Mont Blanc, France
21 - 26 July, 2008
This race report was written on a daily basis, after each days racing.
Prologue – Trail Run
We made it through gear check pretty well, only having to purchase one pair of new mountaineering boots for me and hiring some for Stu. The one's we brought with us from NZ weren't rigid enough.
The trail run was extremely fast. I don't know the official results but Stu was probably in the top 25, I was in the top 50, with Anna not far behind. We climbed about 750m then ran along a flat section before heading back down to where we started. My legs really felt the downhill, it was brutal. I'd guess we're a fair way off the lead in the mixed teams. Team La Fuma went really well. It'll take something special to beat them, this is their type of racing. Still there's a long way to go yet.
Just set up camp, and going to lay my head down shortly. Getup will be before four. It's a long and tough mountain section tomorrow and we're carrying heaps of kit.
There should be more to report on tomorrow.
Day 1 – Mountaineering and Trail Run
Hi, the first major day was filled with drama and setback for the team. We were faced with a mammoth mountain stage which involved taking is higher than Mt Cook on a glacier, starting at around 1500m, quite some climb. We began the day with trekking poles with the idea of saving our legs a little bit on the climb (they seemed to be working for the French anyway). Pretty early on I'd snapped one with an unco move while trying to eat some delectable race food, a squeeze I think. Later on Stu got his stuck in between two rocks and again broke one. A least we all agreed the do help when they are whole.
We reached the glacier in reasonable time, within a few minutes of the lead mixed team, changed into mountain boots, added crampons, roped up and headed off onto the massive glacier. About an hour into it things started to unravel. We were climbing on a narrow rocky ridge line, with our crampons still on and clumsy old me caught a rock with the crampon and went down hard, twisting my ankle in the process. A few minutes later, with a couple of painkillers we were back on track, although we were travelling a lot slower, thanks to my swollen weak ankle. We reached the summit at 3800m, and began our decent. We were travelling with some good speed now, but ten it happened again, my crampon caught on some uneven ice and I heard a loud snap. I was in all sorts of pain and took a good 15mins to recover sufficiently to carry on, with strapping applied, and more painkillers. Luckily this was a magnificent place for a stop with high peaks all around us and a beautiful day to see them all.
From here to the finish, which involved another big climb of around 1000m, I slowed the team significantly on the downhill sections.
We ended up a couple of ours behind the first mixed team La Fuma, who are racing extremely well.
Despite icing and elevating my ankle for the next three hours, it swelled up quickly and reduced me to a painful hobble for the evenings trail run. I was sure I finished in last place, although the official placings put me 4th to last, I guess some people got lost.
I went to see the race medic who wanted t make sure nothing was broken, so I got a 20min ride in a ambulance with lights and sirens on.
As I'd expected, no breaks, just very fat and painful sprain. So the plan is to try to reduce the swelling overnight and see how it is in the morning.
Stu and Anna raced well again, and we're holding onto 4th in the mixed. Tomorrow we've got 7-8hrs of riding followed by another trail run. Let's hope we fair better tomorrow. Off to sleep now.
Day 2 – Mountain Bike and Trail Run
That was a better day! A day in the saddle, with some massive climbs, one over 1000m. My ankle had reduced in size over night to the point where you could nearly see the ankle bone. I strapped it pretty well, at least I thought I did, until the physio I found later had other ideas.
We rode for about 5hrs, 4 of which I felt was uphill in either the smallest or second smallest gear. A big guy like me loves big hills! We then had a couple of hours to chill, which is exactly what we did by jumping into a cool trough of water. The next leg took something like 1hr 45, and again started with a hill that took all of 1hr 25. Anna took a minor spill on a downhill and I had to remove a clip from her lip, although it looked kind of punk, which is a new look for our surfer chick. The final part of the ride was, you guessed it a big climb, although not as big as the first two.
Stu did some awesome work towing, and Anna's downhills were great. I kind of just sat on behind and tried not to blow a fufu valve. My ankle held out well, and we only did a couple of kms pushing throughout the day. I also think Stu nailed the nav where a number of other teams made mistakes. Not sure of our result but think it was probably 3rd, with La Fuma again dominating. The second team had an awesome rider who would be grunting as he passed us very fast on the ascents, with their girl in tow, very impressive, if not a little bit animal like.
