The gift that keeps on giving
| Author | Date | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Brian Mullins | May 22 2024, 10:22pm | As this plan slipped out to a few people while trying to motivate them during my sleepwalking phase as first aider at the Beara Way Ultra I might as well throw it up here as a stick to beat myself with. Those who know, know. Those who don’t can look up the dates of the various races and the distance/ascent numbers and scratch their heads at it all. It could be fun. Maybe. Crossing Switzerland CMUR PICaPICA Swisspeaks 660 Tor Des Glaciers Phew. There’s a load off my mind. It’ll be easy now. |
| Robbie Williams | May 23 2024, 5:28am | Is there an early start available? |
| Michael McSweeney | May 23 2024, 2:03pm | You've said it now. |
| Brian Mullins | May 24 2024, 11:12pm | No early start Robbie, the Swiss have decided they don’t want you to be getting value for money. However a very very fast finish or early finish is required in order to make the start of the next race. Can’t stop I’m being timed type stuff. It doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun. |
| Ciaran Croke | Jun 18 2024, 2:50pm | A month to go Brian, excitement building. Very best of luck to you on your very long journey to Courmayeur. I can only describe this as a sheer passion for adventure and hardship but I honestly feel like there are no words that truly describe this mammoth undertaking. I look forward to tracking you along the way and hopefully see you at the (final) finish line under Monte Bianco! The mind boggles... sheer brilliance or sheer madness! Tell us after. :) |
| Rory Campbell | Jun 18 2024, 4:04pm | Best of luck Brian!! (was good to bump into you at "top of coom" quaffing the champagne) |
| Brian Mullins | Jul 11 2024, 8:42pm | Update here just to stay honest with myself. CMUR has been cancelled by the organisers as half the course around the Matterhorn has been washed away in the last two weeks of torrential rain. After a brief scramble of researching mountain ultras in the Alps that are on during the same weekend as CMUR I have replaced it with a marginally easier outing called GGUT. However it will be a lot harder to get to the start of it from the finish of Crossing Switzerland, given it’s a few hundred miles away in the Tauern Alps, so it’s probably balancing out the unreasonableness of it all. |
| Michael McSweeney | Jul 11 2024, 8:49pm | Good man Brian. We will have a bit of an old pray for you. |
| Brian Mullins | Jul 11 2024, 9:03pm | A Hail Mary, a decade and the purchase of a few indulgences to atone for your solo Beara Way should be enough Micheal. I wouldn’t want you to become too pious on my behalf! |
| Michael McSweeney | Jul 11 2024, 10:08pm | Go mbeannaí Dia dhuit, a Bhrian Uasal, Go mbeannaí Muire dhuit agus beannaím féin duit. That's all I've got. |
| Brian Mullins | Aug 1 2024, 8:22pm | The reality bath has been experienced. Back to back ultras are easy! No really, listen to me, I’ve done this before! It’s very simple, you run across a whole country taking in all the alpine passes, what’s not to like? This is not the Tor, but it never said it was. It’s every bit as good in a different way. Crossing Switzerland is a great race. A race you need to do, a race that takes you from a land of Princes in Vaduz, through the land of German speakers to a land where they speak something else, oh yes French, though you are still in Switzerland, the land of bankers! Plenty highs and lows (literally), lots of technical terrain, maddening sections where you can see where you are going but are sent in the opposite direction all bookended by a sublime finish on the shores of the Genfer See (Lac Leman, Lake Geneva for the linguistically challenged!). Beers and a few sleep deprived discussions with recent Hardrock finishers who said it’s no big deal but just impossible to get in to so why bother, got me thinking of why the hype fest is so big for a non competitive walk around the San Juans in the US. Who needs it!! Europe is where it’s at, more races for any man in one lifetime! And all of them seriously competitive, with great people, great volunteers and basically whole towns that treat you like a genuine rockstar when you arrive! I could get used to this. Happy with this lightbulb moment I slept, more than expected due to my faster finishing time. SBB were kind enough to transport me to Innsbruck the following day where I ate more calories in one meal than an Olympic swimmer on speed. Another brief snooze and quick train later and I’m at the start of the Grossglockner Ultra on Friday night, a race I picked out of the blue at the last minute. What a magnificent choice! This is one of the hardest 100k mountain ultras in Europe. If you doubt me then try it, you won’t be disappointed, lots of challenging terrain up high, fast runnable descents (boooo) and a few horror show snow descents with token rope you can look at as you fall to your demise! Just kidding, or maybe not! Absolutely harder than LUT, GTC, MIUT, TGC and every other 100k ultra acronym in Europe I can think of. Now back to eating ice cream and drinking Murphy’s for the next 10 days to bring the body back into balance in order to tackle what really is the hardest 100k in Europe. La PICaPICA 109km and 11,000m. It’s called a race for mountaineers by mountaineers, devised by the winner of Euforia, a race that I wish they would restart as that was the ultimate test in my view. Anyhow that’s a small update to say I’m alive and if I survive the next one sure it’s just a handy 1100km and 60,000m left to bring it home to Courmayeur. I can already taste the gelato! |
