Iceland, I am coming

The last few months and weeks were a bit like a drive on a roller coaster. Again I did all the endurance training on the bike to give my knee the time to get well again. Today I am fine and my left knee joint is doing what it should do: carrying me and my backpack.

Next sunday I will jump into my next adventure, racing with my backpack and about 200 athletes from more than 50 countries across one of the worlds most exciting places, Iceland. This island at 66° North is something like a loose cannon. You don‘t know what‘s up next. This year we have to bring TWO drop bags which will be given to the competitors only in cases of emergency 😉 But one thing will be sure, nature and landscape will be breathtaking. As a novice over this distance in a self-supporting (all in our backpack, except the tent and water but including all calories) and multi-stage (250km over 6 running days) competition, the race itself will be the second unknown for me during these days.

The course itself will lead us over all type of undergrounds and through every type of weather with a very high humidity. To profit from the experience of those who did it already several times I‘ve chosen the things that are matching best to me and I have already used them intensively in my trainings. Some of the items are so great that I am going to market them in Switzerland. It‘s fantastic to see how one leads to the other. But more about that later when the set-up is done properly and now back to the race.

I have decided to run in an extremely modern Merino fabric (ASHMEI) on a stable but light and water protecting but not waterproof running shoe (MIZUNO Cabranak 4). An amazing soft-shell (OMM Original Mountain Marathon) will protect me from water and the new Suunto Ambit 2 will be the interface to my engine. I haven‘t decided yet the exact size of my backpack it all depends from my final (food)-decisions, but most probably it will be an OMM too. For the food I will again feed and recover my machine primarily with Winforce, supplemented with some organic raw food and other goodies. At this place thanks to all the people providing me with their know-how and material.

For this race there is now tactics. First of all I am a raw recruit. The six other mates in our tent are cumulating up to 13 race the planet finishes together, with age-group winners, top 6 and top 30 finishes. This will help me to get the right input when needed. And second I want to finish it, that‘s why I‘ve defined some rules for myself. As stage one will be a 40km+ downhill race I have to protect respectively support my knee(s) by walking it or running it carefully. Everything that‘s flat I am trying to run as well as the flat uphill parts. Till day 5 I will race at about 80% of my threshold. As running day 6 only will be a 10km run I will try to push hard on day 5. This also gives me the opportunity to find out how my body feels after kilometer 42 😉

In the end it‘s all about my first race of this kind and finishing free from physical problems. If it works, there are some more races waiting.

Apart from pushing my own limits and crossing this island there is one more reason to fly up there: amazing people, plenty of time to share together and to find new inspiring friends around the globe.

I will post some more information later this week. Now it‘s time to taper, to pack and to repack to save weight and space in the backpack.