Stu had decided he wanted to take me to Courmayeur for the start to soak up the UTMB buzz. It’s only a short drive through the Mont Blanc tunnel and no traffic 👍🏻. We also collected Stu Leaney on the way (for those who don’t know he’s won ww50 twice and also ww100 and is a thoroughly nice chap). He mentioned a niggle in his knee collected from ww100 which would ultimately stop his race early. Luckily Stu was tracking him, saw him drop and went and collected him rather than the 6 hour wait for not-so-funbus.
We meet Chris, Lenny and Emma near the start and grab a group pic. I also bump into a fellow centurion whose name eludes me but I only remember he’s from Beaconsfield. I get into my pen based on bib number which is calculated by your ITRA rating 🤷🏼♂️. I’m in the last pen 😐. We go off in waves which I didn’t realise as I’m recording the start we move down and then stop. We eventually cross the start line at 9:15 and I high 5 the RD. Stu is in the crowd recording and calling my name but I can’t hear with the roar. We go down a few hundred yards then start up. Some knobhead spectator let’s off a red flare, just what you want to breathe in at altitude 🤔.
We pass some trees/bushes still in town and blokes start having a piss. I find a spot between parked cars, I’m more sophisticated 😉. As we climb the streets people have their sticks out already, it’s crowded still and I can’t be arsed. I see a familiar person up ahead it’s Chris, we chat briefly and I keep going. I carry on overtaking a lot of people, I’m comfortable without sticks and it isn’t that steep (yet). One man swings his sticks back uncaringly and I grab and say oi! He apologises. This happened nearer the end of the race too but my hands were holding my own sticks so I just backed off.
Now we’re out of town we hit the famous bottleneck. I’d seen it on YouTube vids, you go from about 4 people wide to single track. I stopped like everyone else in the queue. Typical selfish people just went around to cut in and it just looks messy, I wait. Chris catches me up and wonders why I’m here and not further up. We chat shit as we creep up and onto single track and stay together all the way up the first climb to Tete de la Tronche. It’s super slow going as we are basically in a massive conga line. You get the odd person cut past you but I just concentrated on my own gig. Once up the top (still no sticks, I joked about returning them 👀) I pushed on. Chris was doing well going up but downs not so much so we parted.
It was a lovely bimble down now to refuge Bertone and I was moving well, paying attention to not bashing my quads. The run to refuge Bonatti was lovely, just undulating runnable trail. In and out quick (keeping to my strict CP regime of not hanging around).
***A side note on eating during ultras. I ate the same at TP100 as I did at SDW100 and bonked with GI issues. One goal of ccc training was fuelling and trying new stuff. At first I tried baby food but it’s minging. Ryan on Twitter suggested new potatoes in salt, bingo 👍🏻. I’d also tried custard in reusable baby pouches and it went down a treat. So potatoes, custard and green tea tailwind with coke and/or water would be my nutrition***
I’d now caught up with Lauren who started before me and we ran together mostly until Arnouvaz. Just before she pulled ahead, which was handy as I fell arse over tit. I fell arse over tit scraping both knees on a gentle non technical down 😐. This CP was manic and also the first cut off of 4:30 and I was just over an hour spare. It was time to redo my bladder, it’s a faff but keeps me going for 5-6 hours if need be. I also had some custard which was lovely. I stop at the river crossing to wash my bleeding knees and chat to Lauren’s family briefly. Now for the 2nd up.
As I started to climb I could tell something wasn’t right. My breathing seemed heavier than before. I check my HR and it was 170ish which didn’t seem super high but I was definitely working harder. I watched Lauren disappear into the distance and had a sit down. Rest for 5 then up and try again but still don’t feel right. I end up laying down on the side of the trail until Chris pops up again. He cajoles me up and we hike together. I must have stopped a half dozen times up to Grand Col Ferret. Eventually near the top Chris says I’ll wait for you in Switzerland 🤣. We pass over the summit and the run down to La Puele is runnable. We sit for a few mins here talking to an English lady who’d been puking. Off to La Fouly and another easy run down, the CP is hot and rammed. Chris looks for salty stuff as he’s cramping and we lose each other. It’s another timing point. 8:15 is cut off and I leave at 18:53.
The run out of this area starts on fire track/grass paths and is lovely but then turns into a boulder field so I’m fast walking. Once back to runnable trails I’m off again, chatting to a nice bloke from Holland (flatville 🤷🏼♂️). Before I reach the climb up to Champex-Lac I gauge I’m about 50k into the race but yet again my fenix 3 is gaining miles 🤬. The sun is setting now and hitting the climb I have to stop and put head torch on. I’m also struggling with climbs again so it’s a bit start/stop but eventually I hit Champex-Lac.
