CCC 2023

Up and down for 100 km through Italy, Switzerland and France

I travelled to the Chamonix Valley to run the CCC race (named after the towns at the start, middle and finish: Courmayeur, Champex, Chamonix), 100km with 6156m ascent . Sometimes called the ‘little sister of the UTMB’, the CCC race is part of the annual UTMB trail running summit in Chamonix which includes the World Series Finals (UTMB – 100 miles, CCC – 100 km and OCC – 55 km) and a further 5 events including the 90 mile TDS (Traces des Ducs de Savoie) which fellow Ilkley Harrier Andrew Merrick would be running this year. I had decided to stay in Vallorcine, a lovely small village just 30 minutes by train up the valley from the much more busy town of Chamonix. I loved the energetic vibe and festival atmosphere of Chamonix, but it was best in small doses, and I was pleased to be able to escape to somewhere quieter. Tourists are given a guest card enabling them to use the trains travelling up and down Chamonix Valley between Servoz and Vallorcine for free, which made getting about super easy and convenient.

Arriving in my AirBnB on August 21, ten days prior to my race, gave me time to recce, in three sections, the second half of the race starting from Champex-Lac via Trient and Vallorcine to Chamonix, much of which I would be doing in the dark and definitely on tired legs. After the three recce runs I commenced a fairly steep taper of a week, which comprised some shorter runs and also two swims in the beautiful 50m outdoor pool in Chamonix. I decided against recceing the first half from Courmayeur to Champex-Lac.  It was a little too late in the day to then adequately recover from the two major climbs involved, and anyway in the race I would be doing it fresh and in daylight. There is no need to recce the route from a navigational point of view, as these races are incredibly well way marked, as well as so busy that there will always be runners within sight.

As race day, Friday September 1, approached I grew more and more excited but also apprehensive about the task at hand. I have some experience of racing in big mountains, having done three races in the Swiss Alps and one in the Pyrenees, but none were 100 km. I have run a couple of long UK ultras (80 and 90 miles) that took around 24 hours. Still, this felt like a big step up again, with so much ascent and descent to negotiate, much of it on fairly technical terrain. I am a particularly poor descender when faced with tree roots and rock-strewn paths, and I knew I would be facing a lot of those, primarily in the second half. I fully expected to be battling the cut-offs at the checkpoints and to be only just inside the overall allowed time of 26 hours and 30 minutes. Though the recces had given me a silent hope that I might just be marginally faster than that.  I reckoned that to be sub-24 hours would be my equivalent of ‘winning’ the race. To try and off-set my terrible descending I would have to play to my strengths, which are ascending, being efficient in the checkpoints, and endurance. Having savoured the Chamonix finish line atmosphere, which is truly electrifying, and having seen Andrew come over the line in the TDS, I was extra determined I wanted a slice of that for myself. After all, my name was already on this t-shirt I had bought, so I had better deliver.

In the lead up to the race I grabbed the opportunity to join a short shake out run in Chamonix on the Wednesday morning, organised by three of my favourite running YouTubers: Loyd Purvis (Run4Adventure), Stephen Cousins (FilmMyRun) and Ben Parkes. A sizeable group of runners, mainly from the UK, Ireland, Australia and the US, gathered at 9 am in front of the church on the Place du Triangle de l’Amitié, right by the UTMB finish arch. We had a nice easy run along the river followed by a couple of relaxed laps of the running track, before going to Moody’s coffee shop for coffee, a free pair of Saysky socks courtesy of Loyd, and post-run chat. It was lovely to meet other runners as well as the YouTube celebs and I really enjoyed myself. After this I met up with one of Andrew’s friends, Em, who had been crewing for him overnight. We had a walk around the expo, had lunch and waited for Andrew to finish the TDS. It was fantastic to see him come over the line tired but in good shape after 38 hours of running, which had included two nights, and we finished the day off with a meal in the Micro Brasserie de Chamonix.

