CCC for YCR

[MorganW]

25 years ago this year I did the BG.

To celebrate that (and the fact that I'm still running), I am going to run the CCC in late August.

Spurred partly by the great effort of the Bingley lads with their 3x3Ps, I have decided to use the event to raise some funds for a great local (to me) cause, Yorkshire Cancer Research.

18 months ago I quit my 20 plus year career in the law and went to work 3 days a week for the charity. My work involves the commercialisation of promising research projects, moving these projects closer to the patient, the clinic or the hospital. There is a bit more background on my Just Giving site, link below.

It would be fantastic to have some support from the Forum with this effort, and all contributions will be gratefully received.

Here is a link to the Just Giving site:

http://www.justgiving.com/Morgan-Williams1

[Rudolph Hooker]

PMI but what's the CCC?

[Graeme78]

It's the Courmayer Champex Chamonix Race, http://www.ultratrailmb.com/page/21/CCC®.html

[Filippo Acciaiuoli]

Hence Morgan's embarrassed use of an acronym.

[MorganW]

Hence Morgan's embarrassed use of an acronym.

The full version wouldn't fit in the thread title! And everyone uses the shorthand version.

Thanks to those who have donated so far; you know who you are. I am very grateful.

Morgan

[socks]

PMI but what's the CCC?

Got CCC - but what's PMI mean?

[Rudolph Hooker]

Got CCC - but what's PMI mean?

Don't you bother your pretty little head about it!

[simgreen78]

A detailed and quite moving story on the JustGiving page. All the very best Morgan.

[MorganW]

So, the race went pretty much as planned up to a point..............

The great news is that so far almost £2,500 has been raised for Yorkshire Cancer Research, and I thank again those from the Forum who have contributed.

There is still time to do so via the Just Giving site details at the end of the report below:

The weather forecast for race day (Friday and Saturday) wasn’t great; localised storms and strong westerly winds, so I knew I was in for a treat, but at least the heat I had been fearing would likely be absent.

As the 2,000 of us packed the centre of Courmayeur ready to start at 10.00 am, the weather did just what was forecast and at 9.45 am on the dot the heavens opened and we all suffered through the initial powerful bursts of a huge alpine thunderstorm. To set off with huge peals of thunder mixed in with Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise was quite some way to start. This huge storm continued for the first 2 hours, meaning that we were all nicely soaked through as we climbed up to our first high point of 2,000 metres.

I started pretty close to the back and as a result became caught in much slow-moving traffic with human jams, over the first couple of hours; this was a good thing I think, though it meant I was down on my projected time though the first 11 kms.

The storm then blew itself out and we had a few hours of sunny but very breezy weather which saw us up and over the Grand Col Ferret at 2,537 metres and into Switzerland for the long descent to La Fouly at the 42 kms mark. I picked up over 250 places through this section of the race. It was here that things took a turn for the worse, weather-wise. Whilst I was grabbing some soup and a few other bits to eat, the heavens opened again and it started to rain in biblical quantities. Looking out of the door of the aid station tent all we could see was a wall of water falling out of the sky. This would be about 7.00 pm.

Having 59 kms still to cover, it was out into the thrashing rain. During the next section through to Champex it just poured down, and it was great to arrive at the 55 km point and get some more warm food in at around 9.30 pm to prepare for the long night section.

With over-trousers added to the existing clothing armoury, I left Champex at around 10.00 am with the head torch on and headed off into the foul night. The next climb up Alp Bovine was always the key point of the race for me; it’s steep and rocky, but if I could be through by 1.00 am, I knew I had an excellent chance of finishing the race nicely under the 26 hour time limit. The mountain was runningwith water, the trail was essentially a small river and deep mud started to make an appearance; thin sloppy stuff that poured over the tops of my shoes. Even with all these factors, I was fantastically pleased to claw more time back and arrive just before midnight, with a nice buffer against the cut-off times. Coming off Bovine, I knew I was going to finish the race. I was getting stronger and faster (relatively) as the race went on, I was eating and drinking well and the conditions, whilst extreme, weren’t holding me up too badly.

The next stage of the race to Trient is all downhill, 6.5 kms of descent. The underfoot conditions were now so bad that it was not possible to run the downhills. The trail had turned completely to mud and in the dark it wasn’t possible to determine quite what your feet were landing on; sloppy, deep mud, slimy rock or treacherous tree root. Even with walking this descent as quickly as possible, I was still in no danger at all from the cut-offs at Trient.

