TRAIL MENORCA CAMÍ DE CAVALLS 2020

©Abenteuer Wege

All of my 2020 races have been cancelled or postponed for obvious and good reasons. It started with the Paris Half Marathon back in March, followed by The Speed Project, Mozart 100 as well as my plan to run the 150 kilometer-long Jebel Shams trail in Oman. While searching the UTMB website for potential qualification races, I stumbled upon Camí de Cavalls on Menorca.

Trail Menorca Camí de Cavalls is one of the longest trail races in Europe and by the looks of things, most certainly one of the most attractive routes out there. As the majority of courses normally take place across the Alps, few trails offer an ocean view. Yet, when I was running the Barcelona Trail Races or Ultra-Trail Cape Town, both times, I was fascinated by the views across the oceans.

The organisers of Trail Menorca have developed a concept that will hopefully enable the competition to take place. Although, the atmosphere will not be the same without hundreds of spectators and horses gathered in the historic city centre of Ciuatadella, the trail itself will most probably make up for it. It is amazing in itself that the team behind the race has been able to develop a concept that is in line with COVID-19 regulations.

Camí de Cavalls follows the coastline and involves 185 km of beaches, rocky terrain, road and trail with a total of more than 3500 vertical meters. Binimetl·là, Cavalleria, Favàritx, S’Hort des Lleó, the Natural Park of s’Albufera des Grau, the majestic port of Mahon, the captivating fishing village of Binibeca and the beaches of Binigaus, Mitjana, Macarella, Es Talaier and Son Saura are just some of the delights that I am looking to discover, as I am making my way around the island.

With that being said, given my lack of running in recent months, I have to see how the coming weeks will unfold, as well as judging how my level of fitness will feel a few days before the race. I have just under five weeks to prepare for TSP DIY, which I will use as the first benchmark before Camí de Cavalls, followed by another four week training block before 2nd October, which marks the start of the race.

After all, I am incredibly excited for the upcoming weeks. At the end of the day, we are all in the same boat, and cannot foresee what is going to happen. Nevertheless, the prospect of running a race this year, combined with this breathtaking course is offering motivation and additional reasons to train hard in the weeks to come, getting myself all set to tackle this challenge. As a side note, apart from a wonderful course, I also hope to be collecting 6 ITRA points upon completion, enabling me to fulfill the qualification criteria for Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc.