So I am here finally! It is the first major race of the year for me, and after a bit of a mission of a journey to get here, spanning 24 hours, 3 flights and quite a bit of waiting around I am here on the La Isla Bonita to be part of the toughest Sky Running race, Transvulcania.
I am staying in Tazacorte which is a lovely little town on the coast and hosted the vertical mile race yesterday. An amazing event where runners run up the hill pictured above and is actually a Kilometre up in the sky. I and my friend Simon sat about a ¼ of the way up the mountain and saw people running up with ungodly speed, and was lucky enough to see Kilian Jornet and Emelie Forsberg doing the business. Kilian came third in the event but I suspect he is saving himself for the main event on Saturday!!
There are a lot of runners based here in Tazacorte; lots of tell tale Salomon trail shoes and backpacks around yesterday! We saw Timothy Olson and Kilian around the town which was pretty amazing, almost a little star struck!!
As I write this I have less than 24 hours til the start of Transvulcania, when we arrive on the plane I got to see the mountains I would be climbing first hand and close up and they are big!! For those of you who aren’t aware the race is around 15,000 feet of climbing covering 73 kms along the volcanic rim of the island. Its an epic race and this year sees a really strong lineup taking part in both the male and female race; Kilian Jornet (winner 2013) Timothy Olson, Sage Canaday, Emelie Forsberg (2013 winner of ladies race) Anna Frost (Winner 2012) are all here so it promises to be a spectacle to watch as well as to be part of !
Today sees us going to the expo to pick up race numbers and soak up the vibe. I hope to meet up with a few friends I know today also who are over for the race, although with 1,500+ people taking part in the race, meeting up by chance might be a bit of a tall order!! Once done with the expo, relaxation this afternoon, eating plenty of food and then some shut eye as we have to be at the shuttle bus pick up at 3am in the morning for a 6am start at the light house!! Not sure sleep will matter once I am at the start line however, heres hoping!!
A full race report will follow!!
