Hit The Top!

What a wonderful mountain running race I had today! Hit The Top, 6'th edition. My 3rd time running this race, after previously taking part in the second and fourth editions.

My previous participation in 2014 left a very deep impression on me. That year it rained from start to finish and it was also quite cold, making this intense and tough race even harder! Some runners that were not well prepared for such a race had a quite hard time that year.

This year the organizers decided to open the race just to well prepared runners. Only those invited by the organisers or athletes with a convincing portfolio of high altitude running could take part. There is a good reason for this as "Hit The Top" is a rather technical mountain race. Although the route follos marked hiking paths, it is quite a steep and technical route, climbing almost one vertical mile from around 1000 meters altitude near Bran, to Omu Peak (2505m), the highest peak in Bucegi mountains, one of the highest peaks in the Carpathian mountains.

I was very pleased and honored to be invited. If you followed my blog, you might know that over the the last year and a half I reduced the intensity of my running sessions, trying to increase the quality of my running. As a consequence I greatly reduced the number of competitions... but I could not refuse this invitation!

This year I was afraid that we will experience again the rainy and cold weather. I was following the weather reports for the whole week before the race, and as the days were passing, the weather reports got worse and worse... The weather report the night before the race got a bit better, but it was clear that the weather will be very unstable so I had to be prepared for anything!

Luckily, in the morning the weather in my home town Brasov was quite good: a few patches of blue sky and even some of morning sunshine. However, I could see that the atmosphere was saturated with humidity and it was clear that it could rain at any time. If the morning would have been rainy, I have doubts that I would have had the will to go to the starting line... and that would have been quite a mistake...

On the way to the starting line in Bran, a pouring rain suddenly started... It did not look too encouraging, but the rain eased after 5 minutes. One hour before the start the weather became quite calm and we had good reasons to be optimistic. The volunteers up the mountain also reported reasonably good weather... unstable with a few rain drops, a bit windy and rather cold in the wind, but nothing to be scared of. And indeed, the weather was quite good. It rained only a bit during the race and it was even sunny for a while after the race!

The trails were quite good, given the very rainy last two months. Of course, there was some mud on the trail, but nothing out of ordinary.. The snow up on the mountain was almost completely gone. We had to pass only a few snow patches here and there above 2300m.

We were just 52 athletes at the start. Few compared to other more popular and commercial trail running competitions in the area. But this is why I like this competition. It is kept very simple, yet very well organized, with very good athletes taking part.

The start was precisely at 9:30 AM exactly as  announced by the organizers in the race schedule!

I did not push too hard uphill but I tried to keep a constant and sustainable pace during the ascent. On the way down I was quite relaxed and careful. I knew that several runners will overtake me on the descent, but I did not care. The safety and the health of my knees were my top priorities so I really enjoyed the descent and had absolutely no knee issues. Back home, analyzing the GPS track of other competitors that started the descent from Omu peak at about the same time with me and I have seen that I finished the race 5 minutes behind them. No bad at all given my relaxed descent.

My dirty running shoes after the race.. The only photo I took today...

If in a popular mountain race I can finish in the first 10-20% of the runners, here, running along so may elite runners the situation is different!  My realistic objective was to finish not too far behind the middle of the pack. I think that I kind of have achieved it: 38th out of 52 finishers. I reached Omu Peak in 1 hour and 36 minutes and descended in almost precisely one hour.  This was about 35 minutes faster that in 2014, but this year the race was shorter, as the start/finish line was moved around 3km up the valley, at the end of the forest road. The race started directly on the mountain trail - not a problem in a race with so few competitors, especially that for the first kilometer the trail is quite wide.

Here is my GPS recording of today:

As in the previous years, the race was very well organized. A big thank to the organizers and the volunteers, especially to the volunteers that endured the wet, cold and windy weather up the mountain!

I hope that this race will continue with new editions during the next years! See you then!

Running Poles

Running poles can be very useful when running, or hiking on steep mountainous terrain. They can give you extra push when going up or help balancing on difficult downhill trails. On steep downhills they also help taking away some of the weight from the knees.

I should also mention that they can also be used for self-defense... if attacked by a pack of stray dogs for instance... There are no dangerous stray dogs around here... more likely to meet a bear in the forest... but somehow I feel safer when I have the poles with me.

What I did not realize initially is that if not used wit care, the poles can be dangerous when running. As a skier I am well accustomed to using poles, so using them for running was natural for me from the beginning. I started using poles from my first mountain trail runs. However,  soon I fell twice as a result of tripping with my own poles. Once I even managed to break one pole. This happened on narrow mountain trails on flatter (and faster) short sections of the trail. They are designed to break easier than bones, but still, is better not to break anything.

For a while I did not use poles at all, then I realized that they can be useful on the mountains and I started to use them again on the more technical mountain runs.

Old school pole gripping. No straps.Use your thumbs!

Here are my running pole rules:

• On uphills always keep the tip of the poles behind. It has to be there anyway for efficient pushing. 
• On flat sections of the trail, when running, it is better not to use the poles
• When running and not using the poles, have each of them in one hand, holding them by the middle, whit the tip behind, pointing slightly to the ground.
• When using poles on downhills, keep them far from the body, and never have them in front of you, never plant it in front of you!
• Get rid of the strap!

 The last point may sound strange and uncomfortable. But it has two main advantages:

• Safety. If tripping or falling, I can get rid quickly of the poles
• Convenience. On varied terrain with frequent changes between up- and downhill I can quickly change the way I hold the poles between using or not-using them.

Then... How do I hold the pole without a strap? Well just old school.. very old school. I use my thumbs as in the photo above. I learned this from an old teacher during a ski camp... Believe me, you get quickly used to it. I also use it wit a pair of plain, basic and very lightweight poles I made myself from two straight hazelnut branches...