This morning i biked in to work, quads still sore from running up and down mountains at the weekend so took it pretty easy. Did a 30 minute recovery run at lunch and another 4 miles after work. Will try and build back up to pretty big mileage for the next 3 weeks with Caesars Camp 100 mile the next and possibly last thing on the race schedule for this year on the 9th October.
I decided today that Furnace Creek 508 was going to be way too big of an ask with the amount of preparation I've put in on the bike and the lack of time I'm going to have to get it done. Im absolutely shattered from so much travelling and with the abandonment of the UTMB I've got some unfinished business which a relatively local 100 miler will give me the perfect opportunity to attend to.
I DNF'd Caesars Camp 50 miler a few years ago when I damaged my left foot at around the marathon point and hobbled in to the 30 mile point to drop. The 100 is a tough race, 10 laps of 10 miles with a cumulative elevation gain of 15,200ft (the same amount of descent on top clearly). I have done the hill work to prep for UTMB so this should hopefully tie me over nicely to a decent performance in 5 weeks time.
Caesars Camp Profile
Furnace Creek can wait for another year, Im sure one of the Endurance Heroes will want to give it a go in the future and I'd be right there for it.
Last night Jez Bragg and Lizzy Hawker made it a double win for the UK in the revised shortened version of two races that began on Saturday morning in Courmayeur. Im not going to call it the UTMB like the race organisers are here because it was nothing like it (90km not 166km). That isn't to take anything away from this new route, it was still undoubtedly an incredibly hard run. The reasons for me not being there for it have been posted below. About 1300 runners started from a combined total of 1000+ TDS and 2300 UTMB runners. Many of the top guys and girls were missing but that shouldn't detract from two awesome performances from Britains best. Jez covered the course in 10:33 and Lizzy in about an hour more than that.
This morning many of the runners were still coming in more than 24 hours after the start. Exactly as I did last year I ran backwards up the course to the last major aid station at the ski lift La Flegere, about a 2700ft climb in 7km, and came back down into town along the route the UTMB usually takes to the finish. The trails here are incredible. The views they afford & their condition as they meander in and out of woodland to open ski slopes and back make running here an absolute joy. The time genuinely just flies and up is as great as coming down.
Back home tomorrow and some decisions to be made about what comes next. Having thought I was going to be out of commission with stiff & sore legs for 10 days after this weekend its a small bonus I guess to have got 2 decent training runs in and preparation can begin for the next adventure.
Short video of the views form the La Flegere. With views of Mont Blanc like this all the way around the course its not hard to see why so many people want to come here and run this race.
And this is probably the funniest thing I've seen for a while
After all the many hours of deliberation over whether to run yesterday or not I threw myself into the race and committed around lunchtime by finally registering. I spent the afternoon sleeping, managed to eat my first proper meal in 72 hours and had no repurcussions to that point of the stomach problem.
At 5pm, Eberhard came up to our hotel and I finished getting ready. 10 minutes before the start I wandered out of the hotel. Ive honestly never felt so relaxed before a race of even half this magnitude. The fact that Id been so unsure I was actually going to start, for so long into the run up, meant that the pressure was off. I had one plan, finish, and that simply meant reaching each aid station by the cut off point. I hate racing this way. I am a competitive person and gain a lot of mental strength during races from being able to push hard and cover the course in good time. To have to endure a suffer fest over 2 full days of running non-stop was going to be a whole new arena for me and I wasn't relishing the thought. I was however excited to see this fabled course up close, to see how serious the climbs really were and to test myself over a mountainous 100 for the first time.
Well nobody got the opportunity to do so last night. We left chamonix at 6:30pm. The start, whilst incredibly uplifting as one huge celebration, was incredibly frustrating for me. I was literally at the back by the time we got across the start/finish point and it took me 15 minutes before we could actually break into a jog, once almost a km down the road out of Chamonix. There were people lining both sides of the street, 5 deep, photographers, giant screens and of course 2300 other runners. I didn't care about being at the back because frankly thats where I knew Id have to spend the race, what bothered me was that Id wasted what could have been an invaluable 15 minutes if I really did start struggling to meet the cut offs.
The first 9km are 'flat' (rolling trail) down to Les Houches. It began raining a few minutes before the start and it really started falling hard on this first section. I ploughed on rather than getting out my poles or waterproof jacket and enjoyed the fading light. At 9km we hit the first climb up to le Charme. This is a 7km climb up a ski slope passing underneath a bubble lift from 1000m to 1776m (about 2300ft).
About half way up I bumped into James Adams and finished the climb with him before getting to the descent. This was way worse than the climb as the rain had turned it into a bit of a mud chute. Loads of people went over, there were poles everywhere but I didn't see the point in getting them out for now, I would wait until 35km to do that.
