Just 10 days out from attempting my first one hundred mile trail running race, which is being held in the Pallas-Ylläs Tunturi National Park in Lapland, I headed of for my final race simulation session. On this final long preparation effort over 18 miles, while fully decked out in my race kit, I set out to move at an average pace 1-2 minutes per mile faster than I hope to be able to maintain during the event. My race aims are not to strive for the fastest time I could possibly achieve, nor is it the position I may finish in. It isn’t even about making it to the finish line under the 35 hour time limit. Rather, my goal is a very simple one, to go beyond what I have ever done before, and see what’s there.
For the past 6 years, I have trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but my background is actually in endurance sports, namely triathlon and running, including ultrarunning. However, the last event I’d attended was the week-long multi-stage Marathon des Sables footrace in the Moroccan Sahara desert back in 2012. Since then, my endurance efforts have all been in the form of hiking camino trails and doing long bicycle tours.
So, am I ready to rumble? Well, I’ve managed to train specifically and consistently for this one hundred miler for a solid 6 months. As I write this, I actually feel that my physical condition is on par with what I took to the MDS, but I believe that my mental state is clearly the strongest that it’s ever been. So, I think I should be ok, but you just never know, as there are so many variables that can change beforehand, and then, of course, during the race itself. Having a degree of uncertainty present is very important for keeping motivated. After all, if you already know the end result before you start, where’s the fun in that? And while finishing under the cut-off time would certainly be nice and all, the deeper rewards that I’m seeking out are, in fact, spiritual in nature. They are obviously of the intangible kind, and can be revealed, should I be so graced, by first engaging, even suffering, in a prolonged physical, mental and emotional trial over the trails.
I don’t exactly know why I stopped racing back in 2012. All I remember is that after I’d returned from the Sahara, the fire to keep competing was no longer there. Maybe I’d just had enough of relentlessly pushing myself to excel at the expense of many of life’s other offerings. I guess the time for change had arrived, and so began a long process of re-examining and recalibrating the things that would give real meaning to my life. I can now say that I’ve been well established on this path of deeper self-awareness and discovery for the past 7 years. In a way, I’ve completed a full circle by finding my way back to something I love, but I’m now able to see it with new eyes and a healed heart. I’ll, of course, have to wait a while longer to see what revelations, if any, will manifest over the trails in Lapland, but the experiences that I’ve already had during my longer training sessions have been, at times, nothing short of magical. I’ll no doubt write about all that in detail at a later time, but let me just reveal, for now, that it goes hand-in-hand with the thoughts and research of Professor Donald Hoffman, an evolutionary physicist who studies consciousness from the perspective that time and space are not, in fact, the fundamental qualities that form our physical reality. Yeah, it’s like that.
So, how did this race simulation end up going? Well, I pretty much lost all sense of time, as I became totally immersed in my movement over the local trails, some of them being rather technical, which required quite a lot of extra attention to ensure that I could maintain my balance, literally and figuratively, and not my get ankles and self-belief totally rekted. Anyway, everything turned out very well. My planned pace was right on point, and I was able to manage the physical demands by eating and drinking as needed. I thoroughly enjoyed flowing with the amazing nature that surrounded me, and I ended the session in a relaxed and optimistic state for what soon awaits. To that end, I now commence my final taper to (hopefully) make it to the start line in the best physical and mental shape possible. As for what happens after that? Well, we’ll just have to see.
Thank you, and be blessed,
Jyri
run for your life 