Day three

There is a party every evening for all competitors. Last night's was at the local ice hockey stadium (on the ice). We sat with Linda Noke and her running partner Ryan. They use a piece of equipment to help speed them up each day. It is a piece of bungee that is attached to the back of Ryan's pack that Linda ties around her waist so she can be towed up the hills! They don't use it downhill as it is too dangerous! We start Day 3 in Kitzbuhel, lying 42nd in the Masters category. An early morning alarm call at 4.30 and down for breakfast at 5.00. David then walked over to the medical team to get the early signs of a couple of blisters seen to. The TransAlp has had its own rock song 'Keep on running' commissioned. The warm up music included a live performance of the song, much to the consternation of the neighbours at that time of day. You can just make him out in this pre-start photo. Today's route includes lots of climbing, and it started with the climb up the famous Hahnenkamm downhill ski run. Although we had to run some of the way with cows on the road, which was somewhat surreal!

The ski run was incredibly steep. Our trail zig zagged up the slope. We simply could not have gone straight up. It was up this climb when we asked a Dutch team how they trained for the mountains. They said days 1 and 2 were training and day 3 marks the start of their race!

The first drink station was at about 10km, and a very welcome sight after 2 hours of ascent. The water melon tasted especially good.

They also provide a mixed nut selection, for which the protein is essential to rebuild the worn out muscles. This is me eating my nuts (!) with a fantastic backdrop of the mountain we descended into Kitzbuhel behind.

After the first descent, we reached the second drink/food station. It was also time to take a few stones out of shoes and face the second major ascent into the snow.

We climbed again for a couple of hours up to this mountain, which we skirted around to the left in the photo and then across 10km of heathland, all above 2,000m.

As a result, it was snowy. There was however one moment when I said to Chris, why is this fresh snow, where have all the other runners gone? With that he landed up to his hip in a snow drift. It made a great picture and I had to go back to pull him out! You will notice the other runner studiously avoiding the drift.

We soon discovered the trail was just the other side of the fence on our left.

The third drink stop was at 2,200m and with the lungs sucking in as much oxygen as they could, we had a great view of the finish at Neukirchen in the valley below. All we had to do was run 10km downhill to get to it. Now downhill is where Chris and I are fastest. We are slower than those around us on the uphills (but not by much) and also faster when it gets muddy and undulating. However, running fast downhill after 36km of severe ups and downs is tough on the quads, which start to feel like jelly as the finish approaches. Our speed was not helped when I felt a blister pop on the sole of my foot with 2km left to the finish.

However, we made it and came 36th in category and now lie 36th overall in the Masters (moving us up from the C start to the B start tomorrow). Our time was 7Hr 22 mins for the 47km covered (The winning time was 4Hr 38mins - they were home in time for lunch!)

I have been asked how the bears are faring. Well, they are strapped to the front of our ruck sack straps, so you can see them if you look carefully (on Chris's left shoulder and my right shoulder). They are quite heavy and must cost us about an hour each day on our time, but they're thoroughly enjoying the mountain scenery. However, they preferred the hotel last night to tonight's gym floor:

After the finish, I had my feet looked at by the medical team and they did a great job putting the pieces back together. Not a pretty sight. Turn away now if you are not a foot person:

The pasta party tonight was held back up the top of the mountain we came down. Fortunately reached by cable car this time, and giving us much more time to enjoy the views.

It's another 7.00 start tomorrow followed by 44km of running (and walking up those mountains). The first 33km are uphill to the highest point through the whole TransAlp route, peaking at 2,700m. Our start in Neukirchen is at 877m. That's a lot of climbing.

I'll just ignore my feet!

Now it's time for an early bed.