The race is on!

Rock'n'Roll! Yesterday the countdown was over! There he was: the day of the days! The day the team trained long time ago!
Friday night the whole crowd of transalpine runners met in Ruhpolding 2010 an on Saturday the first stage was startet. Within this crazy crowd...the 4 gore merchis. While they are running all day long I (Davids brother) will report the next days about the run and the shape of the men in tights. The first 2 days I spent in the Alps to follow the runners...at least I tried to follow. And I can tell you: they had 2 great days. On Saturday the run from Ruhpolding (Germany) to St. Ulrich (Austria) and today from St. Ulrich to Kitzbühl. In total the first 70 km an 3000 m altitude distance are done!! But fotos speaks much louder than words. Here are some impressions of the first two stages...

David und Thorsten celebrating with the fans...

The first finish line of the gore transalpine run 2010 in St. Ulrich: the 4 gore merchis cross it together, of course!

Carbo-loading in St. Ulrich...stage 2 is coming soon

ready for stage 2. just befor the start in St. Ulrich

the start...

allez c'est parti

second mountain on the way to Kitzbühl and still in good humor: Francky and Michael

and what did Thorsten expected of stage 2?...just watch and listen...

more informations, results you find on the officical website.
there you can also find some more impression of stage 1

keep on running

Men in black - and GREEN

Dear readers,

just unbelievable 3 days left to the start in Ruhpolding. Nice words from a friend: "FINALLY the race is coming closer, I don't want to train anymore!" :)

I think for most of the participants this last week includes very few training. You just keep moving a little bit your muscles, no very long or hard runs anymore before the start. My cut was on Saturday when I had my last long running test for my injured foot. I had a more or less good and stable feeling during 27 km. So that was my final "GO"! I'm ready!!

Ready for the catwalk over the Alps! :) Last week I received a nice package from CEP that makes it easier for the masses of supporters to recognize us during the race. Besides the super functional and stylish running clothes of Gore Running Wear® in black now we are wearing GREEN. We got some performance improving running socks from CEP. Thanks so much for that!

For all the supporters of their runners who are looking for news during the race, check these pages for up-coming news:

here <- the official race homepage

here <- our facebook group with over 300 members

here <- the youtube channel from the race

and, of course, check this lovely blog here!!

Cheers everybody!
May the sun appear in the mountains.

David

oh nein?! nine. nine days to go!

Here I am again.
Dear friends, runners, supporters and lovers!

It's getting serious. Our countdown on the left side needs less space. Only just one digit now: 9 (NINE!). During the last weeks the time really run, the digits ran away. Especially for me during doing nothing because of my injury. The last 10 days I used to get used again to run. The last time, on Monday, for the first time it was something like (almost) running again. But the dominating feeling now is not DEPRESSION because I couldn't run for some weeks, well, that happens, it always could be better. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing my boys next week, hopefully everybody healthy, to march with them to the starting lines. To get this GOOSEBUMPS together with 500 people. To suffer 8 days together. To reach our goal all together. Cross the Alps TOGETHER!!

I have to admit during the last runs I just have to think more and more about the up-coming race, possible emotions and so much more...
so I'm not sure in what mood I am right now? :)

Is it this wonderful tension before the competition....
the sound that landed this morning in my postbox.



or is it more this "bäm bäm bäm dä däm"-feeling during the last training runs in the woods of Bayreuth...


Still don't know. But it feels good.

You feel the tension everywhere. The internet is full of more or less nervous debutants, and even the cool old hands get more and more "let's get it started"-feeling. And everyone from all over the world meets here.

So everybody: keep on running and take care during your easy-going running units.

But sometimes, even the best are stopped by their bodies... and I'm not talking about myself. :D
I feel so sorry for Caitlin Smith, last year's winner of the GORE-TEX® Transrockies Run, she had to leave the race this year after only 2 stages. Best wishes to her.
She missed this crazy run through a lot of water. Don't know if I'm prepared for THAT...


Cheers everybody!
David




By the way... can you hear it... tic tac tic tac... Did I say it already?? - 9 days!

t-14. wohooooo.

Dear friends, runners, supporters and lovers!

I really can't believe it - just 14 days left to the start in Ruhpoldingen, just 2 (!!) weeks.
The GORE-TEX® Merchi Emotions teams start in this last past of the preparations under different conditions.
Thorsten will be back from a sweet relaxing week in the Greek sun after the last hard training weeks. I'm sure he'll be back on track with a lot of power for the race. Yes, I'm sure he's on fire.

Michael an Thorsten were for a third last training camp in the Zillertal last weekend. While I was listening to sweet music at the Haldern Pop festival they ran over 60 km with nearly 5000 ascending meter. Respect!
Franky is training well at home in Munich and in the surroundings.
Well, and finally I'm back in "training", too. It's really hard to see that the past 3 weeks without training because of my injury were just too long and in a very important training phase... At the moment my goal is just to stand at the starting line with a good feeling about my ankle. For the rest I have my captain. :)

I hope you all train well and keep on running!

Important changes of the this year's course

A bit more than three weeks before the start in Ruhpolding the organization team from Plan B published some very important changes of the course we will be running this year.
Firstly 2010 will be the year with the longest GORE-TEX® Transalpine Run ever with over 300 km now, 305 km exactly.
Furthermore, for safety reasons, some alpine parts were cut and so we will have to ascend about 4000 m less than planned before.
Stage 3 is now 47 km long by the way... :)

The reactions from the runners are different. For me personally it's not the worst thing because of my missed 3 weeks where I couldn't run in the mountains.
Other runners say it's too flat now! I don't know if you really can say that the GORE-TEX® Transalpine Run can be too flat...
Discussions about that you find on our page on facebook.

So everybody enjoy your last hard training days!!!
Cheers. David

no sun, no training...

... still one goal.
this should be enough motivation!



and look what I found -  a very sweet animation of every stage this year! Big thanks to Salomon for uploading this (click twice to get the videos big).

///stage 1///


///stage 2///


///stage 3///


///stage 4///


///stage 5///


///stage 6///


///stage 7///


///stage 8///


by the way nice beat.

final countdown...

30 days to go... only 30 days...

Actually that really really sucks. Still can't run. The last weeks should have been the time with a lot of kilometers... My left foot didn't let me run at all. Besides I have a bad cold at the moment. The feeling right know (physical/mental) is so much different compared with 3 weeks ago.

Damn, these are not my days...

Thorsten and Michael maybe will have their last trainings camp in the Alps this weekend. I'm so jealous!!!

I really hope that your preparation for the race of the year is really going better than mine.

Cheers.
David