Chamonix, 5am, the alarm rings, I get dressed, pack the extra battery for my Garmin that charged over the night, put some anti-chafing cream, some Nok cream on my feet, pack the tube, eat some biscuits for breakfast, and go. Headtorch and jacket on to face to chilly morning, hoping to hitch a ride to town, and it works! I get the last spot in the 6am bus to Courmayeur. We get blocked before Tunnel du Mont-Blanc for quite a while because of a bus that broke down inside it. People start complaining, but I prefer to be warm in a bus than freezing at the start 2h in advance. Once in Courmayeur it is chilly indeed, and we have to cross town to reach the starting arch. Then everybody waits for the start, volunteers check the compulsory gear of runners whose bag looks too small to hold it all. Fortunately, mine looks bulky enough to save me the chore of unpacking and repacking everything.
Courmayeur, 9h--, everybody now gathers inside the fences at the start, the speaker starts to talk, the mayor gives a talk and a weather forecast (thunderstorms), and the start is given almost too fast, without Vangelis music to psych us up, a helicopter filming us. We start running too fast in the up and down streets, pushed by the crowd, and I start wishing for the big hill to start before I get exhausted by the pace ^^ After 3km it starts, hard, all the more without warm up, and loads of people already pass me. But I still reach the aid station at Col de Chécrouit spot on planned time, don't linger and move out with some energy bars in my pockets.
10h30. Now attacking Col de la Youlaz. It climbs steeply at first, and I try to keep up with a small group, when we hit a big traffic jam in the scree, caused by people who take shortcuts to overtake and slow everyone down when getting back on the track. So these people who chose to stick to the rules complain, I choose to take advantage of the time to make photos, read my messages, catch up my breath and have a chat with other runners. There's an Aussie just behind ! :) And I finally reach the Col only 10mn late, and not having suffered from the climb.
12h10. The downhill towards La Thuile starts well ! A nice grade on a technical trail, I have lots of fun and overtake people. Then the trail turns into a large easy track that everybody is running. As a result I tend to slow down so "cling" to a few guys to force myself to go a bit faster than my annoying stitches would induce. The checkpoint at La Thuile keeps us waiting, I had hoped to make up my 10 mn delay by speeding up downhill but in the end the section is 2 or 3 km longer than the profile, so I have to make up for the extra time by spending only a short break at the CP. I am not hungry enough to eat a real lunch anyway, so I set off again with 1 or 2 Tucs and pieces of cheese in my stomach, some muesli bars in my pocket (no Carmans here, pity), and my bottle refilled with water from the CP and my own energy powder.
13h35. Attacking the Col du Saint-Bernard, I am in the rythm of others around me, it's not climbing too steep, but noone is running. I wonder if that is because I am at the very back of the race with the slowest runners, or because this pace is sufficient. I also worry to see the distance increase while the total ascent does not so much, letting me to expect quite a steep finish. We run past a small lake, then reach the top of the col among lots of hikers and spectators encouraging us. The checkpoint is a bit further and offers cold and hot drinks. Another "flying visit", the sky is darkening and I'm hoping to reach Bourg Saint-Maurice before the thunderstorm.
15h35. At the top of Col Saint-Bernard after the CP, a quick souvenir photo before attacking the descent. We run on a large track, or even on the road, and everybody seems to hurry to dodge the rain. I thus cling again to some guys running just ahead of me, we overtake people at the start. Some rare rays of sunlight pierce threatening clouds above us and light up the valley. And then, it starts raining, and the pace goes up another notch. We pass the small village of Séez, down some steps on the townhall square under the applause of some spectators, before reaching the CP at Bourg Saint-Maurice.
17h15. Checkpoint of Bourg Saint-Maurice. I was expecting an indoor CP to shelter us from the rain, I am a bit disappointed to find once more the same tent as the previous CP, housing numerous tables and benches and overcrowded with runners and support crew. I sit down at a table in front of a noodle soup and a bit of cheese and start charging the Garmin a first time with the external battery. Then I go and sit on the ground in a corner to stretch a bit and put some Nok on my feet, while studying the profile of the next leg. That's just when organisation announces by SMS a detour around the Passeur de Pralognan (whose very name had been attracting me, but whose height was rather scaring me) because of the thunderstorms up there. This detour adds 9 km to the course, so the next leg is now 25 km, so we are strongly encouraged to carry enough water. Some people having too small waterpacks straight out take full bottles away from the CP. I "tank up" my 3L camelback to its max + my 0.5L energy drink bottle, and leave with some energetic bars. Finally I didn't eat much...
