[Superstar runner Courtney Dauwalter at Transgrancanaria / Photo credit: The North Face Transgrancanaria]
From Matthew Kennedy…
Transgrancanaria is one of the largest early season trail running events, with around 4,000 runners from all over the world gathering on Gran Canaria to tackle races across a range of distances. I had signed up for the Classic 126km (about 78 miles, with over 22,000 feet of ascent / descent), along with over 750 others, including Americans Courtney Dauwalter and Zach Miller, respectively 1st F and 2nd M at the 2023 UTMB.
Although it was very pleasant when we lined up on the beach at Las Palmas for the midnight start, extra bad weather kit had been mandated a few days earlier, and the forecast storm duly arrived as we climbed into the foothills on the north side of the island. The conditions quickly began to resemble a bad Tuesday night club run in the winter – dark, cold, wet, windy and muddy.
Once the sun finally rose and we continued climbing towards the central mountains, firmer ground made it easier to find a footing, but the wind only became stronger and there were even hints of hail and sleet mixed in with the driving rain. However, as the view began to open up from the ridge between Artenara and Cruz de Tejeda (roughly 45 miles in), occasional flashes of blue in the distance suggested that the weather in the south might be very different.
Sure enough, no sooner had we crossed the highest pass of the race – around 5,900 feet above sea level – than the wind died away and the sun came out in full force for the rocky 20 mile descent to the finish at Maspalomas. Fortunately, it was already mid-afternoon, so I wasn’t too badly sunburned when I crossed the line shortly after nightfall (lesson learned about leaving suntan lotion in your drop bag…)
Given the unexpectedly wild weather, I was pretty happy to come in just under 20 hours, although the impact of the conditions is hard to gauge. While Courtney Dauwalter was 35 mins slower than her winning time from 2023 and Zach Miller tailed off from an early lead to finish 7th, men’s winner Raul Butaci was able to improve on his 2023 time by a hefty 50 mins.
(1 Raul Butaci 13h23)
(13 Courtney Dauwalter 15h15, 1st F)
98 Matthew Kennedy 19h57, 8th MV50
497 finishers