• Kungsleden – 440km hike

I had been back in the office just over a month following my sabbatical when I requested 3 weeks of annual leave. This gave me a bit of time to get planning, but also time to lose that super human PCT fitness.

I had planned to hike the Kungsleden Abisko to Hemavan then if I had time at the end I would find my way up to Yllas in Finland where some friends from Australia were completing an ultra trail marathon.

The Kungsleden was a good route. It’s a trail with huts, but I had chose to wild camping so it was quite an isolated trail for me, I was just out of sync with the majority of the other hikers. But I started to make some good mileage. I figured not only would I finish in time to meet my friends, but I might as well see if I could get an entry to the smallest ultra (55km).

So on completing the trail I hoped on to a bus, followed by another bus followed by sleeping under a bush outside the bus station, followed by a final bus and 20+ hours later I was in Yllas. My friends had rented a log cabin which slept us all… 5 adults and a baby.

I went out and bought some running shorts, a tshirt, a little running pack and finally a race compliant bandage. The following day at 3pm, I was at the start of a 59km trail run (they extended the distance on the day just for extra pain). At this point I had never run further than Sydney’s fun run City to Surf (14km on road) and I had never run on trail.

I held my own the first 35km I’d say, but then I started to fade. I had to start really rationing my food at about the 40km mark and I by the 45km mark power walking was my maximum pace. But I kept moving the whole time, and just over 11 hours later (with a 12 hour cut off time) I crossed the finish line.

I was so psyched to actually finish and within the cut off! Those last 10km were killer; mentally and physically, but I got there and got the little mini medal. My friends both completed their races, with some good times and their own stories. We made it ‘home’ for a hot sauna and a long sleep.

It took a few days to be walking normally and I still have nightmares about the steps up to my bed in the loft of the cabin. But in honesty I thought it was going to be worse.