It must be the altitude or the constant urge to push boundaries further than they have been pushed before. Mountain man Green astounded onlookers today as he perfected the Mo Farrah hill start, shaving tenths of a second off today’s time.
Author Archives: Richard
Stunning views…
There is always something satisfying about looking down as other runners have yet to work their way the trail.
Day One in the Trans Alp house…
So here we are. 10 Months of training. 12 months or organisation. Anticipation, Nerves, adrenalin and a few loose screws. The perfect ingredients for eight days of mountain running. This year 350 teams of two are taking part in the event.
Malc is a cool as a cucumber. Day 1 is only 34k 2083m ascent. How hard could it be?
He has not got the hang of this hugging business.
NASA sends two Apollo Astronauts to 2013 Trans Alpine run
No bags or seats! What has happened to Germany?
So we have arrived. Everything has gone to plan. If not better. With the exception of Richard’s great news. Oh yes his company has told him he has to withdraw and be in work next week! Can you believe it? So whilst Malc is eating every strudel that he can get his hands on, Rich is eating scoopfuls of humble pie. It means Malc will be running stages 3 and 4 alone with only 300 runners to keep him company. Malc is being extremely understanding and Rich is just a little worried about getting too close to the edge on the narrow mountain trails tomorrow.
Quick facts about Oberstdorf so far:
- Europecar has superb customer service – they gave us a lift to the station
- You can’t get plastic bags in the supermarket – so don’t buy more than you can carry
- Station platforms have no seats – so get close to the pavement
- The average length of beds in the hotels is 4 feet
- It is in a lovely village in a beautiful valley – so the only way out is up 1500m and over.
- The Von Trapps still live here
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flew over earlier
- The Child catcher is rumored to have retired here
- It is the first of eight stages of the 2013 Gore Tex Trans Alpine Run
- We start tomorrow at 10:00 am.
Marc, Rich & Malc hit the trail
Another year older but not wiser. It seems the pain of last year has all been forgotten. So we thought it would be a good idea to have another go at crossing the Alps on foot….Well some of the Alps any way. How hard can it be? After all Hanibal managed it with Elephants, all we have to do is get ourselves up and down a few hills! And this year we have support from Marc, aka. Mr organised.
THE RACE 2013
- Teamrace (two persons)
- 8 days
- 8 stages across the alps
- 4 countries
- ca. 250 Km distance
- ca. 15.000 vertical metres
Its a different route to last year, but plenty of great scenery to take in again:
THE STAGE TOWNS 2013
- Oberstdorf (GER) – Lech a. Arlberg (AUT)
- Lech am Arlberg (AUT) – St. Anton a. Arlberg (AUT)
- St. Anton a. Arlberg (AUT) – Samnaun (CH)
- Samnaun (CH) – Scuol (CH)
- Scuol (CH) – uphil sprint
- Scuol (CH) – St. Valentin a. Reschenpass (ITA)
- St. Valentin a. Reschenpass (ITA) – Sulden (ITA)
- Sulden (ITA) – Latsch (ITA)
Shock Horror! Veterans allowed into 2013 Trans Alp
After last year’s Trans Alp Malc and I (with a lot encouragement from Marc) thought it would be a good idea if we teamed up to enter the 2013 Gore-Tex Trans Alpine challenge. With over 100 years between us we managed to squeeze into the OAP category, just. A big thanks to the Trans Alp team after they have spent most of this hear a year putting in ramps, hand rails and larger text on all route markers.
Hoof Hearted? 