Tour_2009

the end of 2008 was a bit hectic. what with a trip to nigeria again for the obudu ranch road race and then back to the snow of the austrian alps at kolsassberg followed by the long journey back to new zealand i felt it was time for a rest, a chill out....and some training!

not much to report, another year has begun and it's nice to be in new zealand. there is a wedding to organise and antonella is hard at work with the ski competitions of a northern winter that has seen huge snowfalls in many areas, including ours. the season has gone well for antonella with a 16th (duathlon pursuit) and 15th (30km free technique) at the world championships in czech republic at the end of february.

it's back to winter again and there is plenty of snow. i dabbled with a half marathon last week down on the coast of italy on the costa auzuro (near to San Remo and Monte Carlo) and paid the price for not doing any specific training for it - one of those mind willing but body was not moments and ended up straining a hammie. that means an easy week - still at least it gives me chance to get back on the ski's at my favourite track (below) with a couple of 9km loops to make a good workout.

a late afternoon ski in the val di fiemme - passo lavazze 1809m (the same area as where the christmas card (above) was taken)

autumn in new zealand is great - nice weather, amazing colours, the first snow fall and even better - with a wedding to go to! wow, what an amazing time we had with good people, beautiful places and amazing antonella. photos are still online from the link on the news section of this website. hugely grateful to have buncy and callum for best men and catriona and steffanie stepping up for antonella. a great day and cool to have 3 silver mx-5's to ferry us around!

the first few races are done and dusted - it's been a tough start to the year. first a scare in cold weather with a strained hammie at the imperia half and then straight off the plane from new zealand to run at altitude in val senales, italy in a team event. a few years ago i would have taken it all in my stride, but boy that was tough this time out. for once - this race just felt like work - not much fun especially with long up hill drags on the road because there was too much snow to run on the normal mountain paths.

The season kicks off properly for me in may - but first our italian wedding - so very different from new zealand but just as amazing for us to have so many of antonella's family with us supporting us and some of my euro based friends coming through as well. mum and dad flew out from nz and steve and jude - canberra based were a huge help and it was great to have steve for my best man here in italy.

caspar from bergen in germany was well chuffed with how his car was looking and we were very happy to use his audi tt convertible as a wedding car - tooting the horn as we did a circuit of the village (how to feel like the queen waving to all and sundry for 20mins!!). italy being italy - the food and drink were pretty important and hotel erica surprised us all with a massive parmeggiano cheese, and 8 courses! we had william's musicians on the go and a fairly dodgy nz haka kept the locals entertained where kim rodley's maori pedigree really shone through.

we had a cool tour through the mesner castle in bolzano (above) - an amazing restoration of a castle into a museum where the new architectural elements lightly touch the mass of the heavy stone walls

It will be pretty intense from now and so it was good to start with a hard fought race win over marco gaiardo from italy at a small event in sud tirol. he smashed me in the first part but i tried to hang on in there and i was able to claw back the 'well thatched pelt' - (gates 2008) and snatch a win. i need some more local races before i can feel i am into it. a week later in kramsach both antonella and i tackled the sport ossi berglauf in kramsach and here the race course rotates so that its the same track only every 3rd year. this year i broke the record but it was a case of clawing my way up soft snow in the final 800m of the track while the clock ticked away. i did it - with 20 seconds to spare - phew - try sprinting the last 450m of a race when its 100 vertical metres!!

sport-ossi berglauf in kramsach austria - fun ride down on single seater chairlifts

(below) imm in chamonix, a rock band on the mer du glace look out, presentation and a training run on 'petit balcon sud' above the town

mum and dad were watching from the top and we got a first class view of the track on the way down with single seater chair lifts. I left them in innsbruck for their continuation of their holiday in southern italy while i had a 6hr drive over to chamonix in france for the imm (international marketing meeting) of salomon.

our on-line and off-line community project is about to gear up a notch so it's exciting times and a big challenge for me to work with this and still fit in my training, normal racing schedule as well as keep track on the work for our new house.

i have to switch back now to racing mode - in quick succession have been races in france, switzerland, italy and liechtenstein. the lgt marathon in liechtenstein had a thunder storm with heavy rain and wind - it felt like a wellington southerly with 4 degrees by the time we hit the high point of the race = chilly!

the cold combined with a bit of fatigue from the marathon left me with a small injury so it was with a bit of trepidation i went south the following weekend for the 25km (mostly road) race of monte faudo in liguria, italy. it has a history of good runners competing including the infamous barbi - who recently was caught a second time for doping. still, our friend william was pretty persistent so i trekked south down to the warm mediteranean. my travel coincided with the beginning of the european summer school holidays. it was pretty chaotic. just making my way from one platform to the next in milano was a mission. thousands of people trying to get from one place to another - all at the same time!