The next section is a climb and then a descent over about 10 kms to Vallorcine. The climb is long and quite steep but I was still full of energy and happy to grind this out, coping as best I could with the continuing heavy rain, hill fog and worst of all the incredible mud on the trail. Approaching the high point at Catogne, I stopped to change the head torch batteries, not wanting these to expire on the downhill section; this only took a few seconds as I had the spares close at hand and then it was off on another nerve-wraking descent. The last couple of miles of this downhill will stay with me for many years; it was like the mountain was literally on the move with us. I was moving faster than most and kept becoming “stuck” behind long strings of slow-moving runners. Overtaking was out of the question; this would have meant taking to the very outside of the trail with its steep drop offs, and with the appalling underfoot conditions, one slip would see me down at the Vallorcine check point rather quicker than I wanted to get there!

I arrived at Vallorcine at 5.30 am really delighted with progress. Having been on the go for 19 hours 30 minutes, I had 6 hours 30 minutes to get back to Chamonix over a section that I had walked in 3 hours 15 minutes. Planning to down more soup at Vallorcine, I would soon be on my way again.

However, having monitored the conditions and with reports of mud slides and rock avalanches on the course, the organisers took the decision to halt the race sometime around 3.00 am whilst I was in transit between Trient and Vallorcine and this news was made known to us on arrival in Vallorcine. So with only a few hours of running left, over 1,300 of us still out in the mountains had to face the fact of an early end to our race, in my case with 82 kms covered in some highly trying conditions and with just 18 kms to go. 10 minutes later I was on board a bus bound for Chamonix.

The main race, the UTMB, over 166 kms, which started from Chamonix late Friday afternoon was halted after just 20 miles and 2,300 runners had to be returned to their starting points. A third race, the TDS, scheduled to start at midnight on Friday didn’t start at all.

There was much comment and counter-comment about these decisions, including in the local and national French press, because these races are a major sporting highlight. It is easy to be critical, but the organisers were responsible for the safety of over 5,000 runners out on 3 separate high mountain race routes and I have no issue with them making the call they did. I was disappointed, but I understood their reasons.

One report of events I read used the French word “dantesque” to describe the conditions; the best English translation is “infernal”. For me though, the weather was not the real problem; it was the effect the weather has having on the terrain, which was truly horrific.

Disappointed in any way? No, not at all. I feel I met the challenge in full. It would be nice to jog through that huge finish arch in Chamonix to the strains of Conquest of Paradise, but that’s just my ego talking. And I can’t run if the organisers say “no”. I know that if I had been allowed to continue that I would have finished the full 100 kms course; the shocking weather and underfoot conditions were not deflecting me from my task (they were perhaps having the opposite effect) and all food and drink systems were in full working order.

My legs felt fantastic all race (indicating that I have finally learnt how to ultra-run downhill without trashing my quads; it’s only taken 26 years) and I had no soreness at all in the hours and days after the race; my feet were another matter. Long hours of exposure to water, mud and grit took their toll and they weren’t a pretty sight when the shoes and socks came off once back at the hotel. They are recovering fast though.

These long mountain challenges take great preparation and require great physical and mental strength on the day. They also need a decent slice of good luck, which was markedly absent on this occasion. It is always wise to remember that nature has the upper hand and can flex its muscles at a moment’s notice. It is very satisfying, and an integral part of the challenge, to be prepared for whatever is thrown at you, to cope and to press on.

As always the company of fellow competitors is both humbling and inspiring, as are the efforts of the aid station volunteers who help provide sustenance during the journey. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of these long Alpine ultra events is the contribution of the ordinary people who live in the valleys and villages through which the races pass. They come out of their homes to encourage you on your way, some in the most unlikely of locations and at utterly unreasonable times of day, to give you a cheer, a “Bravo” or an “Allez, allez”, calling you by name which they can see on your race number. These ordinary people are for me the true heroes of these incredible races. They seem to have a deep-rooted respect for the competitors; it’s a pity that our swift passage through their lives doesn’t give us time to tell them how much respect we have for them, and how important they are to our effort.

Finally my love and thanks to Alison for helping me in a whole variety of ways to get ready to undertake this challenge; she was with me every step of the way.


If any of you still want to contribute who haven’t, here is the link:

http://www.justgiving.com/Morgan-Williams1

or directly to me at Yorkshire Cancer Research, 39 East Parade, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG1 5LQ.

Morgan

[stevefoster]

Well done Morgan, thanks for the email