KILPI RACING TEAM DISCUSSION MEETING #1

On 27th November, extreme outdoor sports fans gathered in the WOOD ARENA in Ostravice, Czech Republic, where the first discussion meeting with some of the Kilpi Racing Team members took place.

The meeting was kicked-off in a funny way by a mountaineer with a rebellious spirit, Daniela Kroulíková, when she brought on the stage a bag on which she skidded a short stretch of the way down from the summit of Elbrus, a Russian giant mountain. Besides rich impressions from the successful Elbrus expedition, she also shared few words about a planned expedition to Argentina, where she wants to reach the summit of the highest mountain of both the Southern and Western Hemispheres, Aconcagua (6 962 m).

Martin Nytra, Tomáš Matera and Milan Damek then gave us a taste of the Red Bull Eléments, a race which took place in French Talloires, so we could feel what it was like to be a part of the team that gained excellent fourth place at such a prestigious race.
Their impressions from the race certainly had to inspire some of the athletes in the arena to take part in a race like this. The rest of us in the audience got only assured that such a race is way beyond our limits. You be the judge:
The swimmers have to do two 750m swimming stretches, each followed by 400m runs, and the final 1500 metres long stretch, after which they pass the baton to the runners. They have to reach the top of La Tournette mountain - this means nearly a 2000m elevation difference for the distance of 11 km, which implies that it is basically uphill running only. There, the baton is given to the paragliders. The first lift-off area is on the very top of La Tournette. To get to the first landing area, the paragliders descend a kilometre of altitude to the Chalet de l'Aulp. Then they have to run some 400 metres, then the second lift-off follows, ending in Perroix. Then, a two-kilometre uphill-run with a 400m elevation difference and the final lift-off with the landing area at the pier on Lake Annecy. The bike track leads back to the Chalet de l'Aulp, being 21 km long with a 1 500 m elevation difference. Besides steep rides uphill and downhill, the track also includes lots of stretches where the bikers have to push their bikes.

With Milan Damek, we also visited Australia, where he overcame extremely high temperatures and, drenched in sweat, gained an amazing fifth place at the prestigious Crocodile Trophy MTB race.

The last of the speakers was an ultra-marathoner, Michal Činčiala, who took part in several ultra long runs, including 285 km of the Ultra Milano Sanremo. But this time, he shared with us his experience from the Ultra Gobi race. He opened up and spoke about this 400 km run, his struggling with extreme temperatures, hallucinations, speaking to stones or sleeping while standing. He also described how he overcame the pain caused by blisters, which could not even fit into his trainers. It was such pain that he even thought about giving up the race. But he did not and took excellent 10th place at this extremely demanding ultra-marathon race.