Transgrancanaria is a race a I’d fancied having a look at
since watching some coverage last year, the scenery looked amazing, the weather
was warm and it looked like a good day.
So back in January I completed the medical forms and signed up for the
race, put it to the back of my mind and concentrated on my next block of
‘marathon’ training. It wasn’t until the
middle of February when I started to check out the course profile and previous
times that I realised this was slightly more challenging than I’d realised, if
I’m honest I hadn’t given the distance or elevation any thought!
125km and 8,000m of climbing, bang in the middle of marathon
training when I’m trying to get these little legs of mine to move a bit quicker
is probably not the best preparation.
Throw in the fact that living in the middle of England I’m a bit of a
‘flatlander’ doing all my training on flat tarmac at this time of year, most
would say that’s not the best way to build up for the event.
Despite my lack of attention to the detail it did present
lots of opportunities, a family holiday in the sun, a great day out in the
mountains, some much needed ‘race’ experience and the chance to line up against
the ‘big boys and girls’ at an Ultra-Trail World Tour Series event. It would of course also help from a training
perspective with some of the longer events planned for later in the year but
possibly knacker my Spring marathon legs, time will tell!
The course traverses its way through the mountains from one
end of the island to the other starting out in the small town of Agaete and
finishing in the popular resort of Maspalomas.
The race kicked off at 11pm on the Friday night, a grand start with live
music to get the adrenaline pumping and the elite runners having their own
cordoned off start area. Not your usual
turn up in a muddy field and off you go start that I’m used to in the UK.
The first 10k gave me a taste of what was to come, 1400m straight
up, mostly on rock. I took a moment half
way up to look back down the mountain at the other 800 or so head torches
lining the trail for as far as you could see, I never get tired of that sight
during these night time events. Avoiding
runners’ flying poles (you should have a licence to use those things) I made
good progress and reached the first check point in 1:19 (52nd) roughly
where I thought I’d be. Game on, this is
going to be awesome.
A quick stop to refill the water bottles and I was off into
the 8km descent before the next 1200m climb.
Well this is where I got taught a lesson, what felt like hundreds of
runners passed me. On every descent the Elite ‘mountain goats’ literally
skipped passed me as I resembled something like Bambi trying to keep up with
them on the technical terrain.
A couple of tumbles, including one a little too close for comfort alongside a pretty steep drop, I decided to back off and run to my ability rather than risk being carried off the mountain in a helicopter! I ran alongside Nuria Picas for half an hour or so. What an amazing athlete, completely focused on the task in hand and moving effortlessly. Needless to say this was short lived and she left me for dust along a technical section, I later learned she retired through injury, maybe I was pushing the pace too hard for her!
The rest of the night was pretty miserable, as more runners
passed me on anything technical I became grumpy, made an awful decision not to
refill my water bottles at the next aid station (so I could make up ground on
those who had passed me) the next one was an hour away, doh! In my state of meltdown I missed a couple of gels
too which this early on into a 20 odd hour race is not particularly
helpful. I made a conscious decision to
take my time at the next aid station, get some food and Coke inside me, reset
and head off again.
By the time I reached Artenara in 4:54 (84th) I
was cold and ready to throw in the towel, I got even colder sitting around as
the wind came in and temperatures plummeted.
I left the aid station a shivering wreck and had to stop again to fumble
around with my pack to get my jacket on to try and keep the wind out. Such an amateur,
anyone with any sense would have done that in the aid station. The next couple of hours were spent just
putting one foot in front of the other willing it to get light with the hope
that would re-energise me.
Sunrise came as I was leaving Teror where I arrived in 8:04
(77th), my spirits lifted as I took my head torch off for the first
time and looked forward to the day ahead.
By now the trail was becoming a little more ‘runnable’ and the views
were stunning. The early morning sun on
the mountain ridges with just me and my thoughts was so peaceful, one of those
moments I only truly appreciate after running through the night and
experiencing the sunrise between the mountains. I was beginning pass some of those who steamed
passed me earlier in night and the next few hours were most enjoyable, I’d
reasoned with myself that this wasn’t an ‘A’ race, sit back and enjoy the
experience and stay in the moment, checkpoint to checkpoint. 
Pico Nieves is the highest point of the route at 1930m. I
reached there in 12:52 (54th) and in good spirits having enjoyed the
warmth of the morning sun and the feeling of moving much more freely than I had
during the previous 8-10 hours. I’d
stocked back up with gels at the drop bag station and from here on it the
course elevation would suggest it was mostly downhill to the finish.
Downhill it mostly was apart from two nasty short but steep uphill
sections that were a welcome break from the constant pounding downhill. I was
once again reminded that my descending on technical terrain was definitely not
a strong point. On anything flat or
uphill I was passing people with ease but as soon as there were any steep downhill
technical parts out came Bambi! The legs
by this point we’re pretty trashed and began to pay for the lack of race specific
training during the last 30km.
I reached Ayagaures, the last significant aid station in
16:04 (59th). There was 12km
to go along a rocky dried-up river bed – it wasn’t what the legs wanted and
there were a few expletives being thrown around by this point. At this stage I’d worked out I was well under
my 20 hour bench mark and as consequence my mind allowed my body to slow quite
significantly, shuffling the last 15km in two and half hours!
The last 300m takes you on a switch back past the finish
line before you run down the carpet to 100s of cheering supporters waiting for
their runners to come in, a truly amazing sight and well worth the effort get
your backside through the race and to the finish line for. I turned the corner to see my wife Gerry and
the children screaming at me as I hobbled last few hundred metres.
A finish in 18hrs 29mins, 61st place, fourth
placed Brit, behind Andy Symonds, Kim Collison and Duncan Oakes. A fair performance considering my lack race
specific training. This was my longest
race since the Autumn 100 last October, the distance and time on the feet were
no problem at all which is a good sign for later in the season and the recovery
since then has been encouraging too.
What I did learn was if I’m to perform to my full potential
at these type of events I need to put in some race specific training, this will
condition and quicken the legs but also give confidence to fly downhill rather
my Bambi style approach! I need to drink
more, dehydration had an impact on my performance in the latter stages and had
I been in true race mode this would have been a problem.
Having the biggest and longest mental break down in the dark
has taught me heaps, it is possible to get through it and providing you stick
at it you’ll be surprised at just how far in the game you still are when you
come out the other side (I was convinced I was 100s of places back when in
reality I was still in the top 100). Finally ensure you do enough non-physical
preparation before, how will you feel? Where do I want to be and when? Plan for those tough periods, how much do you
want it etc? If you don’t it’s a whole
lot harder, but then again I already knew that…………
I had no goal, but the dream
was just to be out there enjoying a day out in the mountains.
Gear used:
Inov8 Race Ultra 270’s
Exposure Verso Head Torch - Seriously bright and with the lightweight battery pack had enough life to run for 8 hours without compromising the brightness.
Salomon S-lAB ADV SKIN3 5 SET race vest - First time I’ve used this,
extremely light weight and super easy to removal gels from the stretch pockets
and stow away the wrappers.
32 torq gels - Fantastic tasting and cause me no gastric
problems, apart from 10 cubes of cheese, a slice of baguette and Coke this was
all the energy food I used.
S!CAPS - Sodium replacement ensures I can just survive on
water and gels without having to worry about electrolyte replacement.
Montane Minimus Smock - Ever reliable, super lightweight
and did the job I needed it to in keeping the wind out. Without a jacket I wouldn’t have finished the
race, I allowed myself to get too cold before I put it on.
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