Sunny August morning in the Swiss Alps. A determined trailrunner ascending a narrow and steep mountain trail. He felt sweat trickle down his back beneath a technical t-shirt.
Without stopping or slowing down, he drank water from the soft flask in the front pocket of his vest. He was probably getting closer to the target, although GPS reception can be tricky on a steep slope.
He looked around calmly, making sure nobody was following him. 'Don't let the muggles get you down', he thought. The location shown on his navigator was only a few meters away now.
He spotted a suspicious pile of rocks and roots under a small fir tree on the top of the hill. He removed the camouflage carefully. Soon he held an army green metal ammunition box.
The code on the box matched the description. He opened the lid mechanism. Inside the box was a perfectly dry logbook. No wonder these ammo cans are known as the Cadillacs of cache containers.
He scribbled the date and his pseudonym in the book. Then he put everything back exactly as they were and left the scene making again sure nobody was watching.
On the way down to the highest town in Europe, the happy trailrunner clicked the Found button on his phone app. 1000th geocache certainly seems a milestone worth celebrating.
This was the 5th Nuuksio Classic Trail Marathon, but my first time there - although I live only an hour away. Better late than never I guess. This is my race report. And here's my Strava and Movescount.
Previous participants have raved about how great this event is. It didn't disappoint me. The organisers, volunteers and spectators were all super mega awesome.
This event rocks, and not only because it runs over granite boulders formed by Ice Age.
NCTM course map.
The beautiful 42.2km course in Nuuksio National Park is more technical than most races I've done. It also throws Vertical Km (+1105m) climbing at you - and the same amount of downhill as well.
Awesomeness in Nuuksio National Park. (Photo: Poppis Suomela)
Statistics show it can be 50% slower and 500% more fun than your average road marathon. All 600 competitors were grinning from ear to ear. Most of the time anyway.
My 2nd start group ready to go at 10:05am! (Photo: Poppis Suomela)
Saturday, September 3rd dawned cloudy at race HQ Hotel Nuuksio by Lake Siikajärvi. It seemed like an ideal 15°C fall day for running. There were three starts at 10am in 5 minute intervals. I chose to start in the middle group. There were no signs of the forecast wind, rain or thunder yet. I carried a rain jacket in my UD-vest just in case.
The start of the first group at 10am.
My goals for the race were:
To have fun, relax and maybe chat a little with runners and volunteers.
To finish before the rainstorm starts and in any case under 6 hours.
To keep my eyes peeled for good berry/mushroom spots for revisits.
3km from start following a long queue of runners. (Photo: Sari Heerman)
Even the middle start group was surprisingly fast. There was a long line of runners, but it was moving like a bullet train. After three km I high-fived my buddy Micke, who was up on a boulder we climbed. He was cheering us with cowbells while his wife Sari shot photos. The first 10K was along familiar trails and awesome natural sights like Lake Valklampi cliffs.
Focusing on not hitting roots and rocks. (Photo: Anne Dahlgren)
Soon we tackled the Swinghill at Solvalla, the biggest climb of the day. Messieurs Janne, Juha and other usual suspects were responsible for the loudest cheers of the day. They made runners fly up, as can be seen in the video below /my brief appearance around 7:23).
The first water station was on the top, at 11km point. In this race there were only three aid stations, and they served only water. I carried one 0.5L softflask with water and another one filled with various PowerGels I found in the morning. I also carried three PowerBar Smoothies and a ClifBar.
Loudest cheers and cowbells at steep Solvalla Swinghill 11km from start.
The second 10K was also mostly familiar to me. Lakes Orajärvi, Saarijärvi and Suolikas provide fantastic scenery and trails.
Almost halfway through at 19.5km - scenic shores of Lake Suolikas. (Photo : Samuli Pahkala)
Some of the cliffs were steep enough to require hands, although the climbs were smooth and easy. At 20km spot there's a tricky wet crossing, where I and probably a few other lucky runners fell in waist-deep murky water.
Trailrunning in wet shorts, socks and shoes at 21km - this is taken after my involuntary swim. (Photo: Antti Kuikka)
Km 20-25 was new to me and very technical with fallen trees, swamps and boulders. It was interesting to run by Lake Iso-Antias for the first time ever. The second water station was at 26km and from there on we ran the popular Haukkalampi and Kattila trails. There are always some hikers, trailrunners and berry/mushroom pickers around.
