from tulfes to telfes

Yep, I'm a bit confused too, and we took a convoluted journey up one mountain before coming down and having to go up another one. Me and the car not getting along, so Chrissi is the driver, and I'm blaming google maps/Carys for our slight detour today.





The bits I had sorted out kind of went to plan. Run booked, numbers and goody bags all collected from the town hall in Telfes.  Our race entry also gave us a free cable car pass, as they needed to get us up to the mid station for a start, and of course get us all down again.  Even if I do say so myself 105 euros for 4 race entries, loads of food/souvenirs, and magnificent views quite a bargain.  And that's before we even get onto the run itself!

prep

registration

someones in the toilet so killing time

Bryn feeling confident

Realised we hadn't any breakfast so a glass of water and wafer bar had to sustain these elite athletes at altitude.  Chatted to some fellow runners, turns out most were there for the Austrian championships, so we stood at the back for our 7.5k uphill slog.  There was also a 11.5k version but wouldn't have had the cable car fun if we had done that.

wandering to the start line

struggling to find anyone fatter than me

pre race prep

lliswerry running family

The 'race' started, Bryn shot off and I was left in no mans land, and on about the third switchback realised this was not going to work without a walk/run strategy :) Never done anything like it, but the views and scenery were magnificent, the one thing I didn't do was take photos.  Instead jogged where I could and marched uphill where I could. For the last 2-3 ks was doing 20 seconds of each in a never ending hill interval training session.  And then got to the final turn where there was a pretty much vertical incline, where I managed to take some old fella who had been swapping places intermittently with me for the last few ks. (almost went imperial there for a minute, but would be doffing my cap to the new face of conservatism, Lord Snooty, and that wouldn't be what I would do if I ever had the pleasure of his company)

about 200m of flat on the whole run

Bryn the winner of the UK/Lliswerry competition

At the end the great organisation continued, with some lovely local food laid on, perfect for run ending, pancakes and apple sauce, Kaiserschmarn https://platedcravings.com/kaiserschmarrn-recipe/

Oh and some coke!  Lots of great photos and cheering in the rest of Lliswerry as is tradition at any race in any country.  And then an amazing cable car back down, taking in both the views and the size of the mountain we had just runclimbed (new word alert)

essential refuel

feeling top of the world

down we go

A little bit of a walk through the beautiful village of Telfes, and then the rain arrived, right on cue to send us back to our hotel, with lots of happy, achieving faces in the car ride home, and loads of bad snacks bought from a roadside service station.  Looked for a possible restaurant for the evening but off season and Sunday did not help matters, and once again, we just went downstairs.

teenage mutant ninja turtles

Couple of hours bantz, cards, mixed grill and a nice baked american cheesecake that I determined as being my birthday cake and heralded my 47th year on this planet.

happy birthday to me

-Carys-

I thought I was good at being 'navigator' for Team Williams when on the road, and was the only member of the family who could use Google Maps efficiently, but that label seemed to go out the window this morning - not literally.

We were woken at around 6:30am by the bells - the actual bells from the church next door. They were loud, they were ongoing and most of all, they were quite annoying. Once they eventually stopped, we packed our things, braced ourselves and hopped in the car to head to our run destination. 

get me away from those bells

So, like I mentioned earlier, we had to make a small detour because I messed up  a bit with the google maps. Well, technically it wasn't my fault since I was just saying what the phone told me to say, but we ended up on a mountain, on some windy, narrow, stone path. We soon escaped, but I was relieved of my navigating duties and just enjoyed the scenery instead.

30 minutes later, in the town of Telfes - not to be confused with Tulfes, which is the name of the place we are staying in - I was having serious doubts about this run. My confidence wasn't boosted when we saw the Kenyan international team turn up and a tv crew interviewing some top athletes. I was also freaked out by the thought of being carried thousands of feet into the air in a small compartment, but I really enjoyed the cable car ride when I was actually in it. The views were stunning, so that distracted me from the fear.

crack on

I want to hold your hand

At the start point, we started to prepare for our 7km adventure, and soon we were off. It was a really nice event, and I stopped occasionally o take photos and enjoy the sights. It was such a well-organised run, with water stations and wet sponges to soak your faces with at plenty of places on-course.

only way is up

bloody bells again

false flat

After an 1 and half of walk-running (more walking than running - but it was all uphill!) we arrived at the mountain peak, or at least the run peak. We were greeted with a facebook live from dad, and lots of tasty food and drink as well. The apple, pancake and sugar was particularly delicious, and just the perfect things to have after a mountain climb.

It was quite cold at the top, and wearing our matching vests, we weren't the warmest so we hopped back into the cable cars and took the descent down. It didn't take long to get back to the car, and stopping briefly to pick up some supplies from a petrol station, we made our way back to the hotel.

worth it for the views

loving the cable cars now innit

The afternoon was spent relaxing, and we had dinner in the hotel restaurant again. I had vegetable wraps tonight, and I think I enjoyed them more than the pasta. Speaking of pasta, I thought I'd mention in our 'race goodie bags', we were gifted a hat, some fizzy apple juice, cereal bar, some leaflets and bag of pasta each. Isn't that an odd thing to get as a run reward? Ah well, I'm sure it'll come to great use in one of the Air BnB's we'll be staying in soon.

I also had some cheesecake, american style with cream and strawberry sauce, but I was so stuffed I couldn't finish it - mum and Bryn gave me a helping hand. We finished with a few games of cards, before coming back to the room.

Hopefully the bell won't wake us up tomorrow - especially as we can actually have an optional lie in - the first one of the holiday!

Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you've had a good one. Love you always x