| Brian Mullins | Aug 18 2024, 9:28pm | There is a special side to the mountains. You acquire so many intense experiences up there that the digestion period can be long and the moments you live will always stay intact. This is the essence of the Ariège. This is la PICaPICA. How you relate these experiences to those that have never been up there is a hard. As Daumal lamented in le grande beuverie, it’s hard to explain. These are his words. You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know. The Challenge du Montcalm started 34 years ago as a run from the centre of Auzat to the top of Montcalm and back. These types of races are common all over the Alps and lesser so the Pyrenees. A personal favourite is the Dolomites Skyrace from Canazei to Piz Boe and back, less than 2nrs if you are Jornet, 2.30 for anyone that thinks they are a mountain runner. Anyway back to Montcalm. Over the years the organisers added various races and distances but until they added PICaPICA it was low on my list of mountain runs in Europe. These are my words. 109km and 11,500m in one sitting. The distance looks fine, the elevation gain looks troubling but how hard can it be. Previous winning times tell the story. Sub 24hrs has yet to be achieved and I know why. If you are wondering what a 50min mile feels like then come talk to me at the next Imra race. It’s real, it exists and everyone is doing it, even the winner! It is clear the whole region supports this race and the very remote and obscure locations you find race volunteers is testament to this. Also is the commitment to the safety of all runners. The opening line from the race director about 5mins before the start was simple but relatable to anyone who thought this was just another handy trail race. These are his words. This isn’t UTMB. The mandatory equipment is mandatory for a reason. This is a mountain race. This is remote. This is why we check it. And check it they do and you’ll be thankful for their thorough preparation as these mountains are wild, exposed but undeniably beautiful. All I can say to sum up is this. La PICaPICA. 109km 11500m. Just do it. You can thank me later. Now onwards to the final stage of the European tour. Three weeks of mountain running bliss, Swisspeaks 660 back to back with Tor Des Glaciers. It’s sure to be fun. Maybe. |
| Brian Furey | Aug 18 2024, 10:21pm | Best of luck with the rest of it Brian |
| Conor Murphy | Sep 6 2024, 9:52pm | For those that don't know, the Swiss Peaks 660 gets that name because it's a 660km race over Swiss Peaks. Oh and 49,200m ascent. Yep. Forty Nine Thousand Two Hundred Metres. 170 started, so far 104 have dropped out. And Brian Mullins finished 5th... |
| Conor Murphy | Sep 6 2024, 10:22pm | Best of luck to Brian Mullins who sets off on the 450km 32,000m Tor des Glaciers tonight. Look, I know what you're thinking, didn't he just finish 5th in the 660km 49,200m Swiss Peaks 660? He did...but sure that finished yesterday, he's had almost a whole day of rest! |
| Shane O'Neill | Sep 8 2024, 9:02am | Wow, best of luck Brian. Has anyone a tracker for this? I've a week off work and nothing to do. |
| Brian Mullins | Sep 8 2024, 1:47pm | You might be asking how can he be posting this. Isn’t he supposed to be still out there wandering around the Aosta Valley at the Tor Des Glaciers. Well the gift finally bit back. Had to push too fast and too hard on Swisspeaks 660 to make the start of the TDG, the other guy attempting it who is a much better runner than me and former winner of TDG didn’t finish Swisspeaks in time so just a word of warning for all those out there thinking about it (all 2 of you), it ain’t easy. In the end it was the injury that started in Thyon lifebase at Swisspeaks where I thought I was gone but a trio of physios, taping experts and biomechanics wizards managed to keep me going and I actually ran some of my best ever on the last day of the Swisspeaks but really did the damage on the final few descents as the anterior tibialis tendon was screaming at me to stop. Finished at 9pm Thursday night and huge shout out to John Williams (who is actually currently out there on the Tor Des Geants) for getting me from Le Bouveret to Courmayeur in the midnight hours and generally taking over all my thought functions which were at this stage nothing more than a string of incoherent drivel! Did start Tor at 8pm on Friday, 23hrs after finishing Swisspeaks. And that my friends is where the gift sharpened its teeth and bit back!!! I’ll put up a longer post when I can figure out what even happened in the last two weeks such was the lack of sleep, complete detachment from everyday life not knowing what day, country, year it was etc and still wondering why in the name of god did I even subject myself to it! Thanks to all for their messages, mainly private, as the majority know I detest all forms of media, social platforms in particular. Being caught off guard by a Swiss Live TV crew on day 3 of Swisspeaks with little sleep and having to give an interview in French (as basically they were trying to figure out who this anonymous Irishman leading the race was and who sponsors me, what am I selling, what’s my Instagram, etc) just reaffirmed this complete lack of respect that exists on both social and commercial media that maybe the person actually doesn’t want to be known and is doing it purely for their own enjoyment and wants to be left alone to enjoy it! But anyways that’s just a minor rant and warning to any podcast merchants, the answer is no. |
| Richard Nunan | Sep 8 2024, 2:09pm | Incredible running at the Swiss Peaks Brian. Enjoy the recovery and the dot watching (TDG) some race already .. |
