It's that time again!

Well it's that time again and tomorrow I fly off to Colorado. Like the past two years I could not be more excited to get back there. I will spend a couple of days alone and plan on going back to Longs Peak just to see where my fitness is compared to last year as it will be almost a year to the day that I ran car to car in 4hrs and felt the strongest I have ever have. I am totally not acclimatised for running up to 14,400ft but I will see how the legs feel anyway. I have just spent three excellent days back home in Scotland managing to get out a couple of times and both in good weather. One epic day with Scott running the Glencoe Skyline route and another with Rob in Arrochar.

Heading along to Bidian at start if the ridge loop

I will then be heading over to Leadville to pace Stephen for a 10 mile section of the 100 and then I will pace Kim later on for about 25 miles. It will be good to get a long time on my feet and in the dark. Plus returning to that race weekend is one of the highlights of my year. I just love it there.
After Leadville I will be going solo for about ten days and heading down to the San Juans. There is too much for me to see and do down there and it will be a pretty full on trip of running , scrambling and exploring the best mountain range and wilderness I have ever seen.

Glencoe. So many amazing days spent up here playing.

Woody then arrives early Sept and we head up to Big Sky in Montana. After what will be about an 11hr drive I will have a short sleep then get up to run the VK and the following day the 25k alongside Woody. Then it's back to Colorado via Yellowstone and the Tetons!
Once back in CO myself and Woody have ten days of exploring to do before we head off over to Utah to prep for the Bear. We don't know what these days will involve yet but it is sure going to be fun and we will be getting a couple of big mountain days in and then I will ease off it and start getting my mind 100 mile ready.

It really is a stunning route

September 20th we head over to Utah for the big race. I have about 3 or 4 days to scope out some sections of the course but this will involve easy jogging and hiking. I am hoping my pacers will head out and do most of their pacing sections just to get an idea of where we will be going at night. I will probably stick to scoping out as much of the first 50 miles as I can over the days I have.
So the big question is how do I feel about another 100 miler? Hmm I really don't know. I know I always say this but I feel you just cannot go into a 100 miler thinking you got the job done already. For sure mentally and physically I know I can do the distance but anything can happen on the day and I just hate to get carried away before I have even started. I am confident I can stumble my way over the line in under 36hrs but I am terrified to think what I need to do if I want to try and get sub 24. For that time I really am unsure if I am strong and fast enough. I spent almost 3 months in Colorado training last year for RRR and I felt so so strong going into that race. This year I have spent until now in Chamonix which is amazing but I don't really feel as fit. I dunno what it is. Maybe it is because in CO last summer I was heading out to new places everyday and seeing new trails and mountains whereas here everything is familiar and I step out my door to go running. I do need to remember I had one of my fittest winters doing a lot of touring and I have been out here in Chamonix a lot just running , hiking and scrambling and I have ran Transvulcania(73km) , Cerdanya Marathon(42km) , The Killer(40km) and Tromso(45km) along with shorter races like the VK's and Dolomites(22km) which were  awesome speed work. I may not have been doing massive mileage but I have done a ton of climbing and descending. I also need to remember my training is not over. I get to CO on Aug 16th , the Bear is not until Sept 25th so I have a solid month more of running to do when out there and loads of time to get acclimatised. The altitude should not be that much of an issue at the Bear as the highest point is around 9500ft which is the lowest elevation of Leadville 100. It will do me no harm though to be at altitude a lot for the next month and that is my plan for sure.

Descending off Stob Coire Nam Beith

My mind is all over the place right now thinking about the Bear. I could not be happier to have Kim , Naila and Woody with me for the race. Probably the three most perfect people to have at my side. They  know me and they can all run well and kind of understand me. Kim has paced me twice now and has always done an amazing job for me , Woody somehow got me bloody flying at the end of RRR and we run together all the time , Naila and me go out running/hiking and ski touring often however I think she might be a bit concerned and bored of me at around mile 60 when she is wondering why the hell I am not feeling fresh and able to run like her brother!

Brutal climb up to start of Aonach Eagach

The awesome Aonach Eagach

It does require care in places

As usual I want to finish. First and foremost. I need this race for my Hardrock qualifier next year so I need to finish in the time limit. If I have any niggles or problems early on then I will be going as slow as I can just so I can get to the end. It could be a very long day or two for my crew. On the other hand I would love to run under 24hrs in a 100 miler. Lot's of people pick flat 100's like Rocky Racoon or Javelina Jundred to get their fast 100 times but I seem to be looking at harder ones each year to beat my times! Plus those courses look boring as hell and I will never set foot on them. I love to run but I love to run in the mountains not doing laps of a park. I will not get carried away though as I know at RRR I was way stronger than at LT100 and at Leadville I had a seriously bad knee problem for the last 30 miles. I think one day sub 24 will happen but I just don't know when. Maybe my best shot at sub 24 is to go back to Leadville  one year. RRR may have happened last year if I had seriously thought about it from around mile 65-70 but as per usual I was too concerned about blowing up and it turned out I probably kept a little bit too much back for too long. The Bear though is a harder race than Leadville and RRR but given my last two 100 mile performances I have stepped up to a harder course and ran faster. I am not saying this is going to happen with the Bear as I have no real idea of the course but from what I see there is a lot of climbs and descents which should suit my running style. Firstly I want to finish no matter what the time but I will be asking my friends to keep an eye on my times when I near 50-60 miles to see if sub 24 might be possible and if so then I will probably try my hardest to get it. If some kind of dreaded injury pops its head up then it will be time to ease off and limp my way into the finish. Quitting is something that will never ever come into my head. The only way I would DNF is if I was going so slow I missed a cut off time but quitting for me is not ever going to be /an option.

Making our own trail in Arrochar

I am sure I will report back not long after my first few runs in CO. I will miss you Chamonix but I am sure Colorado is hopefully going to welcome me back with open arms.

Tromso Skyrace

Flying into Tromso I knew immediately that I was going to love the place. On the grand scale of things the mountains are not actually that big compared to the Alps or Rockies but the most stunning thing about the place is how they just pop straight out from sea level and some rise up to about 1400m. I am not a big fan of the sea(sailing , swimming etc..) but I do like being near it and miss that a lot in Chamonix so Tromso ticks all the boxes. It really did remind me of all the best areas of Scotland....Glencoe , Skye , Torridon , Arran. All squeezed into one place and with fjords all over the place.

Tromso

First summit of race behind me

I landed on the Wednesday and after quickly checking into my hotel I was out the door in no time to go and explore. I headed up to the race start area and ran out the first 10km of the course. It was getting late in the day(10pm) but it didn't feel that way due to the 24hr daylight which was awesome. The weather wasn't that great but I got some views around and it was good to scope out the first little section of the race. I took it real easy and was out for 20km with a little over 700m of climbing but I could have stayed out a lot longer!

Heading up Hamperokken

Kilian doing his job very well

The next morning(Thursday) Kilian and some friends were heading out to mark the furthest away section of the course and asked if I wanted to go along and check it out so I jumped at the chance to scope out the most technical part of the course. So the loop we did was the climb up and along the technical ridge to the summit of Hamperokken(1404m) then down the steep couloir(epic snow descent!) off the side and back around to the car. It's a 10km loop with 1400m climb but not your normal 10km! I will explain this section more later when I get to race day but it was bloody excellent to get out with a group of people to have a laugh and mark the course.

Course marking along the ridge

Lucy enjoying the scramble

Friday was the day of the vertical km race and after much pondering I decided not to run and save my legs for the Skyrace on the Sunday(which I think was a very wise move) Instead I arrived at the start an hour early and asked if any help was needed to which I was pointed over to a ten litre bucket of water and told it was needed at the summit if I fancied it. Being the idiot that I am I picked it up and off I went  up the steep , techy climb of 1000m with what felt like a bag of lead on my back. I was absolutely pouring with sweat when I arrived to the summit but I did enjoy the way up. In hindsight my legs would probably have felt better if I had just ran the race. I took just over an hour for the hike with that weight on my back so I reckon I would have hit the low to mid forties if I had raced. The winner was in the ridiculous low 30s!

