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| Chillin with Jono W. post race |
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| Fellow SCOTT athletes from Italy! Rockin my Julbo's of course |
Trip is going well so far, lots of cheese lots of mountains and one race down to shake off the old rust as I prepare for the World Mountain Running Championships to take place a little over a month in
Poland! Had a bit of free time this past week and had been wanting to check out this little place I heard about that made cheese locally from Swiss Alp roaming cows. Its basically a farm in the Alps. Very clean, natural, no hormones in the cows and of course the price was right. Visited a bit with the
alpage meister and he even gave me a few slices of cheese "
gratis" to try out to see which one I liked most. These were not sample sizes, he was quite generous. Ended up picking the Swiss special -
Raclette-.
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| Moi Suisse Bro |
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| CHEESE straight from the source |
This past week I took part in a historical race in Switzerland which begins about 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) above
Val d'Hérens. This valley is one of the prettiest valleys you will ever see, the back drop looks like a painting and you have a view of it for nearly 99% of the race. The ziel sleeps at the end of the valley at THE "Grande Dixence Dam". Famous dam that rises over 280 meters making it the tallest gravity dam in the WORLD. Its hard to focus on the race once the dam comes into view when you swing out on the far arms of the alps as you approach the final ascents. Speaking of which, these ascents are where I realized I would not win the race. I had the lead after fighting back to the front pack, then lost it in the high altitude to a runner who lives at a higher altitude than the highest peak of the race. To say I was disadvantaged is a great understatement. My SCOTT Kinabalu's came in handy and definitely saved my feet from the sharp jagged rocks on the technical bits. Appreciative for the fact that I'm part of Team SCOTT!
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| What goes down must come up. Photo courtesy of Jean Louis BAL, edit by moi |
I won't make excuses, he executed well. I guess I ran well too considering that was my best time so far here (especially well considering I'm from sea level). I was able to hold on to 2nd place in a STACKED international field that included many sub 2:20 marathoners, previous members of Gold Medal World Mountain Running teams, National Champions in their home countries, former Junior World Mountain Running Champion (Now 23), and of course a few newcomers (Ethiopians) who have performed well on the roads/track. The race director even joked at the awards ceremony as everyone stared at the star studded international field on the podium that "this WAS the World Championship for mountain running" (Not in Poland where the Championship actually takes place in one month).
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| Grande descente. Photo Courtesy of Jean Louis BAL, edit by moi! |
Time to rest and get ready for the next venue. I've been fortunate enough to be able to travel with some of my vitals for nutrition this year, so recovery will go well thanks to Garden of Life Raw Protein and Wobenzyme! I will spend some time in the German regions of Switzerland in the Alps and take a few stabs at a few more races that offer some amazing experiences and also new challenges that I'm nervous for and looking forward to. I will post more on that soon. For now enjoy a quick video of my buddies from New Zealand and I on our tour of Mont Greppon 2! Ciao
Link here:
http://youtu.be/GxWKii9-sdw
Video aquí: In High Definition (;
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