Laugavegurinn Trail
New member Sara Fleck completed Saturday’s Laugavegur Ultra Marathon in Iceland, below is her report on the race:
The race covers the length of the Laugavegurinn Trail (34miles) and starts in Landmannalauger which looks a little like the surface of Mars surrounded by mountains! We set off up a very steep climb before it flattened out slightly – false promise! The route to and from the first checkpoint (about 6miles total) was snow. Really weird, hard to run on, snow! Mostly very slippery slush over ridged ice so you kept sliding and hitting awkward bumps – all while running uphill!!
I don’t think I’d factored in how much the first 13 miles elevation would sap my legs and started tripping a lot after the very steep down hill that followed. A flapjack, some friendly Canadians and a Kiwi soon cheered me up!
Had been in quite a tizzy about making the second check point as I’d been later than expected into the first, but made it with 45mins to spare! Felt a bit teary as I saw it come into view (it was a little house in the mountains!) and when I crossed the timing mat the lady said ‘it’s lovely to see you’ and I had a cry and had to go to the loo and pull myself together!!!!
After that (which was 24miles) I was going okay until about 26.5 miles but then ran out of water due to a change in water station positions. But I chatted to 3 army lads from Catterick, a Swedish lady hugged me and a Scottish guy called Andrew persuaded me to run with him. We made it to water – hallelujah! and from then on I felt great!
The race included multiple river crossings (some over knee deep!) and a huge variety of landscapes including belching sulphurous geysers and lava flows! It ends in Porsmork with beautiful flower filled meadows surrounded by mountains and glaciers! Crossing the finish line was absolutely fantastic and my time was 8hrs34mins (only 4mins over what I had predicted!)
I only joined RR in January, and I can’t thank everyone enough for their help, and for not laughing when I told them I’d entered an ultra having never run more than a half! Already looking forward to the next adventure. ????