Written by Simon Bright
This summer became my most memorable season of running. I completed the Mont Blanc Marathon (my favourite race) and the OCC (the new race in the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc series, which covers the last 52km of the UMTB route). This season was nearly the most memorable for another reason – because it almost didn’t happen.
The lead up to these races was problematic, putting it mildly. During the Exe to Axe (22 mile costal run) in March the calf muscle froze up coming down one of the paths. I got round the race but then the problems began.
After this my knee and the calf muscle got into a competition to see which could cause the most angst. The knee was giving me a lot of pain and after one run gave way completely. The calf decided to chip in as well and about every one in three runs it would lock up and I couldn’t land my foot on the ground properly. Time was eating away without getting any training in. I decided that I was going to do these races even if I had to walk the entire course, provided I believed there was a reasonable chance of beating the cut off times. Spending some time playing with numbers, based on guestimates of climbing and descending times (see below), I decided I could beat the cut off times, even if I had to walk most of the way.
Confirmation I could do the marathon – obvious really!
Believing I could do it, I decided to ahead and prepare. I knew I was going to spend a lot of this preparation time in pain; experience a huge amount of self doubt and wake up approximately every third day wanting to give up and throw in the towel.
The amount of running I could do was very limited and at best could manage short, flat road runs. Being unable to run as much I’d like, I decided not to worry about the things I couldn’t change and focus on what I could:
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Practising noridc walking – to build up my walking speed,
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Swimming to increase my respiratory capacity,
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Building up leg strength with clams etc. and
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Keeping my overall level of fitness up.
Things started to get better a few weeks before the marathon – sort of. I managed to get back into running consistently and reasonably well and even managed a few hills. Unfortunately the longest run was six miles.
Setting off for Chamonix, I decided I was going to try to keep going for as hard as I could for as long as I could and hope to have the common sense to give in and lie down when I was beaten. The strategy for the marathon was to jog as much as I could for the first section to Vallorcine (which was relatively flat) and if I could make this at under 15 minute miles that would give me enough of a time cushion to beat the cut offs.
Couple of days before the marathon I did the vertical – I’ve wanted to do one of these for ages but had never got round to signing up. The course consists of a 1,000m climb staring in Chamonix and finishing at Planpraz (see below). There is an individual start, with runners setting off at 30 second intervals. What I found surprising was how relaxed I was at the start – I had no expectations about how well I’d do and there felt no pressure. I had realised that it could all go wrong within five minutes if my knee caved in. What I decided was that if that happened, it happened and there was nothing I could do about it, so made up my mind just to enjoy the start.
The course for the Vertical
The vertical was an amazing experience. It wasn’t entirely uphill – there was a descent of three foot in one place! It started on the road, onto a switch back track, the technical section (with ladders in places) and a last uphill section on track to the finish. It was tough – most people, including me, were walking by the time they reached the switch back but I got into a steady pace. The technical section was less intimidating than I expected as all my attention was focussed on the square metre in front up me rather than the rather steep drops on either side.
I completed the vertical in reasonable shape, feeling a lot more confident for the marathon with this run under my belt. I was now set up for the marathon and had a plan to complete it. And then the Chamonix weather decided to change the plan….
The night before the marathon the organisers had to change the route due to severe weather – torrential rain, sub zero temperatures and low visibility. The race would start and finish in Chamonix (the marathon usually finishes at Planpraz). This seriously changed the profile from 2,500m of ascent and 1,000m of descent to 2,500m up and 2,500 down. This wasn’t in my script as my ability to come down hill was pretty poor and the calf struggled more on the descents.
The marathon started at 8am with rain coming down heavily. We headed out of Chamonix and along the valley. Most of the course at the start was pretty flat with a mix of tracks, some of which were fairly narrow meaning there were bottlenecks in places, with some roads as well. I was jogging some sections, nordic walking the slopes and running the downhills, but even on these gentle descents I could feel the calf tightening. The course was fairly muddy. By the approach to Vallorcine I was walking, but was well below the 15 minute/mile target.
France in August
After Vallorcine was the first big climb. This started with a steep, rocky trail. It felt like hard work and I was making a lot of use of the trekking poles, by leaning into them and using them to pull me forward. Eventually the route changed onto a more gently ascending track and I managed to get a decent walking pace going on this section.
Coming up to Col De Posettes it was getting a lot colder and winder. I held off for too long before putting on gloves and found that I’d lost all feeling in my hands (as one of my friends pointed out after the race, the hands are more exposed and get a lot colder quicker when they are wrapped around trekking poles). Despite the help of a couple of marshals I could get the gloves on. At this point I was feeling very annoyed with myself that I could have allowed a stupid mistake to potentially wreck the whole run. I was at the top of Col De Posettes at this point and decided the sensible thing to do was ignore the discomfort, to get down as quickly as possible and hope the hands thawed out by the time I reached the valley.
