Transalpine race report

Last Saturday, Brett and I completed the greatest physical challenge either of us has ever undertaken.  It's difficult to describe how hard the race was, especially as the rose tinted spectacles have already started to fall into place, the 8 days blend into one and the memories are cemented by photos of stunning mountain scenes - some of the best we've seen.  At this point you may want to grab a cup of tea and settle down into a comfy chair - an 8 day race means that a race report can only be so short!

We registered the day before the race feeling a little less hard and gnarly than our fellow competitors looked. Thankfully we've both done enough European races by now to know that looks and head-to-toe Salomon kit aren't everything - Brett would be ok in his hand-me-down T-shirts!

Registered and ready to go

Day 1 was 50k and we learned a lesson that was to apply throughout the race - never get lulled into a false sense of security!

At the start - keen to start if a little wary of what might be in store!

The first half of the course was on runnable tracks and we hit halfway thinking we'd come in comfortably under 6 hours. Then we hit single track mud and an average speed of 5kmph. We all slipped and slid - at one point around 20 of us descended a hill on our bums as the chaps who'd made it to the bottom first got out their video cameras.

Day 2 arrived and we hadn't learnt our lesson.  35km - "Brilliant! That'll be nice and short, well be at our hotel by 2pm!"  Not quite....  

We were quite glad that the ridge we traversed at the beginning of the day was shrouded in cloud. It was our first taste of technical single track and orange "dangerous section" signs.  

From day 5 onwards people had generally realised that the aim was to complete the event and gaining 10 seconds here and there due to dangerous overtaking manoeuvres wasn't worthwhile. But on day 2 some people were still a bit excitable - Brett narrowly missed castration by a walking pole at one point on the single track!  We also heard the unmistakable "whop whop whop" of helicopter blades as one guy was airlifted off after a fall.

The average speed for day 2 continued to be slow thanks to more mud. But Brett perked up at the finish - not due to the fact that the sun had come out and we could see the mountains but because we were all given hot dogs at the finish!

The sun comes out

Another highlight that evening was the sauna and icey cold swimming pool at our hotel - our muscles really appreciated it by this point. The pleasure was tempered slightly, however, by our fellow guests choosing to be naked not just in the sauna but also the pool!

Day 3 was another long one - in terms of distance and profile it looked the toughest of the race. But it actually turned out to be easier going than the first couple of days as a lot of the route was on forest track. In particular the first climb which was a long long climb up the Hahnenkamm where we got great views of one of the most famous ski runs in the world as we walked up the entire length of it and more.

Plodding up the Hahnenkamm

The second climb of the day was eerie - we felt like we were in The Lord of the Rings or Labyrinth!. 

Onwards and upwards into the cloud

There was lots of cloud cover and the field was fairly blown apart by this point. So it was often just the two of us picking out the narrow path up and across the mountain. We were off forestry trail by this point and well and truly in high mountain territory which became more apparent as orange "dangerous trail" signs appeared and the mountain fell away to our left. Again the cloud cover disguised the reality of what we were working our way along!

What goes up must unfortunately come down and day 3 also included a lot of descent. The second descent wove its way down to Neukirchen from the ski station 1k above the town. It was a long fairly technical descent and highlighted to us that this sort of running isn't where our skills lie. Our quads were feeling well and truly hammered by the bottom! Hannah also realised that now was the time to move out of minimalist shoes (which had survived the first three days pretty well) and into something a bit more hardy so she didn't feel every rock and pebble under her feet.

A much needed ice bath after the long descent

It's interesting to reflect that we actually did pretty well on the uphills despite the lack of 2 hour continuous climbs near London! Admittedly we didn't use poles like majority of our fellow competitors. But for the most part this didn't seem to hold us back too much. Our general fitness and leg strength was sufficient to get us to the top. But, where uphill repetitions are decent preparation for a long uphill slog, downhill repetitions don't simulate the constant jarring impact of a 10km downhill over which you lose 1km in altitude - this was definitely one of our biggest lessons of the race and something we'd been warned about by people who'd done it before.  As the days went on we started to see more and more people struggling with the downhills - for the most part everyone was super-fit and seemed to be able to keep slogging away on the uphills and flats relatively comfortably.  More on this later....

Back to day 3... in the evening we all got the cable car back up to the top of the mountain. Each evening the local town hosted a pasta party for us and this one was in the restaurant at the top of the ski lift. The food at the pasta parties was really impressive and definitely kept us going. One thing Hannah got overly excited by every day was the large bowl of salad we were given each evening - decent interesting salads not just a limp lettuce leaf and an old bit of cucumber.

