Done and dusted, not quite………..

 

Over these then!

St Moritz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, at last you might all sigh, it’s over and I shall miss it!  Nothing worked out as planned and on paper this could read like a disaster novel but, and it’s an important ‘but’, the experience has taught me a great deal and what, even if everything is planned to the most minute detail, can change events drastically.

The Journey:

Getting to St Moritz went well with no major problems apart from getting lost, yet again, in the back streets of Timisoara, Romania.  Austria has many road works and each set has exactly one diversion sign.  You are then left to fend for yourself and, quite often, go round in circles!  We camped in the Tirol and I enjoyed a pleasant run in the foot hills to the Alps.  We then moved on to St Moritz Bad and found a very friendly site with loads of room, good facilities (even free coffee and all cooking requirements) to use as ‘base’ for the nine day stay.

St Moritz:

I hadn’t realised that this resort was being used as pre-Olympic training camp for not just the Swiss but many nations from all over the world –  due to its’ altitude of +/- 1800m it is perfect for improving performance.  Therefore many athletes out running and it was fascinating to watch 1000m and 3000m competitors on the track…. fast or what!

Prices were astronomical and, with a loaf of bread costing as much as £6, I’ll leave it to your imagination.

The weather was very unsettled with rain, hail, thunder, lightning and wind.

I ran three times, up 10 miles, and walked a lot during the five days wait.  Paths/tracks were perfectly maintained and well signed as befitted this famous resort.

Iron Trail Seminars:

I attended two, two hour, lectures – one on Tuesday and the other on Thursday.  Both were only in German but this didn’t cause a problem and I understood about 90% of what was being said.  The first was on Sports Nutrition and, the latter, Training at Altitude.  Both were excellent and presented by Doctors (one the Calgary Winter Olympics cross-country skiing Gold medal winner) who were leaders in their specific fields and part of the Swiss Olympic coaching team.   I’m sure that to have attended such lectures under normal circumstances would have cost more than the race entry fee.

The Race:

I registered, and received my race number, 166, on Thursday afternoon and met many interesting people from all around the world.  My compulsory equipment was checked and I signed off the required disclaimers!  All was ready to rock at 08:00 Friday.  Then the weather started to play its’ part.  Throughout the night the rain pelted our tent.  I was dropped-off at Pontrasina ready for the pre-race brief (07:30) at 06:45.  Plenty of time to hand in my ‘drop-bags’ – these are taken to strategic locations on the route and you use for putting changes of clothing or special food in for collection during the race – and have a body ‘shake-down’ before battle commences.  When I put my running poles together one stripped a thread and was beyond repair……. great, I needed two for stability and to help spread the workload, but that’s life.

At 07:45 it was announced that, due to the weather conditions, the start would be delayed until 16:00 and the route shortened to 158km or, if things remained bad, 21:00 when it would run the shorted 141km route with that race’s competitors.  So, not good, but I did manage to purchase another pair of poles (£116….. but great items that are four-season and can be used for skiing  as well as trekking/running).  As I didn’t have any great ‘regime’ for eating/drinking the delay didn’t cause me any distress but for those top athletes who are totally geared-up, and measure every calorie etc. that they consume, I imagine it was a real pain.  Yet again I was deposited at the start, this time at 15:00 and it seemed to be ‘all systems go’.  The brief stated that condition were not good but the race would start…….. thank goodness for that at least.