The plan worked and by the time I was in the valley the hands were back to normal. There was a longer section of flattish, but overall downhill track and I used this to get some lost time back (I’d probably wasted half an hour messing about with gloves etc). This left the last difficult section to cover. This part of the course included the major changes due to the weather. The revised route consisted of a climb up the side of the valley for about 400m, a descent, another climb up to La Flegere and down into Chamonix.
The first climb up was hard - steep and rocky- and my quads were beginning to feel the strain at this point. Again I was making a lot of use of the poles. It felt like it was going on forever, but when I saw a rock face coming up to one side I knew I was getting near to the top. At the top there was a short section and then the descent – which turned out to be the hardest section as it was very broken ground, with a lot of roots and very slippery. I took very slowly and it felt like a very long journey down. Eventually the ascent started again. I realised this was a route I’d run a couple of times while staying in Argentiere the previous year and knew it wasn’t that tough. It consisted of a reasonably easy path (broken by rock outcrops in a few places). Eventually it broke into a tougher, single track trail, but it wasn’t as demanding as the previous climb.
Leaning into the poles
We were getting close the top of La Flegere and the mist was setting in. This gave an eerie quality to the run – seeing runners up ahead just visible in the mist. Also the wind kept changing direction and occasionally we could hear snatches of voices up ahead from what I hoped was the check point.
After the check it was all downhill into Chamonix. The route was largely wide tracks (with a single section of trail which was a bit hard to cover in places). Looking at my watch I was certain I had enough time to finish and kept going. The track ended and we were out onto the road leading into Chamonix. The finish was truly amazing and was cheered on as I came up to the finish, which was in the same place as the UTMB finish line.
To say I was pleased to have finished was an understatement. I’d hit snags along the route but had got round these and kept going and the plan to beat the cut offs had worked.
Arrivee
A couple of months later I was back in Chamonix for the OCC. In the meantime I’d got some more training in (up to 12 miles!) and done one race – the Perth Kilt run (a 5km, bizarrely I got more stressed out before the start than on any other race this season!)
More stressful than running in the Alps!
Having the experience of doing the marathon meant I had a better idea of the sort of times I could expect to do on the OCC and also had a better feel for the difficulties, especially of coming down hill.
The route started in Orsieres in Switzerland, with a bus to take us from Chamonix at 5am for an 8am start. The weather had changed a lot from the marathon and was due to be warm and sunny for the OCC. Again my plan was to jog as much as I could near the start where the terrain was flatter (or even downhill in places) and then beat cut off times.
This was the first time the race had been run from Orsieres. The start was in the town centre. We headed off along the town streets and on to the road leading out towards the hills. The crowd support was amazing – it felt like the entire town was out to cheer us on (in much the same way everyone seemed to be out to support us on the marathon when we went through the villages). The first section included some roads and a lot of undulation, typically going uphill and back down into villages. We soon got into the first climb where it was a single person width track up the hillside. This involved just getting into a steady pace and just keeping to the same speed as the person in front.
We reached Champex-Lac where the OCC joins the route for the CCC/UTMB. I spent as little time as possible at the aid station, just refilled water bottles and headed off. The next section was possibly the most picturesque part of the route, going past the lake. There was a long downhill section which I jogged down although I was starting to feel the knee and calf and was alternated with walking. At this point a few people asked if I was ok and I was able to reassure them that I was and this was all part of the plan (honest).
The downhill ended and we started the first major climb over La Bovine. This was onto relatively easy single track paths following the edge of the hill. Although overall the route was uphill, there was at least one substantial downhill section with a few small rivers to cross. There was also a slightly unexpected surprise – after the route flattened out and I had assumed it was as high as we’d go, I came round the corner and saw another uphill section, with about another 200m to climb. This did, however, prove to be the last of the climb and it was now downhill. Again I was struggling to maintain pace coming down, was walking and being overtaken a lot. We came up to the check point at La Giete and the route became a lot easier after this. The route flattened out and coming into town we turned left into the aid station at Trient.
The aid station was very busy. Again I tried to get through as quickly as possible, just re-filling water bottles. It was starting to get pretty hot and I was going through water at a fair pace. Heading off, the route went straight back into a climb. I think this was probably mentally the hardest part of the route, going straight into a solid ascent right after the aid station and a few runners were walking back towards Trient – evidently having decided they’d had enough.
The route was pretty much all ascent but (from memory) fairly easy without technical sections. It wasn’t clear how far up the mountain we were going, making it hard to judge how much more we had to climb, but eventually we came onto a flatter section which skirted along the side of the mountain. At the start of the descent there was another checkpoint. Thinking there would be water I drained my water bottles. Unfortunately there was only coke and, as there was a fair distance to Vallorcine I took a couple of cups. This may have been a mistake as the fizzy drink didn’t go well with my stomach and I started to feel pretty green.
