My story so far: června 2015

I knew this marathon would be stupid idea. I´m not really good runner (I mean, not yet!) and when my friend Zdenek said: "The registration to Mont Blanc marathon is open, you should apply" I laughed so much, of course. Then I started to think about that. Registration to this marathon was a lottery, so I thought that it could be fun, I can apply and then I would wait if they choose us. Then it´s not me being stupid but it´s destiny being stupid, isn´t it?

Wednesday, 24th of June - travelling

My ID says that today I am one year older. Well, I don´t really care about my age and this day is the same as other days but ok, let´s say I´m now 24 years old instead of 22 (yes, that is not truth, I´m older). I guess "normal" people celebrate on they birthday, I was travelling to France instead.

Thursday, 25th of June

We finally arrived to Chamonix. Mountains everywhere! I was so amazed, saying all the time:

"Oh man, look at those mountains!"

"Look, there is Mont Blanc!"

"That is SO beautiful!"

Yes, I was like a child in Disneyland. I just love mountains and Chamonix is really awesome.

With Peter and Jarka.

We stopped at the registration place for our racing bibs and then we travelled to Le Tour (1470m), where we left our car and we started to climb up to the mountains. We found nice place to set up our tents, Col des Posettes (at about 2000m) and 8:30pm we all were in our beds (well, sleeping bags), so tired after travelling and hiking.

Tom.

Friday, 26th of June

How cool is our bedroom?

There was a beautiful sunrise in the morning with view at Mont Blanc.

We had breakfast and then we packed our backpacks for a trip. We were also waiting for first runners because we realised that our tents are just next to the route of ultra run 80K. Our trip was through Col de Balme and then to really nice place called Refuge Albert (2712m) just next to the Glacier du Tour. So amazing to be that close to the glacier! Well, but I must admit that I didn´t feel good on our way up. There were some moments when I felt scared because I´m afraid of heights.

We stayed there quite long, my friends said that it can help a little bit with our acclimatization. I had my physiology notes with me (stadying for exam) so I could read them some lessons about training at high altitude. My acclimatization was great...I fell asleep there. After a while some music from the kitchen woke me up. It reminded me times in Portugal, when Scott and Lynn were cooking with music, although this music was some crazy French one.

Mont Blanc & Renata. Love at first sight.

Tom.

See? I WAS studying! Well, before I fell asleep...

Lovely picture? That is just before the bird shitted next to our bags!

Peter ready to jump.

The helicopter was bringing refresment point for our race on Sunday.

Saturday, 27th of June

Another beautiful sunrise up in the mountains. We couldn´t enjoy it for long time as we had to pack our things and return to Le Tour and then Chamonix. We found nice campsite to stay - Les Arolles, I can recommend this one! In afternoon we finally met with our friends so then we could study the route for tomorrow and chat about nutrition. I had my traditional before-race glass of wine. For my blood cells, of course.

Nutrition for marathon.

Sunday, 28th of June - Mont Blanc Marathon

As you can see from profile, it was quite tough race. I tried to be (as coach Philip would say) smart and sensible, but I still have lots of to learn.

4:50 - time to wake-up. Breakfast, packing things and leaving campsite at 6:15 to the centre of Chamonix.

6:50 - ten minutes to the start. I felt emotionally damaged and I almost had my little cry. Don´t ask me why, maybe some silly hormons.

7:00 - start of the race. I was running at comfortable pace as my friend said that I should not be so fast at the beginning. I tried to look for my friends but we got separated and I was on my own.

I felt really happy when we started to climb some hills as there were beautiful views. I also smiled. A lot. There was lots of volunteers and I tried my nicest smile at every volunteer and every person who was cheering us up. Soon I realised that the more I was smiling the more they were cheering me up, so I smiled even more. That also helped me to keep some nice pace and be happy all the time. I was definitely the happiest runner there. Volunteers usually checked what name is on our racing bibs and they shouted our names, I heard many times: "Allez Renata, allez!".

I had a plan for nutrition, kind of the same what Laura and Philip were trying to teach me in Portugal. I ate every 20 or 30minutes according to the food I had with me. I felt quite good after every little snack but then I was thinking about first refreshment point at 17,4K, just before that biggest climbing. My thoughts were about chocolate, I hoped that they have some chocolate there. And they had :-) Life was awesome. Chocolate, banana, more water and my body was ready for the highest climbing - nearly six kilometres and almost 1000m up. I had with me those running poles (or nordic poles, whatever that name is in English) to help me up in steep parts. That went quite good, I overtook at least twenty runners there, it reminded me cross-country skiing, I had my comfortable pace and also some songs in my head. When I was thinking about Laura (because she´s got a birthday today!) the song was: Simply the best, of course. That was a really good song for climbing up that hill!

After highest point Aiguillettes des Posettes was nice downhill, I used my running poles again and I overtook some runners. That was fun, I do like running downhill and I felt like a mountain goat there! Unfortunately, then I wasn´t eating enough... I thought there would be refreshment point at 27K, just down that hill. There wasn´t and I made a huge mistake by not eating for quite long time. When I got to the refreshment point some guy there was playing guitar and singing song: No woman, no cry: "Everything is gonna be alright, everything is gonna be alright...".

Sure man, everything is gonna be alright when I eat something. They had chocolate again and banana. After that refreshpoint was the route going uphill again, that was the time when I felt really sick and I tried to speak nicely to my stomach about not throwing up. Lots of runners were overtaking me and my left foot was getting worse, I wasn´t the happiest runner anymore. After long climbing I got to next refreshpoint, absolutely exhausted, unhappy (but still smiling at other people, because that is important!), my left foot was painful but I knew I had to get to the finish. When I am struggling that much I usually start to think about people who are not with us anymore - I mean they are always with us, but not physically in this world anymore. That helped a little bit and after the last refreshment point I was able to continue on my way to the finish. The last few hundred metres were really emotionall, people were cheering me up so much, shouting "Allez Renata, allez, allez!" and I nearly had another little cry.

I crossed the finish line with time 8:53:47, which is not impressive time at all, but I learned a lot.

Will I do something like that again? On Sunday I would say: "Never ever" but now?

Well, never say never.