From Alison Weston…

Whilst on holiday in this beautiful area within the Arctic Circle I entered the Lofoten 33 km Sky Race with just over 5000 ft ascent. The weather whilst here had been either very sunny and warm, or very wet and cold – not much in between. Unfortunately race day was one of the wet and cold ones. The route starts from the fishing village of Laukvik (amidst racks of cod heads) on the north coast of one of the islands and finishes in Svolvaer on the south coast. Three miles of running on the road along the aptly named Midnight Sun road, there being 24 hours of sunlight currently, led to the first steep climb onto the spectacular Matmora ridge (views a bit limited due to the weather). A steep descent to the road followed before winding back up again towards the partly frozen Botnvatnet lake with snow patches all around. A rather tortuous descent with very slippy rocks, deep bogs and duck boards led finally to Svolvaer where a sauna, a dip in the sea and whale meat burgers were on offer! A great experience and pleasantly surprised to see so many young women taking part. There were 392 men and 321 women completed the event. I completed the race in 5 hrs 42 and was 138th woman.