Elite for a day: Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer

Another race in Italy - in a quite different division.

When Frank and I registered for the Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer that took place Friday evening in Limone sul Garda, we thought it would have the same kind of participant mass as in the Lake Garda Mountain Race last weekend. However, as the race got closer, most of our friends who participated in the short course of Lake Garda race left, and Norway's (and Europe's!) best mountain running athletes started arriving in Limone. This was the last race in the Skyrunner World Series, and clearly a much more serious competition than we had realized beforehand. The original course of the race involved an elevation gain of 1080 m on a 3.7 km course of spectacular views and breathtaking cliffs.

Already on Sunday, the day after the Lake Garda race, our friends Bjarne and Frode guided us through this course. The day was sunny and warm, the scenery incredible, and some parts of the course a little bit challenging any anxiety of heights one might have.

We found the course steeper and longer than we had imagined, but we took it easy, and it was an unbelievable experience.

The seriousness of this race became evident during this test, as we realized that there would be a cut-off time after 2 km. If one did not reach this point within 45 minutes, one would be guided via an alternative path back to the center of Limone. I got a little stressed by this, since we spent 57 minutes to this point during our Sunday hike, but that involved low hear rate and stopping for a lot of pictures. At dinner, with my friend Roger's help I calculated that I would be well within the limit at that point during the race.

The weather worsened towards the race, and on the race morning we woke up to heavy rain and quite a bit of snow on top of the mountains. The race was to start at 6:30 pm for the regular participants and at 7:30 pm a few world elite runners. The bad weather had the very cozy effect that the whole Melkesyre/Varegg group relaxed at the hotel lobby after a long breakfast altogether, chatting about all sorts of things, in addition to exchanging experiences and advice about running, training, eating and all that stuff.

Just before the race office opened the starting lists came up, and we realized to our big surprise that all us ladies from Varegg were placed in the elite class! The idea of starting an hour later than my much faster friends and ending up all alone way behind the elite block scared me a lot, and we all decided to ask for a transfer to the 6:30 pm start. However, this became unnecessary, as the whole course of the race had to be modified due to heavy rain fall and danger of avalanches, and everybody was to start at 7 pm. The new course looked less spectacular and less scary compared to the initial course, but longer and with more elevation gain: 6.5 km up to 1247 m.

During lunch, the conversation was deep and the discussions energetic about the new course. As a perfect compensation, the weather improved drastically as the start of the race approached, and the weather report was looking perfect for the evening.

After taking a stroll a few kilometers up the new course, just to get the feeling and to get the feet going, we decided to take a rest until the race. But this was easier said than done, as the starting point was just below our hotel room balcony, and the race hosts started to talk without a break in three languages via numerous loudspeakers.

An hour before the start, we went down, met the others, did some warm up, got some pep talk, and finally started to line up for the start. I could clearly see that this was a different crowd than in the previous race. Much younger and clearly determined to run the whole way. I was wondering what I had managed to tangle myself into. I completely reset my goal; now I had to work simply to not finish last in the women's class.

The atmosphere was quite magic, though, just before the start, when they started counting down and everybody put on their head lamps. (A working head lamp and a wind jacket was required throughout the entire race, and fortunately poles were strictly forbidden.) Here is a short video from the organizers that gives a little bit the feeling at the start. 

The start was very similar to that of the Lake Garda race, a short flat stretch by the lake and then straight up the steep streets of Limone before hitting the path on the other side of the main road. This time, I started a bit slower than at the Lake Garda race, and I managed to keep my heart rate below 160 for quite a while. However, I had the feeling that I was indeed one of the last of the racers and everybody else was in front of me. The feeling strengthened when a motorbiker from the organizers started moving just after I passed him, as if to say "OK, the last racer passed, we can move on". Well, I had to just do my own race, and already after a few minutes I passed a couple of people who were completely out of breath. I went on a steady pace, for a while with constant distance to those that might be behind me and to those whom I could see in front of me. After exactly 22 minutes I passed a young Italian guy who was already exhausted. From then on, about every 10 minutes I passed a person or two, and nobody passed me, and this was good motivation. On the other side, I had the feeling that I was not pushing enough, but I did not dare to push too hard too soon, as I was expecting a lot more elevation and did not know how steep it was at the end.

The path was steep up on a road paved of small stones for a long while, and then it turned into terrain and quite muddy. My inov8 xtalon shoes were perfect on the road and the rocks, but became very slippery on mud. After passing 5.5 km, I was thinking that there was still a kilometer of distance and 300 m of elevation left, but suddenly I started to hear voices and bells and something that clearly sounded like the finish. So soon? I increased my speed, passed a couple of more people, and suddenly reached the finish, without at all being exhausted.

My watch showed 6 km, which was 500 m shorter than announced, and also the elevation was lower on my watch than what I was expecting. When I learned the finish time of the winners, about 44 minutes, I was very happy about my 1:21 finishing time. In every race, if I manage to finish within twice the time of the overall winner, I am satisfied, and here I was well within the margin. With this kind of achievement, I usually end up in the upper half of the women's list and sometimes quite high up, but not this time. In this crowd, I was number 44 of 53 finishing women, but I am still very happy with my time and with the whole experience. Interestingly, the way down took quite a bit longer than the way up, and this time we took the time to enjoy the wonderful shiny night views of the Garda coast.

At the last race I was wondering whether I started too fast. At this race I was wondering whether I started too easy. I suppose I won't know the answer until I try the two strategies on the same course. At least what seems to work for me is to go on a steady heart rate all the time.

No race for three weeks now. Phew!