Most exposed part of the whole ridge

Last 50m to the summit

Saturday was rest day and a group of us just wandered Tromso eating , drinking and just generally being nervous thinking what was ahead the following day. On paper 45km these days doesn't really seem that far. It's never easy but it is a manageable distance.Throw in 4400m of climbing and descending , only 4km flat running(zero tarmac except 10 metres to cross a road) lot's and lot's of technical terrain , scrambling , steep and I mean STEEP forest , rough trail less mountain side , snow and multiple river crossings and you got yourself Tromso Skyrace and it is bloody amazing. Last years winner took 6 hours 40 mins to finish! Just to surprise everyone the race starts and finishes at the top of a little hill that has a telepherique up it. The catch was the race starts at 10am and the lift opens at.....10am! So the warm up was a 3-400m hike up to the start which was taken very very steadily.

On the descent off Hamperokken. Steep!

Down to the snow

I had been changing my mind constantly whether I should carry a pack or not for the race or just take my waterproof and shove a hat and gloves in my shorts. The weather was not great but it was not horrendous , it was very foggy and wet but it was not windy or that cold. As it turned out Lucy had got a nasty injury sliding on snow the day we marked the course and unfortunately she ended up not being able to race so I gave her my bag with poles and an extra warm jacket and she went to the checkpoint that I would pass at 17km and 30km to give me what I needed. So I set off with just my jacket , hat and gloves and a few gels in my pocket. My water source was the abundance of rivers I would pass on the course. Normally on 45km I would carry nothing but normally 45km on trails would take around 4-5 hours not my predicted 9-10 for this race.

Great bunch of people. Lucy , Mira , Magnus , Kilian , Mick

Just doing what he does

I hate the start of a race , finding your pace , feeling like your legs are not ready and so on and so forth but I battle on until I start to feel some kind of rhythm. The first 6-7kms went just fine. Lot's of rolling hills on some nice soft ground. Then the slow climb starts up to the summit of Tromsdalstinden(1200m) this again went just fine for me and I was on the summit sooner than I expected. This was the easy part of the race. From the summit I was pointed by race officials to the edge of the mountain with a load of snow disappearing into the mist at a rather steep angle. I had one look and turned back and shouted "down there!?" with lot's of laughter and smiles I got the response of "yup , enjoy!" Just as the snow started there was a rope put in place to steady yourself , there was steps in the snow and really the rope was not needed for getting down it but after about 50m the snow ended onto a bit of ice then onto the stupidly steep grassy , rocky , pathless mountainside so the rope was a good idea as if you had slipped on the snow then you were not gona stop even when you hit the grass. Then it was a long descent all the way back down to sea level on steep grass , more snow , a few very cold rivers to cross and then THE forest section. This was an absolute laugh. You couldn't go wrong here as the trees had been cut in to make the only way through so you just had to follow the only way you could go and by god was it steep in places. I was laughing out loud and bloody loving this bit , sliding down mud and hanging off of branches. It was so much fun and I actually managed to pass a few people down here who were being a bit cautious. After this comes the only flat section of the course. 2km in forest but with much more spaced out trees. This too was fun. Pathless soft terrain with markers on trees to keep you in the right direction. Again there was a river crossing but luckily there was a fallen down tree to use to get over it. I arrived in the 17km checkpoint feeling great and I was greeted by Lucy who was as hyper as ever. I just kept saying how much fun that was. I grabbed some water , decided to not take my bag or poles because they were not actually at the aid station for me due to a car breaking down which had all my stuff. Nothing I could do and I was not feeling cold anyway so I just had to get a move on and make sure I stayed warm.

Course map

Profile

So back to the loop I had previously run on Thursday. I was not feeling my usual self for the first 900m up but I knew once I hit the ridge I would move quicker. Once I gained the rocky ridge I felt better and got my head down and tried to pass people I knew I was quicker than on this kind of terrain. It was wet a pretty slippy but never really bothered me too much and before I knew it I was just below the summit and ready for the final 50m steep scramble to the summit of Hamperokken. It was wet and care required but it is never hard. I would say the whole ridge gets harder and harder as you go along but most of it you can do without using your hands if your comfortable on that kind of terrain. There is one very exposed narrow section but it is still just a walk albeit a walk you do not want to slip and fall to your left. The final climb to the summit I would say is Scottish grade 2 or maybe easy grade 3 due to it being wet. It is no harder than Curved ridge(grade 2) but easier than North Buttress(grade 3) If you are a runner who has never scrambled or climbed then it would certainly be very interesting but if you climb or scramble or do general mountaineering then you will just love all of it.

