Well that’s training over now and it is going to
be a few easy shorts runs now over the next week just to keep my legs
ticking over.
Sunday evening after work I hiked up to the top of
Planpraz at 2000m then it was head torch on and a run to flegere and
down to Le Praz and back to Chamonix. Was a good workout and was
running for two and a half hours and felt great. The only bad point
was my head torch almost running out of battery on the descent and I
had to run down 800m with it on the lowest level and with my eyesight
it wasn’t much fun.
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| Top of Planpraz |
Monday evening I went through to Courmayeur in
Italy after work with Dorian and Ally to do the first 14km of the
CCC. Again it was head torch time and after much laughter as we
managed to miss the start of the trail and ended up bushwhacking to
find it just as a thunderstorm hit the area. The storm didn’t last
long and we found the trail. The first 10km of the race ain’t going
to be pretty , its a constant climb all the way up from Courmayeur to
Tete De La Tronche at 2584m! The race starts by climbing 1401m , like
hiking up Ben Nevis then going for another 90km. I am glad I went and
done it before so I know what is ahead at the start. From that peak
its a brilliant ridge run for 4.4km to the Bertone hut from there we
headed back down to the car. We were out for just about 3 hours and
covered 21km.
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| Bushwhacking with Ally |
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| After Ally beasted the uphill I thought I had better redeem myself by a lesson on running downhill. I had to stop to let them catch up at some points though , just to be nice. |
I was off on Tuesday so drove to Champex and ran
another section of the race. Champex is at the 54km stage of the race
and in my opinion Champex is the key to success or failure. I ran
from Champex up to Bovine (10km , 800m ascent) then I just reversed
the route back to the car. So overall another 20km with 800m up and
800m down in a cruising two and a half hours. It was roasting(35
degrees!) but I felt not too bad again. I reckon if I can get to
Champex and not feel that bad then I have a good chance of finishing.
I am under no illusion though that I will get to Champex and feel
good! Yes Champex is only really halfway as after there I still have
a marathon(plus 4km) to do and 3000m more ascent but I now have done
the whole race in stages from Champex to Chamonix so I know the
trail. This could however be a bad thing as I know that its a
difficult 3 climbs from there and 46km more but checkpoints are
closer from then on and from Champex I will have friends at
checkpoints to help boost me a little bit as I go. Until Champex
though , I am on my own for 54km.
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| From here it's just a Marathon and 3 Munros to Chamonix Thank goodness this section will be dark. It was endless. Reminded me of the Scottish Ultra near the end when I nearly packed it in. |
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| Near top of Bovine looking back to Champex Valley. |
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| 35 degrees! |
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| Cooling off back at car |
I have started to get a bit excited about it all
now after going through a period of worrying but at the end of the
day its only a run and if I don’t finish then I don’t finish but
I will be back next year to try it again if that’s the case.
However if I manage to get round it then I have no further running
plans as of yet. I want to relax and start running again for fun. The
running this summer hasn’t felt like a chore but I have sacrificed
a lot of climbing and biking just to make sure I am in shape for this
and it will be nice to not have to train as much for a few months.
The finish archway is now up in Chamonix Centre
and this evening I avoided walking under it(bad luck) until I
hopefully cross that line on Sept 1st. The flags and banners are up
around town and runners will be arriving any day now to prepare.
I will stick up a wee blog a few a days before the
race after I collect my number and let you all know how you can
follow me on the course via the UTMB website.
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