A minute countdown and we were off.  The pace was steady but faster than I had thought it would be considering the distance.  The important thing was to run my own race and not get carried along with the faster runners.  I settled, spoke to many other runners and was enjoying myself.  By the first ‘main’ feed station (this had hot food and drink as well as all the usual sandwiches/cake/ energy bars etc.) at around the 15 mile mark, and my first ‘drop-bag’, I had a healthy confidence that things were going well and that I would be able to keep this up – I know that this was very early to think such things but I know my body quite well and it felt just right.  I noticed that many runners were changing all their kit and sitting around eating at a leisurely pace.  This is not my style, so I grabbed a cheese sandwich and bowl of soup, changed into a long-sleeved top for the night, and 3000m peak I was about to run over, and was out the door, still munching, in less than five minutes!  The following climb was long, very long.  It started through the streets of St Moritz, including about 500m on steps which is a real leg killer, and then just went up on road, track and the mountain path.  As the night engulfed us the weather turned nasty with torrential rain, hail and wind.  The single track was often only about 30cm wide and a mixture of rock and very slippery mud.  For long stretches of steep, snaking ascent there was just a void to one side, falling away at about 80 degrees.  I was actually quite glad that the darkness hid the truth from my eyes as I am not always happy on this type of path.  I took a brief break on one turn to put on my waterproof top as the temperature was quickly falling and I was already soaked.  After another 20 minutes I had to use my head torch due to the storm clouds and night offering zero vision.  Finally, with around one and a half hours of hard climbing behind me, I reached the lift station marking the highest point of the whole route……. phew!  Whilst filling my bottles I realised that I was shivering with the cold, it was just below freezing, so put my waterproof trousers on and got straight out back into running which soon had me warm again.  It seems that many people dropped out at this point due to mild hypothermia.  There now followed 10km of technical descent in pitch darkness and with worsening weather.  Due to the past week of storms there were streams and rivers where there should have been dry path and it was fantastic!  It’s impossible to say how much fun it was running down this mountain.  My BG, and Welsh, experience let me have a real laugh whilst many of my fellow competitors struggled.  With the bad visibility it was very difficult to follow the correct path (there were red and silver markers, over 2000 for the whole course) and on several occasions I found myself on the wrong side of rushing streams up to 30m wide….. no problem, I led the way through thigh deep torrents, much to the surprise of the Germans and Koreans I had in tow who didn’t seem to like the idea of getting their feet wet!!  This ability let me leave many fellow competitors behind as well as being able to overtake others.  Obviously my style of training had prepared me well for the real mountains and I was happily singing to myself for the whole way.  Ahead, all I could now make out were odd torches in various position in, what seemed like, the night sky.  Yes, there followed another major ascent but, although the track was in a very dangerous condition (it had collapsed in several places and the drop was near sheer) and amazingly slippery, due to my passing many runners I was not in a queue so could run/walk at my own pace and had no real problems with my body or breathing.  I was looking forward to reaching the next drinks station that was just after the summit but, upon arrival, was devastated to be told that, due to the conditions, the race had been stopped on safety grounds about 2 hours previously and that there would be full facilities for us to spend the remainder of the night at Bergrun which lay after another 14km and 1100m of descent.  At the time I was really upset, I felt great, my mind was in A1 condition, no leg or foot problems….. I was sure that I could go on forever.  I didn’t bother taking any hot food or drink but just ran on into the wet night and a horrendous descent, due to the wet, on single-track down to a road after about 6km and then on this to Bergrun.  The locals had pulled out all the stops and the town gym had everything we could want in the way of comfort and food.  I had a coffee and sat quietly on the floor in a corner watching the reactions of fellow runners.  Many seemed to do nothing but moan so, being British, I made sure that I thanked all the helpers, as I had already done on the route, for their kindness, help and dedication to my safety.  There had been marshals standing for hours, in the torrential rain and dark, at strategic points holding bright, road-works type, orange marker lights to give us a clue as to the correct direction to head in and yet I didn’t hear one runner, apart from myself, thank them…… this is bad and show that many of my fellows have no respect for the dedication others.  After a time I noticed that I was covered in mud, I had a slight fall on this final descent, so collected my second drop-bag, that they had re-routed to our location, and changed into dry socks and the mid-layer I was carrying with me.

There was transport to Chur, the finishing point of the race, but I needed to return to St Moritz and was told that there was a train at 07:15 from the nearby station.  I ate and drank the remainder of the night away considering what should have been…….. but some things are greater and more powerful than all of us.  I had my free rail-pass, which came with the entry, and had a lovely journey, by the immaculate Swiss railway, back to base.  As the station was some 3km from the camp I finished by running this, holding my drop-bag, and received curious looks from the locals, all who seemed to know about the change of events, and cheery greetings.

My Performance:

I have to say that things went far better than I would have imagined.  I had no problems on the ascents, was faster than many and often felt held back by those in front on the single-track.  The descents were glorious, even in the darkness and rain/hail.  I suffered no muscle pain or foot problems during, or after, the run.  I did, at one point on the longest ascent, find myself questioning why I was doing this but was soon able dismiss this question as I know that I am blessed to be healthy enough to be on the mountains when so many can only dream of having the chance.

After looking at the figures I can say that I covered just over 25% of the route in something less than 10 hours, of which half was in darkness and two-thirds in terrible weather: 57km; 2646m of ascent; 3084m descent.  I realise that my performance would have declined as the distance and time increased but feel that I would have completed the whole distance in under the cut-off time, 56 hours, and most likely near to my timetable of 42 hours unless injury prevented this.

