Landie & Christiaan’s Transalpine Epic
Part 3: Day 5–8
Day 5 — Landie’s view
Samnaun Vertical Sprint — 6,2km & 731m Ascent
Finally feeling like a million bucks, come rain or shine, I was going to have some great fun on my first vertical kilometre (well almost — 730m ascent in 6 kilometres). And would you believe it, we had our first rainy stage. The stage format was structured so that teams of 2 would be set off every 30seconds from 10am onwards. Our scheduled 11h33 start meant a very chilled morning and I thoroughly soaked up the “normal” feeling. Once the gun went, I knew I was back to my old self, and just wanted to run like a horse out of the box. However, with more than 120km of running and big climbs waiting for us in the next 3 days, we took the advice of one of the ladies from the leading women’s team, Helen Bonzor, who also competed in the 2013 Transalpine. She mentioned that there is no point in burning yourself to the maximum, just to gain a minute or two, and in the process compromising the next 3 stages. We still pushed relatively hard and that 2nd spot on the podium was once again ours. This short vertical stage in the rain was rather scenic with waterfalls and cow cheerleaders, and it was fun attempting to pass as many teams as we could on our way to the top!
Day 6 — Christiaan’s view
37km Samnaun (Switzerland ) to Scoul (Switzerland) & 2084m ascent
As became custom for the Transalps, the start involved a big Alpine ascent, with another big climb waiting for us after the second aid station. But what was different from the first couple of stages, was that all of this started at 1800m, which became quite a challenge for a sea-level organism like myself. Right from the beginning I had difficulty with my breathing and could not consume any solid food, nor could I speak normally any more. This was a very unusual feeling and the only way to communicate with Landie was via hand signals. She helped where she could, carrying my pack, motivating, but the message between my brain and my legs was corrupted by my lungs, who seemed to be rather unhappy with the lack of oxygen. To my relief, the village of Schoul where we finished was at a much lower altitude and we had the best ever hotel to relax and recover until the next stage.
Stage 7 — Landie’s view
Scoul (Switzerland) to St. Valentine (Italy) 37,8 km & 1633m Ascent
What a blessing to once again wake up with excitement in my heart and wonderfully strong legs! It was stage 7, but it was not just another stage. After 6 days, we were about 70 minutes behind the yellow jerseys. We made peace with the fact that unless they experience a serious setback, we will most probably not claim the overall win. However, we were looking for a stage win at least! As a result, we needed to play a different game. After carefully studying the route profile, we noticed that the first 7km was pretty much downhill on jeep-track and we could use our running strength to gain an initial advantage. I told Christiaan: “Run as hard as you can, forget about the yellow jerseys and the other teams and make a gap!” I thought that, even if they caught us on the 1200m climb after that, at least it will mean they would have to exert themselves, or so I hoped…
Regrettably, Christiaan still suffered on any form of uphill and I pushed and pulled as much as I could. But as the husband and wife duo of Team Tuga Wear seemed to float past us at the 10km mark, I felt like losing all faith. I pushed those thoughts aside and was desperate to keep fighting. With Christiaan attached to me, there was little chance for sneaky photo opportunities and he had to hang on for dear life, but sadly we lost sight of them soon after. Stage 7 produced some of the most scenic tunnels and thrilling single tracks of the entire run, which certainly helped to keep the spirits and pace up. It was indeed a surprise to catch a glimpse of the leaders as we rounded the corner at the second aid station at 25km. My heart raced and the battle for the stage win was back on!! I instructed Christiaan in Afrikaans to just keep on moving, while I filled water etc. We made sure we kept them in sight on the last 400m climb, with the aim to overtake them somewhere on the last 8km downhill. Team Tuga Wear certainly did not want to give up the stage win, but as the single track opened up into a wider path, we surged passed them and ran to the finish line like we stole something. What a sensational feeling when the commentator announced team Salomon Mixed as the winners of stage7! Emotionally and physically drained after our efforts, I hardly made it to the finisher’s zone. But, nothing seemed to matter, we did it…
Stage 8 — Christiaan’s view
St. Valentine (Italy) to Sulden (Italy) 40,1km & 1648m Ascent
After 28 hours of running over 7 days, I could not help but be happy that this day has arrived! I was so excited to complete the journey and welcomed the initial 17km downhill tar and jeeptrack section. Not even the thought of the 1400m steep climb from the 25km mark couldn’t dampen my excitement. Another bonus for me was that the original route had to be altered due to an incoming snow storm, and instead of climbing all the way to 2800m, we traversed around on the 2100m ridge line of the climb. We learnt by now that our strength compared to the other teams was definitely anything runnable. So when presented with this adjusted route profile, we approached it like a fast road run, completing the first 10km in 41:55. This pace left us with quite a gap on the other teams, but we were aware that this could be narrowed fairly quickly once we reach the very steep parts of the ultimate climb.
Thanks to Landie’s continuous motivation and enthusiasm, I used every last bit of energy to bear forward and upwards, without breath and completely exhausted. We caught sight of the yellow jerseys behind us close to the summit, but were determined to consolidate our stage win. We never looked back and negotiated the last undulating muddy kilometres in the rain. I had so many great trail running memories, every time weakness or pain snuck in, I countered it with one of those moments. The race is only finished once you cross that finish line and I was aware of Team Carteney who became injured on stage 7 of Transalpine run 2013 and failed to complete the race. As we ran down the last downhill, past high alpine cottages, fresh water streams, fences, cows, supporters with bells, I became so aware of the blessing of being in the mountains, to run injury free and running towards another stage win with the love of my life.
