Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional — Haruki Murakami
It’s baking hot and I’m sitting in a deck chair sipping water, waiting to go out for our pre race feed. Now I’m sitting in the kitchen of the Airbnb at 2:35AM waiting for the England- Mexico game to start. Sandwiched in between was an incredible half marathon in Sud Tyrol. The Seiser Alm half is a half marathon that takes place in an area of Italy called Süd Tyrol. Alicia and I ran it last year . As can be seen from the photos it’s an area of outstanding beauty. I think it’s fair to say that we’d already benefited from a few days acclimatisation at 800m in Allgäu before travelling over the alps into the Dolomites mountain range.
I’m not sure if Alicia’s short term training was as good as it should have been but there’s no doubt that she’s put in a few long runs over the last 3 months that gave her a good baseline. We were not entirely unprepared. The heat in Germany had also made it difficult to train. But we managed to get out a bit
Not a bad location for some running prep!
In any case our goal was to enjoy being up on the alm
Enjoying the stunning views.
and a castle nestled between the Dolomites
The event actually starts on the day before, where the participants pick up the numbers and the goody bag. This is the nice bit because there is definitely a running vibe here. We both felt good and equipped with our new shoes, oh yeah, I forgot to mention the shoes. The last time I bought new road shoes was two and a half years ago in Cologne and because I try to measure the mileage my shoes have done, I can pretty much say how many kilometres they’ve done. Before that though, how long should a pair of shoes last? According to this resource It’s about 300 to 500 miles so about 200 to 800 km. My road shoes have just over 800km under their belt and I still wear them and will continue to do so. Or that’s what I thought until Alicia and I visited the sports shop in Schongau
Long story, very short – Alicia wished herself a pair of Saucony Triumph 23 shoes for her birthday so I went ahead and bought myself a pair. They’re very comfortable with a mid 6mm drop . Running shoes are not important, yet very important. In my experience, as long as you’ve no pre-medical conditions, flat feet or a debilitating foot condition, you could run a marathon in a pair of crocs as long as they’re comfortable.
The new Saucony, pronounced sockeny are very comfortable.
Short enough?
The day of the event
Sunday morning arrived and after a breakfast of coffee and porridge, we made our way to Sais at the bottom of the alm It all starts with the cable car from the bottom to the top. You’ll remember the cable cars from the James Bond films, where Bond and a villain climb out of the cable car, wrestling until the villain falls to his or her death. Sorry for the spoiler! As the cable car makes its way up the mountain we can see the ramblers, mountain bikers and cows down below. We shared our ride with a couple and their dog who was desperately trying to remove the cage from his jaws. We thought they were running too but they were here for the hike. I really enjoy the microscopic interactions that you have with people during events like this. They wished us well and we jumped off the cable car as it arrived at the top. Runners warming up, people taking selfies, spectators mulling around and the long queue for the toilet. At least I didn’t need the toilet but the girls did and there you have a modern problem waiting for a solution Claude . Why are women forced to wait an eternity to use a toilet whereby us blokes, we breeze in and out, no queue. It’s not nice and something should be done about it. We met up with our Mexican friends and at 9:00 were about to make our way to the start line, to our 9:10 start block. However, I needed the loo and the loo was back by the cable car. I asked someone in a hi viz vest and discovered there was a portaloo about 200 metres away. My warm up became a sprint and I prayed to the gods of running and toilets that there was no queue. There wasn’t! I sprinted back and off we went to the start. Just about on time for the start.
Gary, Alicia, Fernanda and Javier pre race
What can I say about the run, it was the same as last year. High up (2000m) and very hilly (700m climb).
Except that this year was a bit different. Alicia was mentally stronger.
She revelled in the views and the mountains.
She sprinted down the hills using Sean’s floppy arm technique.
at some point a lady in front of us sadly toppled over and cut herself. We helped her up and gave her a tissue to help with the bleeding.
We were concerened that she might have been a bit shook up, we asked her how she was.
You always have to try in one of the three languages used here in the region, German, Italian and if all else fails English.
I think everyone knows the level of my Italian.
“Parli tedesco?”
No response.
“Deutsch, ist alles ok bei dir?”
No response
“Inglese, are you ok”
She finally responded in the German sud Tyrolean dialect. I thought she might have been a bit shocked from her fall. Other runners stopped to run alongside her. There was no stress up the hills although at one point, the heat and the incline threatened to overwhelm us, we pushed on.
We met people from just down the road from where we lived and a Scottish - English couple from Glasgow.
The good vibe drove us on when the going was getting tough.
We felt like we could conquer the world, or at least Alicia did!
There’s no feeling like that one!
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
It felt like we had carried a lot of stones!
There’s a bit where you run and double back on yourself and its about 1-2 kilos from the finish. It was at this point that both of us wanted to get it done. So we did, even the tiny hill at the end.
The feeling of finishing is immense, despite the time or the performance.
We waited for Fernanda and Javier, two runners from Berlin via Mexico City, who we had met up with earlier. Alicia knew Fernanda from Berlin. They came through after us, their first half marathon - what an achievement to do your fist long distance run at 2000 metres in the Dolomites on such a hard course!
Well done Fernanda and Javier, you ran a impressive race and you should be really proud. I hope this is one of many to come and I hope to see you again.
Seiser Alm is becoming a fixture and as we sat eating our post race pasta in the sun, the oldest runner was announced. It was a 77 year old local!
What a legend!
I was thinking that someday I might be able to beat that, I just need to keep going.
Thats all of us need to do, keep going!
Don’t stop!
“I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days.” — Ronald Rook
Next up is Cologne 2026 in October