This is what makes Nuuksio Classic slower but also more fun than a road marathon. (Photo: Lassi Pekkarinen)
The final stretch back to Hotel Nuuksio felt easier than expected, as the predicted rainstorm didn't start at 1pm. Nor 2pm. 3pm it was still miraculously fine weather, and I could hear the finish line sounds a few km away. I played it safe until the end and cleared the whole marathon without falling. This was great as I saw a few runners with bruises or wounds.
I slowed down a bit after falling in waist-deep swamp water. (Photo: Onevisionfi)
I sailed the final downhill down to the finish just before 4pm in 5:47:22. The heaven's gates opened at the same time.
Technical terrain forced me to use my imaginary trekking poles. (Photo: Poppis Suomela)
This was my second 42.2km trail marathon since Zermatt Marathon 2008 and my new trail marathon PB. Finishers were treated like kings and queens with free champagne, snacks, and a long-sleeve shirt. At the hotel a free sauna and meal was available.
A true trailrunning gentleman allows ladies first - almost there! (Photo: Aapo Laiho)
A huge thank you goes to the organizers, volunteers, spectators, photographers and fellow competitors. NCTM is certainly the most fun marathon event out of the 44 I've completed so far. During the evening and night it rained 30mm in Nuuksio, and the trails were turned into streams. Finnish fall weather can be unpredictable, but this time it all went down very well.
Nice typical Finnish forest trails 2km before the finish. (Photo: Tomi Kallio-Könnö)
Nuuksio Classic Trail Marathon is one of the best events I've participated and I highly recommend it.
Crossing the 42.2km finish line just before the rain starts around 4pm. (Photo:Jussi Kaasinen)
An exhausted team of three runners are bivouacing in a mountain cave during a thunderstorm in the middle of PTL. By a stroke of luck, they find a magic lamp under a rock there. A genie appears, granting each of them one wish.
The first runner says, 'I'm done. I wish to get back home.' Wish granted.
The second runner says, 'I'm injured. I wish to go to the hospital.' Wish granted.
The third runner says, 'It feels so lonely now, I wish my teammates were still with me here.' Wish granted.
PTL team Les Köykäset (FIN) enjoying a snack at Cabane FXB Panossière (2641m) in Switzerland last week.
I spent last week following the Finnish PTL team Les Köykäset. I really admire the way they seemed to be able to relax and have fun in the midst of challenges presented by this toughest UTMB event. PTL is not a race (teams are listed alphabetically in the results), but there are certain time limits.
Having fun recently in my hood by hunting berries by the big boulders.
Every ultratrailer dreams of completing this unmarked 300km course (which changes every year) around Mont Blanc once in a lifetime. If I ever get the chance to participate, I wish to be able to enjoy the journey like messieurs Mäkelä, Kolehmainen and Skinnari did. Well done lads.
Time to fly! Testing if my Hokas can do what they claim. They did.
The guy who rescued me with his car in Swiss Irontrail earlier this month told me, 'It's not fun to be out there'. I agreed, as I felt dreadful and my DNF seemed inevitable. This made me think of how much fun I used to have when I discovered running, cycling, swimming, triathlon, ultrarunning, trailrunning and climbing all those years ago. I decided to focus on finding that fun again in my training and racing. No more paincaves for me, thank you.
No more paincaves for me. This WW1 cave in Helsinki was actually fun to explore today.
Let's have some fun out there! See you on the trails and mountains.
Davos webcam on Tuesday morning before the event. Calm before the storm.
"It is through the mistakes that the greatest learning happens."
-Eckhart Tolle
Michele Morosini, one of those trail warriors who finished T201.
Long story short, I couldn't repeat my successful Swiss Irontrail T201 2015 performance this year. Instead of 201km I was able to run about 50 km before a DNF. How could this kind of enormous fiasco, perhaps matched only by European economy, be even possible? I identified the following three major mistakes and lessons.
A view from Jakobshorn on Wednesday before the event.
Mistake 1. T201 started on Friday, 04:00am. Everybody was well aware that the weather would be horrible. There would be thunderstorms all night and early morning, followed by constant rain all day on Friday.
