Reflections from The Iceland Run
Written by Sebastian Key
Overview
Iceland, where rugged untarnished cliffs meet the wild Atlantic and glaciers stretch endlessly beneath a sky that can dance with the Northern Lights, feels like a dream at the edge of the world. Volcanic landscapes, majestic waterfalls, and serene hot springs shape a land where nature's beauty is both fierce, uncompromising and enchanting. This country of untouched wonder remains largely that, untouched. The perfect backdrop for an adventure on foot.
I’ve been obsessed by the dream of Iceland for years, and in the late summer of 2023, first conceived of ‘The Iceland Run’, although back then we called it ‘Running the Ringroad’. How fast could I run the 1300 km road which outskirts the entire island? A trip which is often taken by holidaymakers in a car, cyclists looking for a challenge, but only once (as far as I could find) by a runner, who took 27 days to complete the run.
My crew and I, consisting of my best mates, all of whom had skills which were necessary for supporting the run, realised that we didn’t have a month to complete the challenge as all of us have other full-time jobs to get back to, instead we had just over two weeks. Hence, we set the daily goal at 100km. We wanted to take the plunge and see if each and every day, we could ring out as much distance as possible from my feet and see just how quickly we could go in these hostile lands.
The Stats
Total Distance: 1272 km
Daily average: 77km
Longest Run: 94 km
Elevation: 9482 metres
Pairs of hyloIMPACT used: 4
Coldest Day: -2 degrees
Daily Calories Consumed: 7,500
Injury trouble
Injuries, expectedly, were the mission within this mission. Running back to back ultra marathons isn’t very easy on the legs, especially when all the treatment and recovery was happening inside a small campervan, in the middle of nowhere with limited equipment. Managing the slow degradation of my body was the aim, however muscle fatigue isn’t the only trouble with this amount of volume, instead, treating sudden and intense injuries quickly became mine and my physio’s biggest assignment.
The end of the second day, 176 km into the run, I collapsed to the ground. The top of my left leg was in agonising pain and I could barely lift my leg due to the inflammation in my hip. This persisted into the start of day 3 only relieved by some creative K-taping and compression strapping from my physio, Tommy Jermyn. Our philosophy which we then attacked each of the growing injuries, ‘if it works and Seb can still run, just keep doing it’.
By the end of week 1, my list of injuries were as follows; seriously inflamed Rectus Femoris, achilles tendonitis in both feet, Quadriceps tendonitis, shin splints, and severe tenosynovitis in both feet, this final one being the most serious.
Tenosynovitis occurs when the tendons in the front of the foot are so inflamed that I was unable to properly pick up my feet, every step felt like rods were being pushed up my shins and despite only being day 5, this completely inhibited me on downhill stretches (of which there were many). We had to find a way to relieve this intense pain and support the tendons before they ruptured.
Tommy and I read some articles about other runners who dealt with the same injury and used a Dictus band to relieve the pain and support the foot. Given we were in the middle of the Icelandic countryside, we had to fashion a Dictus band with what we had in the van. Two rubber bands on each foot and lots of bandage tape. Attaching both rubbers to the front of my laces and then taping them to my shins, this mimicked the effects of a Dictus band, creating an artificial tendon on the outside of my foot, enabling me to pick it up again. This method was used for the remaining twelve days of the run, which seems insane. However, if it worked and Seb could still run, we just kept doing it. (See below for example of Dictus band and Tommy’s homemade recreation on my feet).
Children with Cancer UK
Running for something. In my other life, away from trainers and long stretches of road, I work as a fundraiser for the awesome charity Children with Cancer UK. My younger sister Libby, suffered from a brain tumour as a baby which required two surgeries to remove and treat. She is now 20 years old, healthy and happy, and the gratitude I feel towards the doctors and researchers responsible for saving her life motivated me to work for the charity. Fundamentally, we at the charity raise money to fund research into different treatments which can better tackle childhood cancer. There are a vast array of treatments with potential to have huge benefits to children undergoing treatment, both in beating the cancer itself, and leaving them in better health for their development through their childhood. The more money that can be raised for this cause, the more research that can be funded, resulting in more treatments and more children surviving their cancer diagnosis.