The first thing that amazed us when we got the cable car up the mountain was quite how far we'd run downhill at the end of the day. We could follow the various tracks we'd taken as they wove their way under the cable car and it became clearly apparent quite what it was we'd achieved.

The next surprise came at the top of the mountain. The cloud from earlier had cleared and we could see the jagged ridge we'd run along - scene of our Lord of the Rings encounter and orange "dangerous track" signs. It was impressive and lots of people were taking photos. It was our first real insight into the types of terrain we'd be climbing over and we almost felt glad that the cloud had prevented us from seeing it before or in the moment!

Check out the ridge that we climbed over / along!

At this point in the event we were at the end of day 3 - we'd run 131km and climbed / descended 5.5km. For those of you who know Hannah well but can't quite imagine these sorts of distances and the impact it has on your physical and mental state then here's an example of how tiring it is....

On the way back down the mountain after eating, Hannah had her mobile out and was replying to the various messages of support we'd received during the day. As we walked away from the cable car at the bottom, Hannah realised she'd left her phone in the cable car. Cue rusty German conversation with the cable car operator and a 20 min wait while the phone made its way up to the middle cable car station and was sent back on its return journey by the operator there. This 20 mins wasn't badly spent though as we amused ourselves by watching our fellow competitors trying to take the step down from a moving cable car - it certainly appeared to be one of the toughest manoeuvres we had to do all week!

Day 4 didn't see the end of Hannah's forgetfulness. As we descended from our big climb for the day,  Hannah's brand new sunglasses (see previous post for the saga that precedes this incident) remained at the top of the climb admiring the view. Thanks to the brilliant race crew these also made their way back down the mountain. But after this everything was carefully tucked away and neither Hannah's mobile nor any other valuables ever attended the pasta party again.

Day 4 was the day we crossed from Austria into Italy. And rather excitingly for us was the only day when it wouldn't have been possible to make the journey by road in under an hour.

After a rather dull run along a road (which at least gave us the benefit of ticking off the kilometres despite being reminiscent of an ironman run) we started the ascent of the Krimml waterfalls - the 5th highest falls in the world. Luckily we'd visited these as a family the week before and taken lots of photos (they are seriously impressive) so now we could just focus on the job in hand. It was also nice to be familiar with this short stretch of our route - for a little while we knew what was coming next and that was quite refreshing. 

The bottom section of the waterfalls

Stage 4 was when we reached the highest point of the race and our first serious mountain traverse - though we may have got that impression due to the fact that this was the first time our climb wasn't covered in cloud and so we could see what lay ahead. As we looked upwards we couldn't work out how we would make it up the rock and scree. It was only when we got closer that we could see a little row of ants working their way up in a zig-zag line. 

Zig-zagging up the mountain

We could feel the altitude on this climb and it was also very steep. So we took it very slowly and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. 

Still going, almost at the snow...

The key throughout the race was to keep moving forward and that strategy meant we ultimately hit some patches of snow and the top of the climb. The views were wonderful. This photo is one of my favourites of the whole trip...

Highest point - 2665m

Another long descent (thankfully only on snow for the very first little bit) took us down to the finish - halfway through the whole race! Psychologically that was a massive boost and we even reflected that we'd expect the drop out rate (people had so far been dropping like flies) to go down as people would battle on through.

That said the medical tent was busy at the end of day 4. It had been a tough day with another very long downhill. Lots of people had ice packs strapped to knees and ankles. We both got packs for our knees. And later that evening we bought a couple of packs of frozen spinach from the supermarket opposite our hotel - this seemed to serve as a good substitue for peas!

Day 5 began with an immediate steep climb so it was a case of just getting into a rhythm and waiting for everything to warm up. The mood was definitely more chilled out as everyone was feeling the effects of the day before.

One foot in front of the other...

Day 5 was one of our favourites in terms of route. Our first climb was spectacular and again it was hard to see how it was going to be possible. Can you pick out the little trail of ants in this photo? And the people standing right up on top of the ridge?

Can you spot the trail of ants?

 And here's a picture of Brett about to begin the long descent down the other side...

Doing a quick prayer for the quads

This seems an appropriate point to mention both the support crew and the photographers.  At the top of every major climb there were guys from the official support crew waving pom poms and ringing cow bells.  They had hiked / run a significant distance themselves to get to that point.  There were also invariably several photographers, perched in precarious positions so they could get the best photos and video footage of the race.  The whole set up was extremely professional but it was also great to have this support throughout the race.

