Day: May 10, 2012

Transvulcania Press Release

TRANSVULCANIA. ANTICIPATION RUNNING SKY-HIGH
– two days to the race of the century

Transvulcania Ultra Marathon, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain – May 12, 2012

La Palma, May 10, 2012
The Transvulcania Ultra Marathon nears and months of anticipation will come to an end on May 12 on the Spanish island of La Palma where the world’s ultra running legends will gather for what looks like being the race of thecentury.

Anticipation and speculation, because never before has such a deep élite field lined up at an ultra. On race day, follow the race live on our Facebook page!

The entry list reads like a who’s who of ultra running, with top European and American legends among the favourites. Hotly tipped are Spain’s Iker Karera, (last year’s winner with Miguel Heras) and superstar Kilian Jornet, straight out of a winning ski-mountaineering season and looking stronger than ever. Britain’s Andy Symonds is looking good for the podium and so is Frenchman Sebastien Chaigneau, after winning the Transgrancaria earlier this year.

The strong American contingent is headed by Mike Wolfe, Goeff Roes and Dakota Jones. British “ex pats” living in the US are Joe Grant and Ian Sharman, each offering different qualities: Grant with a mountain background and Sharman blessed with speed….Anton Krupicka’s insistent shin problem and Rickey Gates’ hamstring injury will probably mean they won’t be in racing shape.

The women’s outright favourite is New Zealand’s Anna “Frosty” Frost, who has been on the island training for weeks and is in good shape. Look out too for IAU Trail World Champion Maud Gobert and Corinne Favre, past Skyrunning World Champion, both from France; Americans Darcy Africa, 2011 Hard-Rock 100; Nikki Kimball, 3rd 2011Western States 100 and 2007 TNF Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®; Kasia Zajac from Poland, Zugspitz Super Trail 2011. Spain’s Monica Aguilera last year’s winner, will be competing again in this super strong women’s field. Her time last year: 10h0’. The men’s time to beat 7h32’ by Miguel Heras.

The mammoth line-up continues with top French runners: François D’Haëne, Thomas Lorblanchet, Yann Curien.; Csaba Németh, Hungary; Florent Troillet, Switzerland; Gustavo Reyes, Argentina; Giuliano Cavallo, Italy; Philipp Reiter, Germany.

The strong international team participation includes major industry players:
Adidas, Arc’teryx, Asics, Montrail, New Balance, Pearl Izumi, Platinum Sigvaris, Salomon, The North Face.

The 500 runners from 22 nations face a daunting 8,525m ascent and descent over the 83 km course which starts at sea level on the Atlantic coast and travels along the island’s backbone to the summit of the volcano at 2,423m before descending back to the sea and finishing in the town of Los Llanos where the streets will be lined with the applause of thousands of spectators.

From sea to sky, the Transvulcania Ultra Marathon perfectly embodies the skyrunning philosophy and unquestionably represents one of the most spectacular of the 20 races on the 2012 Skyrunner® World Series.

Follow the race live on our Facebook page on Saturday! See http://www.skyrunning.com and Twitterr for race report. Race website http://www.transvulcania.com

Transvulcania – Day 1

I suppose really this is day two as I travelled to Birmingham via train on Wednesday for an overnight stop at the airport. Not something I really wanted to do but a 0600 departure didn’t really leave me much choice. A couple of glasses certainly helped with a good five hours sleep and then the early rise.
Travelling to the island of Las Palmas is actually an ultra in itself. Being a small island, not many flights go to and from the island. When you take into account that 500+ people will be making the journey for the weekend of May 12th to take part or watch the ‘showdown’ as I like to call it and you realise that a direct flight just isn’t going to happen. Anything but.
Departing Birmingham at 0600 I arrive in Amsterdam 0800 to then make a quick transfer to a different terminal for a KLM flight to Madrid. Luckily these two flights meant that my luggage would be forwarded on. Always a little nervous of this but I am pleased to say that my baggage popped out on the belts in arrivals at Madrid.
Out of the airport I then had to check in, go through security and pick up an Iberia flight for Tenerife. A real lack of information in Terminal 2 at Madrid meant questions had to be asked and lucky I did… Turns out my next flight was Terminal 4, a bus drive away! I had time but it was added stress. Check in was stress free thank goodness and security was smooth. Took me a while to find my gate, it would appear that Madrid don’t like to sign things too well.
At the gate I was looking out for Marcus Warner from Ultra168 in Australia. He had flown through the night via London and was picking up the same two flights as me to the island. We had tentatively arranged a meet up. Not knowing each what each other look like the potential not to meet up was possible, however, it soon became apparent that we found each other straight away… Marcus was wearing head to toe Salomon gear and a Suunto Ambit on his wrist. I was wearing Hoka’s, an Endurancelife Team t shirt and a pair of sport glasses on my head. We stood out!
The journey now should be pretty straight forward we thought but unfortunately at Tenerife we needed to collect our bags and re check in for the last leg to Las Palma. This shouldn’t have been a problem but sitting on the runway at Madrid for thirty mins didn’t help our cause.
We made the twin prop flight to La Palma with time to spare. As we approached we had a real sense of what this island is like… Pretty small and basically hilly with one serious mountain in the middle.
The journey from the airport to our hotel took some 60 min and was basically driving up for 40 min and driving down for 20 min. Our destination a super hotel complex.
Marcus and myself arrived at 1850 and we had a press conference at 1900. That is the quickest check in, shower and change I have ever had! We had a quick catch up with Anna Frost and then attended the press conference. All plans have been laid out for the next few days.
Tomorrow morning, Marcus, Bryon Powell and myself will meet up with the runners for a pre race jog at 9am. This could be painful… I can’t help but think that Kilian and the rest of the runners going at a nice steady pre race pace may still very well be too quick for me but hey! I will tell you about that tomorrow.

