I did say that I would be updating my blog at the end of each stage but due to lack of wifi in some of the Alpine accommodations we were in, this wasn’t possible. In fact, I think we had Internet access in no more than 2 of the places. So, there was no daily updates which meant not only could those that wanted to follow my progress, couldn’t, it also meant I’ve forgotten a large amount of each stage. I mean, you’ve seen one mountain, you’ve seen ‘em all , right?
Wrong. Each one seemed to hold its own charm and beauty, and its own dollop of hell. So, I will attempt to write what I can remember or at least what I felt were the highlights/low lights of the trip. Bear with……this will be long. So long in fact, I'm posting as 2 entries.
So our little group of 6 arrived at the registration tent on Friday afternoon, after a fairly non-eventful journey. We delighted in our freebies, the best one being a huge 100l bag they give you personalised with your race number, so that the wonderful organisers of Plan B can tell which is your bag and make sure it arrives at your hotel, and with smiles for the camera and some jolly banter we headed off to our first hotel and next, the pasta party and briefing. There were a lot of very fit looking Europeans, and this made me feel a bit like an imposter. But – I was eager to enjoy the experience, however long my less than ideal training would allow that to be. So with our bellies full of pasta and our minds full of the route for the next day, we turned in.
Stage 1 Ruhpolding to St Johan. 50km (1663m asc. 1667m desc.) 6hrs34 – 21st mixed team of 76
The morning of stage one was a bit damp, but spirits weren’t as we all diligently filled our gel bottles, got our bags checked and filled into our pens. They have 3 pens, A, B and C and your start pen depends on your finish time and ranking from the day before. After the ritual of ‘Keep on Running’ by an ageing rocker called Marty, and a blast of the very apt ‘Highway to Hell’ we were off. The pace was high as everyone was fresh and excited and we ticked along at 5m/km pace for the first 5-7km. I mentioned to Andy that this probably wasn’t the best plan as we still had about 340km left to run so we steadied it down to between 5.30 and 6m/km.
The course took us through some lovely terrain and scenery, the most impressive of the day was running under a rather large waterfall. A long section along a ridge cut into the side of the mountain with a rather alarming drop to the right and then a very slippery descent thanks to the damp tree roots that weaved all over the paths. I hit the deck several times and it was here that we discovered my descending ability is not existent. Poor Andy is actually pretty good at downhills and he had to put up with not only my painful speed but also my whinging. I was tiring and ready to stop running now. But sadly we still had 10km to go. 3 more down hill then 7 along the river. This was pretty boring and I think it may have been an alternative route as Andy didn’t remember doing it when he raced this route before. It took for ever and I was very glad to cross the line. 21st mixed team out of 80 in a time of 6.34. A good first day done which was made even better by our host for that evening cleaning and drying 6 pairs of muddy running shoes! She even washed Jamies running kit!! Refuel on alcohol free beer and pasta and hit the sack, ready to tackle day 2. t
The waterfall day 1
Stage 2 St Johan to Kitzbuhel. 35km (1849m asc. 1742m desc.) 6hrs09– 30thmixed team of 72
After pulling on clean, dry shoes courtesy of our lovely landlady, we went through the usual routine of filling bottles and getting our bags checked. Andy and I were in pen B this morning thanks to our ranking on stage 1. Our clubmate Sergio was running with us today as his team mate Jaime was suffering from an on-going injury and had finished several hours behind Sergio the previous day, though at least an hour can be attributed to him stopping in a café for 2 ‘honey-ccino’s’ (cappuccino with honey in, he helpfully translated for us). We were all a little amazed he was starting at all to be honest but this was his race and his decision. (Turned out he wisely pulled out at one of the checkpoint during this stage). I was a little nervous about Sergio running with us as I was feeling the effects of stage one and wanted to take things a lot slower today. I thought he’d be better of with our other friends, Chris and Christophe as they were coming in ahead of us but Sergio assured me he wanted an easy day as well. The route for today went into a single track climb about 3km in so the plan was to run hard to get as far up the field as possible so as not to get stuck in the bottle necks that were bound to form. Highway to hell started and we were off, running hard. The plan worked and we powered up through the field and I was very glad when the climb started so I could slow down. I didn’t, however, expect to slow to a complete stop. Even though we started in the second pen and ran hard to get a good position, there was still a traffic jam. The climb was very technical with more exposed, wet tree roots and clearly even those faster people ahead were finding this a slow ascent. I didn’t mind an impromptu break and took on some gels and water whilst we waited. Sadly, not everyone wanted to wait and there were several idiots who tried to go off piste to get ahead of the jam. This resulted in nothing more than entertainment for the rest of us as we watched them struggle through the bushes and boulders. We got moving again and could see why there was a jam. The ‘dangerous section’ was hard work with metal ropes attached to the side of the mountain to help you up, or keep you from falling off, I’m not sure which. Thankfully, our trio all escaped the danger and emerged smiling the other side 
The running along the top section was really rather nice, soft pine-y carpet and if you avoided the wet tree roots you could really get some distance covered. Of course there was a large descent which wasn’t as bad as the previous days (Sergio even managed a few Kilian Jornet moments) before another climb that gave us spectacular views of the ridge we’d just run along.