17h45. On the way to Cormet de Roselend. I slip on my rain jacket before leaving the CP, and it was a good idea: a volunteer was precisely checking that every runner leaving had his jacket, headtorch, and phone (not having it being immediately disqualifying, but he wasnt even checking the phone was actually functional...), and also checks the tag on the bag (that was attached on it when getting the bib the day before the race). When exiting Bourg Saint-Maurice, we start by some steep climb to somewhere at 1400m high, where a volunteer offers water. I refill my flask of energy drink already empty after what was only a short part of this long leg, and set off, admiring the views on the valley. Seeing that, another runner shows me the famous ski resort of Les Arcs. I then take advantage of the easy asphalt descent to run a bit. We go back down to 1000m before attacking the uphill to the Cormet, on the road. The plus is that the slope is really easy, but the downside is that it is really super boring. The daylight is starting to decrease, and after a while everybody sits down on the same wall on the side of a bridge to get the headtorch on. Noone is saying a word, and I keep moving alone with my music on. The other advantage of the road is the kilometre markers along it to keep aye on the distance left to our goal. At some point we leave the road for a super steep trail that might save us some kilometres but also takes its toll on my energy/stamina. All the more so that I really struggle to eat, I bite in a Mule Bar from time to time but I will only have swallowed half of it over the 25km.
23h. I reach the Cormet de Roselend 10 mn early despite the 9 km detour. Proving (if needed at all) that my problem is really on too steep hills... It's pitch black night, I head towards the overcrowded tent, not a single chair left when I crave one and dream of sitting down. Eventually I sit on the ground, eat some noodle soup (feels good!), and lean against a pole, then against somebody's drop bag, and fall asleep there, legs stretched under another runner's chair, with my Garmin charging beside me. No network so no moral support that would have been welcome... I also study the next leg on the profile, the one that was scaring me the most (night + altitude + long distance + lots of denivellation...)
23h40. That was my deadline to move, and I spontaneously wake up, grab some food and head out alone in the night. This leg is 19 km long and consists of a barely marked trail in the grass with three big "bumps": we have to climb three cols/passes at about 2500m, and we go back down 600m lower in between them. We should have started this section after the descent from Passeur de Pralognan, but instead we start it without a break, in the wake of the big asphalt climb to the Cormet... And that took its toll, despite the nap. At times in too steep hills my heart races wild, my chest squeezes, preventing me from breathing deep and forcing me to slow down. That said, I still overtake some people, and navigate my own way between the reflective path markers, happy to have a real good headtorch. It is quite nice to be finding your own path, but I am not unhappy either when I sometimes have someone to follow. The trail is technical and rocky, or in the grass, I lose it and end up climbing straight in the hillside to reach the runners whose headtorches are guiding me from above. It's not too cold but I still have my rain jacket and beanie on. When I finally reach the Col du Joly it's dawn, the sun is about to rise.
5h++. Col du Joly. Once in the tent, I grab a bowl of noodle soup, grab some tucs with cheese, put the food on a bench, sit beside it, start charging my Garmin, and... fall asleep... A volunteer wakes me up to offer me to go in the warmer rest area (I was just in the wind between two panels of the tent), so I go and lay down on a bench, a blanket as pillow, leaving the food where it was without having touched it. I ask another runner to wake me up in 15mn but he was about to leave, and finally I wake up by myself after 5-10 mn. I sit down to put some Nok and change socks, and it was a good idea because one has a big hole under the heel... I also have a big blister under the right big toe, but can't bother getting a Compeed bandage out for now. Then I try to find some appetizing food, and finally leave with some almond bars for the road.
6h. When leaving Col du Joly the horizon turns red, orange, pink behind the mountains, and I take some photos before attacking the downhill towards Les Contamines. The return of daylight helps me to start again after this micro-nap. In the end, this night hasn't been too cold. At the start of the descent my blister hurts, all the more when I unfortunately get my foot and new dry sock wet while crossing a stream. Sigh. Then my foot dries up, the blister exploded and is not really hurting anymore, and I go down at average speed, alternating between walking and running to save energy, conscious that I'm late on my plan but not really in shape to go faster, with stitches and shocks on the asphalt. A car is following us but I only realise there is a cameraman sitting out its window filming us when the car finally overtakes us... because we leave the asphalt to engage in a small trail on the right. All this time I am really pushing to follow 2-3 guys ahead of me, to motivate me to run when I'm tired of it. Some parts of the downhill are getting steep, then we reach Notre-Dame de la Gorge in the rising sun, and the last kilometers are then flat, on a large trail between trees. I switch to fast walking mode, but really fast, with some running at times to keep up with the guys ahead, while thinking I should learn the Olympic walking techniques to save energy on this sort of sections. There are very few runners around, but I'm never really alone. I move as fast as I can, worrying about the next cut-off time in Les Houches, seeing how long I took for the Cormet-Joly leg, that was similar in distance and ascent to the one awaiting us now. As a result I am still wearing my jacket, headtorch still on my head and beanie in my end, waiting for the aid station to get changed.