Hot, hot, hot - i would like to be talking about the sights along the beach close to where we were staying in imperia, Italy.....

unfortunately, i am referring to the race from imperia to monte faudo. fa caldo (it's hot). we had 32 degrees and high humidity for the 25k race that starts mostly flat and then gradually winds its way up the mountain. imperia is on on the costa azzura near to san remo and monte carlo (monaco) that also borders france.

luckily i decided not to run with the (hot) pace out front and had a 2 minute deficit in the last 9km. i was able to close it down and 500m from the finish got to the front on the last 23% steep part. the leader of the race from morocco up until 2km to go was walking (he didn't get to the finish collapsing with 1km to go) and then another kenyan out front was having difficulty on the last steep part so I was a bit lucky to end up with the win. antonella came across to the race after her training camp on the other side of italy and she won the women's race.

the news paper (left) on the stand the next day says it all! - "the wedding couple triumph on the monte faudo!" we had a very expensive dinner as guests from the race - 80 euro's per head! the super yachts were tied up in town including helicopters and sports cars....time to get back to the mountains!

after a good weeks training i had a long drive to bulle - no not bulls (nz) but bulle (switzerland) for the swiss mountain running championships. it's a tough course climbing steeply at the end and the swiss runners were strong this year, i had to work hard for that one! being french speaking area they like to have a party and so the prize giving was a late night effort. the next day and with a night time drive across switzerland i also ran the muttersberglauf, a really nice and also short race. i ran close to the time of last year despite the fast race (and fast drive) from the night before. it wasnt good enough to win this time out though and i fell short by 5s. still it's good for the confidence knowing i am fit for a couple of tough races like that in close succession. next challenge will be two marathons in the space of a week....!

the first marathon went well, good conditions and a win by 20minutes. it finished at 2865m on the rothorn above lenzerheide in switzerland, the climbing was a total of 2682m+ so it makes it one of the toughest mountain marathons

the second of the two marathons is in zermatt - this little town has the second largest number of hotels in switzerland, they have grand plans like building 120m up on top of one of their mountains (klein mattterhorn) in order to make it reach above 4000m high! they also have 5 star + hotels and because they support the race i have ended up in one of them. at 300 euro per night (basic room) without food and drink it's flash - a bit too flash for me so i didn't accept the horse and carriage pick-up from the train station! check it out at: http://www.zermatterhof.ch the mini bar drinks are free and i have a separate room for the clothes,....handy. they also give you a card you can use at a lot of the mountain huts, restaurants and cable cars to charge directly back to the hotel. this is one of the most organised mountain resorts you will find in the world! and expensive too!!

the marathon itself was a nice course - always climbing from 1100m to finish at 2600m but interspersed with some flat and down parts it takes in some great sights and of course the matterhorn as well. the photos here show the matterhorn taken from the klein matterhorn (3815m) that is looking down to cervina in Italy. and there are some really nice running trails above the town of zermatt

montage of photos from zermatt - the gornergratbahn (train) and chopper against the matterhron plus the interior of the zermatterhof

i am always trying to find some new events to keep things interesting and so the week following the zermatt marathon i went back to switzerland on the lake of geneva to montreux for a road / mountain race to the top of a mountain behind the town. it was a good mix of trails and road and some long consistent climbing. i had some company on this 19km race until the final 5k with an ethiopean runner really pushing along but he exploded into a million pieces and ended up outside of the top 50! billy burns showed he is back to some of his best form finishing second in under 1hr 30.

my time was an improvement on a 21 year old record from the legendary jay johnson, one of the oldest records in mountain running.

montreux was in the middle of its world famous jazz festival so it was wall to wall people while i was there and a great festival atmosphere on the lake front with stalls for eating, drinking, shopping and some outdoor stages to host events. some of the artists playing this year include prince and bb king while the lake ferries host music day and night cruises. the burning of the montreux casino is forever immortalised in deep purple's song - smoke on the water.

