Julien's fuzzy blog

... that running ultramarathons is not healthy at all. Human body is not designed for that. This was one of his conclusions after the examination of my _ips.

Update 19/12: registrations for the UTMB are now closed ! 2000 runners in 20 days... You can still register for the CCC !

This morning, the number of runners registered for the Ultra-Trail Tour du Mont-Blanc reached 1820 out of a maximum limit of 2000. The event takes place in 8 months ! So if you intend to enter this amazing race, you have to do it very quickly. The Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix (86km +4500m) recorded "only" 286 registrations so far (out of 1000). The UTMB is worth trying for many reasons: explore your ultimate physical and psychological limits of course, but also enjoy a human, friendly adventure around Europe's highest peak. Think about it !

By the way, I've been rejected at the London marathon ballot, but I don't really mind. I'm gonna do a 50km OFF (free ultra run) in the Lake District instead .

I've just registered for the UTMB 2006 a couple of hours after the registration started... No waiting list and hope fading away this time ...
In the same time, my hip's still "hurting" 3 weeks after the London to Brighton even though I'm virtually doing no excercice any more. The ache seems to migrate to the thigh. Am I wrong or it starts to look like a kind of sciatica ?

It's now great time for the winter rest. I will (try to) reduce my running volume. At the same time, I start to think about my runs for 2006... Hereafter a couple of ideas:

• UTMB 2006 - that's nearly sure I will try to run this amazing race a second time... This year, a half-race (Courmayeur to Chamomix - 86km - 4500m elevation gain) will also be organised for those interested . For my own, I will try to finish and also to be under 32h.
• My (ex-)secret project: Dover to Cape Wrath (UK diagonal - South-East to North-West), solo, without assistance, mainly on the national trails - 1600km. It would take a month to run that for me (60km/day). I'm not sure I would be able to do it, but ...
• Grand Union Canal race: 145 miles (233km) from Birmingham to London. An on-bike crew would be an advantage for me. If you feel like riding for at least 35h, please contact me ...

All comments welcomed !

This is the speed graph of my run from London to Brighton. Speed was integrated on 500m sections. Slow motion zones can be explained by the following:

• a: first stop at the beginning of Farthing Downs
• b: water stop at Redhill
• c: short rest after Horley
• d: cramps and moment of doubt at the exit of Crawley
• e: water stop at Cuckfield
• f: ascent of Dictchling Beacon

click for larger image
It's interesting to distinguish between 3 main parts: the first third (start to a) virtually always over 10km/h, the second third (a to d) at the constant average speed but with lots of slower parts and the last one (d to the end) slowing down constantly.

Yesterday I went again to Brighton from London, but without my bike this time (as it's been stolen...). I followed the roads, mostly the A23 and the B2036. I had to be at the same time the organiser, the volunteers and the runner. Which means that I had to navigate, to find some water on the way and ... to run !

I started from Westminster at 7am (official Big Ben time). I ran through Brixton, Streatham, Croydon, Purley and Coulsdon (km 23) before I started to see the countryside. Panoramas from Farthing Downs were pretty nice. Then Chaldon, Redhill (km 35) where I bought my first water refill. From this point I started to swap between short walks and longer runs. Salfords, marathon in 4h02, Horley (km 44). I started to feel a bit tired, so I had a short rest in a meadow nearby the road. Some policemen stopped to ask me if I was ok and then chatted a bit. This comforted me again to think that British policemen are much kinder that the French ones (no relation with recent events).
I continued to Crawley and started to have cramps after that. Immediately doubt took my mind, I looked at the map where was the next train station, etc. But, as often in ultras, after 10 minutes walking I felt fresh, running, enjoying the landscape, and never thought about withdrawing again ! Balcombe, Cuckfield, Ansty. On the narrow roads surrounded by hedges, I had to be very careful with cars, and once I was so close to the hedge (the car didn't leave me much space) that I didn't see a branch and fell down. Nice bleeding knee. At Burgess Hill someone stopped to ask me if I was fine. Then Hassocks and Ditchling, just before the ascent of Dictchling Beacon (150m elevation gain on a steep road) where I walked more than I ran. Pain in the legs started to increase and the descent to Brighton was not very pleasant. Finish at Brighton Pier at 4:42pm, just before the night.

I took 9h42 to complete these 90.5km (GPS: 88.6km) and expected around 10h. That's an average speed of 9.3km/h or 4h30 for a marathon, not too bad. During the official race, the time limit is only 9h50 (but the route is 1 or 2km shorter).

I got a nice GPS track of the route, although I miss the end because I ran out of batteries. I just acquired a couple of waypoints from Hassocks, not very precise. I might release a couple of graphs later on.

This morning, after a not-so-good night, my legs are very stiff (not to say painful) especially while going downstairs or sitting down. Even my upper body (abds, shoulders, arms) is quite stiff. Funny to think that I felt better after 35h30 on the UTMB... But yesterday, however shorter, was much more intense.

I just come back from a conference... no comment.

My parents sent me the full-size pictures of the UTMB, thank you ! They're online within the UTMB 2005 article. I've also added my speed along the trail a couple of days ago. I guess I've now finished with this article. Enjoy.

Odile's father, Yves, managed to finish the Grand Raid de la Réunion - la diagonale des fous (the diagonal of the fools). 140km and 8500m of elevation gain on highly technical terrain in 50 hours as you can see here. Well done !