On Thursday I came into Chamonix again to collect my race number and wrist band at the Sports Centre. The system was efficient, and seemed a lot faster than previous years (from what I had heard), as they no longer do the mandatory kit check at registration. The organisers said there would be random checks during the race but I was never checked, however Andrew reported runners were asked to show a selection of items of kit on the TDS. I was also given the bag that would be transported from Courmayeur back to the finish at Chamonix, so you can wear extra layers to the start. Finally I received a t-shirt, there were a lot of comments on social media about the women’s version which this year admittedly is an unusual cropped style, but I like it. The lady giving them out was trying to persuade me to take a size S instead the XS which I had pre-ordered, but I wasn’t having any of it! I can report now that the XS fits me perfectly. I must have been wearing something particularly unflattering that morning making me look broader than I am! Registration done I met up with Andrew, who was in surprisingly good shape after finishing his race less than 24 hours earlier, we had coffee and then watched the winners of the 55km OCC race come in, which was exciting, especially as the course record was broken by around 40 minutes and went under 5 hours for the first time.

Race day was Friday. Thankfully the weather forecast was excellent, pleasantly warm but not too much so, no rain, no wind, and a bonus full moon too. Unlike earlier in the week, where Andrew had to contend with cold, rain, snow and mud on the TDS. My early morning journey to Courmayeur (in Italy) on the UTMB shuttle bus (05.55 am from Vallorcine) was not as chaotic as it had been on the Monday evening for the TDS runners, where the start had to be delayed by an hour, but traffic through the Mont-Blanc tunnel was still very heavy due to the continuing closure of the Fréjus tunnel as a result of a major landslide, and we had to queue for about an hour. Still, it meant no hanging about at the start, I really just had time to go to the toilet, take my layers off and get my finish bag handed in for transport back to Chamonix, straighten myself out and head to my 09:15 second wave start.

The climb straight out of the starting blocks from Courmayeur to the Tête de la Tronche (2563m) is 1428m of ascent in one go over a distance of 9km. I say ‘in one go’, but we were stationary for about 15 minutes at the point where the wider trail becomes single track. Frustrating but I knew to expect this, having had the same experience last year at Val d’Aran in the Pyrenees. 99% of the runners waited patiently. The odd one or two performed shameless queue jumping. I tried not to be annoyed and reckoned karma would deal with that down the line. Once on the single-track switchbacks it’s like being ‘on the train’, there is one pace and you have to go with it, unless you really are in trouble at which point you can step aside of course. Thankfully the pace was OK for me. I reached the Tête de la Tronche at 11:45 after 2 ½ hours.

After this followed a fairly runnable descent (though plenty of runners scooted past me) to the first checkpoint at Refuge Bertone. I was glad to arrive a full hour and 20 minutes inside the cut-off, this felt reassuring. I restocked my water supplies (adding my energy drink powder), grabbed some cheese and salty biscuits and went on my way to run the next 12k to Arnouvaz. This is a runnable traverse with not too much height gain or loss and gave me some opportunity to enjoy the stunning landscape surrounding me.

I arrived at the Arnouvaz checkpoint at 14:45 and had gained a bit more on the cut-off time so I started to relax about getting timed-out. Very usefully there are big signs in every checkpoint giving the distance and elevation gain and loss to the next checkpoint, as well as the cut-off times. ‘Obviously’ I carried all this information with me anyway on a card I had prepared, but those signs are still mightily handy. After Arnouvaz the next big ascent awaited us: Grand Col Ferret (2526m). As Arnouvaz is already at 1794m this is nowhere near as big a climb as the ascent out of Courmayeur, but it was still a tough 800m and it was pretty warm by now.

There remained some snow on the ground near the top, evidence from the cold weather earlier in the week. The views from the top of the col were absolutely awesome and for a moment I wished I were not in a race, it would have been nice to linger a while to take photos. No time to waste though, I put my poles away and set off on the very long but thankfully runnable and pleasant descent of 1000m, 10km in distance, all the way to La Fouly. We were now in Switzerland.