The Kit:

All I can say is it was great.  The OMM waterproof top was fantastic as was my Fenix head torch – I found myself leading three or four other runners who otherwise would have had problems due to the poor illumination of their equipment.  The new poles had no flex and good grip with their tungsten steel tips.  The Raid-Lite 20ltr pack carried everything required with room to spare and didn’t give me any rubs on the shoulders or back.  The Inov8 Rocklite 315s seemed to grip far better than the various Salomon shoes most other competitors wore and didn’t cause even a hint of a hot-spot although being wet for nearly the whole event. The only thing I would change in the future would be my waterproof trouser which, although doing a good job, were too looses and baggy but they did only cost £10!  I did, however, destroy my smart-phone which, although wrapped in a plastic zip-bag, got wet and is beyond repair…….. yet another expense, but I’ll be wiser next time.  Considering all the years I’ve been carrying a phone whilst running this came as a surprise and they must be getting more fragile.

Finale:

After consideration I think that the organisers made the right call by stopping this event.  It was very, and I mean very, dangerous up on the mountains.  The single-track was not able to cope with the adverse condition and 500 pairs of feet and, as the press statement said, not all competitors had the appropriate equipment.  Although this was checked at registration some of the interpretations of a waterproof jacket and trousers or torch were far from adequate. I think that we were lucky not to have suffered any fatalities – although there were cases of hypothermia and casualty-evacuation by helicopter.

Would I do it again…….. well NO.  I found that being forced to run/walk at the pace of others, due to the track, spoiled my fun.  I don’t know what the remainder of the course held in store but as 65% was single-track it might have been just as frustrating.  The experience was great but as things stand I have the most expensive tee-shirt in the world as a souvenir: +/-£1500 is just too much for my pocket……. but if I win the Toto, who knows.  I will try to find something closer to home, and in a cheaper country, for my next challenge.  I do, however, know that I am as good, or better, than many of the others and even if they have completed the Badwater Marathon (136 miles in Death Valley – 45c plus) three times, as one lady I spoke with had, it doesn’t mean they can run the mountains. I can!

Thank you all for reading my ranting over the past six months or so. I hope that you have found it interesting if not exciting.  Happy running to those of you who bash the tarmac and trail.  You can all do far more than you believe…. never trust what you think, just go for it!

the most expensive tee-shirt in the world?

Beautiful, but daunting

St Motitz

A final brief note before the big event. Just finished packing my pack for tomorrows kit inspection and collection of race number. The mountains look big and the weather has been very varied with thunder, lightning, hail, strong wind and, but not often, sun! It’s going to be tough on the tops with, I imagine, some new snow. Hard to know what is the right clothing but……… just take a chance.
I attended a very good two hour lecture on nutrition yesterday (in German, but I understood about 90% of what was said) and found the thirty or so fellow competitors quite intimidating. They all had the ‘right kit’ on and shirts with things such as ‘Iron Man 2011 Finisher’, ‘Team Salomon Ultrarunning Braunschweig’ or ‘World Lost Ultra Trail Series’….. the ladies as well! All had hard sunken eyes and heavy suntans…….. I had a shirt T-shirt from Tesco’s and Clarks shoes….. I bet they’re all worried by my stealth approach!
Anyway, I can’t charge the computer so must finish for now. I will report after the event once I can get power and a connection. Thank you all for reading this during the past six months, I will try to not let you down. My aim is simply to finish and looking up from where I sit that doesn’t look quite so easy as it might sound.

And now, the end is near…….

What I’m required to carry

and it all fits….. just

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the last pre-event post from Bulgaria – although I will try to update from St Moritz if there is free Wi-Fi at the campsite.

I think all the kit is ready, the route maps laminated – eight back to back sheets, with holes punched in each corner so that I can hang them from the front of my pack to read whilst running – bags containing various shoes waiting to be put in the car, shorts, socks………. and so the list goes on.

To date I have run 1168 training miles, or there about, since 09/01/12 which is possibly the most I’ve ever run in a six month period…….. is it enough, I don’t know, but I have to say that it has become a little boring and I am looking forward to just getting out in the wilds again without the constant thought that I should achieve something specific with each run.  Looking back, I now agree with what I have read suggesting you need to use other races as part of a training programme – there is at least some reason behind the hours on your feet and you get the chance to test yourself and your strategy.  Unfortunately there just aren’t any races within a couple of hundred mile radius so this was impossible.

I stated at the start of these Blogs that I wanted to see if anyone ‘off the street’ could realistically take on a challenge such as this Ultra.