Running the Hamperokken ridge. Photo Philip Reiter

I would say the descent is more serious than the climb up. It was back down off the summit and then into a large loose couloir which is very hard to run on. Then onto a huge 200m patch of snow which was the scene of Lucy's accident. I slid down here pretty steadily but again if your not used to running down steep snow slopes then this would not have been fun for you. You really don't want to get out of control and go off the end of the slope into the rocks. After the snow I was feeling good running round past the small lake and then across the boulder field. It was then back down the awesome smooth trail to the checkpoint at 30km. From here you head back up the first descent to the summit of Tromsdalstilden and from the summit you take a different route back down to the finish.
So back across the 2km flat section and then fun time again. Going back up the steep forest was as fun as running down it. Sometimes I was clawing at the mud and trees to pull myself up. Just so much fun. Then back across the rivers and up up and up. The final 400m to the summit are ridiculously steep. Steeper than anything I have every experienced in a race. I was so happy when I seen the snow slope ahead as I knew it was only another 50m to the top. I hauled myself up the snow and was greeted on the summit by the happy cheering race crew. Visibility was pretty bad here and the descent down was quite  tricky as I kept having to stop and look around for the next marker as to not go off route. The course was amazingly well marked but the fog was pretty bad by now. It's was kind of a trail for the top section but very very rocky. Once the rocks started to disappear it was very runnable smooth trail and open hillside and I was feeling great and going as fast as I could down here. I reached the next checkpoint at 38km sooner than I thought. I grabbed a gel then headed off to the finish. The next 6km are lovely smooth runnable trail all the way to the finish and I managed to run all of this as it climbed up again for about 300m. I ended up finishing in 8hrs 08mins and in 30th position. I think around 200-250 were signed up for the race but only about 120 finished and I am not surprised.

Only picture I have during race. Descending off the first summit

It is a very very tough technical course. I would not recommend you sign up for this as your first race but one day everyone who runs in the mountains needs to do Tromso Skyrace. It's just amazing fun and the runners , organisers , supporters are all just awesome. I thought it would take a lot to top the Dolomites Skyrace but this totally beats it and easily. The whole  atmosphere was unlike anything I have felt at a race. There really felt like there was no us and them with normal runners and elites. Even though the gulf in class is quite apparent when you look at results(1st 6hrs - last 14hrs) everyone was just chatting and sharing stories with everyone and I really hope this race never gets so big and loses this great atmosphere but I am sure Kilian , Emelie and Raf will do everything they can to keep it the way it is right now.

Emelie pushing for the win at the VK

I struggled for sure on both of the big climbs which is worrying as I have trained a lot on climbing this summer. It was slow going but I am super happy with how I raced and that I carried minimal gear for 8hrs out in the mountains and I never got any cramp , blisters or felt too bad. I wish I could have been a little faster on the last ascent but overall I am happy with how my race went. I need to keep reminding myself that this was a Skyrunning World Series race , the competition level was very high with a lot of world class runners. Sunshine would have been nice to enjoy the epic scenery but the fog made it atmospheric to say the least.

Cheering in the last runners

I just want to put a massive shout out to everyone I hung around with over the weekend and all those who made this race really something special. Kilian , Emelie , Magnus , Raf , Stu , Dan , Lizzie , Mick it was an absolute blast. Finally a big shout out to Lucy who I know was devastated she had to pull out but she was around all day cheering people on and even at the end I hung around for hours with her cheering in the last runners and keeping spirits high. See you next year Tromso. I cannot wait.

Good times!

Dolomites Skyrace 2015

Well July has treated us to absolutely cracking weather and only today(25th) for the first time this summer did I have to put my jacket on for a run. It has been wall to wall sunshine the entire month and scorching temperatures with it. My month has consisted of a bit of everything really. I managed a couple of fine little ridge outings , a little climb in the Rouge and I was on the Matterhorn. Along with all that I have been running most days. Nothing big in terms of mileage but plenty of ascending. I will let my pictures do the talking with regards to training , scrambling and climbing and I will focus more on my little trip to Italy.