Although this was a shorter stage, only 22 miles, due to the step climbs and no doubt a dusting of fatigue (from me, anyway) this stage took us almost as long as the 50km stage the previous day. I struggled in the last 7ish km and poor Andy and Sergio were forced to walk when I did (which was fairly often, along flat paths). For some reason though, in the last km we (or possible I) decided to hammer it and overtake a team ahead (not even in our category). A joy to see the finish line and have a sit down and a hot dog.
Stage 3 Kitzbuhel to Neurkirchen am Grossvenediger. 46.5km (2258m asc. 2147m desc.) 7hrs56– 45thmixed team of 71
Sergio chose to go with Chris and Christophe today, I wasn’t offended, more relieved. He was clearly capable of running faster and whilst Andy had no choice but to run with me, Sergio did. His partner Jaime was now out of the race and was now supporter extraordinaire. Not just for us, he seemed to be best friend with most people there! So the 5 of us lined up ready for what the mountain had in store for us today. I was feeling really lethargic that morning with no energy thanks to a bad night’s sleep and 53 mile of running in my legs. I knew today had a climb even the organisers described as brutal at the previous night’s briefing so I was under no illusion that this 29 mile run was going to be pretty. It stated with a straight up climb of 1,100m ascent in 9km up a slalom ski slope. Once we got up there the runnable sections were forest service road and in all fairness, pretty boring. I was suffering now and not enjoying myself. We were walking through fog so thick that you can barely see the people 3m ahead of you. After a refuel at the aid station that appeared out of the mist, we were climbing again through a field of cows. There were a lot of fields of cows in this race and there were very unperturbed by us all. You know a climb has got pretty ridiculous when you have to pull yourself up by tufts of grass with your hands. We got chatting to an English couple, Kris and Kelly who knew several people we did in the running community back home. We whiled away the climb talking about races we’ve done in England before they left us (well, me) in their dust when we finally hit the down hill. Before long we were climbing again up into the fog. This gave the impression that we were alone on the hillside, I’m not sure if this was just a point in the race where that sometimes happens as people thin out, or if the obscured view of anything other than Andy’s bum made it seem that way. Either way, I actually enjoyed it. As much as I love the banter and chats with other people to help pass the time, it was nice to alone. We spent the climb talking about the pro’s and cons of pulling out of the race. It had got to the point where I was almost at capacity for mileage in legs. I knew it was meant to be tough and that most people were probably feeling that way but I simply wasn’t enjoying being there. This conversation was the point in which I realised I wasn’t about medals or finishers shirts or bragging rights, I was about having fun and enjoying what I did. Funnily enough, after a bit of food and a runnable section, I started to feel better. We ran along the ridge on soft trail with very few people about and I started to enjoy it again. The weather wasn’t great and it’s a shame we couldn’t see any views but I still look back at this section of running as one of my favourites. Maybe I was making the most of it as I knew the last 10km were the ‘brutal’ downhill.
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| Up on the ridge |
One more aid station and straight into the descent. This was a 1,200m descent in 8km and to give you some idea, the cable car we took to get back up for that evenings dinner took 16 minutes. I steeled myself and promised Andy that I would do my best. However, after approximately 200m I was hurting. I needed frequent stops to relieve my quads, which felt like they had torn. I’ve had lots of advice about downhill running and how to “just relax your legs” but with the ground being so uneven and rocky, when I tried to do this I started getting out of control and then found slowing down even more painful. The trouble with this race is that you use your quads for climbing and descending and unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a lot of anything else! I was forever letting people thunder by me, (how do they go so fast?!) and even had a little cry at one point. It was so painful and I was dog tired. the 5km to go sign that usually seemed like a relief just felt like a sick joke. I walked, I rested, I stumbled, all the while with Andy giving me instruction and encouragement. We had previously tried me leaning on Andy’s shoulder to take some of the impact off my legs but this just led to Andy getting niggles on the side I was leaning on so clearly wasn’t the way to go. So he either patiently ran behind me, or ran off and then sat and waited. My quads were so tight and sore that I couldn’t even kneel with my bum on my heels. So when I slipped on one of those pesky tree roots and ended up in the kneeling position, it was excruciating. I thought I had actually torn my quads. The scream I let out made the poor German guy behind think I’d done something far more serious as Andy struggled to get me to my feet. It was laughable really, even at the time. We finally got to the tarmac-ed section and this was much more runnable. I found my stride again and we were clicking along at sub 5m/km pace, picking off teams as we went. We were still so high I wondered how we’d get down in the 3km we had left but soon enough we were running down the finish chute with one more day ticked off. A long day at almost 8 hours but pizza pasta and salad we had back at the top of the mountain was the best tasting ever!