8h. Once in the town of Les Contamines, still fast walking, I feel like crying, I don't know if it's from the exhaustion after this long effort to go fast, or the emotion to have completed more than half of the way, or the stress of the long leg to Les Houches that is awaiting now... I quickly go through the food station, only sit down a few minutes on the ground beside the table to eat and drink a bit, recharge my battery, fill in my camelback. Still no network so no SMS (actually it was a misconfiguration of my phone after the visit in Italy) . When leaving I ask for the physio to get my legs massaged before the last big difficulty. A female foot doctor also has a look at my blister (that had indeed exploded) and packs it in an elasto band to protect it. In the meantime I chat with Brice, the guy being massaged on the next table, who happens to be from Grenoble, and with my physio who describes the next leg for us. According to her the Col du Tricot is no more than 2h away, but I still prefer to count 3h... In the end the break was rather long, but I took advantage of it to fully charge my Garmin, and to recover before the last big uphill leg. And I probably made up in the uphill for the time "lost" here.
8h30. In the uphill towards Chalets du Truc.
I leave the CP with Brice, each one of us convinced that we won't be able to follow the other one, but from the first "annoying" hill to get out of the village (steep concrete... or even stairs) I'm the one who takes the lead and loses him. During this climb to Chalets du Truc I "curse" the physio for her description of a "pleasant and easy" track, on the contrary it's super steep, super long, and at every turn I expect to finally reach her famous pleasant track, but only to be disappointed. It's not before we get almost to the top that the slope gets a bit easier...
9h30. Chalets du Truc. On arrive sur un replat en hauteur avec les fameux chalets, des toilettes publiques, un bistrot, et... une vue sur l'impressionnant col du Tricot qui nous attend, nous surplombant de toute sa hauteur. Avec un autre coureur on discute 2mn en le regardant : voilà donc la dernière grosse difficulté. Et il faut d'abord redescendre un peu vers les chalets du Miage avant d'attaquer la grosse montée de 600m+ (1550m à 2150m d'altitude) ...!
10h-- in the climb to Col du Tricot. To be hard, it is...! I take it really easy, thinking and rethinking it's the last one, allowing myself to take a break every 100m D+, and looking out for the next break on my Garmin. My heart is bolting (?) as soon as I speed up, my chest is tightening, quite an unpleasant feeling, just like during the night, probably the altitude added to the fatigue. So sitting down on a rock, I eat a bar while waiting for the next group of runners to get closer, then start just ahead of them to take advantage of the mental push to not slow them down. Until I can't hold the pace anymore and sit down again to let them overtake me and wait for the next group. I'm not sure how many groups I let overtake me like this. As a result it's the only section where I went down on the rankings (by 9 places). Even hikers are faster than us on this section, with more load but they don't have 100km in their legs, and cut the laces. Finally about 200m+ under the Col I decide to stop taking breaks and cling on to a group until the top.
11h20. After 1h30 of climbing for 600m+ over less than 4km (or said differently, one Saint-Eynard in my measure system ^^) (which proves how exhausted I was because a Saint-Eynard takes 55mn when it's the third one in the day...) I reach the Col du Tricot, feeling on top of the world...! :-D At the top several people are sitting one the ground, there are volunteers and hikers, the view is wonderful, the last obstacle is cleared, I was sick of climbing, I'm so happy to be at the top...! I cumulated 2h30 of delay on my plan over the night, mainly over the section before Col du Joly and in the climb to Col du Tricot, but I just cleared the final obstacle and I now know that I will finish, so I don't hide my joy. After a souvenir photo, and a war cry to release the pressure in front of the slope that dives down on the other side, I slowly start the descent.
11h21. Attacking the descent. I start cautiously, to be gentle with my knees, with my fierce stitches (that invaded all my stomach), with my back burnt by the backpack and contracted by its weight, and with my inflamed feet... Bref. I quickly get sick of this snail pace and decide to screw all alarm signals and to enjoy the downhill to have some fun, and run! And it is just perfect for that, we run down between rocks, in a mineral landscape, on a technical slope just like I like them :-) As a result, my stamina is all back, I quickly forget the pain and have a blast, running, bouncing from rock to rock. A fantastic second wind and a wonderful joy to be there and glide down the slope. I overtake the other runners who had passed me exhausted one after the other during the climb, now fit and happy again, singing along with my ipod.
