We booked this race as an alternative to Transalpine, as we’d done it last year (Andy’s third year) and this seemed like a more sensible amount of running, but still getting in the mountain trails that we loved about TA. So after convincing (he may say nagging) Andy to enter, he finally agreed and I signed us up quicker than Usain Bolt. However, after a week or so Andy admitted that this would be great training for Transalpine and it would almost be a shame not to enter…….and so without being told twice I promptly signed us up for TA as well. Now we had our years races planned out, we could set about the task of training for them. Some of you will know that we entered TA last year but only completed 6 of the 8 days due to insufficient training (on my part) so this year its all about training hard (and efficiently) without getting injured. And Salomon 4 Trails was essentially a training camp for Transalpine. In the lead up to this event I felt my training had gone well, no injuries, hitting all my sessions and my last few long runs had felt pretty good. I was ready.
So after a surprise visit to Frankfurt to watch my sister in the Ironman (surprise to her, not us obviously, we knew where we were going) we headed daaahn saaaaf to the mountains. The excitement started to build as we approached mountain territory and I couldn’t wait to get started. After a very efficient registration process and a day relaxing by a lake we were good to go. Race day dawned and breakfast was a quiet affair with only Andy and I in the breakfast room. We headed down to the start where the square was now thick with runners, stretching, drinking coffee, applying Vaseline or all of the above at once. The race is run by the same company as Transalpine so its exactly the same format, fill your gel bottle, get your kit checked then into the pens for the daily blast of “Highway to Hell” before the off. This event doesn’t make you run as a pair so we had agreed to run days 1 & 4 together with the middle two days being run solo. This is mainly because my descending is not that great and Andy always has to wait for me so it’s a nice opportunity for him to be able to run at his own pace. And if I hadn’t agreed to this then he basically wouldn’t have let me sign us up for Transalpine……..
Day 1 Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Ehrwald
Distance – 36.4km
Ascent – 2,410
Descent – 2,113
Time – 6:38
Energy – 7/10
Leg soreness – 0/10
Nausea level – 0/10
Enjoyment – 7/10
Number of retches when taking gel – 0
Finish relief – 5/10
Day 1 was a bit of a b*tch with 6 climbs and descents over the 36km route. Most of the days will feature 1,2 or possibly 3 climbs but this stage had us going up and down like yo-yo’s. Some of the ups were ridiculous, tip of toes type climbing that went on and on around the corner, just when you thought it was over. The weather was lovely, if a little hot but I’d take that over rain any day. The first aid station was not where it was supposed to be, for reasons I still don’t know, so after 2 of the climbs and approaching middle of the day heat (we set off at 10am this morning) with only 1 bottle of water and no more gel left, things started to get a little laboured. Thankfully the mountain villages or sometimes even just a property have these water troughs with what I hope is fresh water running into them, so we all flung ourselves on this like we’d been in the Sahara for a week and drank our fill.
I was doing well on the downhill’s and staying with Andy and actually passing people, which was unheard of last year. In fact, I had traffic jams of walkers behind me most of the time. The views were lovely as we had the Zugspitze as our focal point for the whole day. Andy’s challenge to me was to pass 10 people on the descent into town which I did with km’s to spare ;-)
We ran in together in a time of 6.38 and stuck our legs straight into the towns fountain for some recovery.
A fairly uneventful day and to be honest I have trouble remembering details of the first stage other than it was hot, scenic and harder than I thought it would be!
