FINISHED..... By SMS

"Finished! Blistering (For us) pace today event hough some punishing downhills and very hot as we ran through apple orchards dripping with fruit. Showered and off to the party"

Congrats from everyone who has been watching your progress!

the journey continues

Well,we're getting into quite a routine here - out of our sleeping bags early,pull on the same running gear (we are all smelling as bad as each other by now so nobody worries!) stretch the achy muscles, eat a good continental breakfast and then line up for another start.

We're also into a daily pattern of Karen pushing ahead up the mountain paths and encouraging Jane to follow and then Jane setting the pace on the treacherous descents and the downhill runs as the finishing village gets closer. This works well to keep each other going.

Luckily the North wind has been blowing behind us as it is a bitterly cold assault on the body if you have to face it. We've been running South and have at last found some kind weather. The change in latitude has made a huge difference to the height of the snow line which was 500m higher today (in Italy) than when in Austria and Switzerland. We still had to contend with a lot of snow(climbed our highest peak of the race of over 3000m) but the comfortable temperatures meant that we could step on rocks without slipping on ice like the past few days.

These Italian dorps are wonderful - a bit more ramshackle than the Swiss ones, but still so tidy and charming. Townsfolk are generally friendly although somewhat bemused at our comings and goings. Not surprisingly - what we are doing is probably a bit extreme - extreme distances, extreme terrain, extreme people in the race, but we're having extreme fun and learning lots about ourselves - teamwork, lessons in not giving up and learning how not to put limits on ourselves! The peak we climbed today an example, looking at it from the bottom was daunting, but we did it!!

Thanks to all of you who've sent sms's and commented on the blog - brilliant to get. Also brilliant donations pouring in for the foundation. One more day of running then all of you who've sponsored us per kilometer will have to start depositing the money!!

Not sure if we'll do a posting tomorrow - I think that the partying starts the minute we cross the finish line. Lots of love from us both, Karen and Jane.

For pictures look on the race website, we feature in stage 5 photos

Charity Pledge Update

Once again a huge thank you to all of you who have sent emails, sms and messages on this blog wishing the girls well. I assure you they keep them going and I am sure 'SMILE-ing' all the way.

Thanks to all those who have pledged donations through the TTMAD website. To date we have pledges for R21 310!

Fantastic!

More pictures

Past half way

Hear are some pictures as promised from the past couple of days. Yesterday's start was from the little town of Galtur. We left in rain and chilly weather. We worked really hard to get to the first check point. It started snowing as we hit the first climb. We thought that this was going to be such fun in the snow, much to our horror, we hit a snow blizzard at the top. The temperature dropped to -16°!! We then had to make our way down the mountain to the next check point. We ran through mud up to our ankles to reach the next cut off point in time. From there it was down hill into the beautiful town of Scuol. (We actually climbed a couple of places in the rankings gunning it down the 12km hill)
This morning we woke to lots of low cloud and some rain. We started our uphill sprint at 10.15 this morning. The 6.19km run took us 1.25 through more mud then snow, see pictures!
We are getting stronger everyday, but these mountains are still massive.
Talking of massive, the daily race videos can be viewed on www.massive-mag.tv
The next 3 days are going to be tough, will keep you posted.

OFFICIAL RACE NEWS Day 4

Hi All

In the absence of news from the ladies, I am left with the task of 'making stuff up'. Just kidding here are some results I found on the official website (You can view it HERE)

Stage ONE

O’Leary Karen 5:46.49
MacKinnon Jane 5:46.48

Stage TWO

O’Leary Karen 5:58.07
MacKinnon Jane 5:58.07

Stage THREE

O’Leary Karen 8:51.04
MacKinnon Jane 8:51.06

Stage FOUR

O’Leary Karen 7:00.26
MacKinnon Jane 7:00.27

My maths is not great but that means they have done about 28 hours of running! WOW.

