The Finnish Championship week’s ultra-running competition can be exciting on ‘s digital services on Friday and take part in the race atmosphere in a chat. The race starts at 8.45.
Satu Lipiäinen is the biggest pre-race when the 100-kilometer race is run on Friday at Salon Championship Week. In the spring, the Lappeenranta resident, who had pushed the Finnish record of 82,579 kilometers for the six-hour run, was leaving for Salo to break the records, but due to the relentless heat, the race could become a struggle for survival.
– The season has gone really well. All the starts have improved the records and there were high expectations and dreams for it in the Salo race, but now it would seem that the heat is eating those expectations, Lipiäinen thinks before the race start.
It was a mentally tough place for the runner when the heat reached Finland and the forecasts started to glow red for the Salo Finnish Championship week.
– Yes, it was pretty hard. But the disappointment with this race has already been addressed. Now there is more of a feeling that it’s nice to get to run and see what it’s hot for. And here it is not completely surrendered, you won’t know it if the body lasts, Lipiäinen smiles.
According to the weather forecast, the mercury will hurt on Friday at the start of the race, from 25 in the morning to 25 degrees. In the afternoon, some skyscrapers may appear in the sky, but the heat is projected to be almost 30 degrees throughout the fierce race.
– You can’t set goals for a race when you don’t know how much heat affects you. I think the beginning goes quite nicely and at some point then bears bad. The idea is to start moving briskly and hope that the body will last, but if it doesn’t last, then you just have to try to survive to the finish, Lipiäinen says.
– Quite a strong wind seems to be in store, it probably feels like running in a hair dryer. You have to try to make the most of that downwind and in the headwind you remember not to pull red all the time.
The 100-mile run is like a long marathon to the tops. We run hard all the time and don’t stop for maintenance, even when it comes to ultra running. Competitors are constantly knocking on their own limits, the run is at or just above the aerobic threshold.
– Last year I had a mileage between 4:15 and 4:30 minutes. As such, the pace lasted for up to some 80 miles, after which the last 20 miles was difficult. To my recollection, they were something like a 5:15 minute pace. That final pace can never really be predicted, one only has to hope for the best.
The performance of a Lappeenranta runner is often characterized by the same formula. Time is collected as if in storage while the run is relatively easy.
– Some say that I can perform steadily and some even accelerate towards the end, but I myself am more of the type that I run harder than the average speed I started at the beginning and then I try to keep it to my best. Sometimes it freezes a little more and sometimes less, Lipiäinen describes.
A six-mile lap will help with refueling
The Salo’s 100-kilometer race will run on a very flat asphalt route of just over six kilometers, which in slightly cooler conditions would guarantee runners great opportunities for record-making.
Now that the heat is tormenting runners, you have to take advantage of the route in other ways.
– A six-kilometer lap is pretty handy when it takes just under half an hour. For every round, when you take a half-liter bottle of sports drink, refueling goes pretty well, Lipiäinen says.
Along with the sports drink, the runner also gets salts and a lot of energy. Drinking is therefore also important for energy balance.
– I don’t usually eat at a hundred miles. The energy comes in the form of gels, a couple of them per hour, ie one gel and one half-liter bottle per round. It’s pretty simple to remember.
In addition to mileage, hydration and energy gain, the runner also monitors his endurance during the race. The heart rate data of the treadmill gives an indication if the pace is too strong for a long time.
– Yes, I mainly trust that I know pretty well what condition I am in, so I mainly follow the mileage. Sometimes I look at the heartbeat that if it goes there for a long time in the endurance range, then you have to think about whether you need to make any slack. Now, in the heat, you may also need to pay a little more attention to your heart rate and think about whether or not their popularity allows you to be more elevated, Lipiäinen ponders.
How do you survive the first hundred race?
In addition to Satu Lipiäinen, twenty tops will be seen competing for the Finnish Championship medals in Salo, but it has also been possible to enter the open series of the Finnish race, ie the route will also feature 100-kilometer first-timers.
Satu Lipiäinen’s tip for beginners is that it is worth going to the race in moderation. Helle must be taken into account.
– It’s quite acceptable to walk in between. Can build even a rhythm that ten minutes of running and a minute of walking. I understand that in the 24-hour race you can see these even at the top of the world. For myself, these are familiar from the beginning of my ultra-running career, when I thought no one would be able to run 100 miles into the tube. It was a surprise when it succeeded, Lipiäinen advises.
