Jättäri100 is our private event involving running 100 times up and down the highest hill in Helsinki. The elevation gain/loss using the steepest and shortest path called Fasaaninousu is 66m x 100 = 6,600 meters. The distance is about 36km.
Yours truly was the sole finisher in the first edition five years ago, on May 31-June 1, 2014. It took me 12:12. I did 101 ascents, because I wasn't sure if I had done 100. Later on, MP beat my time with 8:54 FKT.
The start was scheduled at 14:00 on Saturday, August 10. The day dawned clear and sunny. I couldn't resist riding my bike to the hill after breakfast. My solo false start at 9am felt great. Soon some friends arrived and joined me. It was fun, but relatively hot for Finland, and we were sweating like pigs.
My son came to photograph the official 2pm start. I had about 2,000 meters of elevation gain, and kept going. I decided not to attempt to finish all 100 climbs on the official course, and showed some other interesting trails around the hill with my son.
Most competitors dropped out. Antti kept on logging sub-5-minute laps. I stopped around 9pm with over 4,000m ascent in the bag. Antti set the new gorgeous 7:57:15 FKT. It was getting dark so I cycled back home. Juha and Juupek continued and did finish in 10:50 and 12:02.
I've never been happy with a DNF before this event. Running about 35km in almost 12 hours with friends was slow 3 km/h, but so much fun. The weather and people stayed fabulous all day long. This provided good training for Tor des Geants 359km (222 miles) on September 8-14. See you in Aosta Valley in four weeks!
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