Written by Steve Hayes - https://stevedavidhayes.wordpress.com
I booked Trangrancanaria as a gap between Cyprus Ultra in January and either Transylvania 100 in May (which I now can’t do) and V3K in June. I also felt obliged to take my girlfriend somewhere warm on holiday so it ticked a few boxes. The race would be tough enough to provide a challenge and short enough that I would only need to make excuses to be absent for 24 hours of the week. Win win.
Following Cyprus Ultra in January I returned with a knee injury and was unable to walk without a limp and running was certainly out of the question. After many physio sessions and sports massages I needed to test out the knee and went for a couple of short runs in mid-February but must have been over compensating for the weak knee and ended up injuring the other one too, more severely so back to Physio for more Ultrasounds, short wave therapy and mundane exercises.
I approached the race with very little training, I think just one 19 miler two weeks prior to the race and had the feeling that I wouldn’t get very far but would at least toe the start line as I hadn’t been involved in an international race of this size and the holiday was booked anyway. Worst case scenario, my knee would give out and I would drop at the first checkpoint or return to the start and I could continue with my break. This actually became quite tempting at various points throughout the race.
Transgrancanaria is a race that has been held on the island of Gran Canaria since October 2003. Participants must cross the island on foot passing through several aid stations where they can replenish their water and food supplies. The Transgrancanaria is held in the first week of March and has five different races, making it accessible to everyone:
Promo – 17km
Starter – 32km
Marathon – 44km
Advanced – 83km
Transgrancanaria – 125km.
The race is part of the Ultra Trail World Tour and the Spain Ultra Cup and had approximately 3500 entrants – about 1000 in the long event.
I chose to do the 125km race which included 8,000 meters of climbing. I didn’t think much of it as Cyprus Ultra was 217km and had about 7,000 meters of climbing. There lies the issue, UNDERESTIMATION! I went into the race quite blasé as I didn’t expect my knees to hold out. I put my usual amount of effort into preparation and had all my kit and nutrition sorted before I left Jersey and all I had to do was get to Grancanria on the Thursday, chill out all day Friday and prepare myself for the 23:00 start. There lies another issue. We’re all used to waking up in the morning a couple of hours before a race, having our porridge or Bagels, our morning poo and then starting the race between 07:00 and 10:00. A 23:00 start was unusual and meant I had to concentrate on refraining from the usual beach side holiday beers and be slightly aware of what I was gorging on at the “All you can eat” buffet at both breakfast and dinner before boarding the coach to the start line at 20:45. I also had to try and stay out of the sun so as not to get sun stroke/bur. I did manage to stay off the beer and eating was OK although did include a few trips to the dessert section but I certainly didn’t stay out of the sun. I didn’t get too burnt though and the pain in my tender shoulders would soon be overshadowed by the pain in my legs and feet.
I boarded the coach from the finish line which conveniently was at Expo Meloneras, about a five-minute walk away from my hotel. Usual trepidation and me being anti-social and slightly nervous I chose to sit alone and gather my thoughts and sort my kit. I had left in a bit of a rush despite having the whole day to prepare. I had done no stretching, no massaging and my kit was just stuffed into my race pack. The buffet had taken priority. In the hotel room I had been frantically filling water bottles, taping knees and feet, lubing up etc. I went to put on my Injinji liner socks that hold silicone toe guards in place to prevent my toes overlapping only to realise that I had packed two right feet. That pissed me off. How stupid can you be! I managed to squeeze my big toe into a little toe and felt discomfort immediately. Another excuse to pull out the race early. I was already making loads of them. The coach headed north for about an hour and a half and I managed to sort my kit out and have a bit of shut eye. The thought of being awake for the next 24 hours plus did not appeal. Once off the coach in Agaete I was loving the atmosphere but wish I had been with someone to share the moment. Hundreds of runners from up to 65 different countries all wearing highly colourful and fancy Ultra running gear I hadn’t seen before, load music, lasers in the sky, sponsors logo’s projected onto the cliff faces surrounding the small harbor town. It was awesome. I grabbed a bottle of water from the local shop, did a bit of people watching, found the public toilets on the beach and did some stretching for half an hour and some more people watching. I tried to make eye contact and smile to a few people but it wasn’t reciprocated so I was left in my own little world. The start line was huge and filled with nearly a thousand runners. I was given the choice of “Left for sub 20 hours” or “right for 20 hours plus” – this was at the back. I positioned myself towards the front of the group on the right as I knew the path would bottle neck at some point with this many racers and I didn’t want to lose any time.
