On May 30, I ran the Icefjord
Midnight Marathon in Ilulissat, Greenland.
This race is sponsored by Albatros Adventure Marathons, which puts on
adventure races around the world. Seven
years ago, I ran the Bagan Temple Marathon, which was also sponsored by Albatros. I booked the trip through Coddiwomple Travel.
Albatros Adventure
Marathons is based in Denmark. The tour
package included flights to and from Greenland, but these flights originated in
Copenhagen. I was on my own to get to
and from Copenhagen.
Wednesday, May 27
My first flight was an
overnight flight to Amsterdam. The IT
systems in the Amsterdam airport were down, so they had to do passport control
manually. The line was pretty long, but
I had a long enough layover that I didn’t need to stress about it.
From Amsterdam, I flew to
Copenhagen, arriving around 11 AM. My
hotel was near the central train station, so I thought it would be easy to get
there by train. It should’ve been easy,
but the trains kept getting delayed and then cancelled. By the time I got to my hotel, it was 1:00.
I had one day on my own in
Copenhagen before meeting up with my tour group to fly to Greenland. I’ve been to Copenhagen before, so I didn’t
feel the need to do any sightseeing.
Instead, I did a workout and took a shower.
I never had lunch, so I
had an early dinner. I have a knack for
finding the best pizza in any city. On
my previous visit to Copenhagen, I discovered an Italian restaurant that was
founded by a chef from Italy. It was
near my hotel, so I went back. After
dinner, I went to the Warpigs brewery, to sample some local beers.
My hotel in Copenhagen
didn’t have air conditioning, so I needed to open windows to cool the room
down. While I waited for the room to get
cool, I was resting in bed. Before I knew
it, I fell asleep.
Thursday, May 28
I woke up at 2:30 and
couldn’t get back to sleep. I rested in
bed until I needed to get up, but waking up so early made a long travel day
feel even longer.
After breakfast, I took a
train back to the airport, where I met the tour guides from Albatros and
checked in for my flights to Greenland.
The guides from Albatros gave us each a backpack, which contained our
race packets.
These flights were
operated my Air Greenland. Their baggage
allowances are based on weight, rather than the number of pieces. Checked bags are limited to 20 kg.,
total. Carry-on bags are limited to 8
kg. Knowing that, I brought two smaller
bags, rather than taking a bag that was big enough for all my gear. I had to check them both, because I also had
a backpack with my laptop and all my electronics.
First, we flew to Nuuk,
which is the largest city in Greenland.
That was a five-hour flight.
There was a three-hour time difference, so it was noon in Nuuk when we
arrived.
Everyone in the group was
on the same flight to Nuuk, but we were split over four different flights from
Nuuk to Ilulissat. I was on the last
flight, which didn’t leave Nuuk until 7:55 PM.
Those of us on later
flights had time to leave the airport and see some of the city. We took a bus to the city center and walked
down to the waterfront.
We also stopped at a
museum, where we had the opportunity to learn more about Nuuk. There was a cold wind on the waterfront, so
it was nice to get out of the wind.
The flight to Ilulissat
was relatively short, but I was pretty tired when we arrived. It was 9:30 PM in Ilulissat, but it was after
midnight in Copenhagen. Having been
awake since 2:30 AM, I was anxious to get to the hotel and get some sleep.
The group was staying in a
few different hotels. My home for the
next five nights was Hotel Hvide Falk.
The first thing I did after checking in was to open a window. While my room was cooling down, I joined the
others on the patio to admire the views of icebergs in the bay.
I met several other
runners from the U.S., but the majority of the runners on this trip were from
Europe. I met runners from Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, England, Wales, Poland, France, Germany, Austria,
Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I
also met a few runners from Mexico, India, Singapore, and Australia.
I got to bed late that
night, but I slept reasonably well.
Friday, May 29
The hotel had a breakfast
buffet. Every morning, we had views of
the Icebergs in the bay. There was much
more ice Friday morning than there had been the previous evening.
After breakfast, we went
for a hike through the Sermermiut Valley.
This gave us an opportunity to see portions of the marathon course, so
we would know what to expect. It also
gave us our first views of the Ilulissat Icefjord. Icebergs breaking off from the Jakobshavn
Glacier flow out through this fjord and into the sea.
I had lunch at a café in
town. Then I went on a two-hour boat
tour that let me see the Ilulissat Icefjord from the water. I thought there was a lot of ice in the bay,
but that was nothing compared what we saw when we reached the Icefjord.
I had time in the
afternoon to do a workout. In the
evening, we had a pre-race briefing, followed by a pasta dinner.
