Lapland Ultra 2002 Impressions
By Berndt Pfeiffer, Cologne, Germany

A Summary

100k Lapland Ultra/Sweden in steady downpour and temperatures well below 10°C is quite a strenuous experience. Exactly at 10 p.m. the starting pistol goes off, the sun is shining as brightly as at midday, 10 walkers are already four hours on their way along the 100k super marathon track.

The international field of runners representing Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Germany starts moving. This is my first super marathon, I´m a little nervous, up to the last day I was not certain whether I would be able to start or not, because of various little injuries.

I wanted to find a very special place for my first super-marathon race, and I found this race on the internet; on-line registration was no problem, a four-day booking was made with Annika Johansson - she is on the organizing committee and always tries to have an extra room for runners in need of accomodation.

My journey starts in Düsseldorf and goes over Copenhagen to Stockholm, and from there in a small Fokker to Arvidsjaur airport. This two-hour flight offers the most beautiful sceneries Sweden can offer - endless forests, innumerable shining, blue lakes all the way to the horizon. It is midsummer and the sun never sets. A car is waiting for me at Arvidsjaur airport for transport the last 70k to Adak; the trip goes through forests and over swamps, a couple of reindeer cross the road in front of us. This is quite normal in Lapland, my driver says, one has to be careful, the reindeer easily panic. We arrive at Adak, a peaceful village of about 250 inhabitants, an old mining village, where zinc, silver, copper and even gold were mined. My driver takes me on a small tour of the village and shows me the sights; the Coop shop and the beach. There is only a very small sign on the village signboard to indicate that there will be a super-marathon race this week-end!

On the day of the race I can see a couple of men with a spray can, touching up the starting line on the tarmac road, in some mysterious way kilometre signs have come up along the road, and there are even a number of veteran cars lined up on the parking lot outside the school. The school house and the area around it are decorated with birch twigs and balloons. At 3 o´clock p.m. starting numbers are distributed. To my surprise I get two starting numbers, one with a little bag for personal things and the other one to be carried on the back. All runners can hand in things which we can get back at any of the control stations along the track. I choose to send warm clothes for the stations at 42.2 and 86 k. The evening before the race there is a party, at which we are served Swedish meatballs and pasta. The runners have access to wonderful dressing-rooms with showers and a sauna. After the race all runners are offered a massage and the hot sauna bath is waiting to receive the exhausted runners.

During the first 10k of the race the sun is still shining, the temperature is agreeable, and, above all, it is still dry weather. A giant hoard of cars and cyclists accompany us up the first hill, and along the track there are lots of people encouraging us with their "heja, heja". It feels fine. After about an hour, just as I turn on to the gravelled road into the forest, the rain starts drizzling. Every five kilometres there is a control station for time check and where runners are offered refreshments of various kinds; drinks from water to coffee and also bread, chocolate and blueberry soup. The road has been gravelled recently and is partly very difficult to run. At 28k there is the first upward slope; for the first time in the race I choose to walk to save my strength. At about 3 o´clock in the morning I reach the marathon control station, 42.2 k. I drink some Coca Cola and eat quite a lot. I feel fine and hurry on.

Here I manage to pass two other runners, even one of the soldiers with his little sports napsack, he has passed me earlier in the race. I am also told that the other German runner has had to abandon the race because of trouble with his thigh muscle. Pity! This part of the race to the 52nd kilometre goes along the big power station dam, where the scenery is just fantastic! It is cold, The track turns into a big tarmac road, billowing endlessly in front of me. I am alone on the road, the rain is increasing in strength and the powerful icy wind is blowing me straight into the face.

I keep talking to myself, and suddenly a fox runs across the road just in front of my feet. I have obviously frightened him out of his sleep with my soliloquy. I would have preferred to meet an elk, but they have probably gone off somewhere to sleep on dry grass. "Straight thru the village", says the sign in the sleeping village of Slagnäs, which I pass after 64k. I am longing for the next control station, I need food, I am gradually losing strength. The patrolling doctor passes me every hour in his car, slows down and always asks the same question: "Everything allright?" - Well, what can I answer?

I turn down his offer of a dry T-shirt and dry socks. The doctor´s wife, who also untiringly patrols the road, has been able to cure the stomach-ache which tormented me between kilometres 30 and 50. At this stage of the race the track goes uphill, there is a difference of altitude of about 100 metres, I don´t run any more, I shuffle my feet forward with great strain, there does not seem to be any end of this road. Shortly after Slagnäs, at 69.2 k, there is a control station, where I get something to eat and drink. There is also a house, where they offer massage. I can see that there are runners waiting inside, I just have a drink of water and Coca Cola and hurry along. I keep looking back to see if there is anybody coming up behind me. 86k, lovely scenery, I am freezing cold in my short trunks and get the shivers. I tried to think of everything when I packed my trunk of personal things, but I never thought of long running trousers! Now is the time of suffering!

There is a narrow bridge across a cove of the giant power station dam, and to my surprise there are lots of people standing here in the rain, trying to encourage me with their loud cheers! Among the crowd I spot my host, who is trying to find out how far he can go on water on his snowmobile! Later I hear that he managed to reach the shore after about 20 seconds. It is a little embarrassing for me to meet all these people, as I am now slowly limping along with a big blister under one foot! I do not want to pierce the blister since my socks are soaking wet and I do not have any dry socks to change into. The only thing left to do is to keep a stiff upper lip and try to run, the knowledge that there are at least 5 to 7 runners behind me keeps me going. In my thoughts

I try to run all the races I had planned to enter before Cologne Marathon. The Monschau Marathon is one race I do not want to think of any more. It is 11 o`clock in the morning and Adak is not far away, the final 10k I sometimes run and sometimes walk, the last control station I pass without stopping. After 99k I pass the Coop shop, turn left and suddenly I have reached the final straight. It stops raining! Damn! There are cheering people and loudspeakers to help me, and, in fact, I get new strength and finish my race with a smile! I have done it! 14 hours and 57 minutes is a very bad, I know, but I am happy and proud of my race, and I am not even the last finisher! Finally it turns out that I have finished 12th out of 35 starters, and I am the only German to finish the race!

I am quickly led away to have my photograph taken together with a Sami girl. This photo can be seen on the diploma I got at the victory ceremony. But first of all I am longing for a warm shower and massage. Later in the afternoon there is the victory ceremony at which all finishers get a small gold medal and are congratulated by the race manager. Then there is dinner and some of the runners talk a little about their race again before everyone limps back to his room to rest.

It has been a wonderful, tough race, exactly the introduction one needs to the Super Marathon. After still another shower and more massage, there is time to dress the wounds and to sleep. Lapland Ultra is a tough race through wonderfully beautiful nature, organization is perfect and the atmosphere almost familar. To all of you who are planning to go to Lapland some time I can only say: "heja, heja på upp till Adak"! Besides,I have decided to enter all those races I had cancelled. Berndt Pfeiffer.