Today Kim, Odile and I went to walk a bit of the North Downs Way, from Folkestone to Dover. The weather was quite good so Kim was brave enough to bath her feet at Dover beach. The path was mostly following the edge of the cliffs and we could see easily the French coast. We saw lots of kestrels.
Funny moment of the day: Odile managed to loose her train ticket in the air conditionning system. I had to get it back, liing down under the table using Kim's hairpins. Great fun !

Last week-end, Karim and I went to Amsterdam to visit and to run the marathon.

The city:
Amsterdam is quite ... special. It could be a kind of romantic city, with its lovely canals and small bridges everywhere. But it seems that nobody really cares about that and most the banks are not particularly attractive.
Beside that, of course there's Red Lights District, where our hostel was located. It's a quarter of rather explicit sex shops, a quarter of coffee shops that perfume all the streets with hemp, a quarter of restaurants, and surprisingly a quarter of typical British/Irish pubs. With Sky Sport, of course, no English would miss Chelsea vs Bolton because of a week-end trip to Amsterdam. Beside that, there are of course the prostitutes behind their windows and the drug dealers everywhere.

The race:
As the title suggests, the marathon attemp was awfull due to my dodgy stomach. The first 15km were painful, as if I had a big ball in my tummy. Then I threw up a couple of times and things got better for a short while, although I couldn't really drink or eat. I guess none of my breakfast neither the water I got at the food points stayed with me. Hypoglycemia and dehydratation started logically. Somehow I managed to run another 10km, eyes closed half of time, not really conscious any more, starting to walk more and more often. Then I sat down on the grass at km 27 and "Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis" picked me up... Dank u wel ! End of the story.
That's really sad, because everything was really nice. The organisation was very good: the pastas at the pasta party were excellent, the route was rather scenic (canals, windmills), and they even provided nipples protections The weather was good too and the people much more friendly than in other marathons. Anyway...
A funny bit was the return to the hostel with my tiny short. Everybody was stairing at my parts, without hiding themselves at all... I had also to take the train to the airport and to check-in like that before I could find a shower ...

What is this stomach problem ?
So what causes this stomach problem I got in Belfast and Amsterdam ? Here are some info about the distances over a marathon I've run:

run	distance	breakfast at "home"	pace	stress	over feeding
Paris 2003	42.195	yes	slow	+++	+
Paris 2004	42.195	yes	average	++	+
Belfast 2005	43.375...	no	a bit fast	+	+++
Lakes training	50 (trail)	n/a	slow	-	-
UTMB 2005	158 (trail)	n/a	slow	+++	+
Amsterdam 2005	42.195	no	a bit fast	-	-

My guess would be an unusual breakfast that my stomach doesn't appreciate, combined maybe with a fast start. Next time I take my cereals with me ! Any more idea ?

Note: although I got some minor stomach problems during the UTMB, it was something completely different, that disapeared quickly.

I've closed today the my fundraised UTMB against AIDS through the AVERT charity. I've raised £503.02. I really hope it can help to make the difference.
A huge THANK YOU to all my sponsors and supporters !
Tomorrow I'm flying for Amsterdam. I'm about to run this marathon without an amazing motivation I reckon. I feel physically pretty well, but I'm elsewhere. We'll see.

Yesterday Mommas and I went hiking on the east side of the South Downs Way. We walked the ending loop starting from Eastbourne.
We started by the inland part in the hills, mostly covered in meadows and woods to Jevington, Alfriston, Litlington and Westdean. Then we headed to the grassy coast (Birling Gap and Beachy Head). The white chalk cliffs offer really great scenery, but it was a bit too crowded for me. Also, we saw a large number of hill-runners all along the route. Gives me some ideas .
The weather was really sunny, but also windy and quite cool. Perfect for hiking ! This was supposed to be a long day hike (around 35km), but we ended up with a rather traditional 9am-5pm day . I guess I'm not very good at evaluating speed on rather "flat" terrain.

A pretty nice picture of Beachy Head on wikipedia.

Yesterday Karim and me went running a nice 26km in Richmond Park, located in South-West London (zone 4). With a surface of 10km², it's 4 times a big as Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens together ! As a matter of fact the main running loop is twice longer (11.5km).
This park is a really great place to run, with sand tracks running in the meadows, the ferns and the woods. We even saw a deer, which are quite common apparently. People are pretty more friendly and talkative there than in Hyde Park.
With 16km on Saturday, that's just 42km in the week-end . I will now start to reduce the training volume during the 3 weeks remaining before the Amsterdam Marathon.

A nice runner gathered here most of the TV and radio programs about the trail:

• 1 min on EuroNews
• 2 min on TF1
• 3 min on France 3 Rhone-Alpes
• 5 min on France 2 (Stade 2)
• 1h30 on France Culture (radio)

All of them in French I'm sorry

Yesterday, four men died during the Great North Run (half-marathon). I'd like to take the occasion to reply to a popular idea about running to death.
Lots of people believe that the longer you run, the more you're heating and therefore the more likely you are to die by over-heating. As a matter of fact ultra-races are really dangerous. That's absolutely wrong! You have pretty less chance to die running a 100km than a 10km. Because the pace is far slower while running 100km, the body produces less heat. Over-heating occures during more intense (and therefore shorter) exercise. If the weather is not too hot, over-heating is not a serious problem during an ultra race.
Obviously if you run the Bad Water Ultramarathon (217km in the Death Valley, temperatures up to 55°C) or the Marathon des Sables it's a bit different...

Oh, I just noticed I forgot to tell you that on the UTMB food points there were lots of organic, spelt (épeautre) and seed germs bread ... Some will understand, others not.