Day 7: Being Tolerant, Being Grateful, Being Happy

Stage 7: St.Vigil/I – Niederdorf im Pustertal/I

Vertical distance: 1963 meters ascent, 1990 meters descent
Horizontal distance: 42,195 Kilometers

On the seventh stage from St. Vigil in Enneberg to Niederdorf there’s one highlight after the other. The first 13 kilometers from the town of St. Vigil through Tamers Valley toward Pederu are an ideal start for the runners due to its slight incline, but the first steep climb up Senneshütte is definitely something else. In an extreme climb, the course squirms in short bends up to the alpine plateau of Sennes, one of the most beautiful mountain pastures in the Dolomites. Via Seekofelhütte and Alta Via Dolomiti Nr. 1 we reach Pragser Wildsee, before another climb begins up Weißlahnscharte. Only now do we leave the Dolomites again toward the North in the direction of Niederdorf. At the end of the day we will have covered an altitude difference totaling almost 1700 meters and a distance of over 42 kilometers.

Being Tolerant

Well, well... being tolerant - *hahaha*, one of my nicknames in "Team Polar Finland - Inov-8" is "Toleranz-Hans". Why that?! Because I just love to get annoyed about whatever and bitch around a bit - and in the next second I am laughing out loud about it and me; Ruben & Martin just like this feature of mine. But why do I mention that here now?! Pretty easy... I've been tested - or better said - my tolerance threshold level (aka TTL) has been evaluated during today's stage... eat this:

Great weather, good feeling and everything was cool from the beginning today. Another stage with an easy start, 13k slightly uphill and after yesterday's experience, Martin and me decided to run that completely, even if there are some steeper uphill sections. Everything went smooth and cool and after approx. 10k, we were running in a nice, soft forest trail, overtaking quite many other teams. Then it happened! I was "flying" up the trail, Martin behind me and we overtook a dutch team, using poles. And then the inevitable happend - the first time to me now. The pole-walker did not control his arm-extensions and put it directly between my legs. No chance, I had to kiss the italian soil - luckily it was very soft and I did not get hurt at all. But: Adrenaline, upsetment and anger needed to find a way out and I was yelling really, really, really, REALLY bad words at the dutch fellow... he was very sorry, helped me up and after I let the shit out of my words, I directly apologized and said - "hey, no worries - nothing happened - and sorry for the bad words, I did not mean it. It was just pure energy, leaving the body in a bit offending texture...". We were both laughing out loud and continued the race. What has this to do with tolerance?! Well, I could have put his poles in his....uhmmmm.....wherever - or hit him or break the f*** poles. Nothing like that, hey - I am a sportsman. A tolerant sportsman :-) Even when it comes to Nordic Walking dutch fellows...

Being Grateful

Wow, wow, wow. After the wipeout and the first food-stop, the first uphill section began. I have to admit that this part of the Dolomites represent the most spectacular views in the entire Alps, as far as I know them. We were climbing up on old military roads, which have been built 100 years ago. Great weather, beautiful views and good mood made this day an almost perfect day. What was not so perfect was the fact, that Martin's nose started bleeding after him sneezing, while we were just reaching top-speed level on the first downhill. We passed team after team and then it happened. I heard him yelling "STOOOPPPP Jan!!!!!" and we had to take care about his nose. Normally, nose bleeding is nothing serious at all - but Martin is on medication, taking a blood-thinnener (is that the right word!? Well, you get the point) - so IF he is bleeding, it takes a while to get that under control. So all the teams, which we already passed, were passing us again now and we lost some time. Whatever, main thing was, that Martin was able to continue. We decreased our downhill speed a bit and enjoyed the scenery.

The next highlight was the Pragser Wildsee, a wonderful lake in the middle of spectacular mountains. It's green, clear water looked so tempting for a refreshment... but we were just passing it and tackled the final uphill - which really hurt, But we made it and surfed down again to our destination, Niederdorf.

 

Being Happy

Very happy, to be jonest. Despite our time-loss due to the nose-bleeding and the reduced downhill speed, we managed to finish with a very good time. We really have the feeling, that we are getting stronger and stronger... aftedr crossing the finish line today, we were just hanging out in the sun and enjoying our day. Ruben was not able to catch us up with the campervan, cauz the camping site had opening and closing hours... Nobody able to leave the site between 12:00 and 15:00. But no prob, as it was sunny and nice :-)

One more day to go, and it will be the most spectacular stage this year - passing the Drei Zinnen - looking so much forward to that!

 

Ciao, Janne