montreux summer on lake geneva in switzerland and passing over the furka with my audi parking next to a swiss tank, just a regular day in switzerland then!

the photos (right) are from the race, from montreux on lake geneva to the mountain, les rochers-de-naye

from there its back again to heligenblut in austria for a round of the salomon running tour. it's always a pleasure to return here and meet up with the team - heide pichler and claudia are an unbeatable combination of organisers for an event that 10 years ago i ran in the first edition and in 2009 they have more than 1000 runners signed up - brilliant! well done h and c!

a young kenyan runner blew us all away with a quick time and now we are seeing - in all parts of europe african runners training specifically just for the mountain races. some of them can really run on the hills too so it's more competitive than ever now.

in between the house and races we had a great time to help paul and dani celebrate their marriage. with a picture postcard location over bolzano in northern italy and a subtly restored farm building it was a great evening and it was great fun to meet and talk with their friends and plenty of aussie 'mates!'

3 of us all raced the next day. marco degaspari, emanuale manzi and I, all in different races which we all won so it must have been good cake!

for the third year in a row we made the pilgrimage up to northern europe and norway. with almost 20 hours of daylight it takes a bit of getting used to sleeping and fjords and ocean are a nice break from the alpine mountains of northern italy where i am living

we had a couple of nice memorials for john tvedt who passed away this year while out running (we had 2 very tight races together in norway 2008). I gave a talk at the race in rosendal on training and we ran in the nuten opp race where antonella broke her own race record and i battled through on a slippery track to win 30s slower than last years time.

then it was time to go by bus and boat up to loen, one of the steepest races on the circuit.

the roses of rosendal - norway, and rain in loen, it rained a lot there, so antonella used the plastic bags to keep dry

this year the skaala opp was a grand prix event and like last year the hotel buffet didn't disappoint. maybe it was too good because there wasn't too much zip in the legs this year and I struggled up the steep track which averages 22.5% gradient.

20cm of new snow lying on the track didn't make for fast times this year and I finished in 2nd place 5s behind the winner from Kenya John Solmbol. it's a long journey getting there and back where on the way up we drove, flew 3 flights, bus then a high speed ferry boat to our arrival in rosendal.

every race in norway requires that runners take a 2.5kg bag - it can be rocks if you like as long as it's 2.5kilo and they weigh it at the top when you cross the line. as you can see from the pics, with snow and rain we filled the bag with warm clothes and with 1 degree on the top of skaala it felt a lot like winter.

antonella coped with the wet weather and blue plastic bags an inovation to keep dry (see photo with rainbow from loen, norway) - i don't think the bags helped a whole lot though!

back to italy and good quality coffee (still reasonably priced too!) and our little town has exhibitions of art and collectable things in an old hay barn. the photo here shows a local guys collection of scooters, lovingly restored.

feeling a bit tired now so opted for a rest week on the 23rd of august and so no racing - i enjoy the events, the races and activities around the races so i am looking forward to getting back into it again next week at the memorial di partiggiani in susa, italy. for the first time there is a course change where an avalanche has wiped out one section of the track and so now the course is shorter - but steeper too. it's going to be a very different race to normal and after winning the race 10years in a row, now is the time for a change!

well, in the end it went to 11. eleven times at the challenge stellina in susa and winning all eleven times. it's a race that suits me, with a tough climb but just enough flat parts to recover and then go again. in the first year i won a postage stamp. the sponsor being the famous stamp dealer bolaffi. i kept the prize of a stamp 'gronchi rosa' instead of converting it to cash. there are only 100 of these stamps in the world, still not particularly valuable though at about 500nzd but who knows - maybe one day!

part of the new zealand team also ran and mellissa moon finished in 2nd place with lara philips in 4th plus dan clendon coming in the top 20, so a good day for the kiwi's they go on to the world mountain running championship in campodolcino, italy while i drove back after the race to work on our house! this week it is time to build the internal walls, put the frames in for the windows, install the sola tunnel skylight, finish the roof, start the external insulation and painting for the outside as well as ensure the tubes and services have been allowed for the plumbing, electrical and the traditional wood fire - so a lot to do then!

this week also comes the jungfrau marathon, a big race this one and always a tough one. this is the final event of 3 mountain marathons where I have completed the first 2 and so far hold a 52minute lead, but still as the saying goes: to finish first, first you have to finish!

