Ultra Kraut Running

A business trip to Europe had aligned in a way that I was able to sign up for a race just a three hour drive from my work in St. Gallen, in the quaint town of Tesserete in the south of Switzerland right near the border to Italy. I had registered for the Scenic Trail 54K, featuring +12,000 feet of vertical gain and part of a weekend of five trail races ranging from a Vertical K to 113K. The 54K course takes runners on a loop along the ridge line of the mountains surrounding the villages near lake Como and lake Lugano. Along the way, runners take on some serious climbs and are provided with some spectacular views.

I don't recall why exactly, but it seemed I always had something else on my running schedule ever since the Grand Viduta Stage Races were created a couple of years ago. As a result, I had only ever run one of the Saturday stages a while back. So this year, and as a result of my goal to run races I hadn't done before, I decided to sign up as soon as registration opened for the 2017 Grand Viduta Stage Races.  Early commitment and signup also ensured that I got to benefit from the ridiculously low "early bird" registration fee (so keep that in mind for 2018 as you don't want to miss this event).