Once the race started we had about 2km along roads, slowly climbing through the town with huge amounts of support before turning off onto a footpath. This footpath then climbed and climbed from virtually sea level to just over 1200 meters over nearly 10km before reaching CP1. It was a tough, never ending climb and very busy. If you enjoy walking uphill very slowly with your head up another athletes arse in the middle of the night I highly recommend it. The path was narrow so overtaking was difficult unless you found a sudden burst of energy and could push past on the edge of a steep drop. I followed in the footsteps of a Spanish lad with dodgy dress sense and road shoes so he was slipping a bit on the wet rocks and mud. I need to get past him. Eventually I did and after a couple of hours of climbing I could hear the sound coming from the first check point. It was like a rave in the middle of nowhere. Load music, DJ’s, load people doing interviews, bright lights and lots of racers battling to top up their water bottles and grab an orange. I had a plan of not wasting any time at the checkpoint and had no one to talk to anyway so just cracked on after about a minute. I probably overtook quite a few people at that point and left there in 675th position. From there we had a fair bit more climbing and then a few hours of descending to check point 2 at the 19km stage. This had taken me about five hours and I was doing OK but the descent was killing me and my knees. My left knee in particular, not the one I injured in Cyprus but the one I think I injured over compensating. It was starting to buckle under me and I had no control at all. I fell several times. After leaving CP2 I knew there was another steep climb for about 15km encompassing about 800 meters of climbing. Going up wasn’t an issue so I thought I’d see if I could make it to CP3 which I did after about 7 hours. 33km in 7 hours! This was going to be a long day and my heart started to sink. The climbs were relentless and were zapping me of energy. At this rate I would be lucky to make the final cut off of 30 hours. My knee had been pretty weak still and I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t right because I was still overcompensating for something and running differently to usual. Maybe using the joint in a different way or putting extra strain on different muscles. I knew daylight was on its way and getting back to the hotel would be easier so I thought it was “do or die”. OK, that’s quite dramatic but I made a conscious effort to give my dodgy knee a real beasting. I ensured I was putting all of my weight on it and ran quite hard. This was either going to make it very bad and force me to stop or help it improve. It seemed to do the latter and after a few hours the pain stated to subside. Physiology is weird! I was also starting to overtake people and spend a bit of time on my own which was nice. I think I found a little space for myself after six hours so it was a long time of walking and running as one leg of a centipede. It was incredible though to look up and see a trail of hundreds of red lights heading up into the invisible mountains and look down to see a trail of hundreds of white head torch beams descending into the distance. Comforting to know that the people behind you still had to endure the climb you had just completed but soul destroying to see how far the little red lights in the distance were ahead of you. How do those front runners tackle these hills so quickly?!
By 11 hours I was at checkpoint 6 and had covered around 56km. My knee was OK, it was daylight, the weather was a bit cloudy and misty and I was absolutely knackered. I had no desire to finish the race. It was a long day and I just wanted it to end. Looking back, I think running on your own without any chat makes the going a little bit tougher and you have to rely on our own self-motivation (which was low). I was listening to music and occasionally a few chapters of an audio book but mostly I was concentrating on my surroundings and my running. I spoke to my girlfriend Corina quite a few times from 9am onwards and I was pretty miserable. We were chatting and she was trying to tell me my positon and where I was in relation to everyone else but the line kept cutting out and there was quite a long delay between speaking and hearing. This became frustrating and the calls became shorter. I was still secretly harbouring the idea of a sub 24 hour finish and I was busting my balls to make it happen. Checkpoint stops were nonexistent and there were no rest periods. I topped my water up, grabbed some cheese, ham and bread and kept moving, usually upwards. I think I was in 427th place by this point so was making progress and had picked off over 200 people in the past few hours which is always good motivation but from here on in I had some of the biggest climbs. I made contact with an English girl called Becky who was storming ahead and running very well, a lot better than me on the decent but I would then catch up with her on the climbs. I also bumped into a Welsh lad who was pushing a good pace so it was good to chat with him and watch an hour or so disappear to random conversation. At a check point I left him and continued alone into the mist as I climbed the hills. The views were incredible in the gaps of cloud and I was starting to enjoy being in the mountains.
