5th woman at TDS Ultratrail in Chamonix, France

27 August 2014

3:15 Wake-up, Breakfast
4:30 Shuttle bus to Courmayeur, Italy
6:00 Last preparations before the start (no warm-up! :))
6:58 Pirates of the Caribean theme song playing
7:00 We are off!
7:17 Walking up the first mountain, way too fast
8:53 First mountain pass reached: Arrêt Mont-Favre
9:01 Crash on the first downhill, outch!
10:19 Second pass: Col Chavannes, very windy, feeling sick
12:23 Arriving at Col du Petit St. Bernhard: Seeing my support crew, we are in France now!
13:55 Finally in Bourg St.-Maurice (km 50) at the first personal assistance point (my family!). Feeling bad after the long downhill. First thoughts about quitting the race. But my support crew would not allow it ;)
14:03 Off again!
16:11 Climbing up and up, seems to be never ending, hot like hell, almost running out of water

16:57 A helicopter filming our climb, that must be great shots
17:19 Finally on the top! Followed by a very technical downhill, one little crash for me... :)
18:02 Cormet du Roselend: seriously only halftime?! km 66, race time 11 hours
19:03 Running like hell, feeling unbeatable, runner's high?
20:11 It's getting dark. Feeling bad again. Headlight on
20:22 Fog, I can't see the trail anymore!
22:10 Nutrition at Col du Joly, happy to be at the 2nd last long downhill, it really hurts now
23:01 Trying to ignore my hurting knees, trying to push harder and go faster
23:45 Finally seeing my crew again, 2nd personal assistance point, almost there: only 25km and around 5 hours of running left

28 August 2014

1:32 This climb is so steep! Digging deep. Seeing all the headlights of the other racers on the mountain: priceless!
2:12 Col du Tricot: Last big mountain pass done!
3:15 My alarm clock is going off again
3:33 Hating this downhill, everything hurts so bad
3:54 Arriving in Les Houches: The last (almost flat) 8 km! Passing another girl and starting to push harder
4:21 Pushing as hard as possible: I want to finally get to that finish line to make it stop hurting!
4:48 FINISH! 119km with 7250m climbing done. Fastest female split on the last 8km-section by 6mins! :)

3rd agegroup female under 40
5th women field
99th overall
21:46:47 race time
5.44 km/h average pace
Results