My hand were on fire coming down the mountain as they started to thaw out. I finally caught up to Tim and Chantelle and we slowly made out way down the other side.

Time to climb the mountain: 1h35. This climb was where we crossed over from Italy to Switzerland. At that time we didn't realise that it was also 100km done and dusted. Total time 19h05.

Back to this downhill. It was 20km in length with 1450m descent. Chantelle had to do a nature stop and Tim let me know he needed to get off the mountain and go warm up. Fair call and that was the last time we saw Tim :( He ended running really well and ended up with a time just over 33 hours. Spectacular stuff considering how he appeared to struggle at the start.

This section to La Fouly (10km down the hill), for me was very hard. I'd been feeling nauseous for a while now and was running low on energy again. I think this was also the only part of the race where Chantelle and I hit a low patch together.

There were some serious quiet laps going on into the La Fouly checkpoint.

Side note: When we ran CP 50 I hit a low patch around the 40km mark and Chantelle was still talking my ear off. I rather abruptly asked if we could do some quiet laps and she first looked at me with amazement and then obliged. We still make fun of that situation and use quiet laps as a reference more often than I would expect.

Time to LaFouly: 1h40

LaFouly was a turning point for me. I went into the checkpoint defeated and needing a vom. I made a b-line to go get what was ailing me out.

Joe, Tim and I have talked about this before, if you need to vomit, just do it, you feel so much better after. This was the case for me at GNW and I don't for the life of me know why I didn't just try and do it earlier in UTMB.

Anyway, I made my way out the tent but the entire area was cordoned off so no access to the grass. I was going to have to wait till we left to get my demons out. I did however spot the loo and went for a quick sit down. Turns out this was just what the doctor ordered. *Overshare alert* I got rid of some seriously weighted content and somehow my nausea slowly started to go away as well.

Don't know how it worked but I was ecstatic. Coming off the mountain Chantelle and I both said, "wouldn't a section of road be amazing!"

Well for once the the course decided to play nice and gave us what we wished for. We left the checkpoint, turned onto some dirt road and it popped us out on a tar road that went downhill for about 6km. I generally prefer trails over road but this was Heaven!!

Side note: Keeping Chantelle on course #2 as she missed the turnoff into the dirt road. I can't remember where #3 was but I know there was 3. Time spent in checkpoints made up for in spades ;)

Next goal, make it Champex Lac (123km into the race and on top of a 3km climb with 500m elevation). This would be the next stop for seeing Raki again as well so it added a bit of extra motivation.

The climb to Champex Lac for me was the hardest mentally of the entire race. This was surprising seeing that it looks almost like a non hill on the elevation chart..., well this non hill, with the help of Chantelle's pace kicked my but. My nausea was much better but I was running low on energy and I think the gel I just took was still catching up for the non gel running I was doing to get to this point. Anyhoo, we started this climb like all the others, Chantelle setting a blistering pace, and I know it was fast because I could see the other guys on the course going backwards in knots.

Not happy Jan! Mentally I was having the biggest arguments with Chantelle, "why are you going so fast", "I've got so much more weight to lug over these hills", "can you not see how everyone is falling off the back and you expect me to keep up". In my head there were plates being broken, someone called the police, it was rough. All the excuses under the sun to quit pushing. With me crying on the inside I think Chantelle could tell I wasn't in a good place (I got really quiet) and did the right thing by leaving me alone but still pushing the pace. I think its just pure stupidity that kept me sort of hanging on all the way to the top and into the checkpoint. Thanks goodness that was over.

Its crazy what a difference a quick sit down does for me as a mental reset at a checkpoint. Raki and Louise were there and helped us get our gear ready for the next leg. I wasn't having stomach issues any more and was eating all I could. Thanks to Louise for trying to sort me out with band aids and first aid. I, at that point could not be bothered to do anything other than eat and try and reset for the next section.

Raki, Louise and Richard. You guys were so ~~good~~ Amazing. Always a friendly face and a helpful hand and going out of your way to help no matter how little sleep you got or how low/grumpy we were at that point.

