✨ A truly wonderful day — which, unfortunately, didn't end very well. 😪

As I mentioned in my previous update, despite having an injured leg, I decided to run today’s section across my beloved wild Femundsmarka in one go. That meant covering over 72–74 km. I slept well and treated my leg for half an hour before bed using a strong Thai healing cream. I woke up early, feeling light and powerful in my body. The stiffness in my shin muscles and instep bones had improved. Honestly, if I weren’t in the middle of a massive multi-month run across the wilderness, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it. In a few days, it would likely be fine — but that wasn’t the case here.

It was a sunny, warm morning, with my favorite place in Scandinavia ahead of me. I felt amazing and had great company up to mountain number 7 — Store Svuku — as Stina decided to join me. Fueled by all that positivity, I made the call to go light and fast: no sleeping bag, just food for one day, shorts, T-shirt, and a wind jacket. That meant I had to finish the entire section in one day.

We started from Elgå quite early and headed to Gråvola — an emotional mountain for me. It was here that I first saw the real Norwegian wilderness many years ago, during my first hitchhiking trip to Norway. That’s when my absolute love, passion, and addiction for this lifestyle truly began. Back then, we walked across Femundsmarka over 7 days. It changed my life. Today, I planned to run it in just one day, and I felt very confident.

After Svukuriset, we began climbing Store Svuku — a sacred mountain for the Sámi people. I felt strong, the pain was minimal, and my energy was high. At the top, after 15 km, we reached a fantastic viewpoint. We took photos, filmed videos, and enjoyed the view for about 20 minutes. The wind was cold but bearable.

Stina and Čenda started walking back to the car and had to drive almost 200 km through Røros to Vauldalen — my planned endpoint for the day. Life felt really great at that moment. I was confident I could maintain a 50 km/day average pace, as I’d felt strong for several days in a row. The only things slowing me down lately were my leg and the time spent on filming for social media.

Unfortunately, my leg got cold and stiff in the wind at the summit, and I felt more pain again as I descended into the heart of Femundsmarka. Still, it was manageable, and I hoped it would loosen up as I kept moving. I stopped at Oasen — a beloved and also somewhat fatal place for me — a group of trees around a lake on the vast plateau. It's a gem for autumn photoshoots. I spent about 20 minutes there, feeling confident I had enough strength to run through the afternoon and evening.

That was the plan: run as much as possible, especially with more than 50 km still to go. The section after Oasen was long and rocky, but after weeks out here, my balance on technical terrain had improved a lot. I was fast. But then... the leg started hurting more and more. Damn. I still hoped it would be okay. As always on this trip. But not this time.

After about 27 km, it got serious. I dipped my leg into the cold waters of the magical Roa river for about 15 minutes. Huge relief — but only temporary. I was still running on it, over rocks and stones, praying that the muscles would loosen again. But they didn’t.

I really needed to be fast. I had limited food and no extra clothes or sleeping bag. Out here, every kilometer feels like two on the road. The terrain is tricky — marshlands or stones — not impossible, but tough. With a healthy leg, I could have run most of it. Slowly, maybe, but much faster than just walking — which is what I desperately needed.

I tried. But I knew — if I pushed all the way to Vauldalen, I would seriously damage the muscle and wouldn’t be able to continue for days. Huge dilemma.

I knew there was an open cabin around kilometer 46–47. I could stop there. But... after two shorter days, that felt like failure. Before the cabin, the trail was flat and sandy — totally runnable. I tried to run or at least hike fast. But it was obvious, even if I didn’t want to admit it: I had to stop here and give the muscles and instep bones some rest.

Both were totally hard, stiff, super painful, and almost numb to the touch.

So, despite it being only 18:30, and with just 27 km of partly runnable and partly hard terrain ahead, I very sadly decided to stop at Muggsjølia. It really sucked.

I need to be much faster on this long NPL journey. This 3,000 km run across the wilderness is just the first part of the whole project! And maybe even the easier part — just extremely time-consuming. But physically, perhaps easier. Huge frustration. I’m in good shape — just not in the right parts of my leg. 🤷🏻‍♂️😪

Then there’s the filming and sharing on social media — another pain. The editing takes so much time and energy. But it’s part of the game. Still, okay… let’s try to stay positive.

I didn’t have much food — no proper dinner after a long day, just the remaining nuts. I had to save the two sandwiches from Stina for the morning. But that didn’t worry me much. I hoped to move fast the next day.

I didn’t have clothes or a sleeping bag, so I made a big fire in the cabin and went to bed, planning to start at 5 a.m. I spent over an hour massaging both painful parts of my right leg, hoping they'd be okay by morning. I needed not only to reach the car but also to resupply there and continue with my tent — since the weather forecast for the next week looked really, really bad.