I reached La Fouly at 6pm, a total of 40k done. I didn’t hang about (spent 8 minutes there) as I wanted to make the most of the daylight. I quickly had some bouillon, bread and cheese and was on my way to Champex-Lac, 14k to run. There I would get a hot meal and would need to get ready for the night.

I had been to Champex-Lac with Andrew when we reccied the section to Trient. I had experienced all too well what a climb that had been in the car, from the bottom of the valley, we had done it twice, having to retrieve the second car at the end of the run of course. Somehow though, despite carrying my laminated time/distance chart as well as the elevation profile, and despite having read the sign in the La Fouly checkpoint saying there would be 500m to ascend, I had managed to temporarily forget there would be a climb up to Champex after running along the valley bottom from La Fouly and then a lovely descent to Praz de Fort, even involving some downhill road running (yay!). But what goes down must of course come up. Having seen some race reports from other runners it seems to be a common thing to be surprised by this climb, which made me feel marginally less stupid. One thinks there are five main climbs in the CCC, but perhaps it is better to think of as six. I think part of the problem is that Champex, with its lake, looks like the kind of place that would be found right down in the valley bottom.  We were nicely running along the small road when someone pointed to Champex, 5km away in the distance. She seemed to be pointing up into the air. I remember saying: ‘la haute?’ ‘Oui, la haute.’ Ok, it’s up there, of course it is, doh, remember that drive now Petra!? So up we climbed. By the time we were within reach of the checkpoint, and in the woods, it was virtually dark. I was grateful that I had followed advice I had picked up from Loyd Purvis (Run4Adventure) on YouTube: carry a small handheld torch as well as your head torch (actually two head torches and a spare battery for each, this is mandatory kit for the race). Getting your head torch out is always a bit of a faff and difficult to do on the move, so you tend to put it off with a consequent risk of tripping in the dark. But I could just get my handheld torch out of the front pocket of my race vest until we reached the checkpoint, it helped the runner in front of me too. She tried to let me go past, I had to point out ‘je veux vous aider’ which I think she was grateful for. So thanks for the tip Loyd!

Whilst still some distance away from the checkpoint at Champex-Lac it had become very noisy with incessant tooting and hooting sounds from a particularly loud group of supporters. There’s encouragement and then there is just irritating noise, and to me it was definitely the latter. I reached the checkpoint at 20:30 so had been going for almost 12 hours. With the cut-off there at 23:15 I knew I was totally safe time wise, though there always remained the chance of a fall or injury before the finish. The massive marquee was heaving with people, this being the first aid station where crew support was allowed. It was way too full for comfort or efficiency. I spent at least 5 minutes looking for where the pasta was being served, had to ask in the end, and then had to actually search for a spot to even sit down. I ate my cheese and pasta, filled and organised my water bottles, put another layer on, put my cap and sunglasses away and replaced them with my buff and head torch. When your race pack is full to bursting it’s tricky and I made extra sure nothing fell out amidst all this race admin, you don’t want to lose a crucial piece of kit. I had a message from Andrew, who would be meeting me at Vallorcine, to message him when I got to the next checkpoint at Trient. I was ahead of the timing schedule we had imagined! I had some watermelon and sugary tea to finish and was on my way to Trient, having spent 23 minutes in the aid station.

It’s 16km to Trient via Bovine with around 1000m to ascend and descend. Another long single file ‘train’ up the endless switchbacks. It had felt a lot shorter on the recce! Shortly after the top we reached the intermediate checkpoint of La Giete, which is a genuine cow shed (though without the cows being at home) with appropriate smell, and a full-on party going on! Mainly the volunteers in party mode, whilst runners looking rather the worse for wear were sitting on long benches on either side of the long barn. I decided to not stop and carried on through the building (the doors were so low they had put pillows at the top to stop you hitting your head) onto the Col de Forclaz and down to Trient. One of those endlessly long technical descents full of rocks and tree roots where I lost a lot of time and constantly had to step aside to let others pass. I did seem to see the same runners overtake me on descents again and again. This struck me as odd. How come they did not stay ahead of me once they had passed me? The only explanation could be that they were slower on the ascents and/or spent more time at the aid stations. Probably the latter, but I found this a little surprising. If I could descend that quickly I would be capitalizing on my gains, that’s for sure!