Day 2 Ehrwald – Imst
Distance – 45.3km
Ascent – 2,723
Descent – 2,940
Time – 9.15
Energy – 6/10
Leg soreness – 5/10
Nausea level – 1/10
Enjoyment – 6/10
Number of retches when taking gel – 0
Finish relief – 8/10
Day 2 has 2 big climbs and descents. Andy and I agreed to do the first climb together, then he was going to go off on his own. The first climb was going ok, passed the aid station with no incident and carried on up. Then we turned a corner and were face with……The Ice Wall. Literally, an almost sheer mountain face covered in snow. With nothing but fresh air below you if you slipped. Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic but it looked like it at the time. Most people had poles so were tripping up it with a bit of purchase, but us Brits don’t bother with such aids so we just dig our toes into the snow and hoped that if you slipped, you wouldn’t go too far. This was probably the most frightening part of any race I’ve done and I did not enjoy it one bit. I was very glad when I reached the top and saw there was no snow on the other side, which was our descent. I was even more pleased when I heard at dinner that night that towards the back of the field it got so slippery and treacherous that they had to pull people up by rope………
So a quick snap at the top and I wave Andy goodbye and see how long it will take him to disappear out of sight. Turns out, not that long. The first part of the descent is very rocky so I take my time but it soon turns into soft sandy shale so its easy to dig your heels in and do a kind of slide/run down. My shoes were full of stones but it was an Ok descent. I even passed people on this too, truly amazing! The second climb was a killer and the thing with this race is that when you think you’re at the top, you’re not. I walked up stuck behind a girl who was taking her sweet time and now and then I’d manage to pass her but when I stopped to have a drink or a gel she would get in front again. And behind me was a guy who was struggling more than I was who seemed to take a break when I did. Which was fine, until he took a gel and spent the next 3 minutes retching all over the place. This happened 3 times on this climb and I was very glad when we got to what I thought was the top so I could leave him. But, as I said, this was not the top at all. I knew what elevation we were going up to and I knew from my Garmin what elevation I was at and was very pleased to see we were within 12m of our max elevation. But then we went down hill. And then, around the corner looms another peak. This was a theme for the rest of the race so in the end I just resigned myself to never thinking I was nearly there and always assuming there was more to do. You certainly get value for money in this race!
So the new top was reached and to my horror the first part of the descent jutted out on a tiny path that was hanging over the edge of the mountain with nothing but blue sky below. And, to make it worse, the surface was hard, slippery shale. Again, those with poles seemed to fair better than me and the big orange “dangerous section” sign the race organisers had thoughtfully put up did not make me feel that comfortable. In fact, I must have looked very uncomfortable as they had a mountain guide in this section who asked me “alles gut??” “NEIN!” all was not good. So he came and peeled me off the rock I was clinging to and kindly walked me round the death path to safety. I didn’t dare look but I’m sure the views were spectacular……….I was quickly picked up by mountain guide number two who had obviously witnessed my paralysis and though he too kindly helped my on my way, I’m sure he had a good old laugh with mountain guide one after I’d gone. I didn’t care though, I was so relived to be off that section and it genuinely took me 10 mins to feel calm again.
But, I survived and set about the task of getting 1,500m down in 11km. Luckily for me, a lot of this was on forest roads so I stuck my iPod in and gritted my teeth to the increasing pain.
I finished only 30 mins after Andy, it turned out he was a lot quicker on the descents but any time he had on me was negated by his frequent and lengthy rest breaks on the second climb.
Tonight we got a massage which seemed to help, and an early night ready for day 3!
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| Going it alone |
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| Beautiful views but we had to earn them! |
Day 3 Imst - Landeck
Distance – 33.6km
Ascent 1,884
Descent 1,804
Time 6.15
Energy – 4/10
Leg soreness – 9/10
Nausea level – 5/10
Enjoyment – 4.5/10
Number of retches when taking gel – 0
Finish relief – 9/10
Pigs – 2
So this was the “easy” day. 20 miles, one big up, one big down. No fuss. It was also the hardest day to start in terms of only being half way through the event when you set off. Again, Andy and I decided we climb the same speed so we set off together with him leaving me when we got to the top. Another day of false summits but the climb up was actually pretty enjoyable. It wasn’t too steep in most places so you could enjoy the scenery, which was very green and lush. As we neared to top(s) it became more rugged and rocky and steeper but really amazing views all around. I felt pretty lucky to be up there looking at them. As planned, Andy disappeared off into the sunset, leaving me to pick my way gingerly down the hill. This was another big descent, 1,800m in 11km. I really struggled here and had to walk more than I was running. My quads when I descend for a long time become extremely painful, it must be the way I’m breaking but if you don’t break you’ll land on your face, or off the side of the hill. But its agony. I’m counting down the meters I’m dropping and its pretty disheartening to see the town you’re running to way down below, looking like a model village. I break the time up by doing some filming, but by the end of the week I realise that I don’t have any footage of me actually running! All 15 or so videos, I’m walking!
I am being passed at a rate of knots and see girls I’ve not seen before coming by me so this must be bad! Eventually at 6km to go I get passed by the girl I got stuck behind on the climb the day before. We were each others “always see” person, we obviously ran a similar pace so saw each other every day. She said “come on, we’re so close!” so I started running behind her. We started chatting and her English was excellent (thanks to 16 years living in Hong Kong!) and it was a great distraction and I barely noticed the descent after that. We reached the town and finished together, which was nice. Andy was waiting for me, again coming in 30 mins before me. It was a 6.15 day so relatively early which meant we got a nice bit of recovery time before the pasta party.
