So let’s get the excuses out of the way right from the start – I had been “off school” for 10 days with a terrible head cold and had done nothing other than lie in bed and eat and get heavy before recovering sufficiently to go mountaineering for two days and then I had two days to recover before the race. I was looking for any reason to pull out and had been watching the threatening weather hopefully but Saturday arrived and the race was still on: I got up at 5:00am for my usual pre-race breakfast for a 7:00am gun.
The race was created by Lottie and Emma who are locals here in Le Chable – the original idea was to run from Le CHAble, via CHAmpex Lac to CHAmonix (I spell it out only because it took me a while to work out the name). However, Covid and the French being, well French, meant that it was altered to include a loop around Trient but at 64km and with 3,900m of vertical (so 45% of Everest) it was still pretty chunky. Catie was the “voice” of the race and as a thank you, I had been given a complementary registration and despite my lack of enthusiasm, I was delighted to be supporting this local event. Endless headaches and near disasters meant that Lottie and Emma had pulled off a miracle to get the race underway.
I realised as I stood amongst the small field of 30 runners that I had never actually run a stand-alone trail race, the only trail racing I have done is in the context of six day multi-stage events so I had no real idea how to pace it – predictably enough, I went off too hard.
The first climb was to Champex and this was fine, there is a steep ramp just at the end but it is mainly runnable. There were two men ahead of me and I made it my goal to pass them which I did. My heart race was at “full gas” levels despite only gently jogging and I put this down to still being slightly unwell and so just want on feel – I tried to run an “all day” pace but it was probably too quick.
From Champex there was a gentle downward section before a climb up through the forest – this was steeper and I route marched this section, using poles for the first time (definitely a good thing). With such a long course and so few runners the field was well spread out and I was reconciled to spending most of the day alone. The next was steeper climb that took us up over the pass that heads to Chamonix, this was steeper and harder work with varied terrain with rocks, roots and open pasture at the summit. Some light rain and overcast skies made for ideal running conditions.
The route was really well marked but despite this I managed to miss a turn on the descent down to Trient and lost time. Lots of friends from the village had volunteered and so there the race felt very friendly and local. I was passed by a strong looking chap at the checkpoint as I ate my Swiss sausage and fruit cake from my “special needs” bag that someone had kindly carried to the checkpoint as Catie could not meet me there as “support crew”.
I was already feeling tired, having gone off too hard, my feet were aching and I was generally wondering whether I would make it and what excuse I could give for DNFing. However, the gradient of the highest climb of the day was not too bad and I started to recover a little. Looking down from the summit I could not see any other runners and felt that I was “safe” from being passed.
The route passes along open land with stunning views towards the Emosson dam before descending to complete the loop back to the Trient checkpoint. Despite working on my descending over the summer, I was slow and was irritated to be overtaken by one of the chaps I had passed on the way to Champex. My legs were not working however so I could not have done anymore. At least I knew I was going to complete the race as there was only one climb left to go.
Back at the Trient checkpoint I was overtaken by the leading woman and whilst I was starting to feel stronger, in my mind I was close to tipping from “racing” to just “finishing”. However, I realised that I was stronger on the climbs and I managed to overtake both the woman and the fella ahead of me and was closing in on the other chap who passed me early in the race – I was fully back in “race mode”. Irritatingly, the chap came past me again on the descent but I used him to “pace me” down the hill and I could more or less keep up with him so when it comes to down hills I just need to push myself harder. That said, he opened up a fair lead on me.
It was then a gentle drag back up to Champex – I have done a lot of long mountaineering days this summer and I think they have built a lot of extended endurance. I was delighted to open an increasing gap on the leading woman and was closing in on the chap ahead – I was pushing hard and had there been another km of the race I would have passed him.
I finished in 9:19:34 and was happy to be under 10 hours and placed 7th overall and was the 1st home in the “old person / veteran” category and it was great to be welcomed home by Catie. The next oldest finisher ahead of me was 10 years my junior. To put this in context, the winner was done and dusted in 7:35 and chatting to him after he told me he treated this as a “sprint” as his preferred distances were between 100 and 200 km. I was actually pretty happy, with a better build-up, being lighter and better pacing I think sub 9 hours would be very doable.
It was a great race, generally well organised and very friendly – it was also fun to shoot some photos for the shorter ChaCha the following day.
Expeditions 