|
Well the Mt.Vinson challenge is behind me and as I sit here writing this I am already looking forward to my next run for charity which will be Mt. Elbrus on March 20. So this weekend I ran 65KM with 4895m of elevation by running up and down a local hill between Benidorm and La Vila Joiosa on the Costa Blanca. The reason I am running this series of challenges is to raise money for an occupational centre called Centro Doble Amor. Centro Doble Amor provide support and purpose to adults with physical, emotional and intellectual disabilities; I have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of the guys who attend the centre and each time i meet them they inspire me! As with the previous challenge this one had to be split over 2 days due the current COVID 19 restrictions we're experiencing here in the region of Valencia. This weekend I decided to split the days into one long day and one shorter day; on the last challenge I kept it simple and did two equal days. On Saturday I ran 45km and 3253m of positive elevation and on Sunday I ran 20km with 1645m of height gain. On Saturday I decided to run laps or vueltas of Torre d'el Aguillo, completing 26 laps in 7 hours 53 mins. When I started the weather was perfect for running on the Costa Blanca; it was a little cloudy with a light breeze. This changed by 10am when the sun puts its hat on and came out to play. With the arrival of "el sol" came increased temperatures. Although I have become more accustomed to running in warm temperatures I am a welsh boy through and through and running in the heat really takes it out of me. On Sunday I changed it up a little by taking a more direct route which is a little steeper with less distance and slightly less elevation gain. I felt great on Sunday and seemed to be eating up the repeats with relative ease; well maybe not ease but I certainly felt strong. The weather remained cool all morning which I think made a big difference to how I was running compared to the Saturday. I completed the 14 hill repeats, 20km and 1645 in 3hours and 20 minutes; which I was pretty pleased with to be honest. So what's next? Next up is Mt.Elbrus which I will be doing on Saturday 20th of March. I am hopefully that the restrictions will have eased here in Valencia which will mean that I'll be able to get this challenge ticked off in one single run and not split over 2 days. Mt. Elbrus stands at 5642m above sea level which means to get this one done I will need to run 45 vueltas and 84km. I'll be taking a few days off now and resting before I start preparing for Elbrus in March. Thank you to everyone who has donated, liked and shared posts. Thank you to everyone who comments and thank you to all my contributors; i really couldn't do this without your ongoing support. 
0 Comments
So what is the .10 summits challenge you ask? Well its simple really; I run the elevation gain of the 7 highest summits on the 7 continents and I added 3 local summits to round it up to 10. Why? well again its pretty simple. I am doing this to raise money for a local occupational centre close to the town in which I live. I started this challenge back in September 2020 with the highest mountain in the region of Alicante; this meant that I had to run 23km with 1557m of positive elevation. I did it by running up and down a local hill 12 times, which was pretty straightforward to be honest. The next challenge saw me tale on the highest mountain in the region of Valencia which stands at 1838m above sea level; again it was pretty easy going. I then ran Mt. Teide which is the highest mountain in Spain. This was a different story!! This was actually pretty hard. This challenge meant that I had to run 54km with 3718m of positive elevation; this equated to 30 repeats of the same hill... The day began pretty well but after about 2 hours i was feeling a little peaking and unable to take in any food. my stomach was doing summersaults and the only thing I felt like doing was stopping. 12 hours later i completed the last repeat completely and utterly exhausted. Challenge number 4 was again a jump up with 70km covered and 4884 meters of elevation. This challenge took me out of Spain for virtual ascent of the highest mountain in Oceania which is the Cartensz Pyramid. Unfortunately due to COVID 19 restrictions here in Spain I had to split the challenge into 2 separate runs; this meant running 37km on the Saturday with 2500m of height gain and 33km on Sunday with 2392m of height gain. On Saturday the temperatures were around 25 degrees which was pretty hot for February; the last 3 repeats were tough as I developed cramps in my left thigh and couldn't shift them. Sunday on the other hand was a lot cooler and the run went perfectly to plan with no issues. The next challenge is planned for February 20th where we move to Mt. Vinson in Antarctica. Mt. Vinson stands at 4897m ASL which is again 70km and 40 repeats of Torre de'l Aguill0.    |
