Goretex Transalpine Run 2011 - Update

On Saturday 3rd September, ‘Team TPC’ kicked off the 1st stage of the eight day Goretex Transalpine Run 2011, leaving Obertsdorf in Germany, and heading to Kleinwalsertal, Austria. With a distance of over 27km, and 1800m of climb this was meant to be a gentle start for the team, but with the stage starting at 11am, in 80 degree temperatures with not a cloud in the sky, it proved a little more challenging than first anticipated! Still, the boys kept it steady, and  finished in a very respectable 7th and in good form ahead of Sunday’s ‘King stage’.

Stage 2, on Sunday was the most challenging stage of the entire race with a distance of 55km, and 2500m of climb! (Further than either of the boys had ever run before!). They performed well, arriving in Schruns in one piece, in 4th place, allowing them to move up to 5th overall.

The weather turned bad on Sunday night, forcing a change of route for Monday’s trek from Schruns to Galtur, however it was still another marathon distance, which involved a massive 32km climb, followed by a brutal 12km descent! In treacherous conditions, the team ran brilliantly, narrowly missing a spot on the podium by only one minute! They finished once again in 5th position overall.

On Tuesday, Matt who had been struggling from the start of the race, experienced more problems, this time only 10km into the 40km stage. Although they completed the stage, Matt really struggled and they lost a considerable amount of time, finishing 17th (and falling to 7th overall). Sadly Matt ended up in the medical tent for an hour after the race and questions began to be raised as to whether he was fit to continue.

Wednesday, was billed as a rest day,  with just a 6km mountain sprint to be tackled!!  For the only time in the race, the team could run as individuals, with the slowest time being taken as the teams official time for the stage. Matt was still struggling, so Casey stayed with him for the majority of the stage, urging him on,  leaving him only in the last kilometre. The time wasn’t the fastest, but they did enough to maintain their place as 7th overall.

Unfortunately, even after the rest of Wednesday, things didn’t improve on Thursday. Matt started the stage with Casey, however after crawling for the first 6km, it became apparent that continuing was not an option. Casey stayed with Matt until a doctor arrived, and despite losing over 20 minutes, and starting from the back of the field, managed to storm the stage, finishing 5th overall. The ‘Team TPC’ dream  was sadly over however for Casey, although devastated, failure was not an option, and he was determined to finish the race, and do it in style!

Due to the nature of the race, there are often many casualties, resulting in an ‘Individual Finisher’s’ category. Although this category doesn’t attract prizes like the others, it does provide some recognition of the efforts of the individual runners that continue to race following the demise of their teams! We discovered on Thursday that despite all the time lost on previous stages, Casey was sitting in 2nd place and less than 38 minutes behind the current leader.  After the challenges and frustrations of the week so far, and relieved to finally be able to start running the way he had trained so hard to, Casey was determined to make up as much of that 38 minutes over the final stages as he could!

Friday’s 37km stage involved climbing the infamous ‘Der Rappensharte’ – at over 3000m, the highest point of the race. Unfortunately, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Casey was one of about 100 runners struck down with food poisoning! Many runners dropped out but never one to give up, Casey still gave it a go, and despite being very unwell, somehow managed to finish the stage in the top 12, and still sat comfortably as 2nd overall in the individual finishers category!!

Feeling slightly better than on Friday, Casey had an absolutely brilliant race on Saturday’s final stage. The climb was tough but an awesome descent, left the guy leading the individual category (several time former German national champion!) for dust! With 2km to go, he spotted the reigning world champion 300m ahead & was only beaten by him by a second in the end!

Individual winner of the stage, and 2nd overall individual finisher is well deserved recognition for an outstanding performance & surely more than proves his calibre! Casey was understandably disappointed that things didn’t work out the way he had trained or planned however with a field including such high class athletes, he has more than proven that he can mix it with them, and has, I’m sure you’ll agree done Team TPC and Comfort Rwanda proud!!