The eighth check point in Tejeda was fantastic following a really long and tough climb of nearly 1000 meters. The checkpoint was based at a restaurant or bar with a lovely outdoor terrace overlooking the valley and up to Roque Nublo (what I thought was the highest point of the race). There was a great Spanish band playing from the balcony and it was a lovely party atmosphere. I had a quick toilet break, filled my water and put my cap on as the weather was stating to warm up. It was now lunch time and I prepared to leave for a big climb up to the rock. I couldn’t believe the height of wat we were about to climb on battered legs but I was looking forward to it. We had a short downhill section on roads and then cut off to start our climb which was very steep. I crossed a couple of small streams which I dunked my head in and enjoyed their coolness. I was still doing good on the ups and got to 333rd place by the summit. This part was awesome. The views incredible and it was a busy day up there with locals enjoying an afternoon stroll. There was a turnaround point at the Roque so you got to see a lot of the athletes that were ahead and behind as you made your way to the next check point (Garanon) and where the drop bags would be. I was looking forward to mine as I’d run out of anything exciting to eat but I couldn’t remember what I had packed. There was a fair descent to Garanon and a lot of locals to pass. Their encouragement was awesome but I was still hating the down hills. Garanon was packed. It seemed here were hundreds of racers having a lunch, getting changes, meeting with family members etc. I located my bag, found a chair and got a plate of pasta which I didn’t really enjoy. I ate what I could, filled my water bottles with coke and water, I filled my pack with whatever food and gels I had and replaced my head torch batteries ready to enter night number 2 in a few hours’ time. I left after about five minutes which seems too long and my legs had started to seize but it was a lot quicker than most and I felt I had overtaken a lot but may have left prematurely. How much quicker would I have been overall if I had just put my feet up for half an hour. In my experience, it’s better just to keep moving forward.
The climb from Garanon was ridiculous. I really should have studied the profile chart that was thoughtfully printed upside down on my race number. Seriously, everything about the organization of this event was incredible. A race number with an upside down profile chart at the bottom so you could just flick it up from your race belt and see what was coming. Brilliant….and soul destroying at times. I should have checked it better as like I said, I thought the Roque Nublo was the high point. I wasn’t expecting this crawl on all fours up a hill past patches of frozen snow in shaded areas. Anyway, from the summit there was a stretch of raod and then it was all downhill for about 10km. I got overtaken a lot by at least all of the people I had seen having a leisurely lunch and probably a few more. My downhill running needs work!
I left Tunte at the 94km point feeling pretty exhausted and not looking forward to the two last climbs that seemed to have been sadistically thrown in to annoy me. I had just over 30km to go which could in all reality become 6-7 hours and I’d been going for 19. If I was to hit sub 24 I would really have to up my game and crack on. I made good progress from there power walking the ups and overtaking people that were run/walking. My strategy seemed to be working. The climb was stupid and I could see little colourful dots up on the mountainside. This was another big hill but looked a lot smaller on the profile chart. At the top I was running behind a Scottish chap who was very good on the descents. I decided to try and keep to his pace and step where he was stepping. I thought I could learn from him and he might improve my running skills. It worked for a while and I was really pushing harder than usual. I was keeping pace with him and stuck a few meters behind wondering how much longer I could keep this up and at that moment, he pulled off the track to let me passed and started throwing up violently. I carried on with my momentum as then the competitor within me came alive and I’d overtaken another runner. I didn’t want him to catch me. 10 minutes and 1 kilometre later I could still hear his dry retching echoing through the valley. My running was good but painful and I quickly latched onto another couple of runner, German this time and tried to keep pace. The sun was going down and it was starting to get dark but I put off putting my head torch on until I really needed it. Once on I clearly slowed a little as the footing was awkward and I was paranoid about twisting an ankle which I did several times but nothing serious. Eventually the trail turned into road and then there was no excuse for walking other than I was knackered. I even clocked my quickest average speed between the check points at this stage with a rather pathetic 5.98km per hour. I am not an anorak and wasn’t keeping track of details such as this but just found the info on the website. Very interesting read.