Around the corner of a rock I meet a group of hikers, a woman asks me with admiration "you're still running?", surprised, before encouraging me by calling me a "champion". Pushed by her words, I thank her and keep going with even more energy. Then the rocky trail turns into a forest track, less rocks in the way, perfect slope, that I hurtle down still singing (Curagiu), overtaking again and again, nothing exists anymore, only the downhill, I'm in my world. Until I am suddenly stopped, around a corner, by the sight of a floating bridge above a huge waterfall, rumbling several meters beneath.
11h48. Passing Bionnassay Glacier. Quite a few hikers are around the suspended footbridge, one of them crosses it before they let me cross, I ask them to take a photo of me in the middle, thus crossing it twice jogging, enjoying the awesome view. It is only after the race that I remember the roadbook mentioning crossing a glacier on a suspended footbridge: so that's what this waterfall was, the end of the glacier melting down! During this photo break no other runner catches up with me yet, and I leave alone in the right direction. But here comes a surprise, nasty surprise: it's climbing again.
11h50. Climb to Bellevue.
I first believe it's a micro-bump that wouldn't be visible on the profile, but it keeps climbing, long, steep, and other runners start to catch up with me, all the runners I passed in the brilliant downhill now pass me in turn. Upset by this unexpected climb, I sit down to have a break, several guys pass me without a word. Then another group of guys passes me and one of them encourages me with a "it's almost over", adding that this climb is nasty but it's the last one, prompting me to start again. As a result I stand up and try to keep up with them, grateful for the encouragements that have been too rare on this race compared to GRP last year (is it due to the shorter distance? to different attitudes in Alps and Pyrenees? to not being last of the last?). It's only at that moment that I remember the last "bump" on the profile in the downhill to Les Houches, the climb to Bellevue, some more 150m+ to eat up. And "nasty", or steep, indeed it is!
But after a quarter hour of climbing, we start going down again and I start overtaking again, on a narrow single track on the side of the mountain, with the valley stretching below us, and regularly some small (or not that small) bumps to clear. Some of them make me struggle, I have a hard time as soon as it's climbing for too long, et je m'inquiète pas mal pour les 200m de D+ de la dernière étape de 8km entre les Houches et Chamonix, vu mon incapacité actuelle à monter vite. Mais pour l'instant je cours dans la descente et double encore des gens, même si je ne vais pas super vite. Et je tombe aussi en panne d'eau pour la première fois. Heureusement...
12h30-- Bellevue.
(Difficile de me rappeler maintenant si c'était avant ou après le single track bosselé...)
Une mini-tente nous attend, bonne surprise, j'avais oublié ce ravito (comme la bosse précédente...). Enfin il tombe bien puisque je n'avais plus d'eau mais au final je bois sur place mais oublie de remplir ma poche, heureusement j'ai mon bidon de boisson énergétique. Mini-pause assise par terre, un petit stock de barres amandes, et c'est reparti assez vite dans la descente, excitée à l'idée de l'arrivée qui approche, non sans avoir demandé à un des bénévoles si cette fois ça ne faisait vraiment que descendre (marre de toutes ces bosses !), à quoi il a répondu que oui, 4 km de descente vers les Houches.
12h30++ Descente vers les Houches
Et c'est reparti pour s'éclater dans les derniers km de descente. Malheureusement le chemin débouche assez vite sur la route, retour au bitume. Puis soudain, en bas dans la vallée, on voit une ville, les Houches, et la vallée qui va jusqu'à Chamonix, et je sens que ça y est c'est vraiment gagné, un grand frisson, une grande joie surtout, un gros pied de nez à la vallée, tout à ma joie d'avoir vaincu cette course. Je tourne une petite vidéo triomphante en faisant un pied de nez à Chamonix, ou à la course, avec un grand sourire, et... tombe sur un bénévole que je n'avais pas vu, qui traînait par là dans un virage pour indiquer le chemin et me lance "et avec le sourire en plus", je lui répond que "oui, c'est bientôt fini, et en plus ça descend", mais je suis déjà loin, trottinant toujours. Sur la fin de la descente, malgré le bitume qui rend les chocs à chaque pas pénibles, le jeu consiste à doubler un maximum de monde. Dès que je vois des coureurs plus bas que moi, j'accélère un peu pour les passer, je dois me forcer à trottiner, ça descend quand même assez sec, et je ne raffole pas de la course sur macadam. Puis j'aperçois la route plate qui traverse les Houches, on y arrive perpendiculairement par un dernier raidillon, et du coup je lâche les chevaux et le dévale à toute blinde devant les gens postés là à l'ombre d'une maison, ravis, qui m'encouragent en me disant de faire attention à ne pas décoller :-) Il faut dire que je plane, les bras grand écartés pour négocier le virage à droite à 90° qui m'amène sur le trottoir le long de la route. Une photo souvenir de la mairie des Houches, une video du coureur juste devant moi que je n'aurai pas le temps de doubler, et me voilà dans le dernier ravito.
