What I learned running an 18km trail race in Finland
I ran the 18km Sappee Trail Run yesterday. This was my first trail race in Finland. I am an expert by association on this subject thanks to Jeremy, but I learned a lot first-hand yesterday.
1. It was a warm day, so I wore a tank top for the run. At the starting line, I got a little nervous because almost everyone else was wearing sleeves. What did they know that I didn't? Thirty-seven bug bites later, I found out. I had thought mosquito season was about over in Finland, but in the forests of Sappee, they were alive and well.
2. The organizers had said that parts of the course weren't on actual trails. I did not take this statement seriously enough. Long stretches of the 18km were just wild scrambles through the forest. It was physically impossible to run. I am not an overly clumsy person, but I flat-out tripped and fell down three times during the race. Fell down! The terrain was extremely difficult (during the run, I said to myself: "Difficulty level: Finnish"). Anytime I got out onto "open" trail, I ran extra hard to make up for the time I had to spend bushwhacking. This particular part of the experience started out as alarming, moved to exhausting, and then by the end was charming. Ah, Finns.
3. Hamilton makes for excellent racing music. I could not resist singing parts of it out loud as I ran (don't worry, the trail was so twisty that I was never really in anyone else's company). And I made sure to respect the beauty that is It's Quiet Uptown - I was running through a gorgeous, sun-dappled, mossy stretch of forest and when "forgiveness - can you imagine" came on, I just took a moment to look around and soak it all in. It was bliss. Also, for once, I was actually running aggressively through a forest during Hercules Mulligan's solo in Yorktown, instead of doing whatever while wishing I could be running aggressively through a forest.
4. Speaking of: I had thought I might be able to get through the race in the 2hr20min of Hamilton. I can reliably do a 10km in about an hour, so allowing for some terrain difficulty, 2hr20min for a trail 18km sounded about right. But as soon as I hit the difficult forest scrambles, I thought, "oh my gosh I might actually get through Hamilton twice before I finish this thing." But then I hit my stride, hit the halfway checkpoint at The Room Where it Happens, and hit the finish line at Satisfied the second time through - about three hours total.
5. I love my Hoka trail shoes but they were not right for this race. The trail was usually extremely narrow and the footprint of the Hokas was too wide. Something with a more precision footstrike would have been much better. Just FYI.
Overall, I had a great time challenging myself and completing something difficult - even more difficult than I thought it would be. I enjoyed being the one running while Jeremy wrangled the kids at the finish line, for once. And what better way to mark my first year in Finland? Today is my arrival anniversary. Back then, I wished for a fast-forward button to skip to a time like - well, a time like yesterday, where I ran an 18km race on trails in Finland and went home to a pantry full of groceries and beds with linens and a job that is no longer nervous-new. What more could I ask?
