THE START!! Transalpine Stage 1 - Ruhpolding (GER) – St. Johann (AUT)

Transalpine stage one. (This Is what I wrote out after finishing stage 1)

I am lying on my apartment bed with this though process

a, what hurts most

b, why is it that I have my mouth slumped open

c, why is Staff wearing lilac pants ha ha

d, I cant walk very well

Firstly I have to commend Plan B the organising company. They know how to look after us runners and put on a very well planned event. Every member of their crew couldn't be more helpful. Top marks.

What we didn't expect when we registered in the main hall in Rupholding was the extent and quality of the gear we were to be given.

We knew we were getting some form of holdall bag but not a top spec water proof Saloman 100ltr bag! The thing is immense. 

Opened it up and boom! even more goodies!

The lads will tell you that I love gear! what a start ha ha.

That first night we done our usual warm up of hitting the local bars for 5/6 pints. Went down a treat. Its all about calorie loading you see ;-)

Before that though we popped into the pasta party to see what was what and bump into some friendly and the odd familiar face. The scope of the competitors and competition was there to see. 600 of us in all. The week leading up to this I have felt very restless and not very excited. Mixed feelings of not feeling totally ready and an eagerness just to get this challenge started. 7 months training takes its toll on you mentally.

My first moment of excitement came as the competitors flags were brought out by some local children. When the Union Jack was announced and paraded the UK contingent gave a big cheer.

We had arrived at what the past 7 months had all been about. Now I felt ready for that first stage.

Tell you what.....I am struggling to write this.

So! the stage today.

The atmosphere leading up to the start was a very friendly chilled out affair. I managed to get verbally and comically abused by a German lady without actually speaking to her........ typical!

Mine and Staffs team name is 'nose attacks' due to our substantial conks. We had running tops on that JK got made up and a section of it says our team name. She couldn't quite follow when staff was pointing to his nose so she turned, took one look at me and went 'ah I see' and proceeded to laugh her head off, joined in by the lads. Standard day for me coming up then!

It appeared with hindsight that one particular part of our run was linked to the song they chose to open up the event....high way to hell! I'll mention in more detail about that bastard hill a bit later.

The race started to great fan fair, people lined the streets and cheered every runner on until we were out of town and on the trail route. The first 10km up to the first food station were pretty uneventful and standard really. We all remarked that this felt like just another Saturday morning run like we have been doing.

Straight after that food stop we went straight up! not too terrible though really, highlight being a beautiful cascading waterfall that you had to walk behind. A magic view that gave us a sense of where we were. It was at this stage the photographers were stationed capturing us coming across a wooden bridge with the waterfall behind us. Me being me, took step onto said bridge and nearly went flying!! not sure that was captured on film....we'll soon find out! what a plonker. (turned out it was captured! need to order the picture)

Getting up to food station 3 (these are check points as well), was straight forward apart from Dave's bowel movements. I think that's all the imodium gone already! 

We aren't too sure if he had a bug prior to starting or if it was from the veggie pasta dish he had the night before. Either way, he added a new colour to the back of his nice new yellow trail running shoes haha!

After C.P 3 the terrain changed a tad. We are now heading down slope. 

There had been a bit of rain early on but it was evident all way around that the rain had been around a couple of days before. This one particular stretch of the route which seemed to go on for an age was covered in grass, partly squashed and muddy by the other runners and partly fresh.

Up steps one knee Staff, hits the muddy spots and launches on his arse down the slope for a good twenty feet.....cue the laughter from us. Next thing you know he does it again and again!

I tell you what though, I've never been on terrain like it..... It's nuts and horrible on the knees. I think in the end we all hit the dirt on that bit. 

After that joyous stretch we hit a narrow section covered in tree roots and sticky mud. The mud is no problem, the roots are a bloody nightmare. Its like ice.......yes, down I went on a few occasions. Yet another time when JK was enjoying running behind me.

In previous posts I have mentioned that Staff has been having his troubles with a knee injury. The down hills are the sections that hurt him and the constant pounding was showing. There was a point even up to a week before the start that we weren't too sure he was going to be here. the extent of his injury means he will have an operation upon his return. He actually said at the 40km mark 'I can't believe I've got to 40km!'.  

Now we get to the unholy climb. I've not been on a stretch that long, sheer and relentless in my life. it.....just......kept........going. 

I had felt really good all the way to C.P 4. At the end of that climb, it had sapped the a lot of effort out of me. JK and I were together for the last part of the climb and we just said that it was awful. On the plus side though, we were only 10km  from the finish.

The last 10km were half down hill and half flat. We took it easy to save Staffs knee. We had a long time until the cut of point so no point risking him.

We crossed the line in St Johan to some witty comments from the compare and handed more free gear!  Its the stuff of dreams. This one was a very cool buff which has the overall course route as its design. 

It has been a long day and now sleep is upon us.

To stage two and the legs that don't work properly. 

I had planned on writing up a post after every stage yet after stage two I didn't have the mental capacity to put my thoughts together. I just wanted to drink a couple of beers, eat, tape my toes up and try to sleep!

The next blog entries will be stem from what I can actually remember. The days during the race just seemed to merge into one. 

There are more videos and pictures to come. 

Day 3 will begin to tell you about my injury, day 5 was the emotional day, day 7 and 8 I was knackered!!!

Epic Race.