I was able to get to
sleep at a more reasonable hour. I slept
really well that night. I needed that.
Saturday, May 30
Saturday was race day,
but the race didn’t start until 9 PM.
Before that, I was on my own. I
slept in as late as I could before finally getting up and going to breakfast.
Every day, the bay looked
different. On Saturday, there was
considerably less ice. It all depended
on the wind direction.
Every day there were
optional excursions. On Saturday, some
people went kayaking, and others went to meet the sled dogs. I didn’t schedule anything for Saturday. I mostly relaxed at the hotel and saved my
energy for the race.
Because the race started
so late, I ate a full lunch. I found a
café in town where I could get a pizza.
One of their pizzas was a musk ox pizza.
It had musk ox, onions, peppers, and cheese.
Walking back to the
hotel, I noticed it was foggy over the bay.
Everywhere else it was clear.
The pizza was a heavy
meal, but I had several hours to digest before the race. About an hour after lunch, I started to feel
sleepy, so I climbed into bed to see if I could take an afternoon nap before
the race. It took about an hour to fall
asleep, and then I only nodded off briefly before waking up again. Still, I think it helped me to be more alert
later in the day.
After getting up, I took
a hot shower, dud some stretches, and made a cup of tea.
Throughout the day, other
runners were going out for short walks.
With so much time before the race, it was easy to get restless, but I
did my best to save my energy for the race.
The last walking I did
before the race was to walk to a nearby grocery store to get a pastry in lieu
of dinner. I didn’t want to eat anything
heavy, but I also didn’t want to go more than eight hours without eating
anything.
By now, the fog over the
bay was thicker, and fog had moved into the town. I was worried about visibility during the
race, but I was assured that the fog would lift before the race started. Sure enough, by 7:00 the fog had lifted, the
skies were clear, there was very little wind, and it felt warmer than it did in
the afternoon.
At 8:45, we met outside
the hotel and walked together to Zion’s Church, where the race started.
The temperature at the
start was 36 degrees, and it would drop a couple degrees during the night. That’s cooler than I was expecting. The hourly forecast for 9 PM was 44
degrees. There wasn’t much wind, but I
didn’t know if we would feel a cold breeze when we were near the Icefjord. I wore two layers on top, plus tights. I started the race with a jacket tied around
my waist, in case I needed to add a layer later in the race.
This was my second
straight night marathon, but this time it never got dark. At night, the sun was close to the horizon,
but it never set. That’s the good
news. The bad news is that this is a race
that I knew would really challenge me.
The course was two laps
of a 21.1K loop. Each lap had 345 meters
(1,131 feet) of ascent. About one third
of the race was on technical trails, and long sections were over rock, with
uneven footing.
The time limit was seven
hours. I was glad they had a generous
time limit, because I’ve struggled on hills lately, and the trail sections
aren’t really runnable. My only goal was
to make steady progress and stay on pace to beat the time limit.
This was a cupless
race. We had collapsible cups in our
race packets, but I brought a cup I could clip to my belt, so I could keep my
hands free.
The first few kilometers
were on city streets, but it was hilly. On
a few of the hills, I had to take walking breaks. Despite walking the steeper hills, my pace on
this section was about 10:30 per mile. I
was happy with that.
At about 4K, I went up a
long set of stairs. These led up to the
first of three trails. This trail was
called the yellow trail, and it was marked with yellow pain spots, plus orange
flagging.
This trail was mostly
over rock, but the footing was uneven, and we constantly had to step up or step
down. I couldn’t run it, and it was
tough to even maintain a consistent walking pace. Also, there were low spots between the rocks
that were wet or muddy, and I couldn’t avoid getting my shoes wet.
My pace on the yellow
trail was slower than 20 minutes per mile.
If the whole race was this tough, I wouldn’t be able to stay on pace to
beat the time limit. I knew the technical
sections were in the first half of the loop.
I was counting on maintaining a better pace when we got back onto roads.
While this trail was
difficult, I was occasionally rewarded with great views of the icebergs in the
Icefjord.
At about 7K, I reached
the end of the yellow trail, and I turned onto a wooden walkway that was about
a kilometer long. I had hiked this
section on Friday, so I knew this section was runnable.
The walkway ended with another
set of stairs. Then I started onto the
blue trail.
The blue trail started
with a tough climb, but it got better after that. Like the yellow trail, it wasn’t runnable,
but there were more level sections.
Toward the end, however, there were a few tough climbs. My pace here was a little better than the
yellow trail, but not by much.
The blue trail also gave
me some good views.
We didn’t run all of the
blue trail. We only followed it until it
met up with the red trail. The red trail
was less difficult than the yellow and blue trails. At times, it was almost runnable.
