AFTER FIVE YEARS, REDFERN RACES HIS UTMB

Contributed by Stephen Redfern, AURA member

Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc
171km, 26 August – 1 September 2019

This was one race that ended up being five years in the making, due largely to the fact that after putting my hat in the ring for the Lottery, I failed to put an entry in on that third year which would have been an automatic.

But instead I had to start over again, and go through another two years in the lottery. Still with not being lucky in the lottery, I was going to make sure I wasn’t going to do the same mistake and miss out again, so I managed to get my automatic entry in for this year.

And what a race it was. This race is epic; there is nothing small about it.
From running through three countries, covering 171km with mountains, elevation and lots of it. Then there’s the 2500 runners who have come from all over the world to run this race, with a start that is just out of this world.

I arrived in Chamonix on the Wednesday after enjoying two days in Annecy with a great running mate Andrew McDowall from across the Ditch. Our place for the weekend was in Les Houches with Geoff Higgins who was here to tackle the CCC and Andrew also doing UTMB.

Wednesday saw us do a little recon run up the first hill out of Les Houches, where we realised that this was going to be big. We also went back into Les Houches for dinner that evening, which was the perfect timing to watch the lead runners from the TDS come through for the last 8km run to the finish.
Thursday we headed into Chamonix to register, and this was when we really got our first taste of the race atmosphere and size of the whole UTMB festival. Bib pick up went pretty seamlessly once we sorted out where we had to go to pick them up.

With the bib collection done and the afternoon free, we decided to head up the cable car to the top of the Aiguilli du Midi at 3850m elevation. The views were amazing, and gave us a bit of a scale of the mountains and how epic this race was going to be.

Friday came and Geoff took off early for Courmayeur, to the start of the CCC. Since our race wasn’t starting until 6pm, we took the time to sort and pack our race bags, get drop bags ready, and it also allowed us to head down for a two hour rest in the middle of the day as we were going to be up for the whole night.

We then headed into Chamonix and to the start line about 2.5-hours early as we didn’t know what to expect in terms of lining up as it was left to everyone’s own devices to where they wanted to be for the start.
By the time the race was ready to go there was a sea of runners from all around the globe that had filled up the church square behind the start line; 6pm came, a couple of good luck handshakes with the ones around you and then we were off.

What made this start so amazingly special was the fact that all the streets we ran though on our way out of Chamonix were just filled with spectators lining both sides of the streets all the way out of town.

Now to the race itself, but where to start?
The first 8km was a flat run out of town and along the river’s edge over to Les Houches where we turned off onto our first trail, which went straight up to Le Delevret (800m+ elevation) and then back down in to St Gervais with about a 1000m-elevation drop, for the first major aid station and a party atmosphere through the whole town.

This was going to set the tone of what the rest of the course would be like with regards to the climbs.  The first section from the start to the first aid station was a little fast for a miler, but it spread out the first couple hundred runners and afforded us to not get caught in any Congo lines, which allowed us to be able to run at our own pace for most of the race.

It had now started to get dark, ready for us to put on our headtorches. From this point we were now running around the end of the Mont Blanc massif with three serious climbs (all climbing up over 2400-meters) to tackle before dropping down one very steep four km mountain side into Cormeyuer.

That was my least favourite little section, still dark and ridiculously steep which I managed to arrive at 6am and roughly on target. Here I picked up my one and only drop bag, restocked my pack, had a reset and a feed then headed out to now tackle the second half through Italy and Switzerland, before finally finishing off back in France at the place where we started.

I knew this was going to be a tough day and second half of the race, as the quads were already feeling the pinch from all the elevation we did during the night in the first half of the race.

With that thought in mind, I headed back out, got a high-five from Emma McDowall who was waiting for Andrew, then started running out of town back into the mountains (and straight back into another massive hill climb). But because I managed to leave Cormeyuer quite early, I was rewarded with the most amazing sunrise over the alps.

After getting to the top of the climb and passing through the Refuge Bertone check point, we had a nice 10km section of just undulating single track, giving us a break from the climbs (but this was to not last!).

It was here I managed to catch up to fellow AURA member Kellie Emmerson for the third time during the race as we were leap frogging each other throughout the evening in the first half and enjoyed sharing this section where we enjoyed some company and a chat through to the next section at Refuge Bonati.

This then would go on for the rest of the race where we found ourselves coming into the aid station pretty much at the same time, and then with only a couple kilometres to go, Kellie came powering past and in a flash she was gone, finishing a minute in front of me.

It was great to have two Aussies crossing the line at pretty much the same time.

This back half although absolutely stunning in terms of the mountains, it was also brutal, with five massive climbs and whilst I still had the power to push up the hills usually gaining a few spots each time, I had little strength to push on the downhills, basically losing those same spots, it was quite comical.

Overall I felt great throughout the whole race, never having any nutrition or energy issues, just sore quads from the constant climbing and descending. I managed to finish in what I felt was an okay time, even if a little over my private goal for the race, I pretty much stayed on the same position give or take the places lost and gained throughout the race.

Finally I came back into Chamonix at 1.30 in the morning, where surprisingly there were still people lining the streets to cheer us to the finish line.

Such wonderful memories this race is going to leave for me, between all the amazing warm locals getting right behind the race to the volunteers who put on such great aid stations to make sure we were well looked after, and the friendships that were bonded with the other runners we got to share the race with.

I even managed to get back to the house, shower, have two pieces of toast and then head back into town with Geoff to watch and cheer Andrew across the line at 5.30am. Even though we were up now for two full nights, it was so worth it to watch him finish and share that well-earned beer to celebrate (at 6.30am!).

Would I do this race again? Most definitely, and I would recommend anyone who is able to get the qualifying point to put an entry into the lottery, and hopefully get the chance to experience it. I would rate this up there, as one of my hardest and toughest race, just through the sheer elevation and climbs you do. It is definitely one race that can comfortably handle being as big as it is.

Special thanks to Tailwind Nutrition Australia for supporting me and keeping me fuel for this race and all races. Thanks Rebekah and Gavin Markey for believing in me and getting behind me on my adventures. Lastly, the biggest thanks goes out to my beautiful wife Penny, who unfortunately isn’t always able to make it to my races due to work, but is still there with me supporting me and following the whole journey.
I always feel very privileged to be able to follow my dreams.

Now I’m recovering and concentrating on my prep for the World 24hr Championships – funnily enough, back in France!

Pictured: Stephen Redfern all smiles as he leaves Cormeyuer check point at UTMB 2019. Photograph – Supplied/Facebook.