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| yes, once again i am on tour for another session in europe. this time competing in some of the grand prix mountain racing events while putting in some preparation for the berlin marathon at the end of september. so far the diary reads a bit like this: I travelled from New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur to run at the menara tower in early august. this worked out nice since KL is half way on my journey to europe. The result was a win, but i couldn�t better last years winning time of 10min 24s where i was 7 seconds slower this year |
| on to europe and i flew into geneva on the shores of lac leman. i upgraded this year from the sewing machine engined twingo to the turbo powered 1.5l deisel clio (face lift model). a pretty racy machine and tested to 185kph on the german munich-salzberg autobahn without threatening to fall apart as my previous steed felt likely to. the first euro race was a long run - treated as a long training workout the sierre-zinal (or course pedestre cinque 4000) race is a long one at 31k. it is also tough as it climbs about 1500m in the first 8k, not many races climb this quick. to give some idea a steep race is normally 1 in 10 ie 1m elevation gain for 10m horizontal distance. the middle section flattens and you can see five 4000m high peaks as you run (hence the name cinque 4000) |
| stair running is a fairly intense exercise. this particular race takes me around ten and a half minutes and involves a 600m dash up from the bottom of the hill to the tower entrance and where the laste 150m is across tiles which i like running on soap when they are wet as happened this year inside the tower it is just a solid 8 and a half minutes where if you go too hard too early you can really suffer - judging your pace is a major thing here check this link to see the route and some info about the event and this one to try and see some video |
| just over the range from the sierre zinal race is the matterhorn and i drove down from zinal (1700m) to the main valley of vallais and then a few km up it changes to german speaking and so becomes wallis. Then a drive up to the end of this next valley we find the town of zermatt, no cars allowed, just battery powered mini vehicals that travel deceptively quick and quietly and attempt to wipe you out as you run along the quaint narrow streets standing at the end of this valley is the towering matterhorn at over 4400m and the scene of numerous climbing accidents and deaths every summer. the matterhornlauf was on a changed course from when i last raced it, longer but flatter and more interesting at just over 10km. here i broke away early and won with a new record rom the englishman martin cox. team altitude and attitude 2 took out the teams title with yours truly, martin cox and the australian paul crake (very multi national) |
here i finished 3rd behind the crazy descending billy burns from england and the record breaking mexican, ricardo meicha (excuse spelling). i ran a not too bad 2hr 38 and the winning mexican about 7mins quicker pics here show my brilliant sponge dropping technique as you run in and out of small farm villages along the way, and the final 100m into the `zeil� at zinal |
| here is a web site for the matterhorn race, which finishes at a place called schwarzee. the matterhorn then towers right above you. there is a good plan of the course here and results some pics from the race here |
| picked up a bit of a cold so the training in st moritz was shortened. the next race took me and my clio to the north of italy and north of torino near sestriere to a place called susa this is a traditional italian town with a number of roman buildings and bridges still in existance. the race is tough and hot, every year we sem to start a little earlie, this makes it easier for the heat, but not for the sleep! the course follows an old battle during the first world war and at the top veterens have a service before prize giving this year i won comfortably, a little slower than last years record, with martin cox and antonio mollinari in 2nd and 3rd spots. last year the kiwi team of myself and aaron strong (2 counting members) backed up by callum harland and simon maunder took out the teams race - the first time ever that the italians have been beaten |
| thanks go to yahoo for sponsoring this page |
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| over to bergen in the south of germany and then the following weekend is a race in austria at the ski town of kitzbuhel, very rich, and very nice digs at the weis rosel (white horse hotel), salmon for breakfast - really. the race is on road, unusual for top class mountain running but right up my street with a win by one and a half minutes from bily burns of england. very misty near the top and it was hard to even see where the next part of the road went. the prize giving must rank as one of the longest i have been to, an amazing amount of ostentacious trophies that only an austrian could love!! hence many an englishman was seen depositing them in gardens around the town! the day before this race i dropped in on a friend and ran his race too, an easy 10k but worth a mention because of the white porcelan that is famous from that part of austria, gmunden. this year being the second time i won this race i got to keep the trophey, a huge piece of porcelain. now how am i going to get this home........ |
| date 5 august 2001 12 august 2001 19 august 2001 26 august 2001 1 september 2001 2 september 2001 9 september 2001 16 september 2001 30 september 2001 6 october |
| race kl towerthon sierre-zinal matternhornlauf (ernst gp) challenge stellina (wmra gp) gmunden berglauf kitzbuhellerhornlauf (wmra gp) drei zinnen alpin marathon tubingham stadt race berlin marathon smarna gora (wmra gp) |
| time 10m 31s 2h 38m 1h 02 1h 07m 40m 04s 56m 33s 1h 19m 58s 21m 19s 2h 14m 55s |
| result 1st 3rd 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 3rd 24th 3rd |
| location kl, malaysia zinal, switzerland zermatt, switzerland susa, italy gmunden, austria kitzbuhel, austria sexten (sesto), italy tubingham, germany berlin, germany lubljana, slovenia |
| distance 2000+ steps 31km 2000m climb 10km 800m climb 14.4km 1500m climb 10km 600m climb 12.9km 1250m climb 17km 1300m climb (more like 15km i think) 7.5km road race marathon (42.2k) |
| run down. . . |
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| some much needed sustenance before the sierre zinal 31k race in the form of wine and raclette from left is a former winner of the race and local guy, me, phill, paul and billy from britain, and the race organiser augustin left over cheese came in handy for the ears when the band struck up |
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| tour 2001 |
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| the drei zinnen alpin marathon course. this was a race starting at 1300m and finishing at 2600m with pretty amazing scenery here in the dolomiti the pic has me marco guiardo and martin cox and yes it was bloody cold! |
| results and course description at the link above |
| a good website for the race, certainly the most well organised and proffessional event i have been at in mountain running. 250 volunteers apparantly, and 1000 athletes and this is only the fourth year it has been going. the race is in italy but really a region called sud tirol which encompasses the mountain regions of austria so everyone here is speaking ze deutsch |
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| the prize for 24th place at the berlin marathon.....in the passenger seat beside me sits a former tangerine vest wearing stream machiner - brendan cole now residing somewhere in the uk in between side trips to latvia and lithuenia see more of berlin with this link - |
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| clio at rest after conquering another alpine pass red plates always get puzzled looks as you go since only foreign lease cars use them |
| clio looking devasted in strasbourg as i return her to the depot, never to get another thrashing |
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| last race of the tour the smarna gora in lubljana, slovenia very cool place and good beer (all shots were taken to keep sponsors happy) |
| tubbingham, germany a small town near stuttgart with a 7.5k road race round the streets and through a park. it is 3x2.5km laps and has a hill and some cobbles as well as a sprinkling of kenyans i was a bit of a surprise for the organisers who were well chuffed with my 3rd place this is also the home to one dieter baumann of toothpaste fame |
| strasbourg cathedral, the french are good at that sort of thing. |
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| top of the course, the drei zinnen peaks in the background and a stream of runners near the 2600m course summit |
| left, only 3 more strides to go . . . . . . . and right the drei-zinnen with anna pichtorova from the czech republic |
