Competition

"You have an idea of yourself and it can be quite a shock when you don’t come up to your own expectations. If you just tootle along you can think you’re a pretty slick bloke until things go wrong and you find you’re nothing like what you imagined yourself to be. But if you deliberately put yourself in difficult situations, then you get a pretty good idea of how you are going… And if you did blow it, at least there wouldn’t be that great unknown. But to snuff it without knowing who you are and what you are capable of, I can’t think of anything sadder than that."

Mo Antoine, from Feeding the Rat

I just saw this quote over at Rumon Carter's blog & appreciated the sentiment. It describes my feeling about toeing the line and the lessons learned from racing Sierre Zinal on the weekend perfectly.
I'll admit that along with being intrigued about how I'd fair, I was also a bit nervous. I consider myself a good trail runner, so toeing the line with some of the best mountain runners in the world, on a historical mountain course, was always going to be an eye opener and very revelatory about my true abilities. The race did not disappoint. It was steeper, faster, deeper and more challenging than I expected.
It's my first long trail race where I've been in contact with runners, battling for position, the entire time. It reminded me a lot of a very competitive x-country race (a brutally hard one).
The opening leg reduced me to power hiking for a lot of it and once we got to the rolling section, at around 2,200m elevation, I had problems opening up my stride the way I should have. This was a combination of not being properly acclimated to the altitude and fatigue from the grueling climb and a fairly heavy week of training.
I had to settle for a bit of a monotonous speed on the day, feeling like I had a governor on my effort, but still moving at a decent clip. I was fine when the terrain mellowed, or started to head down and my heart and lungs weren't as much a factor and actually rolled very well over the super steep technical descent into town, which resulted in a lot of quad carnage and skinned knees for the over 3,500 participants.
The entire race we were running past spectators and having to force our way past thousands of "tourist" participants who left earlier in the day. Much like in the Tour de France, they would step aside at the very last second, allowing you to pass, cheering with words of encouragement like "hop hop" & "courage". It took a lot of confidence not to slow down, thinking that I would cream some little kid, or hiker with trekking poles, as we danced our way through surprisingly technical boulder fields, trying to race the packs of runners around me.
I was impressed with the power and speed of the frontrunners on both the steep stuff and the rolling terrain and it was a great reminder that I need to stay on top of higher intensity efforts and that I'm still not quite strong enough to compete with the best on a true mountain course of this distance. I definitely need to spend more time hammering up steep terrain! The race and level of competition deserves serious respect and likely some more specific preparation. It's definitely a style of racing and a course that rewards experience, so toeing the line is probably the best form of prep possible.
I ended up 28th, running 2:59:15 and won 100 Swiss francs for breaking 3:00 hrs. This covered almost all my travel for the trip and is more than I have ever won at a trail race, so I really have no regrets for making the long trek, 6 hours there by train. They must have given out a lot of money at the race, if 28th was worthy of some coin. On top of the prestige, it's no wonder they consistently attract such stellar international fields.

The race organization was indeed top-notch. I was given a free apartment to myself and my pre-race meal was as good as expected. I was invited to dine at the restaurant of Didier de Courten, a two-Michelin star chef and a handy runner himself and he made a special "Sierre Zinal" racer dinner, which was by far the best pre-race restaurant meal that I have eaten.
I also met some of the US running contingent, as well as some European runners and organizers.
The whole experience reminded me just how amazing the opportunities and unexpected encounters can be with international racing and I'm very glad that I took the blind leap of faith and made the trip down there.
I not only got in a much harder run than I ever could have done on myself, ticking off a bucket list race and learning a tonne about mountain running, I also expanded my network in the trail running world. All in all, a perfect weekend.


Up next is the Courmayeur Champex Chamonix (CCC) at the UTMB race weekend in Chamonix. It's a 100km mountain race, with 5600 m of ascent & about the same descent. It's supposed to be a beautiful course and is obviously quite challenging.


My body is as ready as it's going to be and I can honestly say, it's as ready as it has ever been for this type & length of effort. I now have to spend the next 10 days getting in the right head space to tackle my longest and most challenging race to date. I can't wait!



Unfortunately, I've been watching Kilian's tips on how to prepare and am now feeling inadequate, like pretty much anyone else who's seen it: