World Masters Mountain Running Champs 2024
Friday
Here is a photo of me pointing to the halfway peak of my upcoming race on Sunday, with Canfranc down at the bottom right.
I had some toast at 6 am, little food the previous evening, a half gel (plus nodoze) 60 mins before, and one gel (plus second nodoze) at the 30 minute mark. A couple of slurps of water on the way up and the top.
Prelim
I flew out of Auckland, through to Singapore where I had an entire day before my next flight. The Gardens of the Bay etc were amazing.
Then onto Barcelona for some Gaudi inspiration.
I got the train/bus up to northern Spain, to a place called Canfranc.
The historically important old train station was converted into a luxury hotel. Surrounded by the Pyrenees mountains. Amazing!
I watched the start and finish of the Uphill 6km race with Margaret (catching the chair lift up). Mark, William, Jason, Tom, Mike, Craig, Paul competing. (Mike hurt his calf)
The view from the snowy top was amazing.
Saturday
I supported Karen (the other kiwi entrant) through her long distance 34km race. Karen did very well, coming in 4th off only a few months training. She is plotting for next year when she will be F60...
Race
After suffering severe running fomo over the last two days, I was ready and felt great for my run start. The weather was beautiful... Cool and clear.
My choice was the 'classic' race of 17km, from Canfranc up and then down a mountain in a loop.
I started comfortably fast through the initial 600m of town roads (3.53 pace), but there were still heaps of people in front of me... Maybe 35? These were all my direct competitors, since my start wave was just men 55+.
We hit the hills of the mountain and got into a steady rhythm.
The trail was rocky single track, zigzagging incessantly upwards. I was travelling well, and felt that I was sticking to my plan of being conservative for the first half of the climb.
As we ascended, the path had some steep bits that required power hiking (mostly when cornering), but I predominantly ran up the vert km.
As we got to nearer the top, I was overtaking quite a few people, and was feeling strong. (Between checkpoints 1 and the top I gained 15 positions😀). I never felt like the altitude at 2200m was a factor (surprisingly!)
The summit at Buenovista appeared a bit unexpectedly and, after a flatter section, all of a sudden I was smashing downhill on loose rocks and narrow trails. Lovely fun! Fast and a bit scary in places where the track had some decent drops off to the side.
I ran hard right down the 10km, which involved a million switchbacks. You could stretch out fast on the straights (concentrating like crazy on your foot placements), then had to throw the anchors on hard to slow for each turn-around-corner. I could feel my calves twinging from cramp, but I swigged vinegar a few times and never had to slow much from it.
Finally I was down onto the flat for 1km to the finish. A couple of men passed me here as I was tiring, but I was still going pretty well.
Wrap
I finished in 18th out off 49 in the 55+ men. This was great, since I had been hoping to match my 20th place from 2 years previously in Ireland.
My Irish/British mates all did awesomely.
My quads were total mush for the next few days (including while hiking/jogging around Montserrat with Karen).
I had trained hard for this run for 2 months (including going without ice-cream desserts! O my g!), and my weight was down about 2.5kg to 69.
It was cool to meet a bunch of old and new friends there.. such a great vibe in the entire town.
The whole event was very inspiring, and I'm already wondering about next year in the Italian Dolomites...!
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