Charles' Italian mountain adventure

I am not very good at running downhill, so I try and find uphill races to work into my Summer holidays.

This year we headed for South Tyrol in Italy to attempt the Stelvio Trail half marathon. It starts in Prad am Stilfserjoch (915 m) and finishes at the top of the Stelvio Pass (2845m) The race is along mountain paths. All my YouTube research did not prepare me for some of the drops alongside the trail!

We passed through the steep mountain village of Stilfs (Stelvio), headed past the Fragges game reserve, and climbed to the Prader Alm and Furkelhütte. The high-alpine finale follows the spectacular Goldseeweg Trail, completely bypassing the standard asphalt road offering continuous views of Mount Ortler.

The race finished right above the famous Stelvio mountain pass at the Dreisprachenspitze peak (2,845 m).

At an average gradient of 10% for 21K there were plenty of walk breaks! I spent 95% of the race race enjoying myself, feeling thankful and 5% of the race thinking; "What the hell am I doing here?!"

I managed to finish in 3 hours 38 minutes. I would thoroughly recommend the race as long as you don't mind heights, it's only 21K! Here is a video of this year's race (Look out for the Fleet & Crookham top at 42 seconds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfVrA7s1j6w