Post-race: Kullamannen ultra

The morning after the Kullamannen and I feel surprisingly fresh in my legs, so hopefully I'll be back in training tomorrow. My only real niggle is an inflamed ITB in my right knee, but ice and strapping seem to be doing the trick! 

The early stages of the ultra - Photo credit: Kullamannen

The Kullamannen was quite an eye opener, as the event traversed all sorts of terrain, covering forest trails, sandy beaches, and near-vertical rocky sections, with a constant sequence of steep climbs and descents in the latter half of the race. I don't think I've ever done an event like this before!! Whilst I know the idea of running so far must seem crazy to most, for me it's a great opportunity to be alone with my thoughts, sorting through ideas and plans, as well as finding ways to push myself harder and further than before. All very character building... for me at least :-)


Aside from the obvious value of preparatory races for the IronMan later this summer, I'm also using these to build publicity for the fund-raising campaign. The short promotional film we shot last week is now live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gveDhOIKycg and a press release has been distributed to some of the local media outlets. In the coming weeks we'll also make contact with potential industry donors, who we're hoping will see the merits of the campaign and feel it's a worthy thing to support. Never having done something like this before, I have no idea how this process will unfold, so I'm faithfully following the advice of the media people at Lund University!

56 km later - at the finish with two of my biggest supporters :-)

More travel coming up this week, with a quick trip to the north of Sweden to discuss progress on one of our largest population genetics projects based out of Umeå University, where I hold a part-time appointment.