Chamonix Week 2

This week was beyond epic in so many ways.

Italians do it better.

Hanging out with Tim Olson in Courmayeur!

On Tuesday I took the bus under Mont Blanc to Courmayeur. I was planning on just doing the first climb and really get a good feel for it, as it is the hardest and worst of them all. (Of course). I step on the bus and sit down to none other than Timmy Olson, 2 time Western States 100 winner & CR. It was great to chat a bit and then he graciously led me up the first 5k hiking to Rifugio Bertone and showed me the way (Who knows where I would've ended up without him!). Then he took off and I continued along/up a ridge to Tete de la Troche. (The top of the first climb). It was supposed to be 10k of uphill but only ended up being about 5 miles, so I was pretty confused. I looked at a French hiker's detailed map and discovered I had gone up the UTMB bypass route and took some other way to the top. I then went down to Courmayeur and followed the route I was supposed to go up. In short, I did the loop backwards, whoops! But the day was gorgeous, I caught my first sight of the summit of Mont Blanc, ate incredible Italian pizza and gelato, and had a blast bombing down switchbacks through fields of wildflowers.

Foggy above La Flegere

Wednesday it was POURING rain all day, so no gorgeous vistas. However, I met up with Ashley Arnold, super cool TNF runner & dancer, for a rainy run through the forest around Chamonix. It was so nice to have such great company and so fun to dance around the puddles! Her advice and her chill attitude was so welcomed.

Above Le Tour

Col de Balme

Friday I took the train to Vallorcine and ran back to Chamonix with the intention of doing the last climb and descent (10 miles) of the race. I got directions from a french runner on the start of the route and headed up and up. (In the pouring, freezing rain). This was really a turning point for me in terms of my training here. I've been majorly struggling on the uphills and getting my footing on some of the steep, but friday I finally found my rhythm (thanks to the Chicago soundtrack!) and was skipping and running all the way up. That is until I got to the ladders... I arrived to a rock face and the only way to go was up these metal ladders, about 10ft+ long and scattered up the mountain. It snaked around and just when I thought I was at the top, there'd be three more... I lost count after 12... It was miserable. I was getting blown by huge gusts of freezing wind, pelted with rain and my gloves were soaked holding the ladders. I was so afraid of falling off. (It would definitely have been to my death as I was very high up...)

A Refuge above Col de Balme

But then I got onto a rolling ridgeline and was feeling great. (After I changed into a dry longsleeve and new gloves) A french guy caught up to me and we started talking. He is from Annecy and is training for the CCC too! So we ran together and had fun talking. He had a nice map and seemed to know where he was going, and I had absolutely no plan or anything (haha!). We got to La Flegere and started running down... All of a sudden I see a flash of neon pink and Rory Bosio, '13 UTMB winner & CR, is running up the trail. She promptly informs us we took the wrong way, and I took a UTMB variant on my climb up and completely bypassed the trail (duh ladders are not in the race...) And we chatted for a bit before going on our ways. The guy I was running with was stoked haha. The run ended up being pretty sweet and I felt awesome.

Making faces at 2800m

Saturday I got another ride up to Le Tour and CRUISED up to Col de Balme! I felt incredible and just kept wanting to go up and up and up! It was SO beautiful and I even saw some snow! After, a couple friends and I went to a bar and had some red wine for recovery and a delicious meal of macaroni, salad, and melon! So Euro!

So much fun to slip n slide through the fresh powder!

Polar Bear Plunge anyone?

Sunday was pretty amazing. I got an email saturday night from Rory Bosio if she wanted to adventure all day and I promptly responded yes. So I biked to her place and we drove to La Gorge by Les Contamines. We ran-hiked up to Col du Bonhomme through wildflowers, fields with cows and then snaked along this ridge. We started going down huge patches of snow and were pretty much skiing on our shoes. Rory, being a skilled Nordic skier, took off and I was left slipping and sliding and falling on my butt after her. We then scrambled up to this other ridge and took in the INCREDIBLE scenery. This was our highest point at 2750m (almost 9000'). We literally rock climbed our way down to these two beautifully blue alpine lakes. We sat down for 45min-an hour and ate and talked and jumped in! (got some applause from the hikers haha!) Then we ran down to the finish. Not including the lake, it was 17.5-18 miles & 5:05 hours of fun adventuring. Down at La Gorge we sat by, tanned, and swam in a lake with tons of french picnickers. And then devoured some gelato. It was such a fun adventure and she is such a cool, fun, awesome person. Girl talk was very fun and we had a lot of laughs... :)

View from Col de Bonhomme

Unintentionally twinning with Rory- Tete d'enclave

This week I ran 62 miles and climbed 18,900'!!!!! Best part was, I felt so at ease and comfortable running all of that! (Or hiking). Now for the taper!!!!

Time to Enjoy the views & rest!