The other thing that really helped motivate us was knowing how many people were supporting us back at home.  Knowing how many people had sponsored us and were tracking our progress throughout the week made a real difference.  When we received messages saying that we were inspiring people back home this gave us an extra nudge towards the finish lane and made certain that we would definitely drag our tired limbs onto that start line each day. 

Day 5's second climb wasn't insignificant and was followed by a very very long descent - we had to drop 1300m. Hannah's knee really started to struggle on this descent - especially where the first part involved lots of rocks and tree roots to negotiate.

All in all the descent took around 1.5 hours and we were glad when the route started to flatten out a bit at the end.  There were some impressive waterfalls as we ran into Sand in Taufers - there were lots of tourists around and on another day we would have enjoyed running this at a leisurely pace and taking photos.  But at this point we were focused on the finish - and the time of the last shuttle bus back to our hotel.  We came into the finish 10 mins before the bus was due to leave and so got straight onto the bus. 

More frozen spinach was the start of the evening's treatment for Hannah's knee which was starting to feel particularly unhappy.  Hannah also spent around an hour stretching and using the trigger point roller and ball to try and release everything.  This was before visiting the massage team who were accompanying the race.  She massaged her knee with ibuprofen gel and took a couple of ibuprofen tablets before climbing into bed and hoping that a good night's rest would make all the difference...

Talking of a good night's rest...  lots of competitors had been really struggling to sleep since the race started.  This seems to be a fairly normal reaction when you're stressing your body so much during the day.  Brett had no problems at all but, after sleeping dead for the first few hours, Hannah tended to wake every hour or two throughout the night and be wide awake before the alarm went off at 5.45 the next morning.

Day 6 dawned and we realised we had to be more strategic about the race.  Whilst pretty much everyone was walking the uphills and the technical sections, when you could run you had to run. And that became even more important for us once Hannah had hurt her knee. We hadn't had to think about the cutoff times before but we realised that these might be more relevant to us now.  Since the downhills tended to come later in the day, our strategy was to go as quickly as we could on the flats and uphills to ensure we had a big cushion of time when it came to the descent(s).  Day 6 had just one big descent at the end of the day so we had a lot of time to make up time.

This strategy looked a bit dubious when Brett noticed Hannah had gone very pale within 20 mins of the start.  The first part of the route was flat and runnable - but Hannah commented that the pain was so bad she felt sick.  We agreed to continue to the first feed station (13km in) and then reassess. By that point everything had warmed up, Hannah had established that she felt no pain at all on the uphills and the pain on the flats was bearable.

Brett making friends

The main climb of the day was the longest of the whole race - it took 2 hours.  

Smiling because we like going up - no pain!

Probably not smiling at this point - it's hard to show how steep it was in a photo!

Around halfway up we were caught by a competitor we had come to call "the grim reaper".  He overtook us at some point every day and had a running style which seemed perfectly suited to this race.  He wasn't particularly fast and he wasn't particularly young - but he was obviously strong from years of racing in the mountains and he kept up the same continuous metronome pace every day.  On the uphills he would beat out the pace with his walking poles steadily overtaking everyone in his path.  On the flats and downhills he would shuffle along at a slow steady pace.  He showed no emotion and we never saw any sign of injury or discomfort.  Every day we knew he was coming after us and as he approached we would push forward trying to push back that fatal moment by a couple of seconds.

The longest climb was eternal and very very steep.  But we all plodded on - and it was evidence of how fit everyone was that we were still going at around twice the pace of any hikers we saw.

Brett decides to take the alternative route

We made really good time to the top where we were greeted by the usual poms poms, cow bells and cameras.  Hannah put some extra strapping on her knee and we started the descent, trying to smile as we were asked to bunny hop a video camera.  We had a lot of time to reach the bottom of the climb and so we were already starting to think of day 7 which looked like a real stinker of a profile.  So we took the descent really carefully to try and protect Hannah's knee - in fact she did pretty much the entire 8km sideways and backwards which amused most of the other people around.  That said she didn't seem to be the only person using this approach!  And it did mean she got to see some great views back up to the mountains.

Quick break on the descent to enjoy the view

Day 6 ended in St Vigil which we both really liked.  The sun was shining, the town was pretty and there were mountains all around.  

The finish in St Vigil

There was also a well-stocked pharmacy and we were staying in an apartment with a freezer and a microwave - cue big recovery evening!  Other than the usual stretching and rolling we were able to keep up a constant supply of ice and heat packs - our bodies were extremely grateful.  They were less grateful for the fact that we had to climb three little steps every time we went to the bathroom.