We dropped further down the mountain all the way back to the height we'd just come from the other side and into the town of St Gervais at 21km and the first major aid station. I felt rough on this descent it was taking me a while to find my legs, I felt light headed, weak on my feet and clearly just devoid of decent energy reserves from days of not eating. I had to keep banging gels in just to stay focused and I knew I was in for a long night in the cold and rain but had just prepared myself for getting on with it. Just before I came into the checkpoint I passed 3 British runners coming the other way back up the hill shouting 'they've pulled it there's a massive landslide'. I carried on anyway and got to the checkpoint. The guy on the line just said to me 'finit' The race was over, there were runners everywhere struggling to understand what had just happened. I moved through the checkpoint and found an american guy who had flown in just for the race and he was pretty much in tears. The decision was a brave one from the organisers as the chaos this caused and is still causing has been monstrous, but of course runner safety is the most important thing. In those conditions it is hardly suprising that they did what they felt they had to do. They have come up from criticism already but I think that is wrongly placed, it is, however, about how they now make it right for 2300 runners whom have been training for months for this event and who have spent a fortune on getting here to run it.
They shepherded us towards a sports centre in the town where it became clear that the weather had created the threat of landslides around 20km further up the course and that it was just too dangerous to pass. There were all kinds of rumours about another race start tomorrow morning and questions over whether we would be allowed back next year. They sent us towards the train station but I was lucky enough to run into Paul who we'd met at the South Downs Race in June & an English girl Josie who kindly offered us a lift back to Chamonix in her friends camper van.
When we got back to the hotel I stayed up until 3am pretty wired from all the gels Id been hammering, trying to find out what they had announced in the press conference but nothing was appearing so I went to bed.
This morning I woke at 9am, checked online and found out that the organisers had text 'everyone' in the field at 5am to let them know buses would be leaving Chamonix at 6am this morning to take people to Courmayeur where a 100km race (the CCC course) would be run in place of the UTMB. I didn't receive the text so wasn't even given this option. 100s of runners are in the same boat including Geoff Roes who was pre race equal favourite for the win, so clearly this wasn't an elitist texting strategy. I rang Mimi who had received the text but had decided not to run. I probably would have made the same decision even if it had been mine to make. I think if Id got the text, my year was empty from here on out & I felt 100% over my stomach trouble I would have got on the buses, but not in this condition was I going to optionally run a 100km mountain race which I wasn't fussed over completing, it is not after all the UTMB I came here to run. With other things only weeks away I will instead plough all of my energy into those events and PRAY that they give all of us a chance to come back and run this thing next year. After 2 years of coming here and running a total of 13 miles in that time I would be devastated if I didn't get a crack at finishing this in 2011.
Tomorrow Im going to start putting the training miles back in, beginning with a nice long alpine trail run, a pretty rare & awesome opportunity.
Here's to the race organisers, please get it right and open 2011 back up!!!!
Well I just registered I figured what is the point in coming all the way out here two years in a row and not starting both times. My stomach is still terrible, breakfast was 4 pieces of dry bread. The plan is to eat something proper, take some immodium and try to sleep for an hour before the start that way I hope I can ingest some energy.
This race was always about just finishing but I just tore the cut off times out of the race manual to carry with me as I have no doubt that my perspective on this just changed to just trying to make each cut off one by one and keeping enough energy there to do so to the end. It is my policy in races not to stop for anything and to move straight through aid stations/ check points without stopping. This time I am going to have to rest and try and recoup wherever possible.
It is cold and absolutely tipping it down with rain. Right now this is looking like a misery fest but somehow I think once i get out there and try and slug it through the first night out, the sun may just come out in the morning and I may just feel like pushing on....
You can follow it live at http://utmb.livetrail.net/tabPassageEntete.php?course=utmb&tab=utmb
Well the 2nd big run of the year starts tomorrow at 6:30pm in the centre of Chamonix in France. Last year I had to pull out of running the race due to shin splints and achilles tendonitis, I still travelled but instead crewed the race for Frank Fumich.
This year I've been in good shape in the run up, no injury worries and my legs feel strong and recovered after Badwater. Last night we returned from Sri Lanka after 11 days holiday. For the last 48 hours of it, I was in trouble with a stomach bug. I've spent the whole of today unable to eat anything apart from a couple of pieces of dried toast and the trouble continues. My energy levels are through the floor and my frustration is mounting with every hour that passes as we get nearer and nearer the race. We fly this afternoon at 5pm out of Gatwick so ive got 2 hours before I leave the house. Everything is packed, drop bags, running pack, race gear, drop bag for Lisa who is going to come and meet me at Champex Lac 123km in to the race. Tomorrow I will get up, check in to the race and pray that I can get at least one proper meal in before we start. Being realistic this is not the sort of race that you can rock up to and knock out feeling like shit. But at the same time I don't think I can face not starting again. Who knows if my stomach picks up over the course of the first 24 hours of running I may be able to gorge on the sausage, cheese and baguettes that they serve at the aid stations.
Well fingers crossed that this goes to plan. Its unlikely I will get in to this race again next year due to the increasing popularity, I really can't face thinking about having to wait years to run this one again, there's other things that are pretty high up on the list and a few of them are right around this particular weekend....