It’s a main CP and the first crew check point, Stu is waiting outside. I lie on the bench to try and stretch my back out but this makes the room spin, like in the old days of booze. I eat some food while Stu sorts my bladder. Watch is getting low on battery so I grab power pack and get that charging. Put my long sleeve base on (Stu has to help me 👀) and fresh T-shirt. As a side note it’s been roasting hot all day and still hot in the night and the CP is like a sauna. I chat politics with a man from hongkong which Stu thinks is odd 🤷🏼♂️. Cut off here is 23:15 and I leave at 22:15. My longest stop but a needed one, I request fizzy orange from Stu which I’m craving.
I walked out and was immediately feeling cold due to the change in temperature so I stop and put my jacket on. I spy an English name badge on a lady who is from Scotland and we chew the fat on the walk out. It was pitch black and the lake I’d thought I should see was on our left and I never saw It. Eventually my body temperature settles and I’m too hot and have to take the jacket off. I start to run/walk and then start the 1st of the final 3 climbs up to La Giete. It’s more of the same, endless steep switchbacks stopping every now and again followed by the same going down. Not as slow and no stopping going down but slower than I’d like. Eventually hitting Trient and 2nd crew check point.
Stu couldn’t find anywhere open for fizzy orange but there was a bar here and he got me a sprite 👌🏻. I ate again, he told me Lenny had dropped and at some point we must have discussed Leaney. Cut off here 04:00 and I’m out by 2:54, happy to be keeping my hour buffer. Off I go, 2 more ups and downs.
2nd of the 3 final climbs is like the 1st, tough up with breaks and only slightly faster downs. Somewhere on the down we pass from Switzerland back into France which I don't realise (there’s no border crossing 🤷🏼♂️). I stop at the top of this climb for my last custard in a stinky cow shed. I ask Stu next time I see him what country am I in?!?
Im now in Vallorcine the final crew check point. I’d lost a bit of time and eaten into my golden hour. Stu and I decide this will be a mega quick turnaround, I still had plenty of tailwind in my bladder. I try and take some paracetamol but puke them straight up 😬. Behind me is a lady talking about her husband. He’s puking and struggling so I guide her what to do. He comes back and says you’ve got this!!! I return the sentiment asking if he wants a gillet?!? He says yes so I say stop fucking about and get on with it! (Or words to that affect). I later at the finish line see his wife who thanks me and confirms he’s going to make it, just.
I leave here at 06:20 and cut off was 08:15 so 55mins buffer with one more up and down. Unfortunately at this time my predicted finish was 11:50, the cut off in Chamonix was 12:00 👀. Stu then text me saying move it as the predicted finish was now 11:59 😱. So I ran(ish) to the start of the last climb up to La Flegere, pausing at the bottom and seeing a train of people going up, and up, and up. I get moving, not stopping as much as the previous climbs only to remove crap from my shoes. I pray to top out but it never seems to come. I get stuck behind some stick using knobhead. Anyway eventually in the distance I make out the structure of La Flegere, I’d been here the year before with Stu so i recognise it and it was a welcome sight. Straight in and out, it’s at this stage that I realise I've got this bearing a catastrophe on the last decent.
Cut off here was 10:45 and I’m out by 9:43 getting back my golden hour 👌🏻. I now had 2 hours to descend 8/9km in daylight smelling the finish line. As I’m going down a switchback I bump into ”Chris the goat”. He’s not enjoying going down and his watch has stopped so doesn’t realise we will soon be #giletwankers 👌🏻. I take it easy as my quads are a bit angry, we what seems like forever eventually pass the La Floria restaurant before hitting the busy road and temporary bridge over it. It’s now I 100% know I’m finishing so out comes the phone and it’s time for GnR and paradise city 👍🏻. I start to run and the emotions start but I’m too busy pumping arms. People are cheering and high 5 me as run in. I’m starting to speed up and over take 4-5 people. I’d imagine this part for so long and it was flying by. By the statue in town Stu is waiting and runs in with me. I see Stu Leaney, Claire and the boys and also Mark a friend of Stu’s who’d joined us on the trip. I cross the line with a standard heel click before crashing on the floor with relief at 11:03.
Chris comes in not long after and Lauren had come in just before me. I sit for a bit then grab my gilet and chat with Lauren before doing what I’d dreamt about, soaking my feet in the fountain 🙏🏻👌🏻.
Eventually I waddle back to the apartment for a kip 👍🏻. And later on back into town for food and watch UTMB runners come in including Courtney Dauwalter 👏🏻.
Special thanks to my wife Claire, no more 4:30 wake ups on Sunday to go over Wendover. And no more Wednesday nights over Wendover straight from work.
Criew chief and driver Stu who ferried my custard around 3 countries and found fizzy pop in Switzerland.
Chris for herding me up that 2nd up.
All the support and messages from social media before, during and after the race.
P.S. The views were amazing, I haven’t mentioned them much but they really were stunning. You basically run with Mont Blanc on your left, I should have stopped to take a pic of the sun rising but time was more important.
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