Halloween Hike 160 km (tossu/trail running)
Halloween Hike
Virrat (2025 edition; 2026 location unannounced as of June 2026) → Virrat (same venue as start; loop/hub-and-spoke format)
Race guide
Updated 29 June 2026
The Halloween Hike 160 km is a Finnish ultra held in Virrat, built around a hub-and-spoke loop format that repeatedly brings runners back to the same event centre at Marttinen / Vanhamäki. With only 1,237 m of total elevation gain and a high point of just 178 m, this is emphatically not a mountain race — it is a flat-to-rolling endurance slog through Finnish forest and lakeland terrain, where the real enemy is cumulative fatigue, wet ground, and the cold darkness of a late-October night. The race sits firmly in the ultra-distance bracket at 160 km, and with a generous 27-hour cut-off from the Day 2 deadline, it rewards consistent, measured effort over raw speed.
Course & Terrain
The course is a multi-loop design centred on the event centre at Marttinen / Vanhamäki, which you pass through no fewer than four times across the 160 km — at the start, around 47 km, 71 km, and 101 km, before returning there to finish. The only significant out-and-back leg in the early stages takes you to Ladun maja, a café-lodge and route junction at 19 km, before you circle back. The terrain throughout is typical southern Finnish countryside: forest tracks, gravel paths, and boggy or rooty trail sections that can hold standing water, especially after autumn rain. Elevation is modest — the high point is a mere 178 m and total ascent is 1,237 m over 160 km — so there are no genuine climbs to speak of, but the ground is rarely flat for long, with persistent small undulations that quietly sap the legs across the back half of the race.
Decisive Sections — Where the Race Is Won or Lost
There are no dramatic mountain passes here to blow up your race in a single moment. Instead, the decisive stretch is the long third loop, roughly from the 71 km crew point through to the 101 km pass. By this point you have been moving for many hours, likely through the darkest and coldest part of the night, and the monotony of returning to the same event centre can play psychological tricks. Runners who go out too fast on the early loops — lulled by easy terrain and a café stop at Ladun maja — often find the section between 101 km and the finish brutally long. The final 59 km from the last event centre pass to the finish line, all on tired legs and with no significant checkpoint in between, is where races unravel. Staying controlled through loops one and two is the single biggest determinant of whether you finish well or crawl home.
Pacing & Fuelling Strategy
Because the event centre is a crew point on every pass (0 km, 47 km, 71 km, 101 km, and the finish), you have an unusually reliable fuelling infrastructure for an ultra of this length. Use it deliberately: treat each return to Marttinen / Vanhamäki as a pit stop, not a social visit. Change wet socks, refill all nutrition, and have warm food waiting from your crew or drop bag. Ladun maja at 19 km is a café-lodge, so a warm drink or snack there is a reasonable early-race option, but do not linger. Pacing-wise, the 27-hour cut-off over 160 km works out to roughly 10 min/km — but a flat Finnish trail will see most finishers moving considerably faster in the early hours. Aim to run the first 47 km at a genuinely comfortable effort, hike any soft or technical ground to protect the quads, and bank time in the bank rather than the legs. Caffeine strategy matters: save it for after 90–100 km when night fatigue compounds physical tiredness.
Conditions to Expect
Halloween Hike runs in late October in inland Finland, which means you should plan for temperatures ranging from just above freezing down to several degrees below, particularly overnight. Rain, sleet, and even light snow are all realistic possibilities, and the forest trails can be saturated or icy. Wind chill on exposed sections will make ambient temperatures feel significantly lower. Mandatory kit and layering are not optional considerations — they are survival requirements on a 160 km race that can take well over 24 hours. Waterproof shell, insulating mid-layer, gloves, hat, and a high-lumen headtorch with spare batteries are essential. Traction devices (microspikes or similar) may be warranted depending on overnight temperatures. Daylight at this latitude in late October is limited to roughly 9–10 hours, meaning the majority of runners will spend at least 15 hours in darkness across a 20–27 hour finish window.
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Checkpoints & cut-offs
⚠ Auto-researched from public sources — aid stations and cut-offs may be incomplete. Confirm against the official roadbook before race day.
0 km · 143 m · —
19 km · 120 m · —
47 km · 100 m · —
71 km · 123 m · —
101 km · 131 m · —
160 km · 144 m · Day 27:00
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Course data researched from public sources — verify against the official roadbook.