Yes, it was warm and there was a lot of ‘up’.
Having spent UTMB week in the Chamonix Valley in 2023, when I ran the CCC, I was keen to return to this week long ‘festival’, which is seen by many as the apex of the annual trail running calendar. Elites as well as amateurs fast and not so fast gather here to test themselves on the beautiful and demanding trails around Mont Blanc in races such as the OCC, CCC, UTMB, TDS and PTL. Whatever you think about UTMB (and there are plenty of grounds for criticism), they sure know how to organise a big running event with a brilliant vibe. I decided I would rather be a participant than a pure spectator, so for 2024 I entered the ETC race, which stands for ‘Experience Trail Courmayeur’. The shortest race in the UTMB week, it is a 15km circuit with 1267 meters of elevation, starting and finishing in Courmayeur, just over the border from Chamonix, in Italy’s Aosta Valley. No ‘UTMB running stones’ or ballot required for this race, you just click on ‘enter’, pay the fee, and you’re in. It is marketed as a good introduction to trail running in the mountains and at the same time it is a fast and furious race, particularly at the front end. Whilst I am past needing an introduction to the trails, and neither am I fast and furious, I decided it would be a good warm-up race for my main event in the Alps which would be ten days later, the SwissPeaks 100 race. I had worried a bit in advance about the undoubted congestion on the course, with 1200 runners on 15kms of largely single-track paths it would be busy, which is not really my thing, especially on the downhills where I tend to be significantly slower than the majority.
Like last year I stayed in Vallorcine, a lovely small and quiet village half an hour north of Chamonix. I can really recommend it if like me you enjoy the vibe of Chamonix in small doses only! As a visitor you get a free rail pass for the Chamonix Valley and it’s very easy to bob up and down to Chamonix on the train. However on this occasion I decided to drive into Chamonix just in case I would be returning late, as the trains do stop quite early after which you have to rely on a night bus. This would turn out to be a wise decision! So I left my Vallorcine apartment at 9am. I had already collected my bib the previous day. We were taken to Courmayeur on coaches leaving Chamonix from 10am, it involved quite a long wait in the queue to get to the Mont Blanc Tunnel (though this would pale into insignificance compared to the return journey later) but by 11am I was in Courmayeur with three hours to kill before the 2pm race start. Thankfully the weather was warm and sunny, and I spent time drinking coffee outside a cafe, then writing and sending some postcards, seeing I found a shop selling cards as well as postage stamps, and with a handy post box affixed to the shop front. After dropping off my bag at the bag store I joined the inevitable toilet queue which to be fair wasn’t bad at all, and then made my way into my starting wave pen. I must say I wasn’t really feeling ‘it’ whatever ‘it’ is as we were awaiting the countdown. I felt I could happily spend the rest of the afternoon on that cafe terrace before catching the bus back. Maybe I was still a bit tired after the drive from the UK at the weekend, a bit undertrained, not acclimated to the altitude yet, and feeling the aftermath of a dental abscess and a week of antibiotics which I had not even finished yet. And it was warm, in fact really quite hot.
This not being an ultra I knew there would be little chance of taking it particularly easy. Not that I was going to be in any hurry, but when the trails are congested you kind of have to keep up with the general pace once you have found your spot in the train of runners which moves ever upwards. Normally ascents are my strong point, relative to my overall ability anyway, but it wasn’t to be on this race. I had to step off the path three times and sit down as I was near fainting. This has happened to me before, so I know that eventually it passes, but it was unpleasant and lost me quite a bit of time, not that that particularly mattered. This was a warm-up race, for training purposes. All I cared about was making it round without the embarrassment of becoming a medical emergency! My nutrition and hydration including electrolytes was all in order so perhaps it was mainly the altitude bothering me, having only arrived two days previously. And it was hot! My t-shirt was so wet I thought my soft-flasks must be leaking, until I had to conclude it was all just sweat. I was also climbing without my poles, I like to ‘run’ without poles even on steep terrain during shorter training runs and recces so as to really notice the benefit when I do use them during longer distances. But I was in a minority not using poles, particularly being at the slower end of the race, and at times I regretted my decision as it undoubtedly made it harder. 1200m climb in under 5 miles is quite hard going. Eventually I started to feel better and I could climb on, we reached the top, or thought we had until there was more to climb (isn’t there always!?) and the views of Mont Blanc were absolutely stupendous. Though I should say they had been pretty good from the cafe back down in Courmayeur too! But hey, drinking coffee doesn’t earn you a medal nor the satisfaction of having raced.
So having finally reached the highest point of the course the other challenge started: descending for miles where I constantly had to let people pass as I am such a slow descender. By alpine standards this is not a technical race at all, but there were still plenty of tree roots and rocks to potentially stumble over. Having bruised or broken a rib or two (I have not had it looked at as there is nothing you can do anyway) at the beginning of the month when I fell hard on my chest during the Pig on the Hill BYU I was quite worried about falling on my ribs again, as I knew they had not fully healed yet, i.e. it still hurt. Thankfully I made it down in one piece with lots of stops to let other runners fly by. Not having studied the course profile in quite enough depth (the unwise ‘it’s only 15km, up a mountain and down again’ attitude) I had failed to spot the inevitable upwards sting in the tail in the last mile. I don’t think I was the only one feeling almost outfaced by this final small ascent, some runners around me looked like they wanted to cry!
A final few bends down a tarmac little road and I was back at the finish after 3 hours and 39 minutes, 911th out of 1183 finishers, and 6th out of 11 in my age category. Nothing to particularly write home about (but I am writing this anyway!) but I was happy enough with this result for a race that does not really play to any of my strengths. Results can be found here, the winner Lukas Ehrle finishing in 1:19:56.
I was surprised how hard I found it and wondered how I had ever run the 100km CCC here last year. I guess like with any race, a lot of it is in your head and if you know you are only running 15k that’s what you are focussed on.
There was an enormous queue for the post-race snacks, so I decided to give those a miss and head straight down the hill to the sports centre where we had to catch the coach back to Chamonix. I bought some snacks from a small shop on the way. Good thing I did considering I was nowhere near home yet and I had eaten everything I had brought with me. I was on a coach that left Courmayeur at 6:15pm, sadly the queue for the tunnel was so bad that it took until 8pm for us to reach the entrance of the tunnel, it’s probably less than a mile, and we were plain stationary for most of the time! We finally reached Chamonix well after 8pm. The coach driver, for reasons only known to himself, proceeded straight past the Grepon car park which had been the morning’s pick-up point and where many of us had parked, and headed down into central Chamonix. Upon which those of us with cars in the car park had to ask him to return us there, especially as it was now tipping it down with rain and no one fancied a good 15-minute walk back in that weather. A minor irritation perhaps but not ideal after a rather long day out. Anyway, my medal and a nice post-race glow, as well as a cold beer in the fridge in my apartment back in Vallorcine soon made up for all that. Still, I had been out for 12 hours for a 15k race, and a lot of that time had been spent either travelling (very slowly!) or hanging about waiting. I am not sure why this race is held at Courmayeur as you would think they could equally well stage a short race from Chamonix. We were asked to give feedback so I have passed my comments to UTMB.
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