At Trient another party seemed to be in full swing, with Abba music blasting out. Here crew was allowed too, perhaps the party was mainly for their benefit, and it was busy.  It was now 00:50 and whilst in good spirits I was definitely not in the party mood. I messaged Andrew as arranged, had some more food, attended to my water bottles and made use of the toilet. 17 minutes later I was on my way (your runner’s page collects all this handy info) towards the next climb.

The ascent to Les Tseppes, on the way to the Vallorcine checkpoint, is steep. It’s only 3.6km in distance and you climb almost 700m. It had been tough during the recce, it was tough now. I tried to focus on the good things. The weather (absolutely perfect temperature, no rain, how lucky was I!?), the beauty of my surroundings which I could make out under the full moon, the fact that I was doing this, that my body could actually sustain this effort, and that my nutrition was working. The knowledge that there would be a nice runnable stretch before the more technical descent into Vallorcine. Knowing that I would see Andrew at Vallorcine and he would bring pizza.

I reached Vallorcine at 04:10. 82km had been done now. And I was back in France. I knew Vallorcine as I was staying there, and I knew where the aid station was, right by where the track comes down off the hill. What I didn’t know is that you were led to do more or less a loop of the village first for no obvious reason! Where are we going?? I was running it though, delighted to be properly moving again after another dose of tree roots and rocks which had slowed me down to a walk. I was in an upbeat mood even though tired, and 4 am is never a good time in anyone’s day, or night rather. I had instructed Andrew to not let me throw in the towel unless my leg had literally fallen off or I was patently ill, and to give me a metaphorical kick out of the checkpoint and in the direction of Chamonix should it be needed. But no kicking was required. I had also purposefully put my apartment key in my finish bag which had gone to Chamonix so I had to go there too! I ate some of my pizza, it was a bit too dry at this point in the race but the taste was nice, Andrew kindly dealt with my water bottles, I swapped the battery over in my head torch and I was off out in 10 minutes, heading towards the Col des Montets, La Flégère and Chamonix.

18km to go with another 1100 m of ascent and 1400 m of descent. A route change had been announced a week or so earlier: rather than climbing up the standard route to the Tête aux Vents we were taking an alternative route from the Col des Montets via Tête de Béchar to La Flégère. This involved a sneaky descent in the middle of two climbs. I had reccied it and therefore knew it was hideously technical, much more so than any other section. In places I had to use my hands to get down. I was consoled by the fact that on my recce I had encountered a fast runner on that section (he was aiming for a 13 hour finish), we had chatted a bit and he also found it really tough. It was even worse for me now, on tired legs, and in the dark. Unsurprisingly most runners managed to make a better meal out of it than I did and went past, whilst I struggled at snail’s pace together with a German girl. There were a couple of moments where I felt like sitting down and crying, but that would not have taken me any further towards Chamonix so I battled on knowing this too would pass and I would climb again, which is also tough, but much easier for me. And the descent became a climb, I came out of the dense woods and I suddenly noticed it had become light during my struggles. Seeing the morning light on Mont Blanc was one of the highlights of the race for me.

Another runner kept having to sit down every few minutes, he was obviously dizzy. I have been in that state in other races and I know how awful that is. I asked if he needed help but he signalled for me to go on. I was very grateful to be feeling well, this must have been largely down to my nutrition which had worked like a dream.