So, is it possible?  If somebody has the dedication and discipline, yes, but to be working full-time and also put in the mileage required, on the right kind of terrain, would certainly put any ‘normal’ life on hold.  One would need a very supportive and understanding family and friends!  I also feel that it would help if one had somebody of like interest to occasionally train with.  The majority of my running life has been as a lone-runner and I’ve always enjoyed this but…….

Financially these things are never going to be cheap but ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’.  I have a friend here who manages to spend every free moment she has in the mountains, all over Europe.  She manages this on a very modest income, hitch-hikes everywhere (helps the fitness), and doesn’t seem to be worried by unexpected events.  I’m not that brave…… or dedicated?

I really have tried to be frugal but even so have still consumed funds at an alarming rate.  This is without spare equipment to have changes of shoes/clothing at designated points along the route – this seems to be the ‘norm’ and is catered for by the organisers who supply suitable bags and transport for such items.   When shoes could cost £120 per pair and, if you’re rich, compression shorts (Salomon) £130, I doubt that many runners have four fresh sets to change into on the way!  A round trip to the event of over 2000 miles is also a burden, I could have travelled by air for considerably less but how does one carry all the running and camping equipment required.  If you are staying in a hotel it would be possible but, with the cheapest campsite in this area is 30 Euro per night, a hotel room is impossible to consider.  The entry fee was, by comparison with many Ultra races, cheap at £145 – some cost thousands of pounds due to the support required.  All things considered,  I think the whole enterprise will have cost me somewhere in the region of just over £1000 and that’s using mostly old equipment and clothing……. is this reasonable, I think so, but it’s far more than I imagined when I emailed my entry form last December.  So my answer to original question: ‘Can an ordinary person undertake something like the Swiss Irontrail?  Yes, if they really want it and work in a prosperous country.  In BG many people don’t earn £1000 per year whatever the national statistics say.  The world must be full of runners who never get a chance to compete even when they possess great ability!

Whilst Ultra Running might not have the over-heads of motor-sports, golf or even tennis, by the time you pay club membership etc., it must still be considered elitist, which is a great shame.

There is little fame to be savoured and no real prize money to be won, just an amazing amount of physical and mental strife to be endured along the way BUT the comradeship between competitors, which I have found in previous races, is second to none as is the sense of achievement in just getting to the start line. If I finish, it’ll be even better.  Has it all been worth it? YOU BET!

Looking down on creation

At the top of Cherni Vrah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rain has stopped, the sun is out, the sky’s blue…… so now I can complain that it’s too hot, 30c-35c, there are too many flying creatures and the tracks have now vanished beneath a blanket of knee length green.

Things have been going quite well and life is good, if I didn’t have to run this little 201kms things would be fine!  I managed to, at last, run up to the highest point of the Vitosha Mountain – Cherni Vrah, which stands at 2290m, or about twice the height of Snowdon for those of you in Wales.  As the start point is at about 800m it only required 1490m of climbing and then descent….. a lot of very rough and steep rocky path through the forest and then largely open mountain on stone track.  Good technical stuff especially on the way down – with poles, which helped a lot when leaping from rock to rock.

My first attempt was not as good as I had hoped – It took me 2:10 for the up, although I did speak to quite a few people on the way, and 1:10 down.  Two days later I did it again and managed 1:50 up and about the same 1:10 down.

Since my return to the village I have spent two long sessions exploring the area on the open mountains above Milanovo.  This is too beautiful for words with views to die for.  All I do is park up, just outside the village, and then run up in to the wilds wherever my fancy takes me.  I have a rough map that shows water-springs so I just fill up my bottle as I go.  This is what running should be, hills, tracks, meadows and forests…….. and NO people.

Only just over a week until we leave for Switzerland – I need to stay above 1500m for at least five days prior to the race to get used to the thinner air.  Think that I have everything I need, if not, I’ll get it in St Moritz!

King of all I see…..

Running Free

The Sill of the Night

Local Flooding

OK, where’s the ford?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A busy couple of weeks and the running has, for once, not taken prime place in my life.   A local festival took up most of my time for four days so I decided to have a break and not run, this combined with terrible weather has kept me largely off the hills.  To compensate, I have managed five speed session, from 6-12 mile/10-20km, on road and found that keeping a steady 7.5min/mile is still possible….. just (my SamNav tells me that I do achieve 5 min/mile max but I have no idea how – this seems very fast for my old body) – I’ll need to work on pace once back from Switzerland and get back to my old ½ marathon speed of speed sub-7 min/mile ready for the Sofia Marathon.

I have been in the forest a couple of times during thunder storms and really find it quite enjoyable but getting all the muddy kit clean and dry is a problem so……… no excuse really!