At the end of the red
trail, I reached the visitor center for the Sermermiut Valley. After that, the rest of the loop was mostly on
roads.
Where I turned onto the
road, there was a building with bathrooms.
There weren’t many bathrooms on the course, so I decided to make a quick
stop while I had the chance.
The next few kilometers
were through residential neighborhoods in Ilulissat. Here, I was able to pick up the pace again.
My hands started to get
cold here. I was wearing polypro gloves,
and I also had some Gore-Tex mittens in my fanny pack. I considered putting them on, but I knew that
would make it more difficult to clip or unclip the band that attached my
drinking cup to my fanny pack.
I had other options to
keep myself warmer. I was wearing a
regular running hat, but I had a winter hat in my fanny pack. I put on the winter hat and then pulled my
running hat over it. I still needed the
brim of the running hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.
Before long, I reached a
long hill. I remembered seeing this hill
on the elevation profile. I had to walk
most of it.
Whenever we were on
roads, I was surprised by how much traffic there was. By now, it was after 10:30, but every street
had traffic in both directions, making it impossible to run the tangents. I always had to keep to one side and watch
for cars.
After that hill, I was
able to run the rest of the way through town until I crossed a bridge and
entered the northern section of Ilulissat.
There was an aid station
just past 13K. I knew there wouldn’t be
another aid station until I reached a turnaround at the northernmost point on
the course. I drank first and then put
on my Gore-Tex mittens.
As I crossed the bridge,
I saw a runner coming back. Right after
the bridge, there was another long hill.
This was the largest hill on the course, so I had to walk most of it.
On this hill, I started
to see more runners who were on their way back from the turnaround point. They just had one kilometer left in their
first lap.
I eventually had to leave
this road to turn onto the last trail section.
This one was the orange trail.
This trail wasn’t as long as the yellow or blue trail. It also wasn’t as technical. Most of this trail was relatively flat. It was also less rocky. It times, it was runnable, but I had to watch
out that I didn’t trip over rocks. Out
of a sense of caution, I rarely ran here.
Mostly, I was hiking at a brisk pace.
The trail was marked with
orange flagging, but occasionally there was also a rock painted orange. I was near the end of the trail when I ran
past an orange rock, but couldn’t see any more orange flags. Then a volunteer yelled to me that I needed
to turn, and he pointed to the orange flagging.
I told him that the position of that orange rock had led me to keep
going in the wrong direction. After
that, he removed the orange rock.
After turning to follow
the orange flags, I quickly got back onto the road. I just had to go a short distance on the road
to reach the airport. There was an aid
station there with a sign indicating this was the turnaround point.
At the turnaround, one of
the volunteers gave me a blue band to put on my wrist. I needed that to prove that I had gone all
the way to the turnaround.
Coming back from the
airport, the route was different. In
this direction, I didn’t need to take the orange trail. Instead, I stayed on the road. I thought that would be easier, but this road
had two long hills that I needed to walk.
Also, the road wasn’t as direct as the trail.
When I was coming back
from the turnaround, I saw five runners who were a short distance behind
me. I didn’t know if there were more,
because I couldn’t see runners who were still on the orange trail.
After walking two hills,
I started down the long hill that would take me back to the bridge. I started to see more runners going the other
way, but they were wearing half marathon race bibs. The half marathon started at 10:30, so these
runners were making good time.
I eventually saw two
runners on their way out with marathon bibs.
They were way behind me at this point.
I wondered if they were on pace to beat the seven-hour time limit. In fact, these were the fast runners, who
were already on their second lap.
I was still getting
cold. I had a Tyvek jacket tied around
my waist. My last option for keeping
myself warm was to put on my jacket.
That would be difficult to do with mittens on.
The end of the lap was
right in front of my hotel. I was
expecting to make another bathroom stop.
I figured that would be the best time to put on my jacket, since I would
need to take off the mittens anyway.
Also, I would be indoors where it’s warmer.
I paid attention to where
I was at midnight. I was couldn’t quite
make it back to the hotel before midnight.
I was just a few blocks away. I
could see the sun to my right. I wanted
to take a picture, but I didn’t want to take my gloves and mittens off.
Sunday, May 31
In the last kilometer of
my first lap, I started to feel pressure in my intestines. At first, I thought I could make it to the
end of the lap. Then I wasn’t so sure. With about 200 meters left in my first lap, I
ran down a short hill, and with every stride, I was losing control of my
bowels, and there was nothing I could do about it until I got back to the hotel.
When I finished that lap,
I ran into the hotel. One of the tour
guides asked me if I needed to use the bathroom. I said, “more than that.”
