To make this easier to write I'll break it all up into days. I won't be able to squeeze the whole race into this post but I will put in a couple of days at a time. There is no way that I will be able to do the event any justice, so this will just be a brief overview of how I got on!
SATURDAY
We drove for about 6 hours from the northern town of Akureyri, first heading eastwards on the N1 (Icelands main road around the island) before taking to an off-road route directly south towards the Vatnojakull glacier (pronounced Vat-Nya-Kul). The organisers aimed to avoid as much of the race route as possible on the way to the glacier, so as not to spoil it for us. It wouldn't have mattered though, it truly is breathtaking. Endless volcanic plains surrounded by rough lave fields in the shadow of burnt out craters and mountains, the remnants of super-eruptions which have fortunately not occurred in our life-time. You remember the eruption of 2010 whose ash-cloud caused so much travel disruption across Europe? Apparently that wasn't anything to worry about, many locals actually went and stood under the volcano to watch it blast its innards into the atmosphere. Some past-time.
So after several hours of bouncing around on aptly named 'F' roads, we arrived at our first campsite, on the edge of the glacier, Europe's largest and smaller only to those located in Antarctica and the Himalayas. It's big. The weather wasn't the best upon our arrival and as such I don't have any pictures worth showing, you'll just have to take my word on its enormity.
Saturday night: It's as cold as it looks
There was a cabin which we were able to warm ourselves up in, but any sleeping was to be done by tent. To save on weight and space, I decided not to take a sleeping matt with me and suffered as a result. I could feel the cold ground sucking my heat out into the ground all night. Competitors this year came from all over the world, Canada, India, Spain, Morocco Iceland, Switzerland, the UK and Kenya (whom I was representing).
Sunday: Stage 1 - 37km
I can't remember what time we started, but it was relatively early. It was freezing, with a glacial wind and horizontal rain. All competitors were itching to get started if only to warm ourselves up a bit.
The Start: swarmed with paparazzi
The stage started with a 10km loop up to the edge of the glacier, before heading north up to the magically transported campsite. The race started a bit slowly for me, I was paranoid about starting too quickly and as a result held back a bit too much for the first 10km, getting incredibly wet and grouchy in the process.
Running with Einar and Giesli, the Icelandic father and son superteam
The route wound through some incredible landscape. Rather than poorly describe it I will show you a few pictures. Weather conditions were atrocious but even so, the area is magical.
Red ash road through lava field
More ash
There's lots of ash in Iceland
I arrived at the finish of stage 1 in third place, a recurring theme after every stage no matter how hard I pushed to get closer to the leaders. The truth is the eventual winner Mohamed Ahansal, is a world champion ultra athlete, having won 5 Marathon des Sables and many other races. The bloke behind Mohamed (Julien Urdubai from Spain) was equally experienced if not quite as decorated with awards although he did finish second in the jungle marathon (a sweaty 250km through the amazon). They are world class ultra athletes and it showed!
My time for stage 1 was just over 4 hours, and upon arrival we were ushered straight into our tents to escape the elements and did not get out of our sleeping bags until 7am the following morning. I shared my tent with Einar and Giesli, a father and son Icelandic team. They are great guys and really good company. Einar was running his third fire and ice and so had some invaluable advice for me every day. Spirits were always high in our tent, no matter how wet our kit was or how loudly the wind was howling outside.
Suspect choice of footwear
My time for stage 1 was just over 4 hours, and upon arrival we were ushered straight into our tents to escape the elements and did not get out of our sleeping bags until 7am the following morning. I shared my tent with Einar and Giesli, a father and son Icelandic team. They are great guys and really good company. Einar was running his third fire and ice and so had some invaluable advice for me every day. Spirits were always high in our tent, no matter how wet our kit was or how loudly the wind was howling outside.
Monday: Stage 2 - 39km
Sliding into wet running kit before the start of stage 2 is not something that I remember with any fondness. Again I just wanted to get running and hope to dry in the wind. The weather was just as awful as the day before. Mohamed, shivering at the start line started shouting "WHERE IS FIRE??!" obviously referring to the fact that the race is named 'Fire and ice' and as of yet, there had been no fire to speak of.
I lose time removing my shoes at the river
2km into the stage there was a river crossing. The water had come directly out of the glacier and so was as cold as you might imagine. I couldn't face getting my shoes wet and so crossed it barefoot along with Mohamed and Julen, while the rest of the field splashed straight through without removing any footwear. This obviously lost us some time, but I was thankful hours later when my feet were dry and I had managed to make up for it.
Blue Sky? I don't believe it.
The weather finally cleared a bit and we were greeted with some sun, if only for a few hours. It was enough to lift my spirits for the final few kilometres, and I once again crossed the stage 2 finish line in 5 hours. It wasn't all good news though, two days of pounding on some rough volcanic terrain had started to have a negative effect on my knees. It started with the inside of my left to begin with and then ended up spreading to the same area on the right. Scott, the event medic told me that these events tend to bring up to the surface many problems you didn't know you had. While I sit here at home a few days after finishing, my knees are still aching. A much needed phsyio appointment has been booked next week for when I am in Edinburgh.
The second campsite was at a place called Dréki, in the shadow of Askja, an old Volcano. When it erupted in the late 18th century its lava flow extended for hundreds of kilometres north to the ocean and can be seen in this uninterrupted state today. Fortunately we were able to use the cabins at Dréki for hot water and to keep warm before heading to bed. The surface under-tent at this spot was jagged rock, not the therapeutic mattress which my aching back yearned for and it would be lie if I said that I got any sleep that night.
Nothing like a bit of rock to straighten the spine
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