I knew by now that a sub 24 hour finish should be possible but I had to crack on. I slogged up the wide track to La Flégère and suddenly all the climbing was done, I arrived at 07:36! Though I was in a rush I had enough presence of mind to use the toilet there, I certainly didn’t want to arrive bursting for the loo, as I had seen no toilets directly by the finish line. I also put my head torch away. I quickly slurped some tea and headed for the descent. 7km to go. After some easy running (though by now hampered by the pain in my quads) on the gravel track you are forced onto a downhill path full of, you guessed it, tree roots and rocks. I had to more or less walk it all, and looked longingly for La Floria, the lovely café on the mountainside above Chamonix. Because I knew after that I would be able to run all the way, which would be necessary to get my desired sub 24. I kept thinking I saw it round the next corner, but they all turned out to be optical illusions! When I finally got there a man said ‘only 3km to go’ which I already knew, but it was a nice encouragement. I stowed my poles away into my race belt and ran down the gravel track. A Spanish runner overtook me, only to immediately take a very nasty tumble. Initially it looked pretty bad, I thought ‘oh no, there goes my finish time!’ as naturally I felt obliged to stop and help. Thankfully there were quite a few spectators, runners (not in the race) and walkers around and a young American couple rushed in to assist, so I asked if they didn’t mind if I went on. I was glad to see the runner back on his feet moments later so it had looked worse that it was.

I reached the road in Chamonix, negotiated the steps up and down the temporary footbridge over the road which is always erected by UTMB, as much as to avoid a traffic accident as to inflict some final pain onto runners’ quads I’m sure. Running into Chamonix along the river Arve and through the streets even at 9 am I received so many cheers and shouts of encouragement, literally everyone gives you a shout out, and in many languages too.

Coming round the final bend I was greeted by Andrew, and to my surprise and delight also by fellow Ilkley Harriers Oli, Zoe and baby Alfie Murphy, holidaying in the area and who had managed to come into town early for me. I crossed the line at 09:03 in 23:47:59.

I collected my finisher’s gilet, enjoyed a vegetarian hot dog and my finisher’s beer, even though the sun was nowhere near over the yardarm yet. I had looked forward to that beer after several weeks of not drinking, so I was going to have it regardless of the time of day! Originally I had planned to hang around in Chamonix to see at the male podium winners of the UTMB come in (expected around 2 pm) but as I had finished much earlier than expected I went ‘home’ to Vallorcine instead. The live stream would have to do. As I got off the train there the leading men were just coming out of the checkpoint to raucous applause from the crowd of spectators that had gathered. I managed to get a photo of Courtney Dauwalter, and cheer her on, a few hours later as she came through Vallorcine on her way to victory.

The male and female winners of the CCC were Jon Albon in 10 hours 14 minutes and Yngvild Kaspersen in 11 hours 51 minutes.

There were a total of 2228 starters, 1650 finishers (of whom 317 were women), whilst 578 runners withdrew or were timed out (25%). I was 1207^th (224^th woman) finisher overall, and in my age category (F60-64) I came 4th out 7 finishers whilst 11 women had started. There were prizes for the first three so I just missed out, but the 3rd placed F60 had 45 minutes on me which I could not have come near, so I was fine with that. Had it been one minute I would have been gutted! There were no women older than 64 in the race at all. I am more than pleased with my position in the field, with almost 450 runners finishing behind me. In last year’s race in Val d’Aran by UTMB where I ran the equivalent of the OCC (55km) I was much further towards the back of the race.

My total rest time was 59 minutes; I would have liked that time to be a little shorter but considering the congestion in the aid stations it was the best I could do.  

I loved the CCC even though it was hard. The experiences of the start and finish lines were truly some of my all time running highlights. So was arriving at La Flégère with the sun having come up and the climbing being finished, seeing the big views again, hence the smile on my face in the photos. The race was difficult because I am a poor descender and the terrain, however much I enjoy moving through the mountains, does not suit my skill set. As far as ascending and physical and mental endurance goes I don’t feel I was tested to my limits, but as far as descending is concerned I was, and 100km was definitely more than far enough from that perspective. I really had reached the end of my tether with the tree roots and rocks by the latter stages of the race, Andrew can attest to my swearing when I reached Vallorcine. Would I do the CCC again or am I tempted to try the full UTMB? Probably not. I went with the expectation that it would be a one-off experience and I still feel the same. The race was also too busy for my personal liking. I knew that would be the case, having experienced Val d’Aran by UTMB last year, and having watched plenty of videos about the CCC. I like being sociable at times, but I also like running on my own. I found it difficult to get into that zone where I feel totally immersed in my surroundings and in nature, as there were always so many other runners around me. Strangely enough despite there being so many people I hardly chatted. Running in single file makes conversation difficult, and so does the physical effort. So all in all it was a crowded yet fairly solitary race.

