Greig ready to hit the right note in Salzburg Athletics:

Metro Aberdeen runner Kyle tackles Mozart event today

Metro Aberdeen’s Kyle Greig hopes to deliver a virtuoso performance today when he competes in the Mozart 104km race in Salzburg.

The Great Britain trail running international is looking forward to his latest long-distance challenge on the roads and tracks in and around the birthplace of the famous composer.

In February he finished fifth in the Tarawera ultra in New Zealand, completing the 102km route in 9hr 20min 28sec, but expects the Austrian race to take even longer.

Greig said: “The Mozart winner took more than 10 hours last year, so in terms of time on my feet and distance covered, this will be the longest race I have tackled.

“However, I am a bit more experienced at doing these races now as I learned a lot from Tarawera and also from the Highland Fling 85km between Milngavie and Tyndrum which I won in April. I know how to pace things a bit better and how to deal with hydration and nutrition so hopefully I can do well.

“It will be tough as there’s 4,600 metres of climbing and some of the route is quite technical, which I don’t particularly like. Apparently a lot of the runners use poles to help get round but I won’t be doing that.

“I have never used them so I don’t see the point, al- though I hope I don’t regret that.

“I’ve had a decent spell of training over the past five or six weeks. Apart from the Highland Fling race I have done three 50km runs and I have been averaging about 135km a week in training.

“I’ve also been jumping into the sauna after some of my runs in case it turns out to be hot in Austria. That helps acclimatise. The race is part of the world ultra trail series and I’m hoping to pick up some good points to add to the ones I got in New Zealand.

“You need to do at least three races to qualify for the world rankings, so I might try to find another later in the year. There’s a good one in Cape Town.”

Greig is being accompanied on this week’s trip by his wife Debbie, the Scottish triathlon champion, who also has a busy schedule.

Last weekend she competed in the elite division of the Geraardsbergen half ironman triathlon in Belgium and tomorrow she tackles another half ironman, at Heilbronn in Germany.

Greig said: “Debbie will be travelling to Germany while I’m in Austria.

“Once my race is over I’ll be taking a train to Heilbronn and, if all goes well, get there 2am on Sunday. I’ll be up again a few hours later to watch her race. It’s going to be a hectic weekend.”

“In terms of time on my feet this will be the longest race”