Anna, Ricky and myself travelled to Milano for the 1st stair race in the World Vertical Sprint series. There were 2 races the Pirelli building 31 floors, 710 steps, elevation 127m – Altra Sede building 39 floors, 866 steps, elevation 161m. The women’s race was a mass start, where the 10 fastest women would get to run up the Altra Sede building and the men’s race was run in different heats, where the top 30 fastest men would run in the next race.

Luckily for us, our hotel was situated directly opposite the Pirelli building, so we had a fantastic view 2 days before the race!Friday evening was spent running through the freezing cold streets of Milan trying to find a park and then dining out at a very nice Italian restaurant.

After a brief wander through the freezing cold streets of Milan on Saturday morning, we attended a photo shoot in the afternoon and a recce of the 2 buildings – it was soooooo cold!

Saturday evening was spent chatting and socialising at the evening meal with some of the other elite athletes, including last year’s World Stair racing champion, Thomas Dold!

Race day arrived after a sleepless night, due to the excitement and nervousness of what was to come! Anna and I decided to do an extended warm up to what we would do for one of our normal races – this included “laps” outside the Central Station in Milan with “fast” strides…we were prepared!!!

The first race was at the Pirelli buidling. It seemed like we were kept on the start line in the freezing cold for hours – we had to pose for numerous cameras and listen to the President introduce us all and then we were off – faster than a rocket! I remember trying to keep up with 4 women who were in front of them and then catching them at the foot of the stairs. You literally had to run underneath their arms, as they were using the handrail to pull themselves up….after battling passed the women, I found myself in 2nd position, trying to run so hard, lungs burning, heavy breathing…all good fun (I’m sure….) – then Anna flew passed me and we pulled each other on – legs felt like jelly on the flat run in to the finish – Daniela Vassalli 1st 4.40(Italy), Anna 2nd 4.55, me 3rd 5.00, Tina Gomez (Spain) 4th 5.07 – my lungs have not hurt so much before and the best thing was, we had qualified for the 2nd race…..

After a nice gentle run, we wandered over to the Altra Sede building to begin round 2 warm up….Anna and myself were really buzzing and we had so much adrenalin rushing through our bodies for the next race. This was more of a time trial, as the fastest women of race 1 set off last and the slowest set off 1st, each with a 30 second gap before the next woman set off. I managed to set off very fast, not sure how, and then run my fastest up each stair….by the finish my lungs and legs were burning and it was good to see Anna finish the same as I was feeling….the results were the same as the 1st race, Daniella 1st 5.17, Anna 2nd 5.28, me 3rd 5.45, Tina 4th 5.55.

Overall Anna finished 2nd and I finished 3rd……I can safely say I really enjoyed my first experience of Stair running and I shall definately be doing another one soon!

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Well 2009 is over and thank goodness – didn’t like that year – certain parts were fun and exciting, but other parts were not!

The end of 2009 saw me have a kidney infection, nasty reaction to the antibiotics, cold, stomach bug and not forgetting a hamstring tear on Christmas eve!!! 5 days of agony and watching films was so frustrating, but on the other hand it made me REST!

After 5 days of watching films, icing and stretching the leg, I was then able to go walking and then spent many hrs on the fells in the snow with the dog (Rosa). Had lots of fun and gave my hamstring time to heal.

I’m now back running and visiting my physio – who’s been ace! Its really tough running in the snow, esp. when its so slippy and icy!

The next task is the Vertical World Stair Racing race in Milan – 700 stairs and 31 floors in race one and if I’m lucky enough to do well, there is a 2nd race up 800 stairs…..I’ve been practising running up steps already!!

Photos of my fun in the snow to follow…..

Nats

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ben grinding up the climbs

The Dave Lloyd MEGA Challenge, is held annually in North Wales. The route covers 150 miles and climbs 5000 metres. Cyclists from all over the country come to test themselves against one of the ultimate challenges.

 These routes takes in a string of famous climbs: The Shelf,    Horse Shoe Pass, Worlds End, Moel Arthur, The Cerrig “Road to Hell”,, Bwlch-y-Groes, and the “Stingers”

Saab Salomon Outdoor Team member Ben Bardsley felt strong in the legs after just returning from a cycling holiday in the Dolomites. Along with an Achilles injury, preventing him from contesting the British fell running championships in Tebay, he put in a last minute entry.

Ben commented that “ I was pretty daunted when I realised that my journey down to North Wales from Cumbria by car was the same distance as the event I was about to compete in !! ”

Without the benefit of any other riders to work with in a group, Ben found the going against headwinds and steep gradients an immense mental challenge. No one was more surprised than Ben when he discovered he had posted the fastest time and brought victory home to the Saab Salomon Outdoor Team.

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24 year old Ricky Lightfoot took the sky running world by storm this weekend with an incredible win at the 1st European Round of the 2009 World Sky Running Championship. Ricky beat a number of former World Champions to take his debut Sky Running Victory. Ricky was followed closely by team mate Rob Hope who finished an impressive 7th making it a very successful  trip for the Saab Salomon team.