Ultrasound is often also a mental affliction. Lipiäinen’s tip is not to think about the contract ahead.
– It is not worth starting to calculate how much distance is left, you just have to put a slipper in front of the other and take the energies and drinks that have been planned. Those refuelings should be planned because there will be times during the race when you don’t mind taking anything or don’t remember. If they slip in, it goes bad.
In running gear, the six-kilometer lap of the Salo and the flat asphalt platform make preparation relatively easy.
– When it comes to clothes and shoes, the most important thing is to make sure that nothing in them gets rubbed into the skin. I had big problems with these things in my first races. For example, the armpits had to be taped so that there were no bad abrasions.
Shoes can be chosen nowadays, a pre-favorite of the race also knows that. At the beginning of his career, he dragged ten pairs of shoes into the race when he couldn’t find any of his favorite shoes. The shoes used to change every half hour when the foot started to numb or somewhere began to crease.
– Fortunately, a shoe brand was finally found, after which the shoes had not to be changed. In the last six hours of the race, I ran on a soft track, so that’s when I ran a light and fast carbon fiber shoe. Now it’s time to put on a little softer shoe when running on asphalt, Lipiäinen says.
For the novice ultra-timer, there may also be help from their own guardian, who will ensure that the agreed race tactics, refueling and pace distribution are adhered to.
– The guardian is really important, especially when you want to take them off for the last few seconds. But if you just want to get through, then it’s not quite absolute because of the result. For support and encouragement, the support person may be important, but performance alone will not crash even if the guardian is absent.
– What I hope for from the guardian myself is the intervals at the end and what kind of momentum is needed for any result. It’s great to be able to trust a caregiver to follow a pre-made plan and not have to worry about it yourself. Eat and drink only what the guardian hits your hand.
You can see the safe limit from the momentum
In the ultra-running competition, runners are exposed to extreme strain and weather conditions. It can be difficult for a novice runner to figure out what pain or feeling is still going normal and what should be interrupted.
– It always concerns and feels bad. But yes, it’s pretty good to know when it’s not worth running anymore. If, even if there is a situation where you are unable to reserve weight for your foot or are unable to take normal steps, then often something is worse broken. In the heat, if the head starts to throw badly or the step wanders from one side of the road to the other, then it is worth wondering if the drip is the next destination, if you continue running, Lipiäinen reminds.
According to Satu Lipiäinen, the safe limit can be seen from the runner’s pace and how he can maintain the pace.
– First the pace drops and then the going only starts to get dangerous. I personally do not consider this Salo race to be a big health risk when running a rather short lap in the race. Then again, if you are alone somewhere in the mountains and there are 100 kilometers to the next drinking point, then you can already talk about a dangerous species, Lipiäinen thinks.
Ten chess at the World Cup in Berlin?
Finally, let’s return to Satu Lipiäinen’s record hunt. Although the runner is used to improving his records almost without exception, it is not worth destroying the rest of the season in the heat of Salo.
At the end of August, the Finn will run in the 100 km World Championships in Berlin.
– I try to keep up the pace in Salo for as long as I can. If I come to the conclusion that due to circumstances or the passage of the day I can’t make a record, then I have to think about trying to run the best result of that day, or try to save so that I can quickly get back to practice and then hit the World Cup in August, Lipiäinen thinks.
The Finnish record for one hundred is 7.51.02.
– There are no starting lists yet, so I can’t say what the ranking in the World Cup could be. But yes, clearly the goal of the top ten chess is. If such a heat occurs there, then one cannot really look at the statistical results when one person endures the heat better than the other.
According to Lipiäinen, the rest period between Salo and the World Championships in Berlin is just enough to fully recover from a hard bet.
– After Salo, I’m not running for a few days and then I’m moving slowly again. However, there is no immediate developmental training in it. Then when it is restored, the condition has to be rebuilt again and finally lightened again, ie yes, that couple of months is quite a minimum break. Personally, I have run about three long races a year, Lipiäinen describes.
The 100-kilometer Finnish Championship ultra run in Salo can be watched live on Areena on Friday. The mobile-generated event stream begins at 8:45 p.m.
During the long broadcast, the competitors will be closely involved in the route and we will talk a lot about the race and the race events with experts Jari Tompo and Jukka Viljanen, among others. The audience can participate in the conversation and race atmosphere by chatting.