and i did it, all three races together with a combined time of less than 9 hours. it was a tough climb, with 25k on the flat before the serious mountain began my legs were dead. i had to run steady and then in the last 4km i started to feel the hamstring tighten and i had to slow down the speed. the last 1.5km is downhill and the hammie was just strong enough to get me across the line. i lost a bit of time but the view of the finish area as you cross the summit is a welcome sight! 4500 other runners also completed the marathon this year and the swiss organisation is incredible at sorting everybody for clothes, shower, massage and food on the top before going down on the train lines. the big tent was full for the prizegiving and i crashed into bed at midnight.

an early start the next day at sunrise and i drove off to watch the first every world championship of mountain running in campodolcino, italy. up until now the world trophy race has had support of the iaaf but this year it iss officially recognised by them. it was a very fast course and the african runners were out in force. some good races on a super day and draining course with the altitude of 1700m at the start area being a hard factor.

i had to get my sore legs sorted out before heading off to lienz in austria for the dolomitenmann. this team race is a relay with mountain running, paragliding, kayak, and mountain biking. for the last 3 out of 4 times I have raced there we have had the same guys - all of us at the sharp end of our individual disciplines but this year was tough all round. I had a huge fight just to stay in contact with marco de gaspari from italy who is in good form and was so strong over the technical parts of the mountain run. then our paraglider was nursing an injury from a race that he did one month before but he still finished with the second fastest time. our kayaker had to fly the night before from his world champs in barcelona arriving at 2.30am on the race day.

so it was a tough day but it was a great result in the end and a lot of fun spraying champagne all over the stage and crowd later that night!

next stop on the sunday was a quick trip to the tre cime and a great part of the italian dolomite mountains. the photo here shows the tre cime from the arrival of the race. with such a hard race on the saturday it was all i could do to just physically lift my legs up some of the steeper steps and 4th was the best i could hope for. it was actually nice to run behind and watch the battle going on out front for the win, eventually won by helmut schiesl of germany and an all round super nice guy. the famous mountains of the tre cime (drei zinnen) are in this photo (left).

it's a walk down race so i long day but a nice event. antonella was also 4th placed and then she started her first snow skiing training on the dachstein glacier in ramsau, austria the next day.

wow - my first ever mountain race in the uk - it seems strange to be racing in europe for the past 11 years and never running before now an event in the uk. i have always wanted to visit the lakes district and its great to able to visit keswick and run the commonwealth trail race to the top of skiddaw - one of the famous peaks in the area. the running form is starting to drop off now and so it's just a case of making through to seasons end. it's worth supporting because with this event there is a chance that in future commonwealth games, mountain running could be included. 2018 is the most likely from what the talk is here - too late for me obviously but great for the sport. the photo (right - photo courtesy eileen woodhead) shows the uphill event at skiddaw, a windy day.

i ran in 36 races in 2008 and this year looks like i will be starting 28, a pretty heavy schedule but an enjoyable one. i think 36 races in one season could be a record for me! although to be honest 28 this year feels harder because i have more marathons this year. although it pales in comparison to the legendary lucio fregona who has now more than 1000 races in his career, he was the worlds best downhill runner at one time and still has a fair turn of speed when the descent is steep and technical.

the final race of the summer season is always the tour de tirol - mostly because after these 3 days of races i am sick and tired of running! the 10k is a nice 4 lap circuit but it never feels very comfortable when you are trying to conserve the energy for the next days. a bit of extra pressure this year because the marathon has been designated as the world long distance challenge. to be honest, it's not especially important - but it doesn't make it any easier! 2nd position and i moved up from 6th place in the final 3km but it was a slog with the down parts pretty average and not a lot of energy - time to rest now!

time to take a small rest in new zealand, aotearoa, time to rebuild, time to reconnect and time to run . . . . .

callum harland, tt and i took a road trip, wellington-masterton-ekatahuna-napier-MAHIA-gisbourne-tolaga bay-east cape-HICKS BAY-lotten point-te kaha-opotoki-murupara-taupo-whakapapa-hamilton-auckland. parts of the east coast of the north island i had never seen before. starting with the wellington secondary school sports awards on a you can't beat wellington on a good day kind of day. 20 years ago i was the first ever winner and now i am back again to present to the new generation. ginger beer at the lido. we caught up with john campbell, still in the nz record books for the marathon as well as owning a fantastic motel overlooking the breaking surf above hicks bay. lunch at the works in gisborne (an old sausage factory on the wharf). deep sea fishing from land at lotten point with a hard case owner - duckie trying to sell her motel. running in the high north island mountains. twists and turns all the way on roads deserted other than local kids waving kia ora as we pass. leffe blondes in st helliers along with a few new babies to meet from buncy and callum. kayak fishing in front of rangitoto. a lot can happen in a week!

