European Mountain Championships

The European Mountain Running Champinships this year headed to Bursa in Turkey.  The trial race was held in Keswick and ran up Skiddaw, the race out in Turkey ran up Mount Uludag and even though Skiddaw is steep, mount Uludag was much steeper.  It was also much hotter and towards the top ran in to some altitude. 
The trip started on Thursday morning with a flight from Manchester to Istanbul.  Then followed a coach journey through mad traffic, a ferry crossing and another coach trip.  This took about 5 hours in total after landing and we arrived at the excellent hotel around midnight on Thursday evening.  This wasn't too bad considering we were now two hours ahead of UK time.  It was much better than the Irish travel which saw them sitting around airports for hours and arriving in the very early hours of Saturday.
Not sure who's idea it was to travel out Thursday but it was a good one.  Are UKA thinking or was it the excellent team management for the team which pushed for the Thursday travel.  This meant we could lie in on Friday, have a late breakfast and then get a steady run in.  It gave us time to check the course out on Friday and then relax all day on the Saturday.  Running was fun as the hotel was higher than the finish line for the race and was at altitude.  We kept the running very steady.  The senior men ran together and a few of us did some 20 second efforts to get the legs ticking over.
The teams for this event consisted of athletes who have ran European and World Mountain champs before, along with other big championships and some very new athletes to the championships.  All of the junior team members had never ran for GB before and some of the seniors had never ran for GB before.  This made Steve and I experienced for once!!!
The team management for this event was the best I have known it at any event I have been to.  Sarah Rowell lead the team and was supported by Mark Croasdale and Jackie Newton.  The knowledge these three had of racing and preparing for a big event was great. It also helped with some of the juniors and in preparing them for the event ahead.
The senior mens race was the last race of the championships.  It was also the longest and climbed the greatest.  This is an uphill only year.  Started in Bursa at 300m and ran up the mountain to the top of the cable car at just over 1600m.  As the race started at 11.15am the teamperature was nicely warming up.  As the gun went the temperature was 31oc.  The race started rather steady, or steadier than I was expecting.  I headed to the front and lead the race through the early stages in the streets of the lower mountain.  The race was heading up hill early on and was soon on very steep paths and roads.  The kind of tracks that you run at 11 minute miling!!!  After about four minutes a group took to the front and Vernon passed me.  I wasn't too concerned about this as it was early in the race and I knew Steve was in good shape.  The race went on and the climb maintained steep.  After we passed the ladies start I knew the race course got less steep.  Still steep, but not like the bottom section of the last four km of the route which we had walked on Friday.  This is the stage of the race I knew I had to run hard.  After about 5km I pulled Steve back and could hear him breathing hard.  But this was a race and I had no time to be wasting so pushed on.  Just before 5km to go the race hit a downhill section.  Nothing steep downhill, all runnable and fast.  Entering the high meadow of the junior girls start there was now less than four k to go.  I was in 7th place at this stage which came as a surprise to me.  I didn't know how many were ahead of me, but didn't realise only six were.  I was then quickly caught by an Italian runner who I managed to stay in front of and swapped places with through the next few k.  Having him catch me up gave me a wake up call and I knew I had to continue to push on.  I was now in 8th but could see the runner in 6th ahead of the Italian who was slowly pulling away from me. 
The final stages of the race were very steep and also technical, or more technical than anywhere else on the course.  As the race climbed I could sense I was catching the Swedish runner.  As we made the final climb I passed him and was back in 7th.  All I had to do now was hold it together over the final 300m which was harder done than said.  As I approached the finish line I was ready to throw up.  Not sure if this was from the water I had taken on board during the race, the way I had pushed myself or other factors.  Anyway I was running in to the finish chucking up.  Great image.
In the end I finished 7th and was very pleased with this.  I haven't been to the Europeans for a few years but ran the champs in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.  My highest finish before this race was also 7th so I can't be disappointed with finishing 7th again.  Speaking with Steve we both believe the standard at these championships is increasing year on year.  Ahmed Aslam won the event again making this his fifth year of winning.  He a Turkish runner and I am lead to believe he lives near the venue.  All helps!
Steve finished 13th, Adam 47th and Nick had a nightmere.  More to come from Nick as I thought he was going to be top 20 if not better going in to the race.
The great thing of uphill racing is you dont really batter the legs.  Ok you are tired and know you have worked but at least you can walk the next day which might not be the case when I do my next mountain race on Saturday 23rd July.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the team and managers.  The team also had Graham as the physio and Jonathan as the Doctor.  Cheers guys.  Was a great trip, an excellent race and a brilliant after party!!!!  Young Dom can dance as well as he runs!!!!