 72K and 144K – Everyone equally happy and satisfied by a magnificent experience.

Thanks RunRaisers for making this possible! Please help them by donating to their cause, helping science and the fight for diabetes.

With this race, it was also time for me to bring out the 360 camera again so hopefully I will publish a short and beautiful movie of the 9.5 hours race in a few days.

On the feet, I had my favourite go to shoes for a long run. Altra Olympus 4 and in this as many races before, I didn’t get a single blister or any pain in my foot.

The day after, we again spent a few hours on the ferry and dreamt and planned for the next adventure for February – one of the only months I haven’t planned anything yet.

At home, I did another run streak on the treadmill – feeling great but took it slow to allow the body to rest. It feels great to know that I could have run more today if I wanted to.