An official statement: "It is with huge regret and after much soul searching that due to illness Chrissie has announced that she is unable to race. Chrissie started feeling unwell yesterday and attempted to train as normal but without her usual intensity. Chrissie left racking her bike until the last minute and hoped that by this morning her health would have improved sufficiently to start. Chrissie has described this as the hardest decision of her life to date and out of respect for the race and her fellow competitors feels that she should only start if she can compete in the manner that the sport of triathlon has become accustomed to. Chrissie would like to wish everyone an enjoyable and safe race."
This new Trail Verbier St-Bernard video is definitely worth checking out. It captures the energetic atmosphere of the early 5 AM start as well as some of the greatest scenery along the course. Viewers are able to appreciate how much snow there can be in Switzerland, in July, above 2000 meters.
This is a well-organised race and highly recommended, if you are into alpine ultra trail running. I wish they would release a longer video later on. 3.2 minutes is hardly adequate for a race with a 32-hour cut off time.
If (and this should be a big IF) you can finish the 110 km long loop (La Boucle, with almost 7 km of cumulative ascent/descent), you get four points for UTMB (Ultra Trail Mont Blanc, which was cancelled this year, and nowadays requires min 5 points from max 2 recent races to even get a chance to participate in the lottery). Actually part of the La Boucle course follows exactly the same trail as UTMB course, only in reverse direction.
By the way, my pet peeve with the French-speaking organisers appears once again: information is presented in French only, and if you translate it into English, it turns out to be fairly inaccurate nonsense anyway, LOL :)
For example, "1er Trail de Plus de 100 KM entièrement suisse" which I believe means something like "The first trail [running race with a course of] over 100 km, entirely Swiss". Typos aside, this is not a 100% true statement because:
Most of TVSB participants choose to run only the last 61 km of the course (and about half of the long course starters, including your truly, DNFed), so for 90% of participants it's under 100 km;
They don't mention that part of the trail is in Italy, so it's not completely a Swiss thing only (of course they could refer to the fact that the race crew is Swiss, but that wouldn't be entirely true either, as some of the volunteers I encountered at aid stations were Finns) - and why should it, I thought the short Italian part of the course was quite fab;
There are other notable ultra trail events in Switzerland, for example the 7-day, 370 km Trans Swiss Run, which was organised in 2008 for the first time, so they began a year before TVSB. It also offers fours points to qualify for for UTMB, and the course stays entirely in Switzerland, going through the country from North to South.
I've probably learned my lessons, and hopefully next year it will go much better, so I can finally get this monkey (or more like 900-pound gorilla :) off my back:
Certainly my diet will be totally different and much more compatible with the food that's available along the course;
I'll also improve my gear, at least get a better (ie. heavier) rain jacket, which might mean a bigger backpack than the otherwise excellent Raidlight Olmo 5, but we'll see about that later on;
Maybe I can even hire a small, but extremely effective support crew to help me (in other words, to kick my ass and stop me whining :) during the more difficult later stages of the race.
See you in Verbier, home of extreme ultra trails and extremely friendly folks!
Finland has become the first country in the world to make giving up smoking a goal of the state enshrined in the country’s laws. The new strict non-smoking laws will come into effect on October 1, 2010.
That's an excellent start. The next logical step would be making marathon running obligatory for all adults. And tax cuts for those who can finish it in under three hours!
An interesting article by Owen Anderson for Active.com about Eating practices of the best endurance athletes in the world (ie. Kenyan runners) reveals the following ten surprising facts, based on a study of 10 elite Kenyan runners over a period of seven days (in 2004):
The Kenyans were very lean and light, their weight averaging at 58.6 kg (129 lb).
They ate a relatively limited variety of foods.
Approximately 86% of their calories came from vegetable sources (corn 'ugali', bread, rice, potatoes, porridge, cabbage, beans, etc).
They were not taking supplements of any kind.
They spent 1.2 hours per day running, with only a third (23 mins) of this consisting of quality training.
Their diets were extremely rich in carbohydrates (about 77 %, or about 10 g of carbs per kg of body weight).
Their protein (10%) and fat (13%) intake was quite modest, but adequate.
Their water intake was modest, just a little over a liter a day.
They drank lots of tea with milk, actually slightly more than plain water.
A fifth of their daily calories came from plain sugar.
Of course, in hindsight, it could be said that perhaps the most surprising secret of Kenyan elite distance runners is that they don't seem to have any secrets at all! Maybe they are just excellent runners by nature, due to the location where they live.