The tail run that finished the day was 10km, and pretty tough after a big day in the saddle. As I mentioned earlier I found a physio after the first ride and he taped me up really good, probably something t do with my request for it to be bulletproof. So although it was a bit restrictive I managed to move pretty well. Anna was having some breathing problems and Stu's muscles had been pretty well spent on the rides, so overall I think we disappointed a bit with our trail running results.
There's a lot of walking, or hobbling, wounded at this race, it certainly is proving to be a tough one.
Off to have my first shower in tree days now, so better hurry, so I don't miss out on the communal dinner.
Day 3 – Via Ferrata, Rock Climbing and Trail Run
Today has been one of the most fun days I've ever had in a race. We woke at 5am, ate breakfast, packed up camp and drove 30mins to the start of the via farrata (literal translation; iron way, logical translation; fixed ropes on very high and exposed cliffs, not for the faint hearted). After a 30min climb to the site we roped ourselves together and headed off for around 2hrs of via ferrata. It was a beautiful morning, we could see Mont Blanc off in the distance, and a hot air balloon floating along on the air. Only a small section of the via farrata was timed so we cruised and took some pics for the rest of the traverse.
Once we had completed this section we hiked for a few kms to the site of the rock climbing. There were three different routes of differing difficulty. Stu took on the toughest while Anna and I took on the easier two. We al made it in pretty good time so we're hoping for some reasonable points, although we think there are some pretty light weight Euros that should fly up the rock faces. We'll find out at dinner.
Next up was the most awesome canyonning that I've experienced. It took just over an hour and the water was crisp and refreshing but not too cold. There were lots of waterfall jumps, bum slides and mini abseils. It wasn't timed so we cruised through it stopping for photo and video shots with my little waterproof camera along the way. We then had close to 4hrs to get to our campsite and prepare for the longest evening trail run of the race at 15km. We all put in pretty solid performances and my ankle came through it well. I folded from the kiwi, I'm too tough for walking poles tradition, turned Euro, and used Nordic walking poles which helped me ascent the 800m vertical to the summit. We had arranged with another team to have pizza at the finish and we even sneaked in an ice cream, yum.
The results weren't posted this evening so we don't know where exactly we are in the standings.
I’m off to bed now. We get to sleep in until 6:30, which is a treat. Tomorrow we're paddling a 3 man inflatable canoe for around 4hrs in 3 stages, all white water, so that should be fun and something new for all of us.
Day 4 – Canoeing and Team Relay Run
Today was another enjoyable day, with 3 paddles in our 3 person inflatable canoe. The first took around an hour, we were set off one minute apart in our overall race placings, so we were 17th away, and we passed two and very nearly caught another three.
The next section was a short 20min paddle with some tougher rapids, we made it through this without too much drama, unlike a lotof other teams that took some swims. We were all smiles after this section as it was all action and excitement. The best part of the day was going back up and doing the same section again, and then continuing on down for another hour. I think they did this as it was such a fun section, and we completely agree.
The last trail running section of the day was in Morzine, a beautiful French Alps town with narrow streets, rivers, a cathedral and high mountains all around. It was a trail 1500m relay and it was extremely fast and entertaining.
Not sure of our result for the day, but I think we did okay, although we saw La Fuma paddling like machines, and speaking to them afterwards understand they train on that same river.
Tomorrow we're off on a massive trek with loads of hills. It looks tough. It's a 3:30am getup, so I'd better head off to bed now. Oh, my ankle made it through the paddling and run okay, tomorrow will be the big test since the first day.
Day 5 – Adventure Running
We had a pretty tough trek to finish things, including us, off. Plenty of big hills and fast, sometimes too fast, downhills. We moved well given all that we've done already this week and held onto second mixed, for the day. Overall for the race we think we finished up third mixed, which we're happy with after the ankle issue that we faced on day one.
The race was spectacular, with some great technical activities, superb mountains and rivers. Although we slept each night we're all fully spent. One of my favorite aspects of the race was the amount of time we interacted with the other teams and support crew, everyone got along great and helped others out that needed it. Our support crew Susan was a superstar, pitching our tent, drying gear, having food ready at the end of each leg, and even going close to my feet to help tender for them (very brave girl!).
We're off to prize giving now.
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