May 2022 saw the second edition of the Waterville Trailrunning Festival (WTF), an event that a lot of people had been looking forward to for a couple of years. The longest continuous event of the festival, the 130km race, consists of three loops of 43km. What happened over the course of that day and the subsequent night?
It’s not a race, but a personal challenge: ‘107 km of ancient trails and mountains, where pagan and pilgrim cultures collide’. With about 5000 m of climbing, this definitely is a proper challenge – one I’d been looking forward to.
When I mentioned my intention to do this 95km route to some of my running friends two months earlier, most of them just said ‘cool’, ‘good luck’ or ‘have fun’. One responded slightly differently: ‘Sounds like a plan. Let’s do it.’