The real fun has been ‘night running’ which is fantastic.  Although I’d run in the dark many times in the UK it was nothing like this!  The Fenix head-torch is better than I could have ever hoped for and I only need the second of four power output settings to see perfectly – whatever the terrain, I float along in a world all of my own, just 10 meters of trail ahead in view.

These runs are a great confidence booster – there is no one but myself to rely on, whatever happens it’s ‘self-rescue’ – nobody knows where I am (the friend I normally live with is working away at present).  On my first venture after mid-night I ran up to Parshevitsa from Liutadzik on what was once a road through the forest.  It’s now a pretty rough track with overhanging trees forming corridors through the darkness for most of the 5mile/10km climb.  Lots of interesting sounds but only one encounter with a gleaming pair of eyes bounding towards me….. I growled loudly at which the creature, whatever it was, stopped dead, waited a few seconds and then made a hasty retreat into the forest.  Most likely a stray dog, although I’ve never seen any on this route before, nothing to get too excited about as, although there are wolves in the area, bears haven’t moved in yet – I do make LOTS of noise when I run, the local wild-boar could cause some serious damage if surprised by a day-glow clad, mentally deranged, Englishman.

Last night I took a more remote track up on to the mountain, again from just outside Liutadzik (note: because of all the village dogs I have to start any night run somewhere where there are no houses or I’ll cause mayhem and wake the whole region!).  This was a rough rocky path and, I hope, much like those I’ll be running on in the Alps.  There had been a thunderstorm earlier in the evening, the trees were dripping, a huge full-moon shone red through the boughs, and a thought of werewolves did cross my mind but, not being of a feeble constitution, I had a ball!

It should all be downhill from now, the last four weeks, all the hard work done, well…… no.  I don’t know that I’ll feel ready for a race like this so will concentrate on my mental preparation – the body will do more than we could ever believe it’s the mind that lets us down!

Forget the map!

One of many drinking ‘springs’

a ‘good’ section of the Milanovo – Vratca road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a good idea, run over the mountains to Petrohan…….. it’s a marked Eco-Trail and there were signs pointing  to the route in the Monastery’s car park, what could go wrong?  As a Bulgarian friend pointed out to me “there might have been a signed route on the day that the EU funding was received but since then……?  Another friend from our village put it into perspective “who would bothered to waste time walking when the vegetables in the garden need constant attention, the sheep needed milking and there was Rakia and wine to drink……”.  This, sadly, is the view of the majority of my neighbours who consider how we spend our time totally wasteful – life is about surviving, there is little time for pleasure unless it’s combined with producing food or income!  Hence, after two hours of horrendous climbs and numerous ‘false’ trails I returned defeated to the car park.  Not one to be easily put off, I moved my search to another access point to the route where I knew that the road became a track (I’d driven up it previously to have a quick look) and then, if the map was true (map is a relative term in this area – there is nothing like the Ordinance Survey out here), turned into a path that lead to the top of the mountains.  Having parked-up, I ran through beautiful forest next to a cascading stream for the best part of an hour feeling quietly confident that all was not lost and then, to my horror, was confronted by an official looking compound, surrounded by barbed-wire fencing, that totally blocked any further forward progress.  There was a large, locked, double-gate with a sign stating this was ‘Area 2 – Forbidden Access (well that’s what I think it said)’……… so, how could an Eco-Trail go right through the middle? Where did the EU funding go……..?  I spent a wasted 20 minutes trying to circumnavigate this obstruction to no avail – it was well placed to stop anyone going further and by now I was seriously p***** off.  Not a good day.

I have managed to clock up miles but largely uneventfully – just out on the tracks for a couple of hours each day.  Last Sunday I did decide that an extra effort was required so knocked out a repeat of the long mountain circuit from a couple of weeks ago.  I slightly elongated this by taking the road up to Milanovo and then, later, down to Lutadzik, rather than the more direct forest trails (the term ’road’ is misleading for the latter as it is far rougher than many UK trails).  I took my ETrax Sat-Nav (designed to be simple to use….. I still can’t work out how to start/stop recording let alone use any the functions or even get my computer to load the correct drivers from the web) and recorded 34 miles with an average speed of 5mph(8kph) which might sound slow, but it’s considerably faster than I’ll be travelling in the Alps.  It did show that, at one point, I got up to 11.5mph – don’t know how I managed that, but I’m sure it wasn’t for more than a few metres!