Matterhorn. Lion Ridge. Unfortunately turned back near summit due to snow , ice and wind

Afternoon soloing masterclass for Woody in the Rouge

I headed to the small town of Canazei in the Italian Dolomites with Lauren last Thursday. She had registered for the Skyrace(22km 1700m+) last year and I had to make do with a place on the VK(3km 1000m+) as the Skyrace was full. Both races are part of the World Skyrunning Championships so the entry lists were stacked full of some very very speedy runners and the first day we arrived we were both looking around rather confused as to why we decided to come and run in an event full of what seemed like Elites.

End of the VK. Steeeeeeppp!

The Friday morning was the VK. I arrived at the start around 9.30am for a 9.50am start time. Unlike Chamonix VK where runners set off alone in intervals of 20 seconds here they grouped together 20 runners at a time and set each pack of 20 off every 5 minutes. Being my first year racing this particular VK I had an early start with the Elites starting at 11am. So off we went at 9.50am. I had no real idea of a time in mind. I knew the race was just a little shorter in distance than Chamonix VK but that also meant it was steeper and by god was it steep. In Chamonix and at Transvulcania I was able to run/jog many parts of the course but apart from the initial 50-80m this VK was purely speed hiking and using my poles as much as possible to push myself up the sometimes ridiculously steep terrain. This one went almost the complete opposite than Chamonix. In Cham I started too fast and really struggled for the last 300m however on this one I kept myself in a reasonable state for the first 500m and then realised I had much more to give and managed to push quite hard to the end. Now in no way was the first 500m easy at all but I was just grinding it out at (for me) a comfortable but decent pace and by the time I seen the 700m marker my legs managed to really push hard. I ended up finishing in 48mins 07seconds. 10 seconds faster than Chamonix and 109/380. Not exactly Elite category but I was happy with what I had done and it really is great training pushing so hard for almost and hour. I do think the more experience I get at these VK's then I can improve my times. I will never get near the 40 min mark and under 40 min is just ridiculous but I do think I can get those times down to maybe around 44mins or even 43 but that is 5 minutes faster and on a VK 5 minutes is quite a long time.

Canazei

Saturday was recovery time for me and rest/panic time for Woody. I took the chance and went to the race office to ask about maybe getting an entry for the following day. To my surprise the woman at the desk(Paola) could not have been any nicer and she gave me a place for a small fee. I was stoked about this and I cannot thank her enough for letting me race. So the rest of Saturday was eat ice cream and relax.

Red is up , Yellow is down.

The Dolomites Skyrace is one of the most famous of all the Skyrunning race series. It's only 22km but you climb 1700m(to an altitude of 3100m) for 10km at the start and then descend 1700m for 12km back to the town. It's short , steep and fast. There were 900 starters in the town square. It was a mass start but they had separated runners in order of bib numbers to try and ease congestion at the start. The first pen of 150 were the elite class and then it was a pen of 250 more and so on. Luckily for me and Woody we were in the second group just behind the elites.

Just at the top of the couloir heading over to the last 300m of the climb up

The race starts off with a short section running through the town then it is onto the wide grassy ski slopes for about 700m. This meant there was zero congestion at all at the start which was great. I managed to walk/jog my way up the first 700m without too much of a problem. I could certainly feel I had done a VK two days before but my legs were not that bad. From the 700m mark the course steepens and you are then on single track all the way up to 1400m. Zig zagging up the steep loose couloir is something else and once you arrive at the top you are greeted to a ton of supporters and banging music to try and ease the pain. From the top of the couloir it's pretty flat for a very short period then it is up again for 300m to the high point. I felt great on the last 300m climb as it is mainly very very easy scrambling. It was a bit frustrating at times as the course has ropes on this section to help people get up the rocks easier but it really is not hard to scramble up the rocks and some of the time people would hang onto the ropes to get a breath and congest those behind who were moving fast. It was a minor problem and I guess only cost me a minute or two overall and that isn't going to cost me a podium place but it was still mildly frustrating.

Sprint finish for 120th place!

