Mont Blanc Trails

I was undecided about running with ski poles for the ultra-trail until fairly recently, but with all the hills to climb - mostly at a fast walking pace I decided that it would make life a lot easier.I started training with them a few weeks ago, and it isn’t as easy as it may at first appear!Walking up the hills is fine. The pole plants naturally fall in the correct place to assist with each step. You are taking some of the weight of each step with your arms, so relieving your leg muscles. Great! But what about running down - where relieving the leg muscles would be very useful. And for the flats, what do you do with the poles ?The first thing I realised is that as soon as you are beyond walking speed, planting the pole for each step is not practical. First, the extra weight of the poles means that you don’t naturally swing your arms in the right rhythm. I tended to plant every other step, but always on the same foot. This isn’t good as it’s asymmetric. In other words only one leg is relieved - so you have to make a deliberate change of pattern every so often to even things up.I soon discovered the correct pattern for me. Every other pace I pole plant for both legs. Hard to describe but you count foot falls, 1 2 3 4, and plant on 3 & 4 (It’s a quick 1-2). This works for down hills, where you aim to plant ahead of your foot fall, and flats where you aim to plant behind your foot fall to propel yourself forward (Ski Touring wise).For flat roads I tend to carry the poles - either one in each hand or both in one.It’s very effective once you get used to it, and I’m sure it will help save the legs a lot, but you do need practice to get it right!

Sunday 1 July was the first big test of my training - the Marathon du Mont Blanc; 42km with 2200m of ascent, 16% on Roads, 52% on forest tracks and 32% on foot paths.The most difficult part was getting up at 5am to get to Chamonix in time for the 7am Start.So 7am arrived, the starting gun went off (somewhat before the announcer got his count down in !) and we were off, at a gentle walking pace which slowing accelerated into a run. 50m later we were walking again as the pack slowed to make the sharp left round the Chemist, and again we where running. A nice gentle warm up.At first I found myself trundling along at the pace of the pack. In fact there wasn’t much choise as 1000 runners along the streets of Cham don’t leave much room for manoeuvring! Soon I realized that I shouldn’t just follow and should try to run my own race, so I started working my way through the pack.The route soon leaves the streets of Cham behind, and starts along the ski de fond tracks before going under the railway, and then swinging across over the river. I was nicely warmed up and enjoying running along in a little bit of space with other runners going at my speed. It felt easy so far, but then so far it was flat! We run through Les Bois, with people cheering us on out of windows, and then on to the first climb, up to Le Lavancher. Immediately many of the runners around me where walking. I ran up most of it, except where it narrowed and I had to follow some walkers for a while.The first refreshment stop is at Le Lavancher. A first for me (well this is my first running event!). I grabbed some dried apricots, drank a mug of water, ate some more dried fruit. I stayed longer than needed but I knew that getting enough food in me would be really important.The route is now on footpaths up the side of the valley, under trees with lots of roots to avoid tripping over as we head out towards Argentiere, past the man with the cow bells. Again some hills slow many to walking. By now having gone past runners who where walking on the hills, and then being re-passed on the flat or downhills by the same runners I decided that everyone has their own way of running this distance and I just had to do what I’d intended; which was to run as much as I could.As I came in to Argentiere I realised that I was going to get to the Col des Montets earlier than I’d told Tracey, and worried that she wouldn’t be there!We are now on the road up to Le Tour, the slow gentle jog up hill into Montroc, and then back onto paths round to Tre-le-champs where I filled my water bag up, had a cup of tea - by mistake, but decided that this was quite a good drink after all, full as it was with sugar! The man with the cow bells was there to cheer us on, the SAME man as earlier - is he omni-present ? Maybe there is only the one man with cow bells at all Alpine sporting events?Onwards to the Col des Montets where in the car park was our car. I knew that Tracey and Joe would be somewhere along the next part of the trail which was great! I past the 15Km marker and soon met Tracey and Joe, in the backpack, at 8:50am - 1hr 50min down, and 27km to go, the harder 27km of course!I arrive at Vallorcine (19km) refreshment station in 2hrs 10mins. A notice there says that the next refreshments are in 6km with 760m of ascent ! I stuff down as much food as possible and make sure my water bag is full. The first big climb begins. I tell myself that if I get to the Col des Possettes in an hour I will be really pleased! The ascent wasn’t as I expected. It is on a 4×4 track, which is I think the ski slope down to Vallorcine’s new telecabin. It’s quite a slog, the slope being just steep enough for it to be hard to run, but not too steep. Ok that’s not well explained but It’s not the sort of slope I like! Lots of people where walking here. I ran as much as I could, and then realised that on some parts I could walk fast, and still be quicker than my running pace. I adopted this strategy, running the flatter sections, and fast walking the other parts, partly because although I could have run more I knew that I had to run 12km further than I ever had and a lot more ascent and wanted to give myself a chance of finishing! It seemed to work well - I could walk up the steeper slope quickly, gaining on some of the other runners, while using less energy than running. I soon started to recognise some of what is the ski piste in winter, and after many switchbacks just when you thought you were there I arrived at the top of the Telecabin. The tops of the Aig du Tour and the Chardonnet came into view, followed by the Tour glacier, the Aig Verte and the Dru. An amazing panorama that really lifts the spirit at the top of the tough climb.The Col des Possettes refreshment stop arrives, my watch says 3hrs 15mins gone, so the climb had taken me 1hr 5mins, which I was another real lift. Ate Bannana, dried fruit and some bits or cereal bars, took a lick of salt and refilled my water bag. The timer was now 3:20 and I set off on the big decent back to Montroc.It’s definitely quicker on skis, but I had a good pace without ! The first part is on 4×4 tracks down to Charamillon, the top of the bubble lift, before it turns off the ski slope onto foot paths. I love running these paths - having to watch your footing, skipping over rocks and continuously changing direction, I must have had a manic grin a mile wide at that point! Other runners clearly did not have the same appreciation for these descents as I had to wait behind slower groups of runners for a fair while before I could get past, and at one point I passed a runner being helped who had turned his ankle quite badly by the looks of it - I can certainly see why some are hesitant on this terrain.The car park at Le Tour arrived and then it was down the road towards Montroc, past the 30km mark at 3:45, the full descent had taken just 25 minutes, and I was now into new territory. 30k is the furthest I’d ever run, and I’d beaten my time over the same amount of ascent and distance by 15 minutes ! This was a great boost, which got even better as I ran into Montroc for the second time to find Tracey and Joe, in the pushchair, waiting for me.Back up to the Refreshment stop at Tre-La-Champ, where I stocked up with water again and stuffed down sugar lumps, cereal bars and banana and then off to cross the RN506 and on to the Grand Balcon Sud for the final 11km up to the finish at Plan Praz.It’s immediately steep and I’m straight away walking along with a fair few others, but as the path undulates I can run some of the flatter sections. I find it’s easy to get lulled into following other runners who are not necessarily doing your pace. I soon started feeling hungry as the climb continued, and had to slow while I took an energy gel, and stuffed down a nougat bar. I started feeling better and again ran the flatter sections. It was great terrain, under the trees with tantalising views across to the Chamonix Aiguilles, having to watch your footing on the soft earth with many tree roots.At 34km the Cross runners (A half marathon which takes the same route to Argentiere), who had started 2 hours later rejoined the marathon route from a steep path on the left. There was suddenly more runners on the path, and lots of new faces. I had found that at various stages on the route I kept passing and then being passed by the same people.I was feeling a bit low on energy again, when the next refreshment stop came along. It was just a drink stop and there where many other people who were really running short on reserves and really wanted that stop to have other food! I grabbed some sugar lumps, and drink and ate another gel, and set off again with the voulenteers encouraging us that there where just 6km to go. I think my timer said 4:50ish, but I can’t be certain and I’m sure that can’t be right - but I do remember thinking that if I have only 6km to do I could finish in under 6hrs.The climb continued. I was passing quite a few runners now, most who I didn’t recognise so I assumed they where Cross runners. It’s difficult to pass as the track is narrow and the drop off to the left pretty steep !After the La Flagere refreshment stop I was feeling really good. Lots of energy still and I was running quite fast, passing runners on the narrow tracks who where being really good about moving out of the way, and then I got to the back of the queue! Everyone stoped, and waited, and edged forward slowy. The queue was, I realised, for the steep steps at this point of the route. We waited, 10mins in all and as soon as my body had switched to this new pace I was suddenly starving ! A bit of a blow considering how well I’d felt earlier. I took the opertunity to get out my remaining gels from the rucksack and stashed them in the waist pockets. The steps where actually not a problem, but I guess tired people at the end of a marathon are going to be more careful, and it was always going to be a bottle neck.Again I was off, at good pace skipping over the bolders to get past other runners. The last refreshment stop arrives and knowing that there is now just 2km left and feeling pretty good I just grab some drink and an orange segment and I’m straight off, most likely on a bit of an adrenaline high at this point! It starts to get steep again but I power up the hills, still feeling good. A sudden steep climb I take walking, and as I get to the top I see for the first time the finish. It should be a big boost, It’s the exact opposite! It looks miles away and it looks miles higher! It’s the big sting in the tail, as the trail loops round for the final kilometer to the finish, it gets to a series of switchbacks up a steep hill.I’m reduced to walking, trying to keep the pace up, at least knowing that I will finish now. It seems to take ages to get any closer, as my timer goes past 6hrs, then 6hrs 5mins. The last steep section is behind me, and the final distance marker say 42km, there is just 195 meters to go! I start to run again, as do others. I’m passed by someone making a sprint finish, then spot Tracey and Joe, and again pass the man with the cow bells (yep, the same one) and finaly cross the finish line with a big grin!I finished in 6:11:39, in 523 place out of 852 finishers. I was the 476th male and was 198th in my category (V1M - Veteran 1 !) and was 2 hrs 44 mins 13 seconds behind the winner (who was Nick Sharp)It was a great experience and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants a go at a pretty tough marathon!www.montblancmarathon.net Below is the route profile !And here is a Google Earth KLM file for you to follow the route in Google earth.And some brief statistics:During the event I consumed: 6 x 40g Energy gels (~100 kcal each), 1 Nougat bar and 1 litre of energy drink which I started with in my rucksack. I probably drank around 4ltrs of water from refiling my water bag, plus quite a few cups of water, several of energy drink and a few cokes. Each food stop (and there were 7!) I ate a handfull of dried fruit, or a few slices of orange, banana or cereal bar, the occasional sugar lump, and one lick of salt !