Closer to home, John Heneghan took the honours at the British Inter Counties Fell running Championships, held at the Hutton Roof Fell Race.

 Congratulations to all, more detailed reports are to follow this week…

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To weeks ago I was presented with the challenge of partaking in a new event to be staged in the City of London in three weeks’ time – Vertical Rush. It’s a 42 story (920 stair) “tower race” in aid of the charity Shelter.

Well, luckily enough I’m away in Manchester on a work-related trip this evening and fortunately the hotel I’m staying in is quite tall. So dinner, down on the ground floor, was preceded by a few miles on the treadmill (an equally unusual activity for a fell runner) followed by 5 x 12 flights of stairs (not what I normally note down in my training diary).

I don’t want to sound like a highly knowledgeable pro when it comes to grappling with the technicalities of the stairwell, but I really don’t think stairs are what they used to be. The invention of the lift and its subsequent adoption as the accepted way of “going up” has unfortunately resulted in the modern-day staircase taking the form of a dingy emergency exit route housed in a narrow vertical tube towards the back of the hotel. The result: – a lot of turning, a good workout for the left arm pulling body-weight around at the top of each flight, and a pretty horrible dizziness by the end of each 54’’ rep. Let’s hope that the stairs and landings of Tower 42 are better spaced for the enjoyment of all stair-climbers involved…

I never thought that I’d worry about the lack of opportunity to recce a stairwell.

Andy

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In a race that is known for being the fell season opener Rob Jebb immediately opened his 2009 account at the 9th ‘Tiso’ Carnethy 5 on Saturday. A distance of 6 miles, with 2500 feet total climbing over 5 summits makes the race a testing opener for February!

Carnethy and Ben Nevis are the two biggest hill races in Scotland. Ben Nevis Race tackles the biggest hill, but Carnethy 5 has the largest entry list of any Scottish hill race.

The Scottish Hill Runners site states

The route is justifiably popular and makes an excellent day out combined with the bus ride from Beeslack School, Penicuik and the tasty school dinner afterwards. Although relatively short, the route can be exposed to full-on winter conditions, so hypothermia is a real possibility. A target time of 1 hour is challenging to meet, for all but the strongest runners

Snow covered much of the route and the fact that only 22 runners from almost 500 finishers dipped under the hour (and Rob’s winning time was almost 7 minutes outside of Gavin Bland’s course record) shows how difficult the conditions were for this years’ event.

This was Rob’s 4th win at Carnethy (a long way to go to equal Angela Mudge’s 11 wins!) and he was ably backed up by fellow SAAB Salomon Outdoor Team mate Andy Symonds in 3rd place, split by Clydesdale’s Prasad Prasad.

Fiona Maxwell convincingly won the women’s race, winning by 4 minutes from Claire Gordon and Iona Robertson.

Full results here and some fantastic photos from the Scottish Hill Runners on Flickr

Leading results
1 Rob Jebb Bingley Harriers 00:53:02
2 Prasad Prasad Clydesdale Harriers 00:53:09
3 Andrew Symonds Carnegie Harriers 00:53:57
4 Brian Marshall H.E.L.P. 00:54:59
5 Alasdair Anthony Ochil HR 00:55:41
6 Oleg Chepelin Shettleston Harriers
7 John Helme Ambleside A.C
8 Tom Addison Helm Hill Runners
9 Ales Drahokoupil Edinburgh University H & H
10 Mark Addison Helm Hill Runners

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The newly formed SAAB Salomon Outdoor Team are shaping up for 2009 and last weekend saw the first team get together in Langdale, Cumbria, with stalwarts Jebby and Angela Mudge joined by new recruits John Heneghan and Anna Frost…

To coincide a snazzy new website (www.saabsalomonoutdoorteam.com) has been launched, aimed at keeping us all informed as they trot the globe. With blogs coming straight from the athletes themselves we are sure that it will be a busy site with traffic from those mountain and trail runners who feed off the words of star athletes in the sport.

Speaking from the first team camp team manager Tim Lloyd said:

“The new team has some fantastic new talent and we are all really excited about the year ahead. Young guns Nick Swinburn, Ricky Lightfoot, John Heneghan and Anna Frost join the old hands like Rob Jebb, Angela Mudge and Rob Hope and Nick Sharp to create what we hope will be our best team ever. We are planning a busy schedule of domestic and international races through the year, for the first time we will be focusing on trail and mountain running.”

“Our success over the past 8 years in Adventure Racing has largely been due to our running strength, so it is completely natural for us to move our focus closer to the running scene, this is something that we are very happy and totally comfortable with”.

It sounded like quite a weekend (“we also managed to battle the elements and make it to the pub on Saturday night!”) and the addition of some young blood over the winter will no doubt invigorate those team weekends and race trips abroad still further. Tim and the SAAB Salomon team have always been known for their approachability and humble attitude towards their achievements and we are sure that as they carry on where they left off in 2008 we hope to be able to bring you the inside line on the runners, their travels, equipment choices and sponsors – and of course keep you abreast of the results from one of the best sporting teams in the UK!

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