from Vaasa Johanna Antila43, on Nov. 4 won trail running’s most demanding ultra-distance, a hundred-mile (161 kilometers and 2,586 meters of ascent) race in Båstad, southern Sweden.
Antila’s final time in the Kullamannen event was 17 hours and 39 minutes. Only seven men ran the distance faster than him.
The second best Finn in Kullamannen’s women’s series in the 161-kilometer race was the 11th-place finisher, the Finnish champion of the marathon and 10,000 meters, and the Finnish representative at the World Championships in Helsinki 2005 Maija Oravamäki, who has run a marathon with a best time of 2:35:37 in 2006. Oravamäki is six years older than Antila. Antila’s marathon record is 2:52.55 in 2021 in Helsinki.
Antila, who has a track and field background, is the first Finnish winner in the UTMB World Series, which gathers the world’s best trail runners for the event. With his victory, he claimed a place in next year’s UTMB final in Chamonix, France, which will be held in August-September.
The achievement is excellent considering that Antila has suffered from injuries throughout the season. In February 2023, he was still second in Gran Canaria, but his great momentum was interrupted in the spring by leg problems, and he had to miss the World Championships, among other things.
In addition, Antille Båstad’s 160-kilometer trail running ultra distance was only the first distance of more than 100 kilometers in his career. For next year’s competition calendar, the Finnish star plans only one ultra for the spring before the UTMB finals in the fall.
In preparation for next season, Antila takes up skiing in the winter season and cycling in the summer to save her legs. Ultrarunners aiming for the top of longer distances have no other option.
After the tough and successful race trip to Båstad, Antila has no business for jogging trails for a long time. The legs and the whole body are hard after a tough ultra distance. He tells Urheilu that it will take 3-4 weeks before it makes sense to go for a run next time.
Creepy conditions
The start was on Friday evening, November 3. From Höganäs in southern Sweden at 6 p.m., when it was already pitch black. Competitors ran north along the west coast to Båstad for 13 hours in the dark with headlamps. Saturday morning at 7 o’clock the morning began to dawn in the country. The remaining four hours of the race were more comfortable to run in bright weather.
– After two weeks of rain, the route was wet and muddy. Sometimes the going was “swimrunning”, that is, sometimes you had to wade and then run again. The shoes were wet all the time. This race is said to be “hellish” in Finnish and is advertised as a “university of suffering”. That’s what it is, the misery is very much maximized, describes Antila.
Ultra runs are held on many different platforms. Although trail running is constantly increasing in popularity, it is still not worth dreaming of bigger prize money for winning the UTMB series.
For winning the UTMB World Series competition, Antila received a cup with a gold rim logo as well as a medal, a headlamp and the right to participate in the UTMB finals, but even there you have to pay the participation fee later.
A moment’s whim after a couple of glasses of wine
Johanna Antila has played sports, mainly running, throughout her life. He says that he competed for the first time when he was seven years old and continued to do so continuously until he was 22 years old. In addition to athletics and cross-country running, skiing and balance beam gymnastics were also included.
– When I was young, i.e. between 13 and 20 years old, I ran 800, 1,500 and 3,000 meters on the track and also tried obstacles, which was not my journey, however. I made the decision to quit in the fall of 2002, when there was no more progress, says the runner known by her maiden name Raja-aho.
During the years 2002–2019, Antila did not compete at all, but focused on her studies, her husband and three children, building a detached house and running a private business.
As a turning point, Antila describes her momentary inspiration in the early fall of 2019, when her friend had enticed her with her words to participate in a trail running competition in Nuuksi.
– My friend had already signed up for the race, when in fact, after a couple of glasses of wine, I decided to go along on Saturday evening and at the same time signed up for a distance of 74 kilometers, longer than the intended half.
A 24-year hiatus from value competitions
Antila won the Nuuksio Mittelö as well as the following four domestic competitions in course record times as a perfect trail running week. There was also success in foreign competitions, and in the first nine trail running events he was on the medal podium in each one.
– I represented Finland in 1998 in the World Youth Cross-Country Championships in Morocco and then the next time 24 years later in 2022 in the World Trail Championships in Thailand, where I was 13th, laughs Antila.
After winning the first Nuuksio race, the competition fly still didn’t bite. When, exactly one year later, he participated in the same race again – and won that too – the flame for trail running flared up.
– He won the men’s race then in 2020 Juuso Simpanen, and I asked him about his willingness to start coaching me. Just a week or two after that, and I was already training with the instructions of my current coach Juuso, recalls Antila.
Antila, who has always had a passion for running, had worn out her running shoes during her 18-year hiatus from competition by running regularly, except for a couple of small breaks during pregnancy, so she had a solid foundation to start goal-oriented ultra and trail running training.
– Basic endurance training with different heart rates became familiar just like different sized exercises, harder and lighter training weeks, muscle fitness and strength training and body maintenance. I quickly adapt to a new kind of training and I was able to get rid of ten runs easily.
According to Antila, he has a big advantage because the coach himself runs at the international level of trail running. Juuso Simpanen was fourth in the men’s series at the UTMB World Series in Sweden.
A sporty family in the background and support
Johanna Antila wakes up every morning of the year as early as 5 a.m. and goes for a run at dawn. After that, the athlete working as a speech therapist works everyday from 8 am to 2 pm. At the end of the evening, he devotes himself to another training session. As a private entrepreneur, he can define his working hours himself.
Antila says that it was a big change for the family when the mother suddenly started spending more time working out. The routines of the home changed in one fell swoop.
– Mother is running all day again, was heard from the mouths of the children of the sports family in unison, but still there was enough understanding.
Antila also felt that during the corona period 2020 was a good time to start a new racing career.
A trail runner’s spouse, Jaakko Antila, played baseball at the Superpesis level for a decade until 2010. The baseball player with three SM medals and two East-West matches currently serves as his wife’s guardian in all games. Lapuan Virkiä’s breeder knows and understands what it takes to play sports at the top level.
Antila’s entire family lives and breathes competitive sports. 18-year-old twin girls from a sporty family With what and Come on are in the national balance beam gymnastics team and attend a sports high school in Oulu. 14-year-old Jacob-boy plays football in the Vaasa Palloseura and is aiming for the age group national team group in the Tähtitarha event.