We've already aluded to day 7 being a bit of a beast - it had two big climbs.  And so two big descents.  It started with 12km of runnable very gradual uphill and so we planned to get this distance under our belts fairly quickly.  

Running at the beginning of the day

We achieved our goal but what this highlighted was how depleted our bodies were by this point - after 12km we were feeling fairly flat and in need of some food.  So after a quick refuel we headed straight up the first climb - a long slog up a steep track.  We were getting pretty good at those by now!  Hannah didn't feel 100% on the climb but we pushed on aware that we couldn't afford to slack off on the ascents.

Another plod up a steep hill

The flatter terrain at the top of the climb wasn't ideal - there were lots of rocks to step over and manoevre around so Hannah struggled as it was really painful for her to lift her leg over things.  Not great as this was a point where it would have been good to run for a bit.

This is all sounding a bit negative - there was no point at all where we wished we weren't there.  By this point we were right in the middle of the Dolomites and the scenery was totally stunning.  We would regularly go over a false summit or round a corner and say "wow".  In fact, despite the fact that day 7 was the day when Hannah struggled the most and had to focus on moving forward, this was also the day she took the most photos as the route was so scenic.  

We were rewarded for our efforts

Another thing that stopped Hannah grumbling was when she almost stepped on a snake!  Only a little chap but his presence was enough to shock us for a little while and distract from knee pain.

Brett begins the descent

Day 7's first descent was very slow and very ugly.  Even with perfect knees it would have been tough as we've just not practised on this type of terrain where the scree and rocks slip away beneath your feet.  Brett kept himself amused by watching Hannah and a guy with an injured hamstring limping down the mountain together - neither were particularly amused by his suggestion of a race.

We had to descend to the lake, run round it and then head back up again

We eventually made it to the bottom and to a stunning lake - home of the second feedstation.  It was a case of refuelling as quickly as possible and getting on with the second climb.  It was very hot by this point but the views continued to be impressive and we pushed on up to the top.

Brett at the top of the second climb

The second descent was easier but still pretty slow and ugly.  As it flattened out we were overtaken by a couple of girls who were getting excited about hitting the next feed station before the cutoff.  It turned out that they were being over-cautious but it gave us the kick we needed to start running again - luckily the slope was shallow enough by this point and Hannah could run relatively easily.  We made the feed station in plenty of time - from there it was a 5km flattish run to the finish which we were able to do relatively comfortably.  That said, it had been a very long day.  We'd been on the course for 8:45 hours which had definitely taken its toll on us.  But we'd completed it despite Hannah's injury.  And we now only had one day to go - the end was in sight and it looked like we could complete our challenge.

There was a buzz of excitement at the start line on the final day.  Everyone still looked exhausted but there was a lot more energy.  They played "highway to hell" for the final time (sadistically they played it every morning) and the starting gun went off.

At the start, Day 8 - looking weary but happy

We reckoned we could run all the way through to the second feed station at 15km. Hannah had taken ibuprofen and her knee was well strapped up.  Together with adrenaline this meant that we made good progress and didn't stop at the first feed station at all.

There was only one climb to conquer but it was still a decent climb and the field was blown apart fairly quickly.  But this final burst of effort was well and truly worth it as we were rewarded with views of the Drei Zinnen.  This was a real "wow" section of the race - the size and sense of space was just amazing.

King of the world

Space

Hannah took an extra ibuprofen at the top of the climb - what with that and the adrenaline from seeing the "final 10km" sign we needn't have worried about the descent.  

We can do it!

We were both on a complete high as we came down off the mountain towards Sexten.  As the route flattened out we picked up our pace and enjoyed really running the last 5km.  We didn't need to save anything and we could just enjoy doing what we do.  Coming into the finish line the smile was instantaneous.  But at the same time tears of emotion were bubbling just beneath the surface.  We'd started talking about this race 2 years before, we'd made many sacrifices during training and had exhausted ourselves physically and emotionally during the previous 8 days.  And we'd done it.  We'd worked together as a team constantly evaluating our approach and making changes.  And that teamwork had got us to the finish line.  We were both really really chuffed.

Team Goot - very chuffed with ourselves

The time after the race felt odd - it was hard to know what to do with ourselves.  But we did have time to catch up with the various friends we'd made and reflect on what the next challenge might be - when could we get together and race again?

Meeting interesting people from across the world was one of the reasons we wanted to do this event.  the other was to spend 8 days in stunning mountain scenery.  Both objectives were well and truly met.  The whole experience was one of the best of our lives.

Watch this space... The next blog entry will be a lessons learned / reflection on training for and participating in this event. We should be posting it in the next couple of weeks....