Thus far, we have raised an incredible £31,396 for the charity! For anymore information about the work we do and the donate to run, please visit; https://www.childrenwithcancer.org.uk/
Doubt
Leading into the run, I battled the endless pull and push between self-belief and overwhelming insecurity. After all, I am an asthmatic kid who never excelled at running or sports growing up. I had no trainer, strength coach or sports therapist. Other than an exceptionally talented physio, Tommy, I was a lone island in the pursuit of this goal. On the 27th January, whilst training in Hyde Park, I slipped on the edge of a pavement and fractured my foot, leaving me in a boot for 6 weeks and only running again in mid April. With the trip delayed to September, this left me with four months to go from scratch back to physical and mental preparedness for the run. Tommy laid me out a rehab programme and then I got to work, daunted. It was a long and difficult process recovering from injury and building back up to a place where the run felt possible, and given my lack of a coach or professional oversight, I was left with a gaping sense of ‘what the hell are you doing!’
Upon starting the run, all I could think was ‘don’t fail in the first two days’, if I could get through the initial stages, then however far I could make it would be an achievement. The completion of the entire ring road never felt like it would become a reality, especially not breaking the previous record by ten days. The team and I quickly learnt that approaching the road as a whole was not a positive mental state for me, it was daunting and felt exceedingly far. From then on, I never looked at the main map, George did the navigation separately. Each day became a series of tasks to solve, a handful of individual runs to complete and another opportunity to make a gnarly video. These small wins was how I learnt to break up the enormity of the distance into exciting and enjoyable sections.
A day
Each day went as follows, up at 5am, during week one, for week 2 we delayed it at 6am as I was becoming increasingly tired. Breakfast, taping, tea, taping, get dressed, physio, drive to yesterdays endpoint, warm-up, run. I’d then run 20km three time, breaking for snacks, lunch and a brief sit down before carrying on. Once we reached 60km, myself and the team would assess how much time we had left before sunset and how my body was feeling, before setting off for an evening session to see how much further we could make it. That was the routine, 20km at a time, one meal at a time, one process at a time, repeated over and over. Just keep showing up and the distance will inevitably appear behind us.
Upon reflection of the challenge, this mentality is the only way we achieved this run, and is now the cornerstone mentality of what the team and I will attempt in the future. Bringing this run to life took over 13 months of planning, requiring more than simply booking flights and a van, but finding investors, sponsors and the right people to believe in me and the boys. I am not a professional athlete, I’ve no track record of ultra-running and am asthmatic, the road to the start line was a long one. However, one task at a time, we found the right people who wanted to come on this journey with us. hylo athletics was an early partner for the run, and as luck would have it, were releasing the first batch of hyloIMPACT right when my first training block began, in this case, fate was on our side. The boys and I had discussed how we wanted this trip to leave as little trace as possible, to make sure that we appreciate the beautiful country of Iceland properly, by respecting its nature and not leaving an environmental impact on our way around. Running in hyloIMPACT shoes therefore was a perfect cherry on the top in that respect, as well as being damn good ultra running shoes! Through joining the hylo athletics community, the boys and I became part of a culture of running bigger than simply our challenge, a collection of runners all dancing to the same tune and believing that seemingly insurmountable challenges can be realised and protecting the world in which we all share is a mission for everyone, not just the elites. If you care about your challenge deeply enough, you will find others that care too, allowing you to put your heart and soul into your endeavour. And let me tell you, when my trainers first touched the Route 1 ring road in Iceland, with 1300 km to go, boy I ran like the world depended on it, because at that point, for us, it did!
What’s next?
Currently, we are decompressing, recovering and trying to consolidate everything that happened during those seventeen days on the road. My memory of much of the trip is patchy to say the least, particularly of the final seven days, as I averaged only four to five hours of sleep per night. However, the fire of adventure continues to burn for me and the team. Whilst the run felt at times impossibly difficult and my body does have some wounds to show for our effort, we already wish we were back out there, on the road, showing up everyday and putting our hearts and soul into a mission. For now, we are seeking rest and reflection, however soon, we’ll be back, running somewhere wild and running for something great!
What a life!
