Life is an ultramarathon

I bought "only" 3 pictures from the UTMB. The sport photography company (that I won't name here) doesn't seem to be ashamed to charge 3.35 euros for the shipping when you order digital pictures to be sent by ... e-mail !


(Click to enlarge)

Ultra ... pictures ?

Of course, I'd like to run the UTMB again in 2007 and, if possible, to finish it (first difficulty will be to get in...).

But what about other plans ? You know, the kind of things you think about, but you don't really believe you'll carry on for good. The Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc was one of them. And the dream did eventually happen! So why not another one, slightly different, maybe harder, maybe crazier... Lots of those dreams will probably never happen, but I still hope to complete at least a couple of them.

On the long term, I still have the idea to walk one of the European long distance paths. But none of them is exactly the one I dream of. Because it needs to follow the GR5 in France (Vosges, Jura, Alpes), but the E2 is too short. Ideally, it would start from the North of Scandinavia, then head South to Denmark, Germany, France and Spain... That's probably 6000 to 7000km, a year walking

On the mid-term (in the coming years), I wish I could complete the Nice Ironman (*), because I want to try something a bit different and also because it's usually considered as a challenge.
I would also like to run the Grand Union Canal 145 mile Race (233km), from Birmingham to London. This is a properly organised race with food points if you need them, which helps a lot, but on the other hand I'm still wondering if following a canal by night in the Midlands is very nice...
More symbolic, following the Thames from source to sea. A National Trail, the Thames path, actually follows the Thames for about 294km, from the source to the Thames Barrier. So far, I've thought mostly about running from the source to the sea, following the water flow. But as suggested by some web sites, the other way round may also be an option. Because escaping London feels nicer, and the sort of quest to the source is highly symbolic. I don't know if this has been done so far. As nothing is organised, I would need a small team (or a big bag) to carry one with this project.
And of course, there's still this multi-day run, the UK diagonal from Dover to Cape Wrath, detailed previously in my blog, or maybe the more common but also slightly longer Land's End to John O'Groats (LEJOG).

Ultra plans.

(*) An ironman is a triathlon composed of 3.8km swimming, 180km cycling and a marathon (42.2km running).

You may have heard of the Man versus Horse Marathon held every year in Llanwrtyd Wells. This is a race where runners compete with horse riders, and now with cyclists as well. In 2004, for the first time a runner beat the horse. Of course, the race is designed in such a way that the man has a chance.

This morning, I decided to run to the College as a gentle start after my injury. During the first half of the route, where I follow the bus' route, I managed to take over on 3 buses . And the proper traffic jams are actually located a bit further! It was funny to see the drivers in their cars, accelerating nervously after each traffic light for 30m before seeing me disappearing further away. Again, London is designed in such a way that runners have a (fairly big) chance against cars.

45 minutes on foot, 40 by bus, 24 running, how long cycling ?

More about the Man versus Horse Marathon:

• The story
• Results, registrations, ...

Ultra ?

This could nearly be the headline of some British newspapers

A week and a half after the big day, my ankle feels much better. For two days it was actually pretty bad (and even getting somehow worse). I let you imagine (and particularly those who know me...) how I could feel frustrated when I couldn't even walk more than 10 minutes ! It started to heal relatively fast the following days. I then realised my knees were not very happy with me either, in particular the right one that had to absorb all the extra load I couldn't put on my left ankle during the descent. Now I can walk more, I can even run a bit when I need to catch the bus, but I think long walks and awkward feet positions are still to be avoided. I may try to go swimming this week-end. Gentle runs and climbing sessions later on, depending on how it goes. It may not be healing so fast after all.

On the longer scale now. I think it'll be hard to remain on what I still consider as a half a failure. So I've pretty much made my mind: I'll try the UTMB again next year (if I can register), although I realise it'll never be again like the 2005 edition, my first ultra and a finish. Anyway, I hope I'll be able to train more, particularly for the 'quality' sessions at specific speed. I think I'll need at least 3 to 5 proprer long distance runs (over 42km) in the hills (North Wales and Lake District) to strengthen my ankles. In fact, I started to come to the conclusion that the very rasing stride developped by running on flat surface probably shortened the ligament at front of the lower leg down to the ankle, or at least made it weaker. I may register for a marathon in early spring and a trail (most likely in the UK) a bit later. A 100km would be nice to test myself on a long but relatively fast race - any idea welcome.

I was also thinking of building a team for the UTMB 2007. It's much better to share advices and not to be stressed on your own the days before the race. Also if we register the team, we can be ranked as such, which is symbolically pretty cool.

Ultra recovery.