Coming out of the checkpoint I knew we only had 3 mountains left, 2 originals on the map and a lucky packet depending on how they changed the course for the last mountain. This is something I could wrap my head around and I was feeling good again.

I do think heading into the dark had something to do with it as well. Almost all our training was in the dark and I feel very at home in the dark on the trails. Being able to run again made me feel like a million bucks, well at that point probably more like 100 bucks but it was worlds apart from how I had felt 30 min earlier.

The next section to the top of La Giète had a 6ish km downhill followed by a 6ish km climb with a 1000m of elevation. I was back, and feeling good on the climb. I was still a touch low on energy but feeling like I was catching up with the food intake over all. We ran the entire downhill and you probably guessed it by now but Chantelle hit the start of the climb hard. Not too long after I took over the pacing duties again and things were back to "normal".

Chantelle asked where I thought the climb was going to go. I looked up (I just never learn) and saw a open patch of grass on a mountain top and joked, "it would be crazy if we ended up over there". Turns out that was exactly where we were headed.

It was going up this climb that it dawned on me, this was the longest I'd ever stayed awake in a race. I was in uncharted territory! My biggest worry was bound to rear its sleepy head soon. We kept on making our way up the climb and like with the previous climbs the higher we got the colder and rainier it got. The soft trails turned into full on mud trails and its was very heavy under foot. The muddy conditions would stay like this for the remainder of the mountains.

Going down the other side I got quiet again. Not because I was struggling to run (it was pretty hard staying upright in the mud, thank goodness for the poles), but because I just couldn't stay awake. 27 hours into the race and and my biggest worry had come into play.

What to do, I couldn't stay awake and was nodding off and then falling over in the mud, "do I have a nap at the next checkpoint?", "would Chantelle wait?", "I wouldn't expect her to, bur we've run so far together it would be amazing to finish together". All kinds of thoughts running through my mind.

We got into Trient (140km) 10PM Saturday night, 3h40 after Champex Lac and 27h30 into the race. I was able to swap my light batteries again and then met up with Raki. I didn't know what to do and laid my cards on the table. My biggest fear: falling off the mountain :) To my surprise (probably because I was very tired at this point) Chantelle asked me how long I'd need to sleep and suggested 20min.

I didn't want to hold her up and remembered I had No-Doz in my medicine bag. I don't use caffeine on a day to day basis. No coffee, tee, coke or any of those products so technically caffeine should work well, but I remember trying a No-Doz on the CBR48 and it didn't do anything. Whats a man to do?? Well if 1 doesn't work, take 2 and a 50mg caffeine gel for good measure. The way I saw it, I had 20 min, so 10 min to see if this stuff works and if it didn't then 10 min to power nap.

I didn't need 10 min, I was buzzing. I asked Raki to swap all my gels for 50mg caffeine gels. The hit of high octane caffeine was twisting my stomach in all kinds of knots but I was awake and keen beans to get running.

The climb to Les Tseppes was very similar to the previous mountain climb in distance and elevation, the difference was that I led out from the start of this climb and was settings a pace that I was very happy with this far into the race.

Side note: Chantelle had been struggling with the flu leading up to the race and especially during the night sections, when we would go into a warm checkpoint and then go back into the cold she would get the worst cough, cough up a lung, and then be good to go again. A little concerning but we established there was nothing I could do to help and she seemed to be OK once she got out what needed to come out. The awkward part, Chantelle coughing uncontrollably and other runners coming by looking at me as to say "mate, why aren't you helping this poor lady out"...

2 things I noticed about caffeine. First is that it keeps your eyes open but after 29 hours your brain is still fried and seeing polar bears on the side of the trails going up the mountain still happens. Secondly, it goes as quickly as it sets in. Coming down the other side of of the mountain I was starting to fall asleep again.

We got to Vallorcine (the other side of the mountain) in 1h40 and we just had 1 lucky packet mountain to go. At this point I couldn't believe we had actually made it to the last climb, I never had any doubt that we would finish this race (ok, maybe on the plane over) but there were times on this run when I thought it would take forever and a day before we got to the finish.

Share this Story