Transalpine Run – DAY 3 Written on September 7, 2009, by andys.
Transalpine Run – DAY 3
Length: 33km
Climb: 2437m up / 2134m down
Andy & Tom: 1st overall / 3hr 43min 52sec
Ben and Angela: 1st mixed team
Heart rate: ave = 150bpm / max = 168
1km to go
A bit more running today with several miles of gradual forest track before hitting the steeper rocky sections on the cols and mountain tops. There were two major climbs, each taking us up to around 2700m.
Tom and I adopted a similar tactic to yesterday, running at our own pace and enjoying the scenery as much as possible en route – it’s been impressive! The valleys are very steep and the surrounding mountains incredibly steep and pointy. Leaving St Anton we soon found ourselves out on our own gradually building the lead throughout the day. We had no way of gauging the gap we’d created until once under the finish banner, interviews completed, milkshakes necked and handfuls of pretzels devoured, the clock ticked about 17 minutes until the next team arrived. – We’d obviously had another good ‘un!
Tomorrow’s going to be one of the toughest outings at just under 40km in distance. So we may adopt a more steady-steady approach rather than trying to maximise the lead at every possible occasion. With a 45+ minutes cushion the teams behind will be hoping for a mega energy collapse from us over the coming days and we’d rather avoid bearing out any rumours circulating that the young Brits have gone off too hard and they’re going to crash and burn, which have apparently been circulating in the Transalps camp!
Ben and Angela continued with a third successive stage victory and again a similar margin to us over their nearest chasing rivals.
Andy
