Transylvania 50k

The atmospheric Bran Castle at night

Building up the collection

Race map and course profile

This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite races. The sheer scale of it is breath taking and I only wish I had the courage to tackle the 100k option but I don’t mind telling you that I am more than a little afraid of it. Compared with other mountain ranges that I have been to the Bucegti Mountains seem inhospitable and hostile. There are no wooden sign posts here or little chalets with flower boxes in the window offering weary travellers a nice cold beer. Some of the mountain shelters were just that, little red and white plastic shelters faintly resembling igloos. The word “basic” comes to mind. This is a tough mountain environment, no doubt about it, and it is a privilege to be able to run a race through it.

 

The night before...Nervous? Me? Never!

Low cloud on the hills but a clear evening

The race route goes up that road and into those mountains

I guess this means that it is very suitable in character for a region whose most famous resident was Vlad the Impaler on whom the story of Count Dracula was based and a region whose impenetrable forests house a large population of bears and wolves, not to mention the very large dogs kept for the purpose of scaring off the bears and wolves. I decided not to enquire about the bats. 

Keeping the tourists happy

Maybe its my fertile over imagination but there is a certain medieval mysteriousness about the region, a mysteriousness bordering on darkness. People are still using horses with wooden carts for transport and using ploughs hauled by oxen in the fields. Yes, I do realise that the town centre of Bran in all its gothic glory is designed to be exactly like that to haul in the Dracula loving tourists but it doesn’t take a a great stretch of the imagination to imagine a public execution going on there next to the stall selling faux skull splitters and crossbows and behind the cheese and nougat stall.

Swords, crossbows, skull splitters...not sure how you get those through customs..?

Good to go!

Race pack contents

Studying the map

Simon carb loading for my race. *sigh*

The 50k started at 7am in the grounds of the magnificent Bran Castle and I purposefully took the first mile or so on the road very easy. Unlike some of the other competitors new to the event I knew what lay ahead. Simon was waiting on the road to cheer on the runners as they went past and take some film footage, but he was struggling with his camera man duties. A huge amount of profanities had to be edited out of the final cut although its got to be said the “directors cut” version is far more amusing.

The start

Climbing through the forest

The race number had the course profile and checkpoints marked on it which was useful

The road turned into a wide track which in turn turned into a narrow track as we entered the forest and started the climb properly. And continued for another 5000ft up the mountain. As we emerged from the forest and climbed past the rock formations we climbed into the damp low hanging mist that was shrouding the hillside. After following the track through patches of snow the route eventually descended into the valley towards the first checkpoint at Malaiesti. The descent path was muddier, much more slippery and much more eroded than I remembered it from 2 years ago, but I reached the checkpoint without incident and most importantly, well within the cut off time. I noticed though that I had not been eating or drinking nearly as much as I should have been in the early stages of the race, so I made the most of what the checkpoint had to offer and horsed down a large (for me mid race) quantity of chocolate, cheese, apple and energy drink and it was much needed. I had a firm word with myself about my poor fuelling strategy and then, a belly full of snacks consumed, I waddled on up the wide valley surround by dark precipitous rock faces and gullies and sharp jagged ridges where the infamous “snow chimney” lay ahead.

Heading towards the famous chimney

The snow chimney is the route up the sheer rock faces leading out of the valley which takes you to the ridge leading to the summit of Mount Omu. The snow slope was definitely more slippery thisyear but nothing too bad and I started to get very impatient with the runner ahead of me who appeared to be making very heavy weather of the ascent. To be honest if he had been going any slower he would have been going backwards and didn’t have the good grace to stand aside and let faster folk past. I held back from any dramatic over taking manoeuvres  on the basis that a) even once I had reached the summit of Omu I wasn’t even halfway through the race and b) although losing my footing in a rush to get past and sliding to the bottom of the slow chimney was unlikely to be fatal in itself it would mean I would have to start the climb all over again which, quite frankly, was not an appealing prospect.

Made it!

The top of the snow chimney

Eventually I hauled myself up on the fixed rope and popped out on to the shoulder of the ridge at Saua Hornurilor, smiled for the cameras and then turned up along the ridge. It is a slow steady climb from here to the summit of Omu, not steep at all and eventually looming through the mist was the dark outline of the summit refuge. The summit of Omu was covered in a thin spread of ice and small hailstones started to blow through as I approached the refuge and it was pretty chilly with zero visibility so I didn’t hang around and followed the marker flags away from the summit.

Heading towards Mount Omu

Mount Omu summit refuge

There wasnt much of a view!

Mount Omu and the next section of the run were nothing like I remembered. The jagged black rock faces and deep valleys of the previous few miles had given way to a wide rolling mountain plateau. I could have been at home in the Cairngorms. This was very pleasant terrain to run on and I was able to get into a good rhythm here following the wide grassy tracks. It must have been milder in recent months and milder than two years ago as rhododendrons were growing, not like the type that we know and recognise, these were smaller mountain variety forming a purple carpet on the hillside. The route also took us through an area of stunted pine trees, a variety that I had never seen before, through which the path weaved its way. The flora here definitely decreases in size in relation to the fauna. Speaking of which everything had been bear free so far.

