Vertical distance: 1967 meters ascent, 1377 meters descent
Horizontal distance: 43,90 kilometers.
The 4. stage from Neukirchen am Großvenediger to Kasern in Ahrn Valley, at full marathon distance and an altitude difference totaling 1931 meters over the Tauern ridge of the Alps, leads over the highest point of the Gore-Tex® Transalpine-Runs 2010, the 2667-meter high Birnlücke. A unique landscape along the path and wonderful views keep the runners company on their way from Austria into South Tyrol’s beautiful Ahrn Valley. A bit of a relief on this stage should be the altitude profile, which only shows one single, but extremely long, climb.
"No, I don't like my porridge!"
Phew... once again getting up at 5:30 am with the need to eat something. It was a real struggle this morning to get something inside of me - and also to keep it there ;-) Very healthy, nutritious porridge - but the taste... at that time of the "day"... not good at all. Anyhey, I managed to eat something. That day was predetermined to become one of the real rough'n'tough days. A long horizontal distance, an epic climb up to the highest peak of this years route and bad weather ahead. All the needed ingredients to enjoy a day of pain, exhaustion, doubts and FUN! So we were shambeling to the starting line, got our backpacks checked - they were really serious today, as the bad weather has been announced. Every participant had to show the warm clothes, first-aid kit, rescue blanket, warm hat and gloves at the check-in gate for the starting lineup. I have to say and emphasize, that the organizers do really everything to minimize the risks of that race. At the end of the day, it's each participant's own responsibility, that you wear the right clothes and have everything with you... but it's excellent, that this is double- and triplechecked by the organization! Well... "Keep on Running" by Mathi Whoever, "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC, "BANG" and we started running again :-) Somehow a very interesting machine, the human body. My head said this morning "I don´t want to do this anymore. I don´t want to run again. No mountains." - but I perfectly ignored that and with the start of the race, I was all good. Same with Martin and the other lunatics around us :-)
Suffering
Phew... once again getting up at 5:30 am with the need to eat something. It was a real struggle this morning to get something inside of me - and also to keep it there ;-) Very healthy, nutritious porridge - but the taste... at that time of the "day"... not good at all. Anyhey, I managed to eat something. That day was predetermined to become one of the real rough'n'tough days. A long horizontal distance, an epic climb up to the highest peak of this years route and bad weather ahead. All the needed ingredients to enjoy a day of pain, exhaustion, doubts and FUN! So we were shambeling to the starting line, got our backpacks checked - they were really serious today, as the bad weather has been announced. Every participant had to show the warm clothes, first-aid kit, rescue blanket, warm hat and gloves at the check-in gate for the starting lineup. I have to say and emphasize, that the organizers do really everything to minimize the risks of that race. At the end of the day, it's each participant's own responsibility, that you wear the right clothes and have everything with you... but it's excellent, that this is double- and triplechecked by the organization! Well... "Keep on Running" by Mathi Whoever, "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC, "BANG" and we started running again :-) Somehow a very interesting machine, the human body. My head said this morning "I don´t want to do this anymore. I don´t want to run again. No mountains." - but I perfectly ignored that and with the start of the race, I was all good. Same with Martin and the other lunatics around us :-)
This stage was hard - the Birnlücke (2667m) was a tough verification of each and everyones fitness and mental load capacity. The weather did it's part. The higher we got, the worse the conditions turned. The uphill to Birnlücke was epic, especially the last 600m of elevation. It was only a very narrow, steep and slippery single trail. The higher we got, the more snow was there and the fog, rain and wind made us feel more and more uncomfortable and cold. Luckily our great GORE RUNNING gear did a great job in protecting us. Some other guys really struggled and had to give up. 15 minutes before the peak, we passed a spanish girl, packed into a rescue blanked, shaking and crying. Race was over for her - but the rescue team was there immediately and took good care about her.
Anyway - we managed the climb, even it was really hard. Passing the peak and diving into the downhill... we thought. But there was a participant in front of us, who most probably experienced snow the first time in his ( sorry: long) life. In a mountain stage race in almost 2700m altitude... congratulations. Maybe he managed to get down there alive, I dont know. But he was slowing us down dramatically for about 10 minutes, as he was crawling on his hands and knees, slipping and sliding - after a certain while I politely asked him, if we might pass him, please.... he was looking at us, like I ordered a Big Mäc from him.... but he allowed us to pass. And then yaaaa-hooooo! The downhill. We were passing lots of teams, due to our quite good downhill technique and the grip of our INOV-8 weapons (the shoes). But taking a look on our watches showed us, that we are in struggle with the time limit for the last checkpoint! And the same for all the teams around us and behind us! So we had to seriously speed up and realized at a certain stage, that we will be 10 minutes late :-( 7 hours was the limit, but the uphill in those bad conditions and the slippery downhill costed too much time. The last kilometers before the checkpoint/ foodstop was a wide gravel mountain road, slightly downhill... we speeded up again, even we knew we will be late and then it happened - I hit a stone and flew like an eagle... to the ground. But maybe I watched enough James Bond movies, I turned while falling, rolled over my back and got up immedately - and continued running. If there would have been a stunt price that day, I would have won that! Martin couldn't believe that I did not hurt... but we arrived at the checkpoint, asking immediatley "Are we out?!". And they cooled us down and said that they extended the limit for 1 hour, due to the harsh conditions. Phew.... that was close. Easy-beasy down to Prettau and then the freezing began. By the way - at least 20 teams did not make it in the limit - finito, no finisher shirt, not in the official lists any more. That must be tough... sorry for all of them.
The opposite of sauna
Look in my face - happy and comfy looks different :-) Arriving in Prettau after more than 8h and very cold and wet conditions - what's the first thing you are longing for (except food!)?! Yes, a HOT shower. The shower was not hot... but washing away the mud and freezing. Putting warm clothes on an: freezing. Rushing back to the campervan: freezing. Ruben parked it 100 before the finish line, so that we passed it. I tried to convince Martin to skip that stupid finish line and turn directly into the warm campervan ;-) Going straight into my bed with clothes on and the warm winter blanket: freezing... it took about 2 hours to get warm hands and feet again... huh-huh. Good pasta in the evening, skipped the ceremonies and briefing again, sleeping early :-) Why I called that chapter "the opposite of sauna"?! No idea. I thought it sounds nice and might give an impression, how much I was needing a sauna after that day :-) ok, promise: I will be more careful with my future headlines. Peace! And thanks o Martin for suffering through this day together with me! We look great, don't we?! This is the shot on top of Birnlücke. I think Martin looks even shittier than me *hahaha*
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