To see something spectacular, take a look at the pictures on the site (Click HERE)

As fate would have it while doing this post just received an SMS from the ladies... here is the text.

"U wont believe us til we show photos!! - 18 Cel w wind chill at top of todays mt. Knee deep in snow. crossed into Switzerland th a/noon. has snowed all day! Both good; strong finish down a 12km hill. bruised achilles but will try and strap tom. moved up to 134 from 148!"

Report from day 3

Today we were down in the village and lucky enough to find an internet cafe. Not because we ran so fast but because today's leg started earlier than normal - a cold front is approaching the NE Alps and the race organizers wanted us all down in the camp before the snow set in!

Today was the hardest day yet _ only 33km but an ascent of 2465m, which,to put it into perspective, is 2.5 x up Table Mountain in one day. We're finished, not sure we'll make it to tonight's slide show. Each evening the photographers show their best pictures and video of the day, mostly of the top runners flying up and down the mountains, but good to see, otherwise we wouldn't get a glimpse of them, they're off in a flash as the starting gun goes each a.m. and then they're showered and dressed by the time we reach the end.

Day one started with a gentle meander up from a picturesque German village called Oberstdorf. We thought we were doing well until we realized we'd only climbed 250m in the first hour or so and still had to do that day's 1500m. Things rapidly got steeper until we were forced to walk up the Madelejoch, our first Alpine pass. At the top was the border crossing into Austria. Then a steep descent to what we thought was the finishing village, but no, up a second climb through a ski resort to another village called Steeg.

Day two was a mix of forest paths and technical trails which is a euphemism for dangerous paths with fixed ropes for climbing and some scary traverse over avalanche debris and shale. Then a steep seemingly endless descent into St.Anton. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly abandoning the camp(about 300 runners sleeping on a hall floor with washing hanging all over the place) and sleeping in a bed with an Austrian duvet and soft mattress in the village together with Jane's parents who were there to meet us.

Tomorrow is a marathon, have no idea how long it will take us. Today's 33km took us nearly 9 hours! The standard of running here is phenomenal. We are keeping just ahead of very strict cut-offs. Lots have been pulled off or retired and we are just hanging in there!! It is wonderful to be surrounded by these elite athletes _ serious about their running, eating and sleeping, and very focused. There is a small bunch of us normal folk at the back of the pack however, and we are having FUN.

In Jane's Own Words (By SMS this morning)

Hi All

I received this SMS from Jane and Karen this morning and they have asked me to post it on the blog and once again thank everyone for the wishes and the support. Please remember that you can post your comments on this blog or email me at saidwhat@yahoo.com and I will ensure the messages reach them.

Looking forward to further news and a few pics later.

Regards Mike

"Day one down - phew! Superbly organised event. Incredible scenery & people, but the toughest running either of us have ever done before" - Jane & Karen

OFFICIAL RACE NEWS (From Trans Alpine Website)

Exactly at 11:00 a.m., 328 highly motivated athletes, started on their way from Oberstdorf (GER) to Steeg im Lechtal (AUT). The starting gun was fired by the first mayor of Oberstdorf, Thomas Müller.

After an ascent to the Materialbahn Kemptner Hütte, the athletes have to climb the highest point of this stage, the Mädelejoch with 1.973 metres. During the descent they cross the Tyrolean Boarder, before passing Holzgau to Steeg im Lechtal.

The Race

• Start in teams of two
• 7 Stages over the Alps
• 1 Uphill Race in Scuol
• 8 Stage Towns
• 4 countries
• ca. 240 KM horizontal distance
• ca. 13800 meters climb
• ca. 13000 meters decent

Stage Towns

• Oberstdorf, Germany
• Steeg Lechtal, Austria
• St. Anton Arlberg, Austria
• Galtür Paznaun, Austria
• Scuol Unterengadin, Swiss
• Mals Vinschgau, Italy
• Schlanders Vinschgau, Italy
• Latsch Vinschgau, Italy