The day begins the same as the previous 6 days. I awake in a large gymnasium. There are people all around me in sleeping bags on sleeping pads. No one is really moving yet. A few people are snoring. It’s 4:45AM. I get up. Surprisingly, I’m feeling less sore than yesterday. I start my morning routine - it has become rote. I get out of my sleeping bag in the dark, find my head lamp and slowly stand up. My legs are fatigued beyond belief and I am tired, but not injured. Many runners have dropped out due to acute inflammation or overuse injuries. Those remaining have run 140km in the last 6 days mostly on rugged alpine slopes.

I slowly walk to the showers testing all my leg muscles in turn. Quads - okay. Calves - not bad. Ankles/feet - pretty good. No blisters to speak of. I take a 10 minute hot shower to loosen up my muscles and put on my iRule tri shorts. I brush my teeth and return to the main hall. People are stirring now but it’s still dark. I sit back down on my thermarest (a surprisingly difficult task), and continue my routine. Find my thin long-sleeve Under Armor top and put it on. Find my Injinji socks (socks with individual toes!) and my Smartwool socks. Make a more thorough inspection of my feet. Attach some Leuko tape across the tops of my arches. It turns out that the hills in the Alps are so steep that I need to tie my shoes very very tightly to keep my feet from slipping at all. But, that puts pressure on the top of my foot that could quickly become a problem/blister. So, I preventatively put tape across the area. Next, I apply Hydropel to each foot and then put on each Injinji sock and the thicker wool sock over it.

After both feet are done, I stuff my sleeping bag away and pack my racing hip bag: light rain jacket, rain pants, some food (two bars and an apple), some Advil, two water bottles (one of Nuun and one of Perpetuem) and some chewing gum. Then, I pack up my little area. Our camp bags were given to us by the race organization at the beginning of the event. Each one is labeled with our individual race numbers. They must be packed and placed outside in a specified area before breakfast. I put away all my things, roll up my sleeping pad and stuff it all in the bag. It’s quite full now. It wouldn’t be so packed except that we get little gifts every day on our bags.

I slip my buff over my head (mostly to keep my ears warm during the brisk mornings) and then I zip the 30 liter bag closed and carry it outside to the ever-growing pile of bags. Several large trucks will haul all the bags to the day’s finish line. I’m still in my socks as we aren’t supposed to wear our (nasty, muddy, wet) shoes inside. I find my shoes (which have mostly dried in yesterday’s sun) and slip them on and loosely tie them.

Now, it’s off to breakfast. On this day, I walk to breakfast alone. Most days, it’s our little group going over together: my teammate Gareth, Iona and Casey, Brendan and Jane, Claire and Dan - all from the UK. We are all teams of two, but each person must run the entire distance. Jane has succumbed to intense knee pain and won’t be running today, so Brendan will have his first day running alone. It’s 6:00AM.

We all meet at breakfast in some local hotel. The breakfasts are quite diverse and quite good - apples, bananas, orange juice, toast, cereal, and sometimes even eggs. I eat as much as I can stomach given that I’l be running in less than an hour.

I know now that I will make it to the end of this now. Today is a long day, but scenic and tomorrow is a bit shorter at 33km and it’s to the grand finish line in Sesto (Sexton in German). We are in Sudtirol - a funny region of Italy that is mostly Austrian. They seem to think they are their own country. 60% of the people speak German. The architecture is clearly Austrian. The food is wonderfully Italian.

After breakfast, we head directly to the starting line. The same music is playing - “Keep On Running” - the theme song of the race. The singer Marty came to day 5 and sang the song at the evening awards ceremony and again at yesterday’s start. I felt like I was at a rock concert watching him jump around on the small stage.

The starting area is divided into three groups. Area A (the front) is for the top ten teams in each category. Gareth and I are in area B (the next 30 teams). We have been moving up in the standing every day - mostly because I was sick starting the race and so we didn’t do so well at the beginning. Now we are hitting our stride as it were and moving up. We are trying to break into the top 20 male-male teams today. Area C is behind us and represents the bulk of the 300 pairs of racers. There is a quick gear check done as we enter the starting area. We are facing a large banner and the starting arch. It says something like “Day 7: St. Vigil (IT) – Niederdorf (IT).” The excitement is building. It’s 6:50AM; the race starts promptly at 7:00AM.

Gareth and I make our way to front of the chute. We are some of the fastest runners in area B and don’t want to be too held up too much. At this point though, “faster” is quite a relative term. This is day 7. Everyone is moving a bit slowly and cautiously. Many people are taped up: strapping across knees, ankles, and along IT bands. There seems to be more people with trekking poles now. I was using them, and I have them today, but I ended up not using them all day. Mostly, Gareth carried them for me all day.

Now come the starting song - “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC. And then the countdown, and we’re off. Most teams start slowly. We are no exception. After a few kilometers, we will pick up our pace. Gareth and I have mostly run all the flats at a good pace and sped recklessly down the descents. The ups are too steep for me to run, so we go at a fast walk. Gareth tows me up most of the steep hills - and then still outruns me on the downhills. He’s been a great partner.

The air is crisp and clear. There are Alps in every direction. We will climb quickly out away from town and get some amazing views. I have tried to take some pictures but we go too fast. I don’t have time to stop very often.

Today we will finish in 16th place - our best daily finish. And tomorrow, we’ll do it all one more time and it will be over. We’ve all made new friends, seen breathtaking spots, and pushed ourselves farther than many of us imagined possible. It has been an amazing eight days.

To top off the event, Gareth proposed to Iona after it was all over. She said yes.