Thy Trail Marathon

This weekend I ran Thy Trail Marathon 2025 - a 42 kilometer trail race in Thy National Park.

Thy Trail Marathon is in the upper part of Northern Jutland, Denmark 🇩🇰:

Last year when the tickets were sold I was too slow. I never got one. However, a runner I know - Martin - was unfortunately injured and was so kind to offer me to buy his ticket here in January 2025. I immediately accepted when I got that chance. Couldn’t miss this - apparently - highly popular trail race in Denmark.

I was up pretty early to get to the race in time: at around 04:00 AM. Took a few hours to drive up there (from Billund where I live). Upon check-in I got my bib and a nice original Buff:

Oh - not shown - I also got a tracker to be put around the ankle. A bit clumpsy but it did stay firmly attached throughout the race.

At 09:00 AM all 42K runners where put on busses and driven to the starting line at Lodbjerg Fyr. Our task was then to get back to the finish-line in Klitmøller (where we got the race bib and Buff etc.).

At the starting-line we were a lot of runners - 211 (!) so it was pretty busy there. Also; I met my good colleague Thomas (bonus info: my earlier Engineering Manager at The LEGO Group):

I shared the first 3-4 kilometers with Thomas. But after that I took off at a slightly higher pace (Thomas said it was “OK” 😬). I cannot remember when I last took off this “easy” for so long … only to then afterwards turn on the gas. Quite fun - there were a lot of runners I had to pass. In fact I think I ran for at least 20 kilometers before I was settling in to “my place” in the race. I have to admit I did burn a lot of energy there (😂).

Anyways - Thy Trail Marathon has its signature quality; It can get pretty wet out there on the route. I heard that last year was insane (they walked in water up to their chest for hundreds of meters apparently) … but this year also had some:

It was actually quite fun. You know … I did expect it - so it was no shock at all. Perhaps for some 😉.

Other than that it was an amazing route. Thy National Park is one of the most amazing places in Denmark in my opinion. In fact I ran there last year for “Cold Hawaii Ultra 2024” (an 80K trail race) - but in the opposite direction. I loved it then - and I loved it this cold winther too. We were also lucky that it didn’t rain at all and the weather was quite calm. Here are some more photos showing the beautiful landscape we were so privileged to run through:

Notice the beach segment. We had some stretches of that. I don’t know maybe 3 or 4. Like always running on beaches can be pretty tough. But after having run a few trail races I have started to develop a good effective (but slow!) technique that gets me through it; mouse-step running (bad translation I’m sure 😂). I simply run extremely short steps … and don’t walk. I learned that trick after studying an older trail runner woman pass me multiple times during my very first trail run a few years back. It’s a fantastic technique. Slow … but in the longer term … faster than walking/running/walking/running. And it seems to take less effort - both physically and mentally (because you are not “knocked out” by having to walk after being exhausted by running).

After 42 kilometers I thought I was done. But no … couldn’t even see the finish line. I knew they would do that to us. Typically “hardcore” trail races. They try to mess with us 😆. It took 1 additional kilometer before the finish-line was near:

And yes … I totally had to take a photo of that finish line and the people watching me (and they others) 😆. Tired but proud.

Recommended?

Yes! Absolutely - highly recommended.

Thy Trail Marathon is insanely popular in Denmark. It’s sold out really fast - so if you want a spot then you have to act fast when they sell the race tickets for it.

I now “get it”. Why it is so popular. It is super well organized. Very well marked. Aid stations for every 7 kilometers (you don’t need to bring energy nor water. I didn’t). Iconic beautiful trails in National Park Thy. Soup and cake at the finish-line. I headed directly to my car after the race … so I didn’t get to enjoy the latter - but I imagine it is wonderful 😀.

For all the reasons above and probably even more it gets my full 5-star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(Whatever that means 🙃)