The last downhill to Davos.
After that it would be close to zero temperatures, probably with freezing wind and snowing, at above 2400 meters. T201 course has 11.5 thousand meters of ascent with 11 peaks above 2400m. Still I somehow managed to underestimate all these serious weather warnings.
Davos, Schatzalp and Strelapass from Jakobshorn 2590m.
Lesson 1. I should have changed my registration for T201 to either T121 or even T91. These would have been challenging enough under the circumstances and much more fun. You get the maximum number of UTMB points already from T121.
The west ridge of Weissfluhgipfel 2844m after my DNF.
By the time the other races started, the weather would have already been better. The weather on Sunday was sunny, making it enjoyable for finishers in Davos.
Remember your rain gear when visiting Davos! A fountain in Davos Dorf.
Although I noticed that many T201 runners changed their registrations on Thursday - including the Race Director's son, who also had finished T201 last year - I ignored this opportunity. So the first lesson is that if the event consists several race distances, select your distance wisely and don't hesitate to make changes if necessary.
Award Ceremony on Sunday: Jimmy Pellegrini 2. overall, Andrea Huser 1. overall, Denise Zimmermann 5. overall, and Thomas Ernst 3. overall.
Mistake 2. My UTMB overgloves got torn during Zugspitz Ultra Trail in June. Although they had worked pretty well, I failed to replace them. After all, suffering from cold fingers even in summer, I have a lot of gloves.
5K to go!
My Haglöfs Goretex jacket was excellent and still in good condition. The new Salomon rain pants I bought in Grainau had gotten me through a long rainy evening, night and morning when running around Zugspitze. It turned out only my jacket was good enough, but my hands and legs got cold and wet after a few hours of pouring rain.
Wild&Free - this is a joke, just like my race :)
Lesson 2. Make sure your rain gear is really 100% waterproof. Even though they claim something is 'waterproof', it may not be so in a really bad weather.
Sunny Sunday afternoon by the Lake Davos.
Also do consider wearing a warm layer of clothing under your rain gear - otherwise you might still get hypothermic.
A competitor crossing one of the bridges just before the finish below.
Goretex or similar relatively expensive fabrics work usually better, although some people have been able to use dead cheap simple solutions successfully.
The amazing Andrea Huser finishing as the overall winner of T201.
Mistake 3. This year the T201 course was slightly different from last year. Detailed printed maps of the race course were distributed to all competitors before the race. We were asked to study them carefully.
The mountaintops had almost-zero temps with cold wind evn on sunny days! A view from Weissfluhgipfel after my DNF.
I noticed the first section to Kesch Hut was different, going through Dürrboden and Scalettapass instead of Sertig Dörfli and Sertigpass. I also noticed that towards the end we would run new trails to Lantsch instead of taking the asphalt road to Lenzerheide. What i failed to notice was that the route climbing up Fuorcla Crap Alv had also been changed.
360-view from Weissfluhgipfel 2844m after my DNF.
So as I 'knew' the course from last year so well, I took the same route automatically. The rain made visibility poorer, but the course was very well marked. I did notice that the markings and other runners disappeared. Instead of turning back right away, I figured I can continue this steeper way up and join the other on top.
Trail 60 is popular among bikers an hikers, but watch out for loose falling rocks.
No way! The climb felt a lot more difficult than last year, but I stupidly pushed my way up. Until I came upon a stream crossing so deep and wide, I was forced to turn back. The way back down felt really difficult. I got myself soaking wet in trails turned into mountain streams, and I was freezing cold.
Andrea Huser looked so fresh after crossing the line that she probably could have done another 201km round!
Lesson 3. Luckily I met a guy called Cristof driving up the Albulapass road to crew for his wife. It would take her 10 minutes to appear, so I sat in the MB van and welcomed a hot cup of coffee. "My wife ALWAYS FINISHES everything she starts", Cristof said to me, while I trembled hypothermic in the warm car and nodded. "Could you please drive me to Samedan, I'm quitting", I said. As that was his destination anyway, I got myself a ride. Thank you Cristof!
The last aid station in Strelapass 2350m on Sunday.
