Last weekend, Finnish runner Satu Lipiäinen broke the women’s 12-hour world record, completing over 95 miles in that time. That’s basically four consecutive marathons run in 3:17.45. The record she broke was fairly fresh, previously held by Dominika Stelmach of Poland, who covered 94.8 miles in January.
At the 2023 Kokkola Ultra Run in Finland, Lipiäinen pushed the record nearly a kilometer farther, averaging about 7:33 mile pace throughout the race. In warm and windy conditions, on a flat 864.2-meter gravel and tarmac looped course, Lipiäinen completed 177 laps, with the second place runner over 30 laps behind her.
Though the 27-year-old ultrarunner has competed in other ultras, like the 2022 IAU 100K World Championships, where she took fifth place, and made her 24-hour debut in February, this was her first time tackling 12 hours on the outdoor track. In a translated recap of the race she posted on Instagram, Lipiäinen said that she went into the competition without an actual goal, not knowing what pace she should run.
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“I was simultaneously afraid of going too quiet and missing opportunities, and going too fast and getting under my feet,” she wrote. “In addition, I went into the race just to do my best and see what happens, but the internal pressure was surprisingly strong.”
Due to “mental challenges,” the heat, and a fast start, she says she dealt with “surprisingly severe anxiety.” It was an unsuspectedly hot day, and she had to request ice cubes to put around her neck after a few hours.
“I almost couldn’t make my head up with anything,” Lipiäinen wrote. “Somewhere at 4 [hours] I was seriously considering calling it just because I wasn’t having any fun.”
But after a few hours, she says she picked up some momentum: “My head cleared and I noticed that the run [was] progressing nicely.”
While Lipiäinen wrote on her blog that she found it a bit overwhelming when she began to hear chatter about the world record a few hours before the finish, in the end, she said “it was quite magical to go around in a completely still, darkened evening, knowing that in half an hour the world record would be broken.”
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Abby Carney is a writer and journalist in New York. A former D1 college runner and current amateur track athlete, she’s written about culture and characters in running and outdoor sports for Runner’s World, Like the Wind Magazine, The New York Times, and other outlets. She also writes about things that have nothing to do with running, and was previously the editor of a food magazine.
