Ursa Ultra 100k race, Greece/Eipirous/Metsovo 20180901

100k race in Eipirus region of northwestern Greece, starting from beautiful village of Metsovo.

It was my first 100k trail race. I did a 110k road race back in April, but I knew this was going to be much harder and much longer (time wise) one. Since start was scheduled at 5AM, it was going to be about 1.5hours in the dark before the dusk and first light. Then, sunset on Sept 1st was about 8PM with visibility still being ok until about 8:30PM, so I quickly calculated that it would be really nice to manage it in 15h30min to avoid darkness in last kilometers. It also felt like doable for me...

So, first ~1.5h in the darkness was fairly easy: we were still a big group of runners, all with head torches on, temps were very low and pleasant, there was not much climbing up until very last part before AID station. The only problem was morning fog that in some sectors was very thick and head lamps did not help at all... As planned, I reached the AID station located at the Mavrovounio (the Black Mountain) refuge in about 2h, feeling very well and getting into the rhythm.
After the refuge, there was pretty mild climb to the Flenga peak at 2159m, great views in all directions, including Aoos lake. Then a bit technical, quite long and fairly steep descent all the way down to Arkoudorema (the spring of the Bears). 800m elevation difference in less than 5km. Great forest, awesome nature!
Next section was what I thought will be easy, but it was not at all! Following the river on both sides, it was definitely not descent only and not easy at all. Lots of up and downs, very technical, crossing the river several times (I was very careful not to get my shoes wet with 75km left!). I "lost" a lot of time before reaching Vovousa compared with my predictions, but the truth was that I was doing very well, it was the prediction that was very wrong.
Vovousa was a first main AID station with lots of food and drinks (including hot ones) and also drop bags. I was feeling well, with just a minor pain in my calfs. I did take my time, ate well, drunk even better and after about 5' I started one of the longer climbs of the race, from the village at ~950m to the Avgo peak (Egg) at ~2180m, so +1200m in ~7km. I planned a pace of about +100m/10' meaning I should get to the peak in about 2h... which I managed to do :-D
Since there was just a control point at the top (no aid station) I started the descent right away. It was very technical at first, before getting to dirt roads. I thought I would do it both faster and easier, but the technical terrain both slowed me down and seriously fatigued my quads :-/ By the time I got to next aid station at 55km, I was pretty tired, way too early... also got a bit out of schedule.
I took my time at the station eating and drinking a lot. Since it was already early afternoon hours and I got quite low elevation wise, the temps started to bother me. And next section was a bit tricky... it was not a big climb or anything, just a simple dirt road up and down with very minor grades, but it was hot, sunny and my legs were tired enough to have problems running it. Fortunately I got some company on this section from my friend Alekos, who ran with me until Milia village, second major aid station, at 68km.
By the time I reached it, I felt ok again. A bit of descent/flats before the village gave some welcomed release to dead legs. Again I ate and drunk fair amounts of food, but did not take long to leave with company of Alekos and now also Roula. They stayed with me for next 2-3km just as the dirt road ended and steep climb with forest path started. By that time, the heat really bothered me a lot. I started to walk and drink too much, also having difficulties to lower my HR. The steep climb felt endless and I even started to make stops. Very soon I drunk all the water I had (1lt in less than 30min!!!) and could not find any spring on the path :-/ When the climb finally finished, I felt dehydrated and desperately started to look for any water even if I would need to get of the course. After about 15min of miserableness I found tiny spring and managed to drink some and fill one flask. Luckily, descent was going faster now and in less than 30min I was running parallel to nice big spring full of fresh water :-D I stopped, drunk a lot and dipped my head in.. boy I was like new! I got to next aid station in less than 15min, ate and felt even better. It was ~80km of the race.
Next 6km were all descent, went very nice, legs were fine, temps started to cool down (about 6PM). I got down to the crossing of national road where the last climb of the race started. Last but the most steep! +700m in 2km along slopes of ski center. Very soon my legs were dead again (probably they were just still dead, just didn't know that during descent :-P). This was really first time of the day that I appreciated carrying poles :-D I was basically climbing using only my arms. I think it took me like 1:15' (instead of boldly planned 50' hahahah) to get to the top! I was cursing all the way up!
Last major descent to Anilio didn't go as smooth as I was thinking during the climb. In my head, when climbing, I was just counting down to the peak thinking this is pretty much end of the race... descent to the finish line is nothing... well, couldn't be wrong more! First part of the descent was crazy steep, forcing me and my dead quads to walk! Then it felt much better with nice grades, but by the time I got to section of fairly flat narrow path along the ringe, it got already dark (technically it was still a day, but dense forest forced me to use torch again)! Low visibility, technical terrain, few hundred meters drop on my left, tired legs, 15hrs of race - all this was not helping! Fortunately my mind was still working fine and I decided I will walk this section. So at least 10' "lost" :-D Anyway, last descent to Anilio was much easier and I was running again in total darkness by now. Quickly passed the village and continued down to the spring were last tiny ascent back to Metsovo started. Well, +200m wasn't exactly tiny at this point, but when You smell the finish line, body finds incredible amounts of energy from nothing. And in less then 20' I was in Metsovo cruising through narrow street to the main square for the finish.
Total time 16h20' ! A bit of a slip from the plan, but boy I was happy :-D Even though I don't tend to repeatedly run same races, I will consider this one seriously next year!