Mountain Running
Want to put your body through the ultimate endurance test? Try taking part in Red Bull K3.
Running uphill is hard on its own, let alone doing it as fast as you possibly can, in a race – and for three vertical kilometres.
Yes, you read right: the Red Bull K3 race may be only 9.7km long, but it brings the participants through a gruelling 3,036m of vertical elevation.
Watch the video above to understand how steep that actually is!
Red Bull K3 returned to the Italian Alps in Susa for the third edition of the popular race among skyrunners. Once more, this year, the ultimate goal of the race was to reach the top of Rocciamelone Mountain, overlooking Piedmont, with an altitude of 3,538m.
This year's edition saw two winners among the men, as Marco Moletto and Philip Götsch decided to cross the finishing line together, after running side-by-side for the whole 2h 8m 29s it took them to complete the race.
Quite an impressive time, but not quite fast enough to break the current record, set at 2h 1m 57s by the Swiss Remi Bonnet in the 2015 edition.
On the women's side, it was the Spanish runner Vanesa Ortega first across the finish line in 2h 37m 2s.
But the big difference at this year’s event was the format of the race, enhanced with two new intermediate stops (K1 and K2), allowing even more vertical-running-savvy people to take part and compete in the different categories.
Full results
Red Bull K3 Results (9.7km, altitude gain of 3,036m) Men: 1.(=) Marco Moletto and Philip Götsch (02:08:29) 3. Henry Hofer (02:09:47) Women: 1. Vanesa Ortega (02:37:02) 2. Raffaela Miravalle (02:45:44) 3. Barbara Cravello (02:47:06)
Red Bull K2 results (8km, altitude gain of 2,330m) Men: 1. Enzo Mersi (01:43:51) 2. Luca Gronghi (01:51:54) 3. Alberto Turin (02:06:47) Women: 1. Lorena Casse (02:38:45) 2. Elisa Beltramo (02:49:33) 3. Denise Pallavicini (02:54:13)
Red Bull K1 results (4.5km, altitude gain of 1,180m) Men: 1. Gian Luca Ughetti (00:57:02) 2. Simon Edwards (01:03:34) 3. Martin Russo (01:06:26) Women: 1. Cristina Dosio (00:59:46) 2. Jessica Tieni (01:07:31) 3. Franca Bounous (01:26:22)
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