My room was close to the
hotel entrance. I ran to my room and
went to the bathroom. I had already
soiled my tights and my sport briefs. Fortunately,
I had packed two different types of leggings, not knowing which one I would
wear. I also had another pair of sport
briefs. I don’t remember why I packed
those, but I was glad I had them.
I took off my shoes and
then took off the soiled clothes and tossed them into the shower stall. I would have to deal with washing them after
the race. After cleaning myself up, I
changed into clean clothes. While I was
at it, I put on dry socks and my Tyvek jacket.
Then I headed back out to start my second lap.
My official time for the
first lap was 3:02:40. By the time I
went back out to start my second lap, my time was closer to 3:17. Stopping at the hotel cost me about 14
minutes, but I still had roughly 3:43 to finish my second lap. I could afford to be about 40 minutes slower in
my second lap than I was in the first lap.
I knew the second lap would be slower, but it seemed unlikely that I
would be that much slower.
As I started my second
lap, I found myself not only taking walking breaks on the hills, but sometimes
walking briefly on sections that I ran on my first lap. I wanted to force myself to run, but I had to
be realistic. The first lap had taken a
lot out of me, and I was getting too tired to keep up the same pace. My pace on the roads was a couple minutes
slower.
When I got onto the
yellow trail for the second time, I was fatigued, but I had a better idea what
I was doing. I was able to pick my lines
with more confidence.
At one point, I made a
bad step and turned my ankle. I wasn’t
sure if my race was over, but I walked it off, and within a minute my ankle was
feeling OK again.
My first mile on this
trail was two minutes faster than it was in my first lap. At the time, that surprised me. In retrospect, I was faster this time,
because I wasn’t stopping to take pictures.
The next mile had two
steep climbs that were really tiring. I
was slower on those climbs the second time around. Even still, I was shocked when I got the next
split from my watch. I was seven minutes
slower this time.
After the yellow trail,
there was an aid station. Up until now,
I was drinking their energy drink at each aid station. This one also had gels, so I ate a gel.
Next, I got back onto the
wooden boardwalk. This section is
runnable, but I didn’t feel like I was running it as fast. After running the yellow trail again, I had
some soreness in my lower back and my glutes.
The trail wasn’t just tiring. It
was beating me up.
The blue trail starts
with a tough climb, and I could tell I was slower this time. When I had to take big steps uphill, I had to
pause to catch my breath. I had the same
experience on the steepest climbs of the yellow trail.
Even after the trail
leveled out somewhat, I wasn’t maintaining as brisk of a pace as I did on the
first lap. Then I reached more steep
climbs. Mile 18 included part of the
blue trail, but it also included the boardwalk.
My pace in that mile was about the same as it was in the first lap. Mile 19, which included two steep climbs was
six minutes slower. I wasn’t halfway
through my second lap yet, and I was already at least 15 minutes slower than I
had been in the first lap.
On the red trail, I
sometimes found it difficult to see the trail markers. The sun was at a low angle now, and I was
having to look right into the sun on this section.
When I reached the end of
the trail, I decided to use the bathroom again.
I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have another “accident” later. As it turns out, I really didn’t need to
stop.
I was happy to be back on
roads again, but I needed to do more walking this time. Even before I reached the first long hill, I
had to take a couple short walking breaks.
After running the trails again, I was just too tired to force myself to
maintain a continuous run.
At the 32K mark, I
checked to see how much time I had left.
I had 97 minutes to run the last 10.2 kilometers. That seemed like it shouldn’t be too
difficult, if I could force myself to run most of the runnable sections.
There were still numerous
cars on the road. They were coming from
both directions. At was after 2 AM now,
and I wondered if anyone in this town ever sleeps.
I had to take occasional
walking breaks, but I forced myself of keep them short. After crossing the bridge again, I started up
the longest hill, and I had to walk almost all of it.
At the 36K mark, I had 65
minutes left. I could now afford to
average almost 11 minutes per kilometer.
I felt good about that.
The first time I reached
the beginning of the orange trail, there was a course marshal showing me where
to leave the road. Nobody was there this
time, but I saw the sign, and I recognized the turn.
Parts of this trail are
runnable, but I was so fatigued that I was afraid I would trip on a rock. Instead, I did my best to walk it at a brisk
pace. The next time I got a split, I saw
that I was maintaining the pace I needed, even on the trail.
As I was nearing the end
of that trail, I didn’t see the orange rock that had confused me the first
time. I was also paying more attention
to the orange flags. I was relieved when
I got back onto the road. I still had
some tiring hills, but no more trails.
