FKT: Daniel Melin - Gotaleden (Sweden) - 2020-07-05

Athletes
Route variation
Old route
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
10h 40m 11s
GPS track(s)
Report

I have not yet written my "real" race report but here are a few words on this:

11 hours and 22 minutes for the unsupported record felt like a walk in the park.  This should easily be broken and I was going for sub 10h.  The first part of the trail were in the city and I had to really focus to keep my pace down and not burn out on the pavements early on.  As soon as I hit some actual trails the heavens just opened up and stayed that way for the rest of the day.  Rain, heavy wind, slippery mud and waaaay more verticals than I expected during the first half of the trail.  I kept a good pace despite that but the cost was big on my legs and abdomen.  I tried to go slow and recover between 50-60k to sort of bounce back but no bouncing were to be made here :)
However, with my very last effort I managed to sort of run the last 5k's or so and I was so tired I didnt even bother to check the time when I stopped my Garmin.  I knew I was under 11h but not by how much.  Got a little fooled by Strava that said 10:17 but I got the elapsed time mixed up with moving time so quite disappointed today when I check the gpx and see that I was actually not an hour faster than the current record but at least 40 minutes or so.

I was unsure about the water rules of unsupported.  Passed some trailer parks with taps but did not want to use that.  Found a tap in a field with a bunch of cows surrounding it so I moved them out of the way and filled up there hoping it was drinkable water and not just something they pump up from a creek somewhere.