“Took the skin off my legs”: an athlete from Karelia ran the hardest 74 km

Ultramarathon runner from Kostomuksha Maxim Shatov successfully covered a distance of 74 km at the race in Gelendzhik, which, according to him, was one of the hardest in his life.

The most recognizable trail runner in Karelia, who blogs about his extreme races, is Kostomuk resident Maxim Shatov, who recently returned from Gelendzhik, where he took part in the White Bride Ultra Gelendzhik mountain ultramarathon. The Karelian athlete covered a distance of 74 km with a climb of over 3 thousand meters. It took him a little over 12 hours to do this. The trail race took place in the mountains and on the Black Sea coast in the heat and, according to Maxim himself, it was the hardest race of his life.

“It was not easy because of the heat and the high altitude gain. If for athletes from the southern regions such a high temperature of +27 degrees was normal, then for us, northerners, this is, of course, a difficult test,” said Maxim. – Before this race, I considered the most difficult race for myself to be the race in Teriberka, where 80 km were run in the cold, through rocks, forests and swamps, but here it turned out to be even more difficult. Because of my health and the heat, I had to really fight with myself so as not to get off and finish.”

Maxim finished with leg injuries.

“I came home. I removed the skin from my feet along with my socks. This is actually the first time this has happened. The race was just a bomb. The main thing is that I survived. It’s not a fact that I liked it, but we will repeat it again.”

Maxim Shatov has been running for about four years, and since 2021 he has been running marathons and ultramarathons, including winter ones.

“The turning point for me was the race around Mount Vottovaara the year before. This was my first ultra. I ran 55 km and after that I realized that 10-30 km races were not really my thing. Then there was Dagestan, where I literally walked 65 km through the mountains for 17 hours. This race showed that you need to seriously prepare for mountain trails. To run, not walk.”

Now Maxim is preparing for a new race. In December, he will have to overcome more than 90 km through snow and ice in the forests of Pereslavl-Zalessky as part of the Winter Ultra Trail Marathon.

“There is a desire to move on to races of 100 kilometers or more. Test yourself”.