Ivarsboda Road Runners

Over the last year, I think I have fallen into some bad company on Strava, people who every so often run extreme distances. After watching a few Youtube documentaries about the Atacama 250 km desert race, my standards have become even more inflated. As such, I have not made a secret of that I have been dreaming of running further and faster than ever before. More specifically, I have been looking for a 50+ km loop here around Umeå that I could run in order to improve on my previous 50k PR of 5 hours and 55 minutes which I set during Umeå Ultra last year.

Running in a pair of Nike Pegasus 36 that I was able to get at an Intersport fire sale for 799 SEK and my Salomon running vest, I first dropped off Eddie at his school in Innertavle before continuing out to the ferry landing at Norrfjärden (which is not Tiburon). In total, I ran a record distance of 58 kilometres, indeed setting a new 50k PR with about 30 minutes even when factoring in a short technical stop at the ICA convenience store in Sävar to pick up an icecream and some more fluids. Unlike when running Tavelsjöleden though, I focused on keeping my heart rate down and maintaining a stable easy pace around 6:00 min/km.

After the heavy weekend rain, the forest and the fields were all early summer green and, as the sun was blazing down, I was happy to have my white reflective racing cap and plenty of sunscreen. Considering that I was just “dethroned” from my Strava CR by the same runner who previous held the record, it at least feels good that I was able to complete this rather epic run. Now time for another “filtallrik” and a long shower.