Today was brutal, even more than yesterday. Steeper, higher, steeper and longer. At the same time it was meant to be run with tomorrow in mind.
Before going into the detail of the race it's worth remembering that I'm sharing a tent with four guys and the only washing facility is if you come across a river. The two nights so far have been lumpy and tonights has a significant slope. So it isn't a quality sleep and you are living of boil in the bag food! I know I know your asking why but that's for another day.
Today after a short run it turned onto a full blown climb. The type that has you taking baby steps and breathing heavily.The climb was 10 km. I was ahead of the second placed Romanian runner Cosmin Raileanu until a wrong turn lost me 5 mis. Cosmin and I completed the climb together but he disappeared on the downhill. This almost ended my run as having not seen another runner for 15 minutes I thought I was on the wrong route, yesterdays route! There was no way I was going back up the mountain so I consigned myself to being out of the race. I was gutted but this race is so incredibly tough that I thought the beer was going to compensate! Just then my friend Laurence shouted out to me and we were on the right route.
The rest of the day was more of the same. Very steep hills and I wanted to keep my third place so when I reached the last summit I gave it all I could manage for the 6km downhill on rough ground. Just as well I did as Mike (2hr 43min marathon) and his wife came in just over 5 mins behind me.
Yesterday a runner retired Gina. The good news is she is giving massages at the end of each day so I have had 2! My traps in the shoulders are agony but my back is tired as well. To be expected with a heavy rucksack. My training in the mountains has been the best thing for this adventure but the gradient is unreal.
In all my multi day events it's the long day that everyone talks about before it arrives. Here it's the day before the long day. 48km with over 2,000m of ascent and the following day is the long day. This will be my biggest challenge yet and I'm heading off to rest as I need lot's of recovery time. Tomorrow if you're dot watching it will be slow. They've been having technical problems with my tracker but hope to get it sorted. I'm off for a rest now and hopefully will receive emails from you. The ones received last night were very much appreciated - keep them comming please. Fingers crossed.
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