13h17. Arrivée aux Houches.
Là, je prend mon temps, et découvre qu'en fait j'ai du réseau si je sélectionne le bon opérateur... :-) Du coup je reçois plein de SMS d'un coup, et le temps de lire et répondre à tout j'ai déjà passé pas mal de temps assise par terre, et plein de gens que j'avais doublés dans la descente en ont profité pour me repasser devant. En fait tout le monde entre et sort du ravito sans s'arrêter vraiment. Du coup je me motive, une barre amande, de l'eau, et je repars pour la dernière section après avoir annoncé mon arrivée à Patrice qui y sera pour m'accueillir.
13h30. Les Houches, départ pour la dernière section
ça commence par monter bien dur (sans doute la fatigue plus qu'une difficulté objective...) puis ça redescend, on a dû passer la mini-bosse du profil, maintenant reste à se payer une sorte de faux-plat montant jusqu'à Chamonix. Je me motive en jouant à chasser toutes les filles pour remonter au classement de ma catégorie. Du coup je passe en mode marche rapide, à 8km/h quand même, ce qui rend la course quasi-inutile, je marche plus vite que tout le monde marche, et même plus vite que la plupart trottinent, comme me le fait remarquer un gars qui trottinait quand je l'ai doublé en marchant. Je passe 2 filles qui ne font plus que marcher, et cours de temps en temps en espérant en rattraper une 3e qui est un peu devant avec un mec, et qui elle court de temps en temps. Je n'y crois pas trop en fait, et je prend le temps de faire une video du sentier forestier, avec un torrent en contrebas, où j'explique mon jeu de chasse. Puis finalement à 3km de l'arrivée je décide de vraiment pousser pour la chasser, et finis par la rattraper, puis je me pousse encore plus pour essayer de rester devant.
14h30. On entre dans Chamonix, retour sur le bitume, je vais à peu près au même rythme que les gens autour de moi, en me poussant et en luttant contre la fatigue. Je ne sais pas du tout où est l'arrivée, est-ce que c'est encore loin...? est-ce que je vais réussir à terminer en courant à ce rythme ? est-ce que je ne suis pas partie trop tôt et risque de craquer avant la fin ? Et là 2 coureurs arrivent derrière moi, je me retourne pour vérifier que ce n'est pas la fille que je viens de doubler et son mec, mais non. C'est deux gars, ils me passent, et le 2e (Thierry) m'encourage à venir avec lui, à continuer à courir, à profiter du "meilleur moment". On entre dans les rues piétonnes de Chamonix, il y a des gens partout qui nous encouragent, la rue ne fait que monter, pas fort mais ça monte. Je pousse, continue à courir, encore un effort, et voilà l'arche d'arrivée au détour d'un virage. Thierry me fait passer devant lui et me laisse profiter des derniers mètres, j'essaye d'accélérer (j'accélère sans doute vraiment ?), un bénévole est là sur la ligne et me tend la main ouverte dans laquelle je tape avec joie et énergie, après un sprint final, avant de me retrouver toute perdue dans l'aire d'arrivée...
14h45. Chamonix. Arrivée !
Je mets quelques instants à défaire mon sac, à l'enlever, et je m'écroule assise par terre près de la barrière, la station debout trop douloureuse... Puis je vois Patrice de l'autre côté, qui a pris des photos, et qui vient me rejoindre dans l'aire d'arrivée. Je ne sais pas combien de temps je reste là, Thierry est déjà passé, je n'ai même pas eu le temps de le remercier... Je finis par me lever pour les dernières formalités d'arrivée, accompagnée par Patrice : rendre la puce, le bracelet, récupérer le cadeau finisher : le gilet Polartec avec le logo de l'UTMB. Puis direction l'hôtel pour une bonne douche, avant de revenir voir les masseurs, les podologues, et prendre un repas post-course, pendant que les UTMB prennent leur repas pré-course. Puis Patrice me ramène à l'hôtel et va manger lui aussi avant son départ sur l'UTMB à 23h30 (retardé à cause des orages). Au dodo !
Conclusion
Un peu patraque le lendemain, mais aucune douleur particulière, en pleine forme, et prête à recommencer ! ça tombe bien, l'an prochain c'est l'UTMB :-D J'ai hâte d'y être !