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| Working hard |
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| Sure beats the view from my office window |
Day 4 Landeck - Samnaun
Distance – 48km
Ascent – 2,840
Descent – 1,820
Time – 10.15
Energy – 3/10
Leg soreness – 11/10
Nausea level – 8/10
Enjoyment – 4/10
Number of retches when taking gel – 7
Finish relief – 25/10
Pigs – 0
Killer cows - 2
So the final day was full of mixed feelings. Relief that this was the last day, awful nausea at breakfast that lasted most of the morning, and the knowledge that this was the longest, hardest day that they’d made even longer due to a rock fall. The first 4 hours were climbing. Lots of climbing. Some on road, some ridiculously steep, some where I got chased by a cow. Most of which I felt sick for. Its not easy getting up at 5am after very little sleep and having to try and cram down bread, cheese and spam before running. I knew it was important to keep on top of nutrition as I’d not eaten much at breakfast and the climbs were going to take it out of me, and I needed something for the downs. So I tried to take a gel fairly regularly, but sadly they just didn’t want to go down and I spent a lot of time retching at the side of the road. Thankfully they did all stay down and got me up one of the steepest climbs of the race to the first checkpoint. I am desperately trying to forget the rest of this day as it was quite possibly the hardest single thing I’ve done. The climbing seemed to go on forever and I think its clear just how hard this stage was by the amount of time we were out there. Andy had decided to take poles with him today and used them on the ups and I stole them for the downs as I needed something else to help me brake as my legs were totally gone. They did seem to work though I was still painfully slow down the hills. Then I got sore arms from using them as brakes so not sure what the solutions is. I definitely need to find a way to stop this crippling quad pain when I descend. Thankfully I had the poles when we came to the snowy descent, similar to the Ice Wall of day 2 but not so much of a risk of death. I was skiing down the tracks of those that had gone before me and was possibly the most fun part of the whole event! Until we realised that the reflection of all that snow had caused pretty bad sunburn to the backs of our legs which by hour 8 was beginning to smart!
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| Smiles because we've done the last climb of the race |
It took forever to get to the last aid station and this was down a long, steep forest road that was runnable, but only just. We were both low on food so needed to get there soon and overtook a number of people on this section. We eventually arrived, fed ourselves and I said goodbye to the lovely women running it as this was the last time we’d see them. Only 8km to go. Time on the clock was about 8h.45 and we still had a way to go. The last 8km were a slow drag up hill which got steeper as we got towards the finish. We decided the quickest way was to run and broke it up into sections of run 10mins then rest. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled to run more than I did there. But we chipped along as best we could, just desperate for this to be over and passed more people here than we had all day. According to Andy’s parents who had been following us online back home, we were fastest there that anywhere else and made up a lot of places. It certainly didn’t feel like we were moving fast but at least we were moving! Each step took us closer to the finish and that couldn’t come soon enough. But then we hit the last 4km which was all uphill again. We walked for a bit and ran where we could and were told by a couple of finishers that we had “about” 2km to go. Brilliant, we thought. But then 10 mins later we saw the 3km to go sign and almost cried. The last section of this race was pretty dire, unattractive road in a fairly empty area and through what looked like a quarry road at one point. It was laughable really, all that time running through stunning landscapes with amazing views and we finish walking up a hill in no mans land! We ran the last 500m or so as we were determined NOT to finish this by walking over the line and it was nice to see that the finish was still there and they hadn’t all packed up and gone home. Phew, that was a tough stage with 10.18 on the clock but so pleased to have made it.
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| Done. |
Sadly we didn’t make it to the awards party as there was some trouble with Andy’s bag which was a real shame but we had got what we wanted out of this “training camp” which was to get round uninjured and take some of that fitness with us into our training for the next spell in the mountains.
During that last day I said that I didn’t want to race Transalpine, but now I’ve been back nearly a week I cant wait to get back out there. There really is nothing nicer than running in that kind of terrain and though this race kicked my arse, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had and I’m pretty proud of myself to have got round it. 100miles along and 10k of ascent in 4 days is a pretty tough event – tougher than anything I’ve done before. I remember being chuffed when I finished my first Ironman, thinking that was pretty hard but this event is far, far harder. And for any of my triathlete friends that may disagree with that, please come and do this next year and you can see for yourselves!
So now for a rest and recovery before the training into transalpine starts proper. But this has given me a lot of confidence going into the next event so as long as I can keep myself injury free I should be in fine form come September.
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| I can't wait to come back....... |
