TransGranCanaria Take 2

After having completed the Transgrancanaria (TGC) 125km race in 2015 by the skin of my teeth against the cut off time I was keen to go back and run it again and improve on my last experience.

This time however I decided to ‘only’ sign up for the 62km version as I thought this would be a nice start to the training for the year. After reviewing my race calendar for the year however, I realised that I would not have enough points for my 2019 UTMB application and needed to either find some more races to add or upgrade a couple. So just a few days out from the race start I decided to upgrade from the 62km to the full 125km race.

What could possibly go wrong? To begin with I hadn’t run more than 16 miles as a long run in training since the start of December 2017, my diet wasn’t great with an extended Christmas and an inability to motivate myself to get out and train in the miserable conditions of what felt like the longest Scottish winter ever. Enough excuses!

I had thankfully set a plan working on improving my strength and conditioning with 2-3 solid sessions a week since the beginning of December as ultra running had worn my body out a bit, I noticed I had lost my mobility and struggled to even get off the toilet without hanging onto it. I started working with Tom Sparks, Osteopath & strength & conditioning coach, on a plan of action including biomechanics and mobility work and after a couple months I’m now able to sit into a squat and pat my dog and pop straight back up!

As I’d now upgraded to the full 125km race route this was to be my opportunity to test my new found strength and mobility and to see how the muscles coped with some serious mountains to tackle. I somehow knew in my own mind that my endurance training of past would see me through the distance.

I wasn’t expecting Spanish heat this time of year but the weather forecast for Gran Canaria was unseasonably very Scottish with heavy rains and winds. The grim weather was so bad even the marathon event was postponed from the Friday to Saturday. This was making wardrobe decisions a little tougher than usual but I still opted for my WAA skort and went with short sleeves matched with arm sleeves for extra warmth, along with E gloves, buff and waterproof jacket– sunglasses left firmly behind!

The race starts at 11pm at night from the beach at Las Canteras, set off in a party of live music and fireworks it would be easy to get caught up in the fast start and burn yourself out early. My husband, Dion’s, words rung in my head ‘If it’s feeling good, drop it back a gear & just take it easy, save your legs’, so I did.

Night running is a different experience, especially in a big race such as this, other racers lights can interfere with your own making it difficult to see in front of you so I like to have a fairly robust lumens to make sure mine is outshining others. I used LED Lenser MH10 for this race with 600 lumens which was great. Frustratingly halfway through the night my rechargeable battery was already failing and I had to stop to change to normal batteries, silly error. The night seemed to pass quickly and I was happy to see the sun starting to rise and realising I was well ahead of where I was when the sun rose 3 years ago was definitely a mental boost. The daylight also gave way to the stunning views surrounding me which had me simply awestruck!

The climbs and descents in this race are unrelenting and I was thankful I had my Guidetti poles this time around, they really make a difference to the level of fatigue in the legs. I was also keeping myself well fuelled, drinking Active Root between checkpoints and ensuring I was eating well at each stop along the way. The weather was not only holding out but the sun made an appearance and I hit the hottest part of the day as the ascent to Roque Nublo began.

I took advantage of a cold stream before beginning the climb to cool my head and wet my buff around my wrist which made me feel refreshed at least for a few minutes. The climb up was quite stifling with a lack of breeze but after the cold Scottish winter I wasn’t complaining. I was chatting away to a couple of fellow runners when I ran into my WAA twin, Emma (and hubby Ryan) they were laughing as they could hear me coming obviously having way too much fun. It was great to see a couple of familiar faces along the way but I didn’t want to stay and chat too long as my goal was to get to Garanon before 5 and still had the summit to reach. After the obligatory summit photo I was off on the downhill stretch to Garanon.

I was stoked to reach Garanon at 4:45pm, ahead of schedule! Garanon has hot food and massages, I cheekily took advantage of my 15 min time gain and enjoyed a quick quad massage while I wolfed down a bowl of pasta and a chocolate milk. I was excited to be heading out with a marathon to go feeling strong and relatively fresh, thinking I knew what lay ahead I was also excited to think I could possibly get into the finish by midnight which would have meant a 25 hr finish. Little did I know the last 30k of the race were different to 3 years ago….and not in a good way!

It’s a short climb out of Garanon before a descent down a very rocky path known as the quad buster for obvious reasons, but this year with stronger, fresher legs and still being in daylight instead of darkness I really enjoyed this path and jogged my way to the bottom to Tunte. I was feeling super positive and genuinely having a great time.

I was met at Tunte by my Spanish friend and local, Yosimar, greeting me with a prosciutto sandwich which I devoured on the spot. A quick chat and I was off, buoyed by seeing another friendly face and ready to tackle the last 30 odd kilometres to the finish with some gusto. That was until the route changed from what I was expecting. I had been expecting a couple of rough descents from memory but then also a lot of runnable sections but was disappointed to find the last section not playing to my strengths. Frustratingly I picked my way down an extremely long and technical descent before finally reaching the bottom which was a horrendously rocky river bed which went on forever! From race information this forever was actually 8km of the rockiest most unrunnable river bed I’ve ever been in. It was now dark and surrounded by head height reeds I felt I was trapped in a horror movie. By the time the river bed finished, my feet were done in as was I and the remaining 10km were a painful slog to the finish.

I was met by Anna-Marie’s husband Ben (my fellow WAA athletes and roomies) about 3km to the finish, she’d finished quite a few hours ago (7th lady in 19hrs) so I was really surprised and happy to see him when the heavens promptly opened up to drench us for a couple of minutes. The finish line loomed in front and I managed to put on the ultra shuffle to cross the line. I had done it! 26 hours and I was done.

As always with these extreme races the pleasure is more Type 2 fun, with the enjoyment and immense feeling of satisfaction coming a day after finishing when you join your fellow competitors in the slow shuffle post race, proudly wearing your finishers shirt.

I’m pleased with my result, I hadn’t planned nor trained for the 125km distance but yet I had a good improvement on my previous result (by over 3 hours) and I could feel the impact of the strength training in my legs not only during the race with less fatigue and feeling stronger but also my recovery was much quicker than ever before. Will I do TGC again? I think I actually might! I’d love to come to this race in even better shape, having trained specifically for it to see what I could really do and it’s a fantastic event in such a beautiful part of the world that there might just have to be a third time lucky!