Pre-race Report Albania - The Hidden Treasure -

Following the step of the romantic poet Lord Byron (all’ allergo), 61 determined runners from 27 nations around the world will be starting the first multi-staged race in Albania, at the UNESCO World Heritage site of the “City of Thousand Windows”, Berat, on Sunday, 10 September 2017, 8am local time.

The race finishes on 15 September 2017 at the Amphitheatre in the 3000 years old ancient wall city of Butrint.

To reach this goal, the runners have to run 220km with 8,000m altitude gain in 6 days, passing numerous local remote villages, untouched nature and spending their nights in local houses, ancient monasteries, lakeside and ancient castles.

47 GlobalLimits veterans will be at the startline; and 13 of them had already been at least 3 of the GlobalLimits races and received the "GlobalLimits Heritage Site Runner" series award. 7 more will join them after successfully completing the race in Albania.

GlobalLimits also welcome the oldest stage race runner, Multible American champion Hans Schmid (77) and two world record holders: American Brent Weigner who had run marathons in 139 countries and German lady Edda Bauer who recently broke the world record by running 6 marathons in 48 hrs in the age group 70+.

Who are the favorites?
In the male category we expect a though fight between Argy Papathanasopoulos from Greece, the winner of Bhutan 2016, Belgium Kurt Alderweireldt, the winner of Bhutan 2017 and the renowned Spanish mountain goat Manuel Pastor, who had been twice on GlobalLimits’ podium. In addition, we will closely follow Daniel Meyes, the Swiss mountain expert.

We are expecting some surprises or non-surprises in the female category - we have 6 GlobalLimits podium runners in this race, and on top of the list is Austrian Christina Khinast, who has already been on GlobalLimits’ podium 3 times.

Stay tuned to uncover the Hidden Treasure!