The descent down was a lot harder than the one down from Bovine. There was a section of switch backs followed by some rooty and rocky paths which I was finding really demanding. By this point I was down to a fairly slow walk and my quads were really tired. The encouragement I was getting from passers by and marshals was really helping to keep me going at this point. Finally I could see Vallorcine and the promise of an aid station.
Coming into Vallorcine I was not in a good way. I was suffering with the heat and feeling pretty nauseous (and may have parted company with the contents of my stomach by this point). I managed to get some water down and headed off. At this point I didn’t think I could finish but decided to keep going for as long as I could and stop when I lost consciousness. Getting through this bit was pretty much the turning point – we soon got some cloud cover and there was more shade. As it got cooler I started to feel better, although even gentle uphill slopes were starting to feel like hard work.
Starting to hurt by this point
The section to Col des Montets was a lot less intimidating than it looked on the race profile – it was basically the reverse of the marathon route into Vallorcine. After this, the route followed the same course as the marathon from a couple of months ago. I knew I could do this and worked out how much time I had left to complete each section. Setting off from Col des Montets I was confident that I could complete, but it was going to hurt.
The ascent up from Col des Montets was hard but I recognised some of the landmarks from the marathon which reassured me when I was getting near the top. I reached the top ahead of my target time and headed down. This section felt really difficult, the route wasn’t as slippery as it had been for the marathon but it was still hard going. By this point I couldn’t hold any liquids down.
I got into the final climb ahead of schedule. Again it felt hard but I was able to mentally tick off different parts of the course as I completed them. The final section (50m of climb) of the route up to La Flegerediffered slightly from the marathon – being slightly longer but an easier slope. At the aid station I took a couple of drinks of coke – which seemed like a good idea for at least thirty seconds. Then headed down.
This was probably the easiest section of the route but felt really difficult. Just keeping myself going was getting mentally demanding. Every so often we caught sight of Chamonix and it never seemed any closer. I reach the end of the track and there was a short section on road before I came into the centre of Chamonix. I stopped using the poles so I could listen to the crickets and have some quiet to reflect on the journey.
The final section through Chamonix was beyond my expectations. If I had thought arriving at the end of the marathon had been a special moment I was completely unprepared for this journey’s end. Since then I’ve thought about why the finish of the Mont Blanc marathon and OCC felt so different from something like the end of the London marathon. I think its partly because its less impersonal – the finish snakes through the main town streets and your are not “cordoned off” in the same way you have to be in a city marathon. Having whole restaurants of people cheering runners on as they finished was truly special. I also think its different because a lot of the people spectating will have finished similar races and/or spent time in the mountains so have an appreciation of how hard these sort of runs are to complete (I also think the UTMB race series’ significance goes beyond its importance to the running community, as it grew out of the trail du montblanc which itself is part of a bigger story of European cultural history – but that’s probably a story for a different blog/doctoral thesis!)
At the finish I stopped to take in the moment. Three years ago I had decided I wanted to cross the UTMB finish line. This I’d finally done.
This ended up being a fairly long blog. I am honest enough to know that, compared to what other people achieved during the UTMB week, the OCC wasn’t a major race – it was quite a humbling experience to share the coach back to the airport with somebody who had just run for 135 hours. But as a back of pack runner without enough training I learnt quite a lot:
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At the beginning of the summer there had been quite a lot of discussion on some of the ultrarunning Facebook pages on whether it was possible to complete a mountain ultra by walking the entire distance. Based on my experience the answer is no. Without running/jogging at least some sections I’d have missed the cut off times. The main difference walking meant was that I was a lot slower coming down hill. Also, even if a walking pace was good enough to beat the cut offs, there are still likely to be hold ups e.g. bottlenecks which could lower the overall speed.
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If you intend to walk its important to train to walk and think about how to use poles (I also found watching footage of how Jornet etc. use poles very useful).
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Thinking about why I was more stressed out about a 5km rather than the marathon/OCC I guess it was something about focusing on expectations rather than living in the moment. For the 5km I had knew what I expected to achieve, for the Vertical I had no idea what would happen and just set out to enjoy the start and see what happened from there.
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Familiarity with the course helps a lot. I knew the tail end of the OCC from the marathon route and therefore that it was within my ability to complete.
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Being aware of my surroundings was also important. On the marathon spotting a rock bluff meant I knew I was getting close to the top of a climb. Similarly recognising landmarks on the OCC meant I had a reasonable idea about how far it was to the top.
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The most obvious but probably most important lesson I learnt was that to finish I needed to keep going when it hurts and when I really didn’t I could complete the run. These sections were hard but were only temporary and things got better if I just kept going.
My times/places for the races were
Vertical 1:08:20 363th out of 425
Marathon 8:43:37 2151th out of 2184 (beat cut off time by 16 minutes)
OCC 13:26:10 1067th out of 1109 (beat cut off time by 33 minutes)