Tough running

Mountain running is a tough sport. There is no doubt about that. More often than not the World Championships are held in the Alps where the runners zig zag to the top of a mountain, on what can seem to be a never-ending climb. We've all seen the cyclists tackling the climbs on the road in the Tour de France. Running up a mountain is the same but without the bike and on trails instead of roads which means they can be quite technical. The descents can be cruel too. Often they are, what is referred to as technical, in other words, scarey! The descent often has steep sections and the runners need to have speed and to be somewhat reckless.

Those that make the team prepare well. They ensure that they are at the top of their game in terms of endurance, strength, speed, technique and, importantly mental strength, but few were prepared for the demands of the course this year.

We arrived in Albania on Friday. The weather was hot, but not just hot, it was stiflingly hot. We arrived around 3.30pm and I decided that I would go for a run but leave it until after 5pm. Even then the heat got to me. My legs felt heavy and I had to concentrate on not giving in to temptation to cut it short. Apparently the thermometer had hit 40 degrees last week. I'm not sure what it was on Friday but it couldn't have been far from it.

Saturday was put aside for visiting the course. Most of the teams were taken by bus from the beach resort, where we were being accommodated, into Tirana where the race would be staged. Tirana is the capital city of Albania and this was the first deviation away from the norm. More often than not major championships are held in the Alps. Ski resorts are popular venues, far from the madding crowds, with mountain trails aplenty. An urban venue is unusual, although they were held in Edinburgh (up Arthur's Seat) once.

This is where we were dropped off on the bus.

We set off at 9am and it was hot then! We were dropped off at the Botanical Gardens where the race would start and finish. The start was marked out so we began to make our way up the course. After leaving the start and finish area we came to a building site and were somewhat perplexed as the map of the course indicated that the route would go straight through the site. After talking to some locals we worked out that the course had been re-routed and now skirted around the outside of the site.

What followed next was a long, hot climb that involved plenty of steps. On the summit there was a derelict building to run around and then it was time to make our way back down. The descent was technical, to say the least and there were a few obstacles to be aware of such as ditches and a pipe sticking out of the ground. We were glad we'd been to have a look. It could be quite scarey to come across those when you're running at pace, but the scariest of all was two sheer drops that required the runner to switch off their brain and just throw themselves down. At this point we were cautiously rubbing our hands together with glee though as the Brits are probably more at home with that sort of thing than the rest of the world. Many of the UK fell races involve mad descents and many of our runners have practiced coming down scree slopes, off the fells. Some of the comments from the other teams showed that they were horrified though and, in some cases, disgusted that they were expected to tackle such a course.

By the time we got to the finish we were all pretty hot and bothered as the sun was high in the sky and humidity was high on the hygrometer! We searched for shade whilst we waited for the bus to take up back to the hotel. By now it was around midday and a walk around the course had everyone perspiring plentifully.

So, it was the middle of the day and a walk around one lap of the course was hard work. The following day the runners would tackle anything from one to three laps depending on their age and gender.

I won't write too much now about the races but will share with you some of the photos that show how mountain races met urban adventure races in Albania last weekend!

The earlier and shorter the race = the least number of incidents. However, the senior men ran at midday and their race was 13 km with 750 metres of climb. You can see from the photographs how tough the race was. Add to that the heat in the middle of the day and the fact that the drinks stations nearer the top of the course ran out of water and you can guess that there were a few casualties with heat exhaustion. For the first 12 of the 13km Thomas Ayeko, from Uganda (pictured above) was in the lead. He collapsed with heat exhaustion before he got to the finish. Chris Smith from Britain was another casualty. Just after he made the descent pictured above, (Chris is the one who looks like he's surfing!)  he slumped to the ground unconscious. He was probably out for around five minutes before coming around. He didn't fare too badly really. Three ended up in hospital. Below is a picture of him as he managed to get back to his feet.

Our best results were Lizzie Adams who finished 4th and led the senior ladies home to bronze team medal and Tom Cornthwaite who finished 21st in the men's race. Tom went out to Albania early and gave himself time to acclimatise and to train on the course. This certainly paid off for him.

The other variation from the norm was the attitude towards conservation. The venues at other major championships are often prestine and careful instructions are given to the team managers at the technical meeting on how far along the course the athletes are allowed to carry water bottles or sponges before discarding them. After that there is a clean up operation so that the forests and meadows are left as nature intended. In Tirana there were no such instructions and I witnessed the staff who were manning the water stations discarding the empty plastic bottles into the bushes and over the edge of the cliffs. There didn't seem to be any understanding of dealing with litter responsibly. This seems to be the norm though. Some of the descents looked like a refuge tip as large amounts of rubbish lay strewn around and some of it had become half buried.

Although there were a few issues, it is a good thing that Albania is keen to host championship events such as the World Mountain Running Championships. They certainly gave it very high status. The Prime Minister of Albania was at the opening ceremony officially welcoming the world and the event was given five hours of live TV coverage. On top of that, the athlete's village was at a luxury beach resort, which was ideal for chilling out both before and after the event. You don't get many other countries in the world that would show that much appreciation do you?