Practise what we preach
Anna Daniels
Director of Investor Relations at Growthdeck - Venture Capital & Private Equity
By Katharine Clark, Daniels Group, Personal Trainer
I ache in places that I didn't think could ache but my gosh what an adventure. A ‘mountain run’ has been on my bucket list for quite some time so I was chuffed to have found the Zugspitze Ultratrail run series in June. I opted for the shortest of the distances on offer (15 miles), just to dip my toe!
My two worries were having to navigate myself and having to climb up rocks and stuff...thankfully after a chat with someone at the start line these were not on the agenda so I could relax. What also added to my apprehension was the checklist of mandatory kit we needed to carry. Never have I done a run where you had to carry your own first aid kit equipped with foil blanket, whistle, headtorch, hat, gloves etc etc.
Within a mile we were out of town and starting to climb, 1.5 miles in and everyone slows to a walk. I naively carried on running only to then register why they were walking, they either knew what's coming or they were conserving energy. I decided to join them and we walked/ran through lush green woodland, fields, farmland tracks until a single file plod up the steepest part of the route.
I can only liken it to the Broken Skull challenge (on E4!) hill going on for what seemed like ages. At each checkpoint we were welcomed in with clanging cow bells and a feast if you wanted it. There were runners doing 6 times the distance I was doing that day so I relied on my own stash and left more for them.
It then went up another notch and we made our way even higher, around the back of the peak and up to the highest point to be greeted by those that got a cable car up there which makes much more sense! Then came the downhill which was painful... and painfully slow. I constantly got overtaken by runners flying down, their feet hardly touching the ground. I was in awe: it's definitely a skill I need to learn. It took me a good while to get down but with a little chatter along the way in my best German (very limited!) I whiled away the miles and eventually hit the valley floor to the village of Grainau.
Never has 15 miles taken me so long but I honestly enjoyed all of it and the different challenges it threw at me.