Race Report Pirin Ultra: Hallucinations During the Hardest 100-Miler in Europe
From singing ladies to non-existent runners, this is what running for 43 hours does to your brain.
“From here on, it’s mostly downhill. Only 26 kilometres left. You’re almost there,” is what the volunteer at the last aid station tells me when I’m ready to go out into the night again. He doesn’t tell me it’s 26 kilometers through a dark, dense forest full of technical paths and not well-marked trails.
I would have preferred to take a nap in the warmth of the cabin, but I have to get through. I have to get to the finish line. After over 40 hours of running, with 140 kilometers and nearly 10,000 altimeters on the counter by now, those last 26 kilometers won’t be too bad either. Right?
Through what is clearly a ski slope in winter, I allow myself to slide down remarkably smoothly. I even manage to reach a running speed of about 10 kilometers per hour. At least, in my head, I was going that fast; in reality, it must have been more like a glorified walking pace.
“It’s not so bad, 26 kilometers on such trails,” I think to myself. False hope, when a mere 200 meters later, I see an arrow pointing to the right and am told to follow a path straight down into the woods. Thank you…