The descent from the mountain had started and the next obstacle was the river crossing. It was wide and deep enough to make getting across with dry feet next to impossible although one or two folk did manage to leap with impressive mountain goat skill across the boulders. I declined this option. Others were sat on the river bank removing their shoes and wading across in bare feet. Finally putting my trek poles to good use to help me keep my balance I just waded straight across overtaking a lot of people who were still either removing their shoes on one riverbank or who were sat drying their feet on the opposite riverbank and putting their shoes back on and I squelched my way down to the next checkpoint where again I consumed a large amount of food and my race favourite, coca cola, here. I was happy that there was more cheese for consuming at the checkpoint as my own Romanian supermarket bought cheese that was busy festering in my back pack had an “interesting” taste and even more “interesting” aroma. And an ultramarathon is not where you want to start having food adventures.

Working hard

trying not to slide

Leaving the checkpoint, I trotted off down the hill following the road whilst looking for turn offs in the shrubbery. Eventually I reached a few buildings and a tarmac area and from here the course started to climb over a wide grassy meadow. With hindsight I maybe should have stopped and taken a few pictures of the beautiful meadow flowers some of which were a sort of violet/pansy but by now I was getting a bit weary and by now the rain which had been on and off all afternoon was most definitely on, it was dinging it down, and the loud claps of thunder reverberating around the mountainside did nothing to help my overactive imagination. It rained heavily for an hour or two although happily not with quite the force the noise of the thunder was promising. By the time I reached the top of the second last climb I was sure that the forces of darkness had been unleashed. Still, on the plus side, maybe it would scare the bears off. I also thought in a slightly amused manner about those folk who had taken their shoes off to wade the river in order to keep their shoes dry.

I reached the summit of this climb which had a wee wooden shelter at the top and then followed a pleasant trail alongside a river and down a valley. I was quite surprised to meet groups of walkers here but I suppose I shouldn’t have been. It would be a great place to go for a walking holiday – assuming of course the weather behaved! Eventually I followed the trail down hill and popped out at the final check point where race organiser Andy had come out to cheer on the runners. After giving him some cheek I managed to consume even more chocolate and cheese but gave the gigantic gherkins a miss. Gherkins. Yes, really. Andy pointed to a wee course profile pinned to the side of the checkpoint tent explaining that there was only about 13km to go and a couple of “small climbs”. I was right not to believe him. Those climbs did not feel small and with all the rain the paths were very muddy and slippy and my La Sportiva shoes, while leaving my feet in an amazingly good condition after the race, didn’t quite have the traction required as I slipped and slithered down the hill a couple of times falling my whole length and sliding down on my back.

Soaked through to the skin

Nearing Bran I was running downhill alongside another 50k competitor having caught up with a 20k competitor who was about 100 yards ahead of us. All of a sudden the 20k competitor turned around and belted back up the hill past us. My first thought was “oh shit, we’ve missed a turning” but as she ran past she gasped out “there’s a bear!!”. My running companion and I looked at one another and all of a sudden all my bear related fears disappeared as I galloped downhill desperate to catch a glimpse of the creature. How cool would that be? But, sadly, there was no bear to be seen anywhere and we carried on down the hill. Ok, I did glance back over my shoulder a couple of times…

The bear whistle, an essential piece of kit in these hills

By the time I reached the outskirts of Bran I started to recognise the farm tracks and buildings as I headed towards the town and I also started overtaking the tail end of the 20k and 30k field. Finally the path followed a narrow track through woodland, down a steep embankment and into the car park of the sports centre where we had registered the day before. After a short distance on the road I spotted Simon standing at the junction to direct me up the path to the castle grounds and finally to the finish line under the castle. Apparently he’d been stood there for quite a while in the rain waiting for me and was happy to let me know all about it. *sigh*

I finished looking like a drowned rat

There was a bit of stress at the finish as my timing chip had somewhere become detached from my number, probably due to the number of times I was pulling on and off waterproof clothing, but fortunately I had been accounted for at all checkpoints so there was no issue there. Soaked through I didn’t hang around as I suspected that I would cool down quickly and so we went back to the hotel and I had a hot shower and a sleep.

The next day we went to the prize giving which was stopped every so often to allow competitors from the 100k to finish some 30 hours after their start. Running through the night in those conditions is quite a thought!  Simon was busy wondering if he could get fit enough to do one of the races next year (I am guessing not the 100k) so over dinner the following night Andy told me when next years race entry would be open and that I should get a race entry for Simon as an early Christmas present. Well that’s Christmas sorted. Simon, as you can probably imagine, is delighted.

A selfie with Vlad the Impaler

It was another amazing weekend in Bran taking part in this incredible event. Thanks so much to Andy and his team for making it possible and thanks to Simon for being the "support crew" and camera man and standing in the rain for ages waiting for me to finish. x.