This is the season where the Irish travel abroad to run or experience trail running races and destinations around Europe and beyond. At TrailRunningIreland.com we will try to bring a few reports and experiences from Irish runners and partners.
To start the series, we are going to the Canary, in La Palma for the 2017 edition of the Transvulcania Ultra Marathon! Early in May, Juju, Nicola and a few others from Mud Sweat and Runners club went down to take part in the main event: 75km and 4,500 m of climb!
Transvulcania is a major event on the international trail running calendar offering participants four trail options: ultramarathon, marathon, half-marathon and vertical kilometer, it attracts runners from every corner of the Earth. The Ultramarathon runs along the summits of this little volcanic island and is considered among the toughest running races, attracting the top runners in the world.
Juju’s feedback:
The mid-morning heat really killed me … I had passed out and moved very slow like a zombie.
“The Transvulcania 2017 ultra marathon is 74.3km through mountains with volcanoes sand, lovely beaches, tropical rain-forest and over 4,500m of climbs on natural beauty making our journey one not to forget!” says Juju. “This race had relentless technical tracks, tough and brutal but fun hills that never ended (which I loved) pushing a race pace over jagged rocky slippery sandy paths that ripped our feet as well as the little stones in our shoes. There was so much scree and hard on your eyes. You really needed sun glasses on this route. We had to scramble up long brutal but tough hills!! But like any races there’s always nicer down ones.
The hardest point for me was the mid-morning heat it really did kill me and not used to it coming from bad Irish weathers ( which I love ) I had passed out and moved very slow like a zombie.
Once I was in the shade and into the cool woods which I must say gave me my mojo back as that heat was to much for me.
I was running like I always do in Ireland ripping the superb technical rocky steep hills having lots of fun and soon came to the view of sea where I knew there wasn’t much left. But a WOW 17k super rocky zig zag path down to sea level tough for many but fun for me! And when you think it’s all over its not!! ultra had 5k left UP HILL and SUPER TOUGH too!!! But pushed on in pain to the end and ran strong passed the finish line with happy smiles and GPS watch time 13hours 7mins over all race time 14hours 22mins not the best but happy I didn’t give up!!”
Read Juju’s full race report at https://jujujaysblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/transvulcania-ultra-74k-race%F0%9F%98%8E/
Nicola’s Feedback:
I ran over the finish line & didn’t know whether to laugh or cry…
“Transvulcania 2017….Wow! A 6am start, full of emotions, thinking of what was ahead. It was time to be tough, keep moving and get to the end & most importantly enjoy it along the way. The terrain was tough but the views were awesome. The climbing was relentless and the downhill was even more harsh with steep technical trails for 20km. 14 hours 59 minutes later, I’m proud to say I ran over the finish line & didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, relieved, proud and oh so very happy.”
Read Nicola full race report at: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155417693257652&set=o.263214820453560&type=3&theater
General Info:
In 2018, the Transvulcania is celebrating es its tenth anniversary and will be held Saturday 12th of May. The Vertical Kilometer is scheduled for the 10th.
Website: http://transvulcania.info
Map:
