Trail running in Mallorca... 112km nearly 5000m+ in over 20hrs
Ultra Malllorca from Andy Humphrey on Vimeo.
A great race, a wonderful island..
I suffered with the midnight start. Big queues when the front runners got lost and turned around and then a few more overnight on the small ladders to pass over walls and fences. Suffered between 4 and 6 within tiredness but the sun soon awakened me and the queues diminished.
Long uphills led to an amazing ridge overseeing the whole of Mallorca and then 4 volunteers dressed in orange cheered us down the best of technical descents.
From here it warmed up and we were in the sun. I struggled with the heat and any uphills my energy levels just went and I had nothing but the slowest of pace to get up. I even at one point had to sit and take a breath whilst contemplating what I was doing.
The next up was tough climb through an enchanting canyon. I loved the terrain in the race from coast line to trees to rock and sand, rivers and reservoirs, it was unrelenting to the feet and any miscalculation would do much harm to any runner, which I both saw and felt with a tumble on the last section of downhill, typical. But only a grazed arm.
The final never-ending descent, although enjoyable with crys of 'animal' from those I passed was a relief when over.
Coming out of the final CP I hoped it was only 12km but to my dismay was told it was 17km and 5mins out I realised for the third time I had left my poles back at the CP, bugger.
I dragged my way through the final clicks my main motivation was to finish before it got dark. Which I achieved and was a motivating finish running through the narrow streets of Pollenca to the cheering crowds.
Once finish I looked forward to a cold beer with my fellow runners who finished before me. Only to find that they had only come in less than 10minutes previous and thought we would be hours and so headed home for a shower. Thanks Milan, Orla. So I took in the atmosphere, wondered around and got a burger. Jaro soon finished and I met up and we waited for the guys to come pick us up and we were all beat by then and decided to do our drinking back at the villa.
Post race info.
CP's were good, well supported and stocked but could of done with better foods ie pasta was cold and cheap and bread was not inviting just a smear of jam or chocolate.. just needed it to be a little more appealing when you are struggling to have an appetite.
I again carried too much in a too heavy pack. When will I learn, invest in a lighter pack and carry less. Water system (2 x 1 litre soft bottles) were a failure, a pain to swap over and drink and fill up and so try and stick to a 2lt bladder or 2 accessible bottles.
