13/07/2026
Expedition Estonia is not just a race. It’s a long challenge with your body, your team and the wild side of Estonia.
🗺️ Around 200 kilometres. Running, cycling, canoeing, navigating, making decisions in the dark, staying awake, maybe sleeping for a short moment, then getting up and moving again. The race starts in the evening, which means the night is not something you avoid – it’s part of the course. You move through forests, bogs, roads, water and everything in between and at some point the challenge becomes very simple: keep making the right decisions for a very long time.
🌱 In a race like this, preparation starts long before the start line. It’s not only about being fit. A strong body helps, of course, but Expedition Estonia is often not decided by who is fastest in the first hours. It is decided by who eats early enough, drinks consistently, keeps their feet working, dresses smartly, uses transitions well and still makes good decisions when the head gets tired.
In the final week, you are not going to build a new physical base. What you can do is arrive fresh. Lower the training volume, keep the body awake with a little intensity and let recovery do its job. The goal is to stand on the start line ready, not already tired.
🍌 Food should also be planned before the race, not improvised when the energy is gone. For long endurance efforts, carbohydrate loading 24–48 hours before the start can help fill your reserves. But if you have never done it before, don’t suddenly turn it into an eating competition. Too much too fast can give you stomach problems before the race has even started.
👣 And then there are your feet. They may not be the most exciting part of race preparation, but they can become the most important one. Cut your nails a few days before, not on the night before the race. Take care of hard skin, test your socks and shoes, and don’t bring anything new to the start line. A small foot problem can become a very big problem after enough kilometres through wet forest, bog and gravel.
⛽️ Once the race starts, the main rule is simple: eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty. The biggest mistakes in long races often happen quietly in the first hours. You feel good, you skip food, you forget to drink and later the body sends the invoice. Start fueling from the beginning. Use the bike sections well, because eating and drinking is often easier there. Keep drinking also during the night and on the water, even when thirst doesn’t feel obvious. Add salts when needed.
🔥 This is also where warm food makes a real difference. At three in the morning, a proper hot meal can restart both the body and the mind better than another sweet gel. Tactical Foodpack is included in the start package, so use it with intention. A warm meal in a transition area is not a luxury – it is recovery, morale and fuel in one.
🏃🏼 Pace is another part of preparation. Choose a rhythm you can keep for 20+ hours, not the one that feels good in the first hour. The beginning may feel easy, but the goal is not to win the first section. Walk the climbs, move smoothly on easier parts and save your legs for later. On the bike, refill your energy. In the canoe, your legs may rest, but your upper body works – and on the water you can cool down quickly, especially at night. Put on an extra layer before you are cold, not after.
🧦 Transitions can save you or slow you down. Refill bottles, eat something proper, change what needs changing, take care of your feet, sit down if needed, but don’t disappear into comfort for too long. Dry clothes in the transition bag can make you feel like a new person. So can dry socks.
💤 Sleep is also a strategy. Some teams may go close to non-stop, but many competitors will sleep somewhere on the course. Plan this before the race. A controlled 15–20 minute nap in the right place is much better than stumbling half-asleep on the route. When tiredness, hunger and cold start working together, even simple decisions become harder.
And maybe most importantly: choose your team well. In Expedition Estonia, teammates are not just people moving next to you. They are the ones who notice when you forget to eat, help you think clearly when navigation gets messy and remind you to keep going when the night feels longer than expected. A good team is worth more than any single piece of gear.
❗️ There are also things that might feel useful but shouldn’t take too much of your focus. Stretching, rolling and massage guns may feel nice, but they are not what gets you to the finish. Sleep, food, fluids, dry feet, smart layers and steady decisions will.
🏆 Expedition Estonia rewards those who respect the basics. Not once, but again and again, hour after hour. Start calm. Eat early. Drink often. Take care of your feet. Keep your head clear. Trust your team.
See you on the course.
