CCC this year, as said last year i would never do UTMB again! So true to my word I turned up in Chamonix with loads of fellow UK racers (felt like I knew most of the entrants - a great feeling - but weird knowing runners and not bikers - still - am now supposed to be a runner!).
The atmosphere is still big and Chamonix just the same buzzing place with runners in skinny lycra (great for cute body watching! But still looks weird in the middle of town!)
Catherine and Alex were geared up for the biggy again and i was looking for fellow competitors in the shorter(only 61 miles and 5,600m of climb) CCC race that goes from Courmeyeur to Champex to Chamonix and almost follows the second half of the UTMB route - they just added another massive hill at the start for us and everyone got to do the extra massive hill at the end up to Flegere ski station along the Aguilles Rouges.
It was weird not starting with the girls, I kept wanting to text them and wish them luck in their race and tell them i was out there and stuff! I didn't - I found some mates to chat with at the start and we found a spot in amoungst the 2000 starters near the back (which we thought was about our level). Should have gone nearer the front, as i found out later, the queue lasted for about 6 hours as the track got thinner and thinner up the first hill and overtaking was impossible, unless you were brave enough to tackle the jabbing trekking poles and the side of a precipice,just to get stuck behind the next person a couple of centimeters infront! I decided to stay put and only overtake when safe to proceed!!! Well this was an "extra" race and I did need to save my legs/ankles for the last four in the runfurther series!
I did feel very strong and very confident of my ability to run though - a very unusual feeling for me - but I liked it! So once I got passed the crowds and could actually run, I felt bloomin great! I spent the next 6 hours mostly passing people on the ups and the downhills - this boosts your confidence! It was extremely hot though so at some point just before Champex I decided (in my wisdom - wished later on I hadn't got any of that!) to try my new salt replacement regime. To explain this - a few years ago on a particularily good bike racing season I started taking energy drink to try and help improve my races, I spent the whole race season feeling great on normal rides but really sick on races, and had to retire from some (I don't do that normally!). By the end of the season I realised the only difference was sports drinks, so gave them up and went back to water, as i thought the artificial sugars must be reacting with me! So, in my stupid wisdom stage the day before the CCC, i decided that just salt replacement would be the answer! NOT - i have never felt so sick without actually being sick before, it was even worse than last years UTMB. I had to stop about every 10 to 15 minutes up each hill to recover, i was so fatigued i was at a crawl and all these slow people kept over taking me - agh! This wasn't supposed to happen, today i was supposed to be a runner! Anyway I srtuggled on up the Bovine Hill (over half way now) and then luckily sped up on the downhill, I flew passed them all again - hooray - I was going to have a good race after all!!!
It was dark now, and I had taken my new, very bright, Sylva head torch, as most of my race was going to be in the dark and i wanted to run faster than last year. BIG mistake, three falls later, an egg on my elbow with a purple bruise to match, I slowed down again (after all this was an "extra" race so I didn't even need to finish it let alone kill myself trying to!).
So they all overtook me again - bu**er - this was not in my plan! BUT I made up on my schedule so was happy! The next hill out of Trient soon put pay to that, I felt rough again and stopped even more hanging over my poles like a drunk! Moaning! Where were the girls to get me over the bad patch, where were my normally excellent hill climbing legs and why wasn't i at home with a bucket of wine in a bath! I hated this!
I stuggled down the next hill too and got to Vallorcine still on schedule - have no idea how - i just must have messed up on my schedule writing!!! (easy to do when you have never written one or run to one before!). So decided that a good feed and buckets of watery noodle soup would do the trick (after all it got me round 43 hours of last years race!). The soup worked for 20 mins, until the steep bit of the hill then my wheels really fell off ! This was definately not fair now - I really wanted to prove I could run and all I could do was crawl. AGGHHHH!
So i crawled to the top, inched along the Aguilles Rouge, watched the sun come up over Mont Blanc and then decided it was all in the mind and sped off down the hill at great speed over taking all the people who had overtaken me on the uphill and felt great - hooray - I was back - my sprint finish was back - nothing hurt (much!) - life was good again - I finished in style, with a mate from my adventure racing and biking days egging me on from a couple of kilometers out to sprint harder, and I did, again right to the finish line and of course the big smile for the camera man! 21 hours and 34 mins (only 34 mins over my intended schedule). I was a runner!!! At bloomin last!
I was 35th girl (out of 288) in the top 500 overall and 13th in my category, but best of all I was 5th Brit girl home - what a bloomin good feeling that was.
The post race massage was again, shite, but who cares, i had no big blisters and I could still walk and my arm was not too bad - just looked it! I fell asleep on the streets of Cham waiting for all my friends to finish (a great look - some sweaty girl dribbling on the streets of Cham - ummm!). Alex's boyfriend rescued me and bundled me into a car and took me home for a bath - then came the obligatory bucket of wine and large savoyard meal in Cham in the evening, watching all the top runners from the UTMB race finishing (and amoungst the top racers were my mate Lizzy Hawker who I climbed ama dablam with last year, she came 13th overall and first girl and another friend Andy Rankin (currently no 1 in the runfurther series) came in 16th overall. Out of all the brits i knew out in cham this weekend, many had a bad race and vowed to give it another try another year and some flew home in temendous style, including Alex who shaved 9 minutes of last years time and this years race had an extra massive hill in it at the end! She was supper human - I definately would not have had the head to do that race again! Lucy from team vasque won the CCC and came in 12th overall and Mandy from team Vasque was in the first mixed team home on the Petitte Trot - wow the brit girls certainly took France by storm this year.
Enough dribble - only got 172 miles to go in the runfurther series now - bring on next weekends Bullock Smithy - I need another crawl round the Peaks for 56 miles!!!