Lakeland Recce 50/100 mile April 2012

At the end of March I bailed the EcoTrail de Paris, I had an awful day! One week later I was in the English Lakes with the prospect of running 30 miles or so over the Lakeland 50/100 mile route.
Let’s put things into perspective! The EcoTrail is a a lovely race, it has some hills but in comparison to the English Lakes, it’s flat! Therefore I was really hoping that the previous weeks ‘bad race’ was a one off!
The Lakeland team really do a great job. Not only do they provide the recce’s at a very affordable price but they also provide so much more… The night before the run we had a series of lectures, Marc Laithwaite from the Endurancecoach discussed nutrition and Gaynor Pryor talked about how she was first female in the 100 mile race in 2011.
On the morning of the recce we awoke to a light frost and some blue skies. Thank goodness! The Lakes can be a tough place when the weather turns nasty. We arrived at our meeting point at Waterhead just before 0800. This allowed me some time to record some audio for Talk Ultra. I spoke to last years winner, Terry Conway, I also spoke to a few ultra novices. It’s great to get a variety of feedback.
Our day ahead was covering Pooley Bridge back to Ambleside. Depending on which race you are doing, this is roughly the first 30 miles of the ’50’ or mile 55 to 85 in the ‘100’ give or take! It’s a stunning part of the Lakes with wonderful views, good runnable trail, some tough climbs and a day when the sun shines, it’s just a pleasure to be out running.
Always surprises me with a recce how some runners just fly off at the start…. Guys, it’s not a race!! The whole purpose of a recce is to run the course taking good mental notes of where and how to navigate, build up some time on your feet and also meet and talk to some like minded people.
The gradual climb out of Pooley Bridge soon had us running some great single track as we by phased Ullswater on our right and headed down to what would be a checkpoint in the race. For today’s purpose, we had no checkpoint. We crossed the road, through gates and then jogged through the valley to start our first big climb of the day.
We walked, talked and discussed the race ahead in a few months. The Lakeland is a tough route and get your pace wrong and you’ll pay for it! Today’s weather was proving quite hot and you could already see some struggling.
Over the climbe we then had a period of good running before heading down to Mardale. Terry Conway had caught up and we chatted. Turned out the day previous he and some Irish friends had run the first 52 miles of the course; nice! He had no visible signs of his body showing what his previous day had entailed. I guess that’s the difference between being a winner and a participant!!
Around Mardale is beautiful and today with the sun out and blue skies it looked incredible. It’s tough underfoot in this section with the terrain constantly changing. It’s rocky and rolls up and down. At Mardale head we had a checkpoint and an opportunity to refuel. It was very welcome! I did my best to consume a malt loaf.
The climb up out of Mardale is a long steep one. The path snakes it’s way to the top helping to reduce some of the gradient. From the top it’s a long run down over rocky terrain. This is when you are really glad you have Hoka One One on your feet. The full suspension mountain bike of run shoes. Yes, they make that much difference.
At the bottom a right turn and over a bridge and another rocky climb… This time the path was blocked by a 4×4 stuck precariously with its wheels spinning. At the top of the climb another 4×4 getting ready to help winch the other guy up… I wondered why? And then thought to myself, they probably had the same thought… Why are they running?
We dropped down to Kentmere and a final checkpoint before the last long tough climb of the day. A few runners started to suffer here. It had been a long day, a hot one and this climb sapped the calfs and hamstrings. At the top the decent ahead is very technical and I guess it’s like running down a quarry. It’s all rocks and they just vary in size and sharpness. Again, the Hoka’s are a dream on this stuff and it’s noticeable how much less impact you get.
Some trail now and finally road. A right turn, a left, up the trail and now we are parallel to Windemere and on the final run in to Ambleside.
We covered just under 30 miles and it was a stunning day. You cannot beat the Lakes on days like this! What was also nice was the easy and relaxed pace of the day. No pressure just running, chatting and meeting new people.
That evening we had some chill time and a great meal in Ambleside.
Monday, Niandi and I headed back out on the trail and started on the remaining section of the Lakeland route heading out to the Langdales. We didn’t run far, 90 mins but it was great to get back on the trail and it was good for the legs to feel fresh.
Looking forward now to the full 50 route recce in June which will take place over two days. Day one will be about 50k with remaining 30k done on day two.