and then its back over to europe for the winter and snow and to keep the house ticking over there. we are hoping the olympics will be in our plans for 2010 and antonella will get a shot at the top again. there is a lot that can happen with the ski sports and even outside the athletes control depending on conditions and the quality and preparation of the skis by the technicians. looking forward to 20 - 10! cheers - j

run down	2009 season
date	race	result	time	distance	location
1 march 2009	imperia half marathon	5th	71min	21.1km	imperia, Liguria, italy
19 april 2009	oetzi marathon staffeta	2nd (ind)	43min	11.8 km	val senales, italy
10 may 2009	bronzolo - aldino	1st	36min 20s	6km 900m +	bronzolo, italy
17 may 2009	kramsach sport ossi berglauf	1st rr	44min 43s	6.1km 1213m+	kramsach, austria
21 may 2009	monte du grande ballon 1st WMRA GP2	1st, 50pts	1hr 00min 46s	13.5km, 12230m+	willer sur thur, france
24 may 2009	gamperney berglauf	2nd	45min 01s	9km, 1000m+	grabs, switzerland
31 may 2009	merrano2000	1st	1hr 16min 15s	14km, 1650m+	merano, italy
6 june 2009	lgt marathon	1st	3hr 01min 00s	42.2km, 1800m+, 600m-	vaduz, liechtenstein
14 june 2009	corsa a monte faudo	1st	1hr 34min 17s	24.9km, 1149m+	imperia, liguria, italy
20 june 2009	nerivue - moleson	1st	58min 30s	10.6km, 1290m+	bulle, switzerland
21 june 2009	muttersberglauf	2nd	36min 26s	7.8km 850m+	bludenz, austria
27 june 2009	graubunden marathon	1st	3hr 29min 07s	42.2km 2682m+, 402m-	lenzerheide, switzerland
4 july 2009	zermatt marathon	1st rr	2hr 57min 47s	42.2km, 1944m+, 444m-	zermatt, switzerland
5 july 2009	algunder berglauf	dns	-	5.65km, 517m+	lagundo, italy
12 july 2009	27th montreux-les rochers-de-naye	1st rr	1hr 25min 36s	18.8km 1600m+	montreux, switzerland
19 july 2009	grossglocknerlauf	2nd	1hr 11min 13s	12.7km 1494m+	heiligenblut, austria
26 july 2009	grintovec 2nd WMRA GP1	2nd, 85pts	1hr 19min 12s	9.6km, 1957m+	kamnik, slovenia
2 aug 2009	harakiri run 3rd WMRA GP1	1st rr, 100pts	53min 37s	10.4km, 1170m+	mayrhofen, austria
9 aug 2009	nuten opp	1st	36min 06s	3.7km 897m+	rosendal, norway
15 aug 2009	skaala opp 5th WMRA GP1	2nd, 85pts	1hr 10min 00s	8.2km 1814m+	loen, norway
30 aug 2009	memorial degli partigiani (stellina)	1st	1hr 07min 56s	12.5km 1695m+ course change	susa, italy
5 sept 2009	jungfrau marathon	1st	2hr58min 38s	42.2km, 2000m+	interlaken, switzerland
12 sept 2009	dolomitenmann	1st + team win	1hr23min	12km 1950m+	lienz, austria
13 sept 2009	drei zinnen - corsa delle tre cime	4th	1hr31min	17.5km 1350m+	sesto, italy
18 sept 2009	commonwealth trial championship (uphill)	2nd	51min 21s	12km 800m+	keswick, england
27 sept 2009	hochfelln berglauf	1st	42min 50s	8.9km 1001m+	bergen, germany
3 oct 2009	smarna gora 7th WMRA GP1 final	6th	40min 58s	9km 710m+, 350m-	slovenia
9,10,11 oct 2009	tour de tirol - world long distance challenge	5th, 2nd, 4th	4hr 55min 14s	10km, 42.2km, 21.1km	sol, austria
13 dec 2009	kolsass berglauf	1st	23min 58s	5.2km, 550m+	kolsass, austria