Samedan provided everything I needed: free meal, my drop bag with dry clothes and the railway station with a connection back to Davos. The third lesson is to study the race course carefully and turn back and retrace your steps immediately when you don't see the markings anymore. This harder to do than it sounds. I heard many others got lost as well during their races.
Thomas Ernst was 3. overall and 1. M50.
65 super-tough runners finished T201. It's 34% of 189 on the starting list on race morning. And like I mentioned, many did change into one of the shorter race before the start (They also had T41, T21, and A21 available).
A nice view to Weissfluhjoch after my DNF.
Thanks to cable cars it was easy to visit Jakobshorn (2590m) and Weissfluhgpfel (2844m) from Davos. On Sunday I took the popular trail 60 down from Weissfluhjoch (2662m) to Strelapass (2352m), where the last aid station is situated 5km before the finish. It was nice to chat with volunteers and finishers.
Weissfluhgipfel from the trail below.
All in all, I had a great week in Davos, the highest town in Europe (1560m). I made some new awesome friends. The weather was good every day except Friday. People were nice and the mountain sceneries stunning. In a way I achieved the event's slogan 'Beyond The Limit'.
Weissfluhgipfel peak 2844m. Davos is somewhere down there at 1560m.
I've run in Swiss Alps every summer for a decade now. I'll be back for sure!
"Sometime letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on."
-Eckhart Tolle
Sunday was the last full day of our Cortina Epic Week 2016. Time certainly flies when you are having fun! The weather was incredibly gorgeous again in the morning, but a rainshower was forecast around 3pm. We wanted to run to Lago di Sorapiss and get back before any possibility of rain.
When we ran to this lake last summer we simply took a bus from Cortina to Passo Tre Groci and ran along trail 212 to the lake and back. This time we took the Funivia Faloria cable car by Cortina bus station to Rifugio Faloria at 2123 meters.
Faloria is still advertised at the cable car station as 'Stallone Cliffhanger Lodge'. The movie by Finnish director Renny Harlin wasn't really our primary reason to go there. We were interested in the awesome trails and mountains views all around the Sorapiss (3205m) range.
The blue skies had lured lots of people and first cable car up at 9am was full. Luckily we got in and soon we were at the start of trail 213. We had a map, but the trails are so well marked that we just followed the markings. On the map it looked easy and straightforward, but in real life it was a slow struggle up the steep ski slopes. We didn't carry trekking poles in our minimalistic Ultimate Direction running vests, but in hindsight that wouldn't have been a terrible idea.
The clear views of sunny Mt Cristallo were on our left as we ran and the shadows of Sorapiss were on the right. After a few km were arrived at a trail intersection. We chose trail number 216 to Lake Sorapiss. But first there was this huge mountain pass to climb over to the other side.
We managed to climb up the steep pass without troubles, trying not slide down with the gravel and loose rocks. There were lots of local hikers everywhere. After the pass we encountered some exposed sections equipped with cables, but there was no need for Via Ferrata gear. Soon we saw the first glimpse of the brilliant turquoise lake. The gravel in the downhill trail was very slippery, and it took us over an hour to reach the lake. Better safe than sorry.
Finally we saw the familiar trail 212 leading to the lake a few hundred meters away. It was hot and I was going to swim for sure. The shorelines were full of hikers enjoying their brunch. I dived into the cold waters of the lake and felt instantly refreshed. Then we sat on rocks and consumed our food and drink reserves. This unique glacial lake at 1925m was surrounded by peaks like Dito di Dio (Finger of God). The midday scenery looked once again fantastic and the sun was still shining.
There is an old legend about King Sorapiss and his impulsive daughter Misurina. An evil witch promised her a magic mirror as a reward for providing shade to her house. The deal had to be honoured by the king, who turned himself into Mt Sorapiss. Later Misurina shedded many tears creating the magic mirror of Lake Sorapiss by he mountain king father.
The return run to Passo Tre Groci would have been more runnable thanks to several improvements along trail 212, but it was way too crowded with hikers. We filled our bottles with glacial melting water at the same stream as last summer. We were easily on time for the 3pm bus back to Cortina. It just started to rain as predicted as we hopped on the bus. Soon we were back in our hotel without getting too wet. We didn't need a guide for this trailrun, but later that evening we had a dinner with Enrico from guidedolomiti.com to celebrate our successful week, which had exceeded our wildest expectations.