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| The cable car between dinner and bed |
Stage 4 Neurkirchen am Grossvenediger to Prettau. 43.5 km (21997m asc. 1420m desc.) 7hrs48– 50thmixed team of 68
Any thoughts of pulling out at this point were soon quashed after being informed that it was a 4hour drive around the mountain range to get to the next town. Clearly, it would be just as much of a pain to try to arrange transport than to just run it. Or so I thought. I’d had a good night sleep, foregoing the briefing and being asleep by 8.30pm so felt better than I had the previous morning. The “highlight” of this stage was we were climbing to the highest point of the race at 2,665m. And there was snow at the top. Sergio had been dropped by Chris and Christophe the day before but was starting with them anyway. He was happy to run alone though if he needed to. I don’t think I could have! The start of this stage was a long flat on roads which was a killer. It was obvious by now that people were suffering as the drop out rate was getting bigger every day (the final drop out rate was over 50%). Sadly, at 2km it claimed one of our own, Christophe. He had ITB issues, probably due to hammering the 8km descent the day before. But, Chris ran on with Sergio and I suspect had a better day because of it. Christophe wont mind me saying, and even agrees, that he probably started way too hard, and unfortunately paid the price.
We had a promise of another waterfall and once we hit the forest roads I began to look forward to this. It could have been that this coincided with the first aid station though…….
Andy was having an unusually quiet day and when prompted, he confessed that he was bored. He’d done this race twice before, so had already run this route once (it alternates between an Eastern and Western route each year). I guess when you’re tired and you know whats coming, you probably would be fed up. I was actually feeling ok on the climb up past the water fall, it was slow going but gave you a chance to take in the scenery of the waterfall. Am English guy started chatting to us about our Endurancelife kit and he and Andy spent the rest of the climb talking. I think this helped bring Andy out of his boredom and tried not to be offended when I realised that part of his boredom could have been to do with spending 24/7 with me. You do have phases when you just need someone else to add a different dimension. So I swallowed my tears and feeling of rejection (haha!) and ploughed on along the valley. We lost the Englishman, Ceri, as he was waiting for his partner who was a fair bit slower than him and concentrated on getting the next 12km covered. This was a bleak moment for me, you could see this runnable forest road stretching on into the distance with people like ants in the distance. I don’t enjoy seeing where I have to run and the distance ahead of me like that so I really struggled. Thoughts of pulling out returned with a vengeance and had there been a rescue car I would have got in it in a heartbeat. There wasn’t one though so we broke the running into run 10 mins, walk 1, which probably equated to about a mile at a time. Thankfully we arrived at the foot of the mountain and the change in terrain and pace was very welcome. I knew this was going to be a long climb so got stuck in. I didn’t mind going up, it was the coming down I was hating. The climb took an hour, and was pretty hairy in places. I kept remembering to look back and enjoy the view, as that’s what I was there for after all. Our English friend Ceri caught up with us again, preferring to run at his own pace then wait for his partner. I think they were paired up when they arrived at the race so I cant imagine it was much fun running at less that half your normal pace with someone you don’t even know! So he and Andy chatted their way up about everything and nothing whilst I concentrated on fulfilling my promise to my mother of not falling off the mountain. I was wondering how I’d be effected by the altitude but I have to say that I didn’t even notice it. Andy and I put it down to our religious POWERbreathe training so if anyone wondered about these things or wanted an edge on altitude, this is the tool for you!
As we neared the top we could hear the whistles and cheers of part of the crew, who were also running the stages and waiting at a point to cheer people on, and up. We threw a few snow balls and high-fived our way to the summit and enjoyed the views it afforded. The highest point of the race was done! Only problem was, we had to get down. The first part was pretty slippy as it was basically just rocks covered in snow. I gingerly picked my way down with an increasingly frustrated Andy running ahead then waiting for me. I really was trying my best but rocky steps fronted with planks for wood that served no purpose other than to trip you up were not helping matters. This descent went on for ever it seemed before we hit a bit of flat which I was rather annoyed to see a camera man was walking faster than I was running. One more brief climb before the final couple of km’s which were down hill. By this point, I simply could not run down them anymore and even walking was agony. I willed the end to come thoroughly beaten up and in pain and ran the final 1km with a grimace on my face, which Andy kept saying was really a smile because of all the fun I was having! Another nearly 8 hour day and we didn’t hang around at the finish, well aware that we were the last in our party to come in. Found our mini bus and headed to our hotel. I had a couple of real beers so I must have known then that I wasn’t going to start the next day. I spent hours thinking about it and discussing it with Andy and others in our group and decided to sleep on it. Andys revelation that stages 5 and 6 were the worst of the race, with 6 being a flat tarmac-ed half marathon then a climb and a horrible descent also put me off and we deliberated about what he would do if I didn’t run. This changed hourly between him also pulling out and him running with Sergio and Chris, so we decided to sleep on it…….
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