At Ayagaures there was a huge amount of local support. It was now pitch black and I knew I would have to keep pushing for my target time. I had been on the go for 21 hours. I had three hours to cover about 18km. 6 per hour and quicker than I’d been for the whole race. It was going to be close. One more climb to go. I caught up with a couple of English guys that had run the race before, one of them five times so I got whatever knowledge I could from them about the next few hours but apparently the course changes each year and this was all knew. We conversed a bit about previous races we’d all done and I explained I was hoping for sub 24 which they had resigned themselves to the idea of not making. On hearing this I made my apologies and started to push on a bit over the last hill. On the following side I was doing OK but was so transfixed on watching my footing on the pebbly track that I missed a sharp right turn off the mountain. Luckily I hadn’t made it far so only had to back track for a couple of minute. More descending, more ankle twists and more being overtaken by the spritely mountain goats. Then started hell. A flat section which would have been great had it not been running along a dried up river bed. It was very rocky and my feet had already taken a bashing. Running was nigh on impossible. I criss crossed across and down the dried river, occasionally popping out onto a patch of runnable gravel and just as I’d get excited and think I could make up some time, boom, back to the river bed and the excruciatingly painful and annoying rocks. This went on for what seemed like hours but at least the concentration levels on foot placing were keeping me focussed and hallucinations weren’t starting yet. Eventually I heard cars and cheers from people so knew the next checkpoint wouldn’t be far away but once again I was wrong. We headed across waste land towards a highway bridge that we were to go under and then on towards a brightly coloured Ferris wheel. Hopefully not a hallucination but the first sign of civilisation in a while. We then headed down a river overflow and onto pavement passing lots of supporters. I sprinted into the last checkpoint with quite a few people just in front and a fair few close behind. A lot of people seemed to be aiming for sub 24 hours.
I didn’t stay long at the checkpoint but had a little victory dance to the music that was blaring out and necked a few cups of coke before dawdling off in search of the finish line which was only about 3km from here. The rest was all flat with bits of road, pavement and occasional stints along the river overflow. The last bit was about one kilometre along pavement but the finish line was in sight and the music was drawing me in. I phoned my girlfriend to ensure she was at the finish and ran walked for the majority of the last KM in the hopes of saving some energy for the finish shute. Just as I rounded a corner at the end to heaps of support and started to pick up pace someone tried to sprint past me. I gave him a dirty look and he dropped back. There was no way I was going to be participating in a sprint finish for 300 metres! Crossing the finish line was great as always and well worth the misery I had endured. I finished in 23 hours and 45 minutes, just ahead of my goal which at most times I didn’t think would be possible. I posed for a photo and was presented with a finishers commemorative beer that tasted like shite and a race Gilet. Hot tubs were made available and plenty of massage therapists which I didn’t notice until it was too late. I had kept my girlfriend up too late as it was so we went for something to eat and had another free beer before returning to our hotel to enjoy the rest of our holiday.
The race is fantastic and highly recommended. I wanted to take part in a big international race and this was it. I wanted mountains and I got them. I wanted but wasn’t expecting good value and I got that in spades. For a comparatively cheap entry fee I walked away with loads of goodies and a decent bit of bling. Lovely island, great scenery, very tough course – probably the toughest one-day race I have done. I completely underestimated 8,500 metres of climbing. Would I do it again? I’m not usually one to return as here are so many races available and life is too short but I would highly recommend it and the area of Meloneras is a great place for a holiday.
Thanks as always go to my sponsors Mercury Distribution and Dolan Hotels for making my participation in these events possible