Ultra Blue Island, Faial, Azores (64k, 3200m D+)

While the original plan after the S1 Trail Corsa della Bora was to sign up for the 2019 Transvulcania, I had always wanted to visit an even more remote place than La Palma and convinced my brother to head to Faial in the Azores archipelago for the Ultra Blue Island instead. Getting to the Azores and from island to island is fairly easy as there are daily flights from Lisbon to various islands, and connecting flights between each. I had never been to the Azores before and was pleasantly surprised by the mostly dry and warm weather in May. We arrived a few days before the race and thus had time to explore Faial by bike and visit nearby Pico island featuring Portugal's highest peak (the Pico). My brother had managed to injure his ankle some weeks earlier and was sporting an aircast, but, despite missing the race, still managed to do an impressive amount of hiking and biking.

Pico as seen from the Faial-Pico ferry

S1 Trail Corsa della Bora, Trieste, Italy (57k, 2300m D+)

During a 2018 autumn vacation in Southern Tyrolia my brother (proud 2013 UTMB finisher) and I (no runs longer than 20km to date) decided that it would be fun to sign up for the La Palma Transvulcania in 2019 as we had been to the island before and hiked and liked most of the route in segments. We then figured out that the Transvulcania had an entry requirement of one completed mountain ultra in the last 2 years, and the only race within reasonable distance and before the end of the registration period was the S1 Trail Corsa Della Bora in early January 2019. The S1 trail runs from Pesek in Slovenia to Sistiana in Italy, mostly on the S1 hiking trail and on the cliffs overlooking the coast line.