The following day I did some speed work, a 12mile/20km road session, and had no problems pushing a little, agreed, this was only 7.5 min/mile but that’s a great deal faster than most of my current running.  Interesting, that was my average training road speed in the UK and now it feels fast…..  once the Alpine adventure is over I need to work on speed again, ready for the Sofia Marathon in October.

I’m now back in Sofia for five days and spent a happy 40 minutes in the ‘Salomon’ store yesterday – the idea was to see how their mountain trail-running shoes felt and, hopefully, purchase a pair for the ‘race’.  They did have a good selection, although not the top notch mountain racer I really wanted to try, but after my minimalist shoes, they all felt like wearing boats on my feet.  Considering Salomon are the major sponsor of the Mountain Ultra world, many champion ultra sports athletes, and make some of the most advanced, innovative and expensive equipment available, I’m surprised that none of their shoes suited my needs but……. at least I saved 250lv – £125 and the rest.  It looks as if I’ll stick with Inov8 (British) for these type of races and it’s just a pity that there is no BG stockist and therefore impossible to try different shoes in their range.

not still in use….I hope

Time slips silently by……..

just like Exmoor.....

wet feet, again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last, what feels like a good week’s effort on my part – up to nearly 80mile/128km over six running days and 85% on mountain tracks and trails.

The best part of 5 hours fighting with nature, at the start of the week, let me get all the way to the top of the Milanovo pass, cross-country.  Certainly not the quickest, nor easiest, route with one section, of about 1km, through very steep forest with no defined tracks – fun, especially when wet and trying to locate the main path going down on the return leg.  After taking several ‘false’ trails, one which necessitated a river fording, the final ascent on the way out was a real killer – a steep woodland track with very loose rocks (often quite large) covered with dead leaves, broken branches and, just to add to the experience, bramble-runners hidden just beneath the wet mulch trying to snag your foot and throw you on your face – luckily, this only happened once – a real 15 minutes of pain!   Still, it was all worth the effort and has opened up wonderful new route opportunities……..

After another four days of mixed hill sessions and general trails it was time to face the next ‘big’ challenge in my mind…… a repeat of the cross-country route to the top of the pass then, after a short section of road (no more than a couple of miles) a scramble up some rough land on to the old Milanovo – Vratca track which leads right across the mountain tops for about 5mile/8km to Parchevitsa before descending, for what seems a lifetime, to Liutadzik and the final drag home.  All in all, somewhere between 32-35mile/51-55km with 70% on difficult surfaces……. great!  I was out for 7 hours and had no problems with legs, feet or mind.  I didn’t even eat that much but did drink all the way around…… now if I can do this four times, add darkness and much more ascent and decent I’ll survive in the Alps.

For this adventure I went back to a more ‘normal’ shoe, the Inov8 ‘Roclite-315’ (weight), which I originally bought for running the Snowdon Fell race a couple of years ago.  These offer more cushioning than my minimalist ‘barefoot’ favourites but, with so much rocky trail on the route, I was worried that I might bruise my feet – this has happened before on this type of surface.  As most of the Irontrail is rocky path I must find a shoe that can protect my feet whilst offering grip, feel and lightness…….. it’s easy for runners with sponsorship to try many pairs of shoes but, alas, I need to use what I have and adapt from there.  It’d be pointless to buy a new make/model from the UK without being able to check the size/fit, they vary so much (I have different make shoes from size 9.5UK/43EU up to 11UK/46EU and they all fit so…….).  As it turned out they worked well, no blisters or pain at all and that’s with my feet wet for a large part of the distance.  If I can’t find anything else in Bulgaria I’ll use these for the race, I just need to protect them up until then so that they last the course.

The clock is ticking and I still feel I’m not doing enough preparation, it is easy to ‘over’ train and wear yourself down without really noticing it and that’d be as bad as not doing enough.  I have my eyes set on a totally new mountain route over Todorini Kukli to Petrohan for the coming weekend so might be able to judge my condition better after this!

no gold, more's the pity!

across the top

It’s not all running!

just miles of trail, GREAT!

Spring colour in the forest

Above Gorna Bela Rechka

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry this post is late but…….. to be totally honest with all of you that think I do nothing but run, I’ve actually been sightseeing when I thought I’d be struggling over mountain peaks! Before my little break, only five days , I had a good week up on the hills. Most of the trails/paths are suffering from fallen trees and debris from the weight of winter snow but I have, at last, managed to navigate across the wilds from our village to both Dorna (lower)and Gorna (higher – lit.) Bela Rechka. This is great, I hate the road run when heading up the pass towards Milanovo, and I will now try to extend this ‘trail’ right up to the top of the pass – on the map it’s possible but……. It should then also be possible to run ‘cross-country’ all the way down to Lakatnik – these ancient pathways were last frequently used by locals to get to the railway station but, due to cars and a bus service, have now often become overgrown, or in some cases, totally vanished . The sheep/goat herds still go out every day with a village shepherd (normally a different villager each day selected by a rota system – imagine organising that in your typical ‘Midsomer’ village) which does keep some areas ‘trodden’ but there is now little reason for locals to travel many of these by-ways and tourist hikers are largely non-existent in this area.
The weather was such that I have been in shorts and often bare-chested ,shirt in hand – there is a logic to this: legs are easy to wash; flesh just gets cuts and scrapes but self-repairs, shirts snag and tear……. hence, I often return home covered in ‘flesh’ wounds and, now the insects are out again, bites. A small price to pay for the pleasure it gives me to be in the middle of no-where, totally alone and free. My ‘bounce’ seems to have returned and the rocky paths, often quite technical, are exciting and a real thrill both up and down.
My time away was spent exploring (touring?) the Rhodope Mountains to the south of the country. The original idea was a few days mountain walking but, due to the weather conditions and a slight misunderstanding with my Bulgarian friend who planned the route, we actually did little ‘real’ walking. The weather was ‘mixed’ but the places we visited were unbelievable. The fact that much of this area is also of the Muslim faith made things even more interesting – there are many beautiful villages clinging to the hillsides, remote lakes, some still frozen over, that reminded me of my vision of Finland, and amazing, new built, Mosques. The mountains are, in the region we travelled through, less rugged than the Pirin or Rila areas I’ve visited but would be wonderful to spend time running through. I have added pictures on the ‘Beautiful Bulgaria’ page of this blog so you can see – sorry but I have great difficulty getting the pictures where I want them, old man with new technology so please be patient, may-be one day I’ll manage to order things like I want them!!
Although still in Sofia for the next couple of days it’s now time to start my final countdown to the race. Once back in the village I hope conditions will allow me to spend whole days out running over the mountains and I need to check and re-check all my equipment, run with it, modify it and generally finalise all the logistics of this adventure. When I read articles posted on Ultra Running sites, mostly from the USA, things seem quite daunting…….. one would believe that you need your own specialised training coach, a nutritionist, the back-up team (at least four of them complete with vast camper van), a pacer (who has normally won at least a couple of 100 mile Ultras him/herself), just to run with you for the final 30-40 miles, navigate and ensure that you eat and keep hydrated when you are so exhausted that you can no longer think for yourself – and the list goes on and on and on. Well, I have none of these and will be thinking for myself (many of you who know me may question whether I do actually ever think), there will be no magic powders to add to my water-bottles, no gels or specialised food and if I get lost because I am no longer of ‘sound-mind’, let alone ‘body’, I’m sure that the views will be wonderful where-ever I end up……..who knows, may-be in many hundred years time a lone walker will discover the remains of an ancient mountain traveller, still clad in High-Viz Lycra and with strange footwear, frozen on a Swiss mountain just like the ‘Ice-Man’ found in the Italian Alps a few years ago – the good thing is, that with modern textiles and technology, my body might rot away but the kit should still be useable!

Look, no snow!

OK, where's the path?

Gorno Ozirovo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the hills, trails, mud and rock.  Just what I wanted, except it isn’t as easy as I’d imagined.  The three months of running roads, even with hills and often covered in snow, has softened me up and I need to get my feel back for the constant changes of pace, stride, incline and foot-fall.  This is the stuff I live for so why have the past week’s runs seemed so hard work – all in the mind…..  it does show that miles pounded out on roads don’t do that much good compared with ‘mixing-it’ in the mountains!  I have completed one longer run, only about 16mile/26km, to see how far I could get up the pass towards our local ski-piste.  Less than half way as it turned out before the road/track became impassable – this also means that the routes I am really looking forward to will still be a ‘no-go’, but the temperatures have been up to 22c on a couple of days so it shouldn’t be long until I can get onto the top of the mountains again.

