Gore-tex Transalpine - three down, five to go

A very quick post about the first few days of the Gore-Tex Transalpine race.

Stage 1: 34.6k, 2k ascent, 1.4k descent. Pleasant weather and a tough but mostly enjoyable start to the race. We toddled round to 18th (?) place in the men's category... but we were beaten by a mixed team and a women's team, along with some masters. It was a pretty pleasing result in especially given the jet lag and general fatigue. Annoyingly the skin on both of my heels had started to shear a bit, which was concerning for the coming days, and I decided to try a different shoe choice for the next stage. I took a couple of videos that I will upload another time.

Stage 2: a mere 24.7k, with 1.9k ascent and 2k descent. Possibly due to a cold which had been lurking for a few days, I was finding it tough and was slowing Adam down a bit... but that could have just been general lack of fitness, and Adam is generally a stronger runner. We finished a bit further back in the field but still stayed top 20 in the men's category overall.

The Heels of Doom held out, although unfortunately Adam started to have the same problem. I am clearly a trend setter.

Stage 3: 38.4k with 3k ascent and 2.4k descent, split into two BIG climbs. That is a metric chuffload of climbing. I struggled more today. My cold was fairly full blown and I was having difficulty breathing properly - I had to stop to retch at the side of the trail on the first climb. We probably went a bit too fast on the first climb for my level of fitness/wellness, and were overtaken by quite a few teams in the middle portion of the race. We picked up a bit towards the end, especially on the final downhill, and took a few of those places back, finishing outside the top 20 but only dropping to 20th in the men's category overall.

Tonight's pasta party, prize giving plus photo and video montages were held on the hillside above Samnau (Switzerland) with great views. A few photos to give a feel: the first is for the balcony of the restaurant, and the second shows some of the descent route as viewed from the cable car. Oh, sscratch that, the Blogger mobile app refuses to let me to post the photos and I'm too tired to try to persuade it. Time to try to sleep...