So 1700m climb was done. I grabbed a quick drink of coke and then it was descent time. As soon as my feet started the descent they just felt so light and ready to go. We were warned at the race briefing about the steepness of the descent in places and that the steep steps at the top had a railing you should use to be safe but as it turned out the railing was not needed. I cannot really describe just how fun and fast this descent was. I started off passing probably around 6 people in the first couple of minutes of descending until out of the corner of my eye I noticed a guy coming down behind me like the absolute clappers completely off the trail and hurtling down through the scree. It took me a second to consider what to do and I was also off the trail and straight lining it down. There are marker flags in the direction to go but it is really just a free for all , just pick the fastest line down. There was the odd tiny section where you had to stick to a faint trail but other than that it was steep , fast , loose , chaotic and bloody fun. I absolutely loved it and not a soul passed me on the entire descent. Nearer town the course flattens a little and I managed to keep the big stride going and sprinted into the finish in a time of 2hrs 43mins. 120/900. I had passed 35 runners on the descent which I was well happy about. Woody who has not really been running at all this summer due to injury put in a cracking shift and ran 3hrs 05mins.

Best race yet

All smiles. I was like this pretty much the whole descent

I just cannot get over how great this run was. It really is a must do for anybody who likes steep and fast. It's funny as I think I am much stronger over long long distances. Not fast but I can keep going. This summer I have enjoyed the short stuff like the VK's and this 22km. My weakest running I believe seems to be the more in between distances like 40-60k and on that note this coming Wednesday I travel to Norway to run the Tromso Skyrace - 45km 4400m. I have a feeling it is going to be brutally hard.

Epic or what!? Running with Woody on the Crochue Traverse

Being a course designed by Kilian and Emelie should tell you straight away how hard it will be. It's just over a marathon and the cut off time is 12hrs! Last years winner was almost 7hrs. It has a lot of climbing for the distance(only 600m less than Leadville which is 165km) and two of the summits have real exposure and easy class rock climbing involved. There will be snow and some of the course is off trail completely. So you wonder why am I doing this. Because it looks stunning. Tromso itself is a place I want to go and see and hopefully explore some of the other amazing ridge runs before the race if I get a chance. I really couldn't be more excited about going there to see somewhere new.

Exposed descending on the Perrons Traverse

La Jonction. Awesome 1700m climb.

This is my last long race before the Bear. The only other long race this year has been Transvulcania in May!! I must admit I am concerned about The Bear but I do reckon Tromso will be great prep. Maybe not distance wise but time on feet will be much longer than a normal marathon for sure. I am expecting to do Tromso anywhere from 9-10 hours....for 45km!!! I ran 80km in Leadville last year in 9hrs 25mins! It's just great to run a race as technical as this because no matter how hard(technically) Americans say their races(The Rut) are I am sure it will not be close to how tough Tromso will be.

Easy afternoon run near Le Tour

So my next blog will be up in a couple of weeks once I get back from Tromso and I look ahead to the U S of A yet again!!!

Chamonix VK / The Killer 40k

So first things first. Chamonix Vertical Km. Was it fun? Nope and anybody out there who says it was was either not running or not going fast enough. It was brutal. Not really surprising really when you have to go up 1000m as fast as you can in under 4km. It actually all started off not too bad for me. I made it to 500m in 21 minutes but somewhere around 700m up I really started to fade. It was a bit of a weird one really. My legs felt pretty strong all the way but my lungs just could not get enough oxygen in them to keep moving up quickly. I topped out and finished in a respectable 48 mins 17 secs. It was bang in the middle of my predicted 47-50 min estimate that I had marked down when I registered. I have done the VK a lot of times on my own but I have never ever timed myself so I really wasn't sure what I would get. In hindsight I would like nearer 45 minutes and I guess it's a good goal as I reckon I could get my time down by a minute on the first 500m and hopefully not fade too much on the second 500m and maybe get  24-25 for the second section if all went well. Anyway it was good fun AFTER I had finished and it took a long 15 minutes to manage to talk to anyone but I will be back to do it again in 2016 for sure. Thanks to Geoff for pouring water over me halfway up and to Dawn and Naila for being there to support and make sure I was able to get myself back down to town.

Lungs working overtime

Since then I have just been running and I have squeezed in a couple of easy days on the rock and a little early morning cosmiques lap with James. We are getting scorched with a massive heatwave and temperatures are hitting the mid 30s so running has been getting done either early in the morning up high or late in the evenings when it cools a little. Mileages have not been huge but I have been doing quite a lot of vertical. On Saturday we had the first running on myself and Nailas race...The Killer 40km.