I have a new hill climb route that is quite a work-out for around 45mins up, and less down, with a mixture of track, grass and light rock – over open-land and through tight-knit scrub forest (beautiful flowers) following wild-boar trails. First time the trees/bushes tore me to bits so, the next time I took my secateurs with me and did some landscaping on the way!  No wonder the village locals think we English are totally insane – we don’t spend our lives in the garden, planting and harvesting the fruits of honest hard labour no, we run up mountains and cut back the wilderness, with scant concern for the wild beasts that live there (poisonous snakes,  huge wild-boar, killer bees etc. etc.) in shorts….. and it’s only March, we’re sure to die of pneumonia or be eaten alive.  To stress this point of how they view our behaviour, last Sunday we were taken in for breakfast by our neighbour and sternly told that we must not do any work on that day, to do so would bring plagues of snakes into the village and all the vines would be destroyed by hailstones…….   they even showed us this stated in print on the church holiday calendar…….. I was allowed to run though!

Today the forest got its’ revenge.  I was investigating new tracks, looking for rough, rocky, technical ascents/descents, as this is what most of the ‘Irontrail’ is made up of.  After a couple of false starts, when promising paths led to impassable thicket, I found a wonderful trail leading up towards the ‘Balkan’ mountain offering all the surfaces I wanted.  After about 25 minutes it narrowed into a path and then just faded away into wilderness woodland.  Never one to be beaten, I was sure that it would be possible to complete a circuit and come in above the village…… good theory and, I have to say, totally correct…..  except that to link up with the path traversing the base of the mountain I needed to fight across several hills/valleys covered with untouched  forest – scrub oak, beech, lots of hawthorne and brambles for good measure – and deep, stream cut, ravines with steep/sheer sides.  In a straight line the distance was no more than 1.5 mile but it was not an easy task, especially in shorts and bare-chested (why rip your shirt, skin heals!).  My sense of direction is quite good and, with odd sightings of the mountains, I kept on course but this was not for the faint-heated (as the amount of blood oozing from my body showed when I arrived home) and will require some modification for regular use………  I loved it!

Things are looking up then, I’m beginning to feel at home on the hills again and with all the clearing up after winter around the house(s); digging, wood clearing etc.etc.,  get a good physical workout every day before my run……… Bulgaria is really a wonderful place to be!!

Steeper that it looks!!

red shoes……. where’s the handbag?

Above Sofia

and across the road.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it does look as if the spring is here.  Today the temperature reached 19c, the sky was clear and, the down side, people everywhere.  After a second week of running in Sofia I feel tired of pavement/road – even if they do resemble tracks for much of the time – and am really looking forward to getting back onto grass and mud, with rocky trails thrown in for good measure.  I have kept my distances fairly constant covering 10mile/16km most days with the odd 16-19mile/25-30km (dependant on how lost I get) once in each 5 day cycle.  Whether I run the circuit clockwise or counter-clockwise the amount of climbing is about the same so it’s hard to vary the intensity of the sessions apart from running faster.  Due to the type of roads it’s impossible to use the route for regulated speed work as there are just too many obstacles and dangers………  maybe if I could get all those dogs that bark at me to be let out……..  I’d certainly get some speed up then.  The weekly average for my past two weeks is 55mile/88km so, even if the quality hasn’t been good, I’m still on target.

I did have a pleasant surprise whilst visiting one of the shopping ‘Malls’ (there are many littered around the city) – there is a ‘New balance’ shop (I use the NB101 minimalist trail shoe as detailed in previous blogs) and, to my utter amazement, they had a full selection of the new ‘NB10 – Minimus’ shoe which I had wanted to buy, but was too concerned about sizing to do so over the web.  Even more surprising was the price which, on special offer, was around £30 cheaper than the UK.   Yes, you guessed, I just had to have a pair – the size does come up very small, I needed a 45/UK10.5 and that’s not big – and what are they like……?  Great!!  I had the trail version, I had read that the soles weren’t very ‘aggressive’ and could be used as an ‘all-rounder’, which is ideal in BG. Whereas the NB101 is a no frills mountain racer these are much wider in the toe box and seem to offer more cushioned ride.  They are a brilliant ‘first’ minimalist shoe, for anyone wanting to give it a try, compared with something like the Vibram Fivefingers, that give more ‘feel’ but which often equates to pain from stones etc..   I have clocked up about 45mile/72km in them so far and find them like running in very light carpet slippers – I took them into the woods today, on mixed mud/stone, and the grip was fine so I’ll be interested to see how they behave on real Balkan mountains.

If you look at the picture of the two traditional shoes (Asic Kayano and DS Trainer) together with the NB10  would you believe that they are, in theory, all the same size.  You can also see the great difference between the thick sole of the Asic Kayano and the minimalist approach……….. the Kayano feel like I have battle ships attached to my feet, how did I ever run marathons in these?  Isn’t it funny how we change opinions over the years…… or is it just getting old?

isn't it a beauty?

..... all the same size!