Shoes

I wore a pair of Hoka Mafate Speed 4 which I purchased earlier this summer. Having mainly run in Inov8 shoes on off-road terrain in the past I have recently become more enamoured with Hoka. I decided that for a race of this length I needed more cushioning than the Inov8 XTalon G210, my previous favourite, can offer me. The Hokas performed well for me. I felt comfortable and even at the end of the race my legs did not feel too ‘smashed’. Whilst my quads were painful they were functioning and I could still run downhill, which was a relief after my experience of ‘blown quads’ on the Dales High Way. I wore Injinji socks, those are the socks with separate toes as worn by Courtney Dauwalter. I find them comfortable. I never took my shoes off during the race, at the end I discovered one blister on a toe, which had not particularly bothered me. I would say that’s a satisfactory result.

Nutrition

Nutrition is absolutely key to success in ultras. Many an ultra runner’s race has ended for lack of calorie intake. I have been very lucky so far in my ultra running that I have not suffered any major nutritional calamity yet, but there can always be a first time, so I am definitely not taking anything for granted. Still, I do seem to have a strategy that works for me so I will take some credit for it. First of all, I commence eating within 30 minutes of the start of the race and continue to have something every 30 minutes. I set an alarm on my watch to remind me. I never wait to go hungry. I try and take in around 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour, I do have a rough plan how to achieve that, so I know how much to carry with me, but I should say it is pretty flexible. I add energy powder to my water, Science in Sport or Active Root, and I carry pre-measured portions of powder with me so every time I refill my flasks at a checkpoint I can add it. This offers around 35 grams of carbs per 500 ml of fluid taken in. To eat: for pure carbohydrates I carry Veloforte chews, crystallised ginger and Turkish Delight. Veloforte has the advantage of having electrolytes added in; ginger and Turkish Delight are just pure carbs but are cheaper, so I mix and match. Ginger is great if I start to feel a bit nauseous (though I did not suffer with that in this race). I also carried some ‘Nakd’ energy bars, and some pouches of baby food (one banana and two savoury). I had some electrolyte tablets and stock cubes in case I could not get enough salty food at the checkpoints (though that is never really a problem in the Alps). I try to not completely rely on what will be offered at the checkpoints, but for a race of this length it would be quite a lot of added weight to carry all your own supplies. Thankfully I am not a fussy eater and I tend to manage quite well with whatever is on offer, and I like the continental style check point food. I am very partial to cheese which is a good start. There was bouillon, bread and cheese at most checkpoints. Some people object to fairly stale French bread and eating it dry would be hard in a race, but I dunk it in the bouillon and that way it goes down very easily. I also put the cheese in the bouillon. Same with biscuits or other sweet items that feel dry, just dunk them into some tea and down they go. It’s quick and efficient. Eating in an ultra is purely functional. They had some lovely dark chocolate somewhere too which I helped myself too. There were bananas, oranges and watermelon on offer. The pasta at Champex was somewhat disappointing as the Bolognese sauce had beef in (I am vegetarian) and the only alternative was grated cheese, so pasta and cheese it was, which was a little dry. I should have put some bouillon on top, were it not that the aid station was so busy it was difficult to find what you wanted without wasting time. I managed to get most of it down. I was very pleased overall with my nutrition, as a result I felt strong all the way round.

Photos

I have credited all photos where required, those without a credit are my own. Sportograph photos, including their beautiful generic images, have been paid for to use.