Photo: Hector Haines in IFK Lidingö colours
To many, the name TioMila is very well-known. And those that have experienced it understand the excitement and the grandeur of the competition. But it takes living it to really get to the essence of the race.
The Scandinavian countries live and breathe for TioMila. In part this is due to the incredible club set-up that exists throughout the region. And the young and old are just as invested as the top runners; between October and April it is a favorite topic. Transfer news, team orders, strategies, terrain discussions,and the like dominate the conversations at clubnights and training.
Of course it’s not all talk. Our training is based around Tiomila too. During the long dark winters, we have many training sessions, races and simulations planned specifically with Tiomila in mind. For example, Tuesday nights at IFK Lidingö are often Long Night training. Our coach plans the training and prints the maps and we go and run. Mass start, often gaffled. The focus for the training is a steady pace – but getting used to running long in the night and in the forest. It is enjoyable to have the others around, and generally we run the training as a team, rather than trying to break away or push the pace too much.
Wednesday night through the winter is a night that everyone gets excited for, as there is usually some sort of race planned. Again, these are almost exclusively mass start and gaffled – around 60-80mins winning time. In Stockholm, there is usually a pretty deep field – 100 or so athletes, many of them national team members. Stockholm is pretty great in this respect – plenty of organised races, not too much snow, always great competition.
Photo by Peter Holgersson
Thursdays are clubnights. We go to the clubhouse and run a training from there on the adjacent map. The night training on Thursdays is more technical – often with a modified map. Usually, the training is taken at a pace and distance is decided by the individual, depending on how tired you are from the previous nights. Afterwards we eat together – food is cooked by others in the club according to a rota. Often it is pretty good, sometimes it is simple – but it is always good to socialise with other club members after training and taking a sauna together.
During the weekends we often have additional focus on Tiomila. The coach will plan relevant training for both Saturday and Sunday, with relay + technical focus and long + routechoice focus respectively. If we can, we will have these training weekends on official Tiomila training areas, often adjacent to the actually competition terrain so that we are as best prepared and as confident as possible when it come to the actual races themselves.
In the spring there are a multitude of relays for clubs to take part in: Måsensstaffeten, Kålmårdsskavlen, Tiomilarepet, Stigtomtakavlen to name just a few. Lidingö teams are usually chosen based on certain strategies to try to create interesting situations – not always just the best team. Runners are tested in these various situations and so a better picture is formed about strengths, weaknesses and attitudes – and the ultimate team line-up and tactics are based around these.
It’s undoubtedly great fun to be part of a team with a common focus, and it gives fantastic motivation throughout the winter – usually at the point when you need it most! Tiomila is coming…excitement is building. Hope to see you there!
Photo: Last year's IFK Lidingö TioMila first team.
On The Red Line notes the international nature of many of the top teams; in this team the first five runners are from different countries (leg 1 is on the right of the picture and then they are in leg order.) Hector took the long night leg - the best part of two hours of running starting at about 1am - picking up from 15th to 9th position. There were seven British runners in top 10 teams. 234 teams completed the race.
This year the 5-leg women's race TioMila Damkavlen starts at 1215 UK-time on Saturday 28th April, and the 10-leg TioMila starts in the evening at 1930 UK-time. The winning team will finish about 6.30 on Sunday morning UK-time. There is full internet TV coverage with English commentary by Boris Granovskiy and Graham Gristwood. Yes, the construction of the temporary village will be well underway by now and the interest and excitement is also building.