Day 1 – Knowing how capable and tough Topher is I still thought he was crazy when I heard his plan was to arrive in Chamonix at 11pm the night before we were to start our adventure. The crew picked him up at his hotel at 7am looking fresh as a daisy… or the president of a world wide brand that needs to be “on” 24/7. I liked his enthusiam. As most of you know, running is unique in that it gives back more energy to the body than it takes out, but Topher is unique. There are few people that I’ve met that can maintain that kind of spark through situations with obvious fatigue. This morning was no exception. We had an hour drive around to Les Contamines but got started on the trail by 9am. Traveling quickly we crossed the valley and made our way up to tree line around 6,000ft up though the dense alpine forest. One up to the bowl below the Col we were greeted with green European pastures, sweeping views of the valley we climbed up from, and a few homes dotting the hillsides the trail passes by. We’d climbed about 1500ft and still had about 2500 to go before the top but we were fresh this morning and traveling well. Putting our heads down (metaphorically of course, I couldn’t take my eyes off the vast mountain hillsides and expansive views) we crested the top, took some pics, and headed down the other side.
One aspect of the European trails that was evident pretty quickly was they never choose the easiest path just the shortest path. Just like the trail up the mountain, the trail going down was straight down, none of this wishy-washy switchbacky stuff, the trail gets to where it needs to be in a straight line. They decided to forgo saving joints for saving a bit of time when they made the trails here. Needless to say we made pretty quick work of a 2500ft decent. Topher and I hit the hut at the bottom and while he ordered some butter sandwiches with a little ham and cheese, I went back up to make sure the others were on the right track. As the token sponsored athlete I assumed the responsibility of keeping track of everyone and making sure they had what they needed and remained in good spirits. The last thing you want is for someone writing a story about their experience to have a bad one to write about. Keeping a positive feel and outlook to the adventure makes a huge difference in the perception of the trip in the days and weeks afterward. Of course adventures like this are supposed to be difficult, a chance to challenge yourself, and find your limits while keeping it enjoyable and rewarding for everyone involved. And you don’t want to lose anyone, that will definitely put a damper on the trip.
The way Erin had the trip set up was that she would meet us at two designated locations that she could get to during the day, effectively splitting each day roughly into thirds so that the journalists and photographer could hop on and off as they wished. Thirty miles is tough for anyone to do on any terrain and the mountains, rough trails, and heat made these thirty miles especially challenging. After coming down the Col de la Seine Topher and I dropped off Brian, Scott, and Lisa and picked up Leslie for the final 8-9miles up and over our third climb of the day and down 3000ft into Courmayer. Topher and I were feeling the time on our feet at this point just as the others were but we were in it for the long haul. Leslie was awesome heading up the 2500ft climb as the weather moved in and we made quick work of a beautiful, but brutal final climb. Because of the hot weather, the thunderheads moved in covered the tops of the peaks with a mysterious thick grey mist and cast a damp shadow on the landscape. The feeling of running to the distant sound of thunder is reminiscent of a grand expedition, a mission even, that must be accomplished at all cost. It takes on an air of melancholy urgency. It always puts me in the scene of an adventure movie and inspires me to a greater effort. Yeah, I guess it’s the romantic in me.
The decent into Courmayer is a brutal one, but first we had to rendezvous with with Jockomo. You know the characters in movies that play the supporting role of the unique old friend with lots of fantastic history behind him, this is Jockomo. An old friend of Tophers from the race, he stops by his small but quaint lodge at the top of the Courmayeur pass about once a year during his training pilgrimage. He was kind enough to treat us to the freshest marinara pasta this side of Tuscany and a shot of Jagermeister, because what run isn’t complete with out a little Jager, mmm. And talk about a character, Jockomo’s lodge is a hodge podge of memorabilia from his life in the mountains, Photos, posters, and other items cover the walls to make his hut one of the most memorable on the tour. A picture of Jockomo racing his motorcycle is pinned up next to one of him riding horses next to a poster of him during a speed record attempt on skis. This is of course punctuated by the occasional poster of a scantily clad woman in a thong bikini like an old auto garage or man cave, because, after all, he is Italian, right?
Another bone jarring, joint smashing, quad destroying decent to Courmayeur would lead us to our Italian hotel and a gorgeous dinner that wouldn’t be complete without Italian wine and Caprese salad. Thus ends day one. Yeah, I’m beat but taking stock of my condition I’m in good shape for what tomorrow brings. Good night.
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Looks like you are having an amazing time in the Alps, nothing can compare to the mountain trails & culture there – I miss it! Look foward to reading more postings.