I reached the turnaround
and got a second wrist band. Coming back
from the turn, I didn’t see anybody behind me.
The runners who were right behind me on my first lap had all passed me
when I made my long bathroom stop at the end of that lap. It’s possible that there was a runner who was
still on the orange trail, but as far as I could see, I was the last runner on
the course.
Coming back, I not only
had to walk the hills, but it was tough to force myself to run where it was
flat. Instead, I really focused on
walking as briskly as I could, even on the steep hills.
I checked my pace at
every kilometer. I was consistently
going faster than the pace I needed to average to beat the cutoff.
With three kilometers to
go, I knew I would finish with at least five minutes to spare. That margin kept improving.
I finished the race in
6:51:37. I was immediately handed my
finished medal. It’s a pretty cool medal,
with different designs on each side. It
also has a small spinner.
I thought I was going to
be the last finisher. Then I found out
that there was still one more runner on the course. At 4 AM, she still had one kilometer
to go. Everyone went outside to watch her
finish. She came in after the 4 AM deadline, but we
all cheered for her.
The hotel bar stayed open
all night. Several of the other runners
were having post-race beers. I opted for
hot chocolate instead. I needed that to
warm up.
A few people asked me my
impression of the race. As far as how
much I enjoyed it, that was hard to answer.
My “accident” tainted my race experience. As far as difficulty of the course, it
probably ranks in the top five. It also
ranks in the top five for scenery.
After I got back to the
room, I still needed to rinse out the filthy clothes that I discarded
earlier. Then I took a hot shower. I wanted to get some sleep, but it was almost
time for breakfast. I decided to stay up
a little longer and eat breakfast before going to sleep.
I slept for almost four
hours. Then I decided to get up, so I
would be able to get to sleep in the evening.
When I went downstairs, I saw that it was foggy again. I’m glad we didn’t have to run in this.
I only saw a few other
runners in the afternoon. Some people
had booked optional excursion. Others
were sleeping. I didn’t feel up to going
anywhere, so I had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant with a couple from
Singapore.
After lunch, I started to
get sleepy again. I took another brief
nap. Then I had to wake up and get ready
for out celebration dinner.
The Albatros staff hosted a dinner for us in the evening. It was a three-course meal, and between courses, they showed a video of the race, told us how many runners there were from each country, and recognized the top finishers in each race. Here's a link to the video: Race Recap Video
I slept well that night.
Monday, June 1
Monday morning, I saw an
example of how quickly the weather can change in Greenland. When I went down to breakfast, if was so
foggy that I couldn’t see any of the icebergs in the bay. Ten minutes later, the fog was gone, and I
could see all the way across the bay.
After breakfast, I went
on a six-hour boat trip to the Eqi Glacier.
We also saw some
interesting icebergs.
On our way back from the
glacier, we did some whale watching.
In the evening, we had
our final dinner together. It was a
Greenlandic buffet, with lots of fish and seafood. Then I had to get to bed early, in
preparation for an early flight.
Tuesday, June 2
Tuesday was a long
travel day. First, we flew to
Kangerlussuaq. The flights to
Kangerlussuaq were all on small planes, so the group was spread over five
different flights.
My flight was at 7 AM, so
I had to be up early. The hotel had an
early breakfast for us at 4:45.
I had a five-hour layover
in Kangerlussuaq. I would've had time
to leave the airport, but there isn’t much of a town, other than the
airport. There’s a hotel, a grocery
store, a gift shop, and some houses.
Rather than explore, I just stayed in the airport terminal. A few of us passed the time by playing cards.
After everyone else
arrived, we were all on the same flight to Copenhagen. The flight to Kangerlussuaq took less than an
hour, but the flight back to Copenhagen took almost five hours. Also, we took off almost an hour behind schedule. Copenhagen is three hours ahead, so it was 9:30
PM when we arrived, and it was 10:30 by the time I had by bags.
I had one more night in
Copenhagen before flying home, but this time I stayed at a hotel that I could
walk to from the airport terminal. I
wanted to get there quickly, so I could have dinner and get to sleep. I also wanted to be able to get back to the
airport quickly in the morning.
My room was on the top floor. The room was warm, the AC didn't seem to be working, and I couldn't open a window. Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping.
Wednesday, June 3
I flew home from Copenhagen on Wednesday, with a layover in Amsterdam. It was my second consecutive day spending at least 14 hours on planes or in airports. It's also the second consecutive day that I have to adjust to a significant time difference. I’m very tired now, and I only have two days to recover from the jet lag before my next race. Hopefully, I can catch up on sleep by then, because my next race is a 24-hour race.
