Triathlon? Give me an Ultrarun!‍

When we talk about running races, we often think of a marathon. But our colleague Marijn goes one ‘step’ further than that.

After 20 years of running, several marathons and triathlons, he became overtrained 5 years ago. Unfortunately, too little is known about this, which is why he and his personal coach started various rehabilitation training sessions that focused on heart rate and periodization. Now, 5 years later, he is ready for the next step. An ultrarun.

‍

2 years ago he started training for a 100km run. He started working together with Ferrum Endurance, his personal coach. On average he trained 5 to 6 days a week, varying from 40 to 80 km per week. You can imagine that this has quite an impact on both your private and business life. Fortunately, his family supports him 1000%, although he did have to promise to take things a little easier after this.

‍

There are few organized ultra runs in the Netherlands, so he decided to look abroad. But where do you start? Belgium, Germany, France? These ultraruns were just not enough. Grancanaria, Switzerland or the Marathon Des Sable in Morocco are well-known ultraruns but are way too expensive to even start.

‍

After a few weeks of searching, he happened to find the UTVV in Slovenia via social media. After watching the teaser, he was immediately sold.

‍

With 60km and 4500 meters of altitude, this will be an extreme challenge, not only physically but also mentally! The start will take place on April 26 at 10:30 PM. So you’ll walk the first part of the route in the dark. Quite exciting! Because the tour largely runs through the mountains, the weather can go in any direction, between 4 and 25 degrees! Clothing and food are therefore very important. The organization requires you to take enough with you to, if something were to happen, survive for 3 days. A small selection of what needs to be in the bag: 3 liters of water, wind/rain jacket, energy gels, bars, dry socks, walking sticks, telephone, power bank, lighting, spare first aid kit and survival blanket. That’s easily extra 8kg of weight you’ll need to carry with you.

‍

‍

'I expect it to take about 10 hours. This pace is around 5 km per hour, which is basically a walking pace and therefore has little to do with running. There are 2 major climbs, both 1000m with gradients of +12%. My calves aren't familiar with this yet, haha, but this significantly reduces the average speed. Ultimately, for me it's not about the time, it's about the experience. I will finish, but I think it is more important how I finish. The aim is to stay intact, enjoy and complete those 60km with a good feeling. The finish is then the ultimate reward. And after that? No idea... I think I'll need to recover for 6 months first, and then maybe look for the next goal!'

‍

Best of luck Marijn! We are proud of you!

‍

Click here to follow Marijn!

‍

‍

‍