Mattias Bramstång

After one and a half year with less kilometers Århus 24-hour Indoor race were an trilling moment for me. I didn´t know what it would be like, but it turned out to be perfectly insane! One lap was 251 meter long and it was nothing to look at during these meters. My aim was to stay on the track and keep on moving for as long as possible. I manage it quite well but had to sitt down to recover way to much. But I did never fall asleep. I finished nine place with 160 km. Directly after the race I had to travle 8 hours by train. It was crouded and I just could not fall asleep. I felt the fever, the running fever and I hope there is no cure!

This race was to be my best 24 hour race ever. It was an indoor race in a steady temperature zone with lots of good runners to hang on from lap to lap. I arrived to Helsinki one day ahead to get a good sleep at a hotel close to the arena. Me and my supporting friend Peter had a great day before the race and we could discuss every thing about the upcoming race. We were really prepared when the race started.

Hour by hour, lap by lap. Everything went by the plan for more than 100 kilometers. Of course some small unexpected things happened but we handled them as good as possible. After 12 hours I was just 400 meters behind my schedule for 114 km. Then, in the middle of the night I just had to run 96 kilometers on the next 12 hours to make my goal. But, I didn’t! After 16 hours I had past 150km and I still had some hope of make it. Then the hard surface made my upper legs very stiff and I had to walk some because my legs could not run at all. Soon I tried almost everything to get my legs ready for some more. Nothing worked, I only lost a lot of time on everything that didn’t move me ahead. Finally I realised that I would not make it. I lost my spirit for some time and after 21 hours I went to the showers. However I ended up on 13^th place of 78 male runner.

Afterwards I was not satisfied at all. But after some days I focused on everything that went really good and there was many things to be satisfied about. A 24 hour race is extremely difficult and this race just give me even more reasons to try yet another time.

During the race friends of mine could send messages to me through the organizers website . This was great and I got a lot of messages from friends. That was really encouraging and inspiring. Thank you all!

My fourth attempt on the 24-hour race. This time I prove to myself that I have capacity to go beyond 200 kilometre. Since I was so pleased with 200K I left the track with half an hour to go. The knowledge of that I was not using all the time gives me scope of new dreams. What can I do with half an hour and if I run a little quicker from the start…