After the first climb of the race

Heading to Chalets Miage

The course takes in a loop around the back of Les Houches and over to Chalets Miage , Col du Tricot then up to Nid d'Aigle before heading back down the long descent to Les Houches. It's 40km with 3100m of climbing and descending and it's pretty damn tough.

Bottom of Col Tricot descent

Being the first year we have organised it we had a whopping 10 people towing the start line. For now it is an unofficial race we have zero course markings and zero aid stations but along the route there is plenty of places for water. Most people had a map but others just came along to try and wing it. Sandy and Graham were on stand by as the mountain bike rescue team.

Directions weren't too confusing. Race start.

Suffering up to Nid d'Aigle

We set off from Les Houches at 7am. I won't really go into detail on the race as you will all need to come and run it! Basically it was bloody hard and by the time myself and Bastien had got to 25km the heat was unreal climbing up to Col Tricot. He managed to power on and wait on me at Nid d'Aigle but I struggled massively from the heat on the last climb. At the end of the day only the two of us finished the whole route with the others doing shortened versions to try and stay out of the intense sun and I don't blame them. It was a cracking day out and I did really enjoy it and it sounds like other people did as well so let's hope next year it is not quite as warm and we can finally get organised and make it a real race. Thanks so much to everyone who came along for the day and great effort by all of you no matter what route you took. It was bloody hot! Good work.

Water needed!

Painful descent

The day after the race I really felt very exhausted/dehydrated. I lay around all day and managed a very very easy 6km 900m downhill in the evening. With this heatwave around I am not really tempted at all to venture up onto the glaciers or do any alpine stuff but it really is something I want to get a lot more of done before going to the USA. Although time is ticking away as I don't believe my mileage is up to what I want it to be so running is the priority at the moment.

Cooling off after The Killer 40k

Next up for me is the Dolomites VK on the 17th. However I may venture to Manigod on Wednesday to do the local VK there and I also might travel over to the Ice Trail Tarantaise race this coming weekend with a friend but I am yet unsure. The big course is full up so I cannot get a place but they have spaces on the VK and the 20k so depending on the cost I might enter one of those but I am unsure. I might even just travel over to watch the races and just do my own bit of exploring for a couple of days.

Two days after the race. Back up to Nid d'Aigle

Today(Tuesday 7th) I decided to go for a long run. I must admit recently I have been feeling a bit weird and really not very motivated to be in Chamonix right now. I know I know. Life's tough. I just haven't been as motivated as I was this time last year in the US and I have had some serious doubts if I actually want to keep doing these long distance races. I feel like I have lost a little bit of my appetite for it. It could just be a passing thing and probably is but I made sure this morning I was up and out early with a big day planned.

Amazing running off of Mt Buet

I set off up the normal long slog to the summit of Mt Buet. It's a good 1700m haul up from the car but the sun wasn't melting down on the ascent so it wasn't too bad. From the summit I ran along and down the sometimes steep , loose and pretty exposed Arete du Buet and continued along the crest as far as I could until I arrived at Le Cheval Blanc. The crest run was pretty bloody amazing. From here I descended a little and made a final little uphill to Col Corbeaux again on a very steep loose trail. From the Col it's still a pretty steep rocky descent pretty much all the way down to Couteray with probably the last couple of Km's easing off to fast trails. I arrived back at the car in Buet 6 hours after I set off pretty dehydrated and feeling the heat when I came out of the trees. I was moving for 5 hours and stopping at the summits and some Lacs along the way just to enjoy the view and being completely alone up there. My watch stopped somewhere along the route and until then I had covered 20km and 2000m of ascent but I am sure it is closer to 30kms with maybe 2100m+ and 2100m-. Not exactly fast for those stats but a lot of this route really is quite steep and requires some attention especially traversing and down climbing the loose ridge off of Mt Buet.

Descending this does require attention

I didn't feel at full strength today but it was really great to just do a new loop that has been on my mind for a while. Without sounding too ridiculous I really think this run was all I needed to get back to the feeling I have been missing on my runs. Long may this continue.

Brilliant long day but it wasn't easy