(with a marathon as cool down) Around this time of year, after the triathlon season has finished and the head torches come out, it’s time to start planning next year’s races. We try to do one “big” race every year.
Big is usually something we haven’t done before. 2009 was the year of the Marathon des Sables. 2010 already has a couple of ultra’s and ironmen pencilled in the diary but mountain running caught my attention this year and the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc caught my attention as a possible for 2010. In order to take part, applicants need to have accumulated a certain number of points which can be earning for completing various off-road ultrarmarathons and multi-day events. We had earned most of our qualification points earlier in the year but we needed one more. There are no suitable races in Ireland but we found one (Roentgenlauf, Remscheid) near where my stepson lives in Germany so we entered. On paper the route looked fairly straightforward. Indeed I had sold the idea to my fiancé based on it being a “short” ultramarathon on paths in a German forest. The website advertises 800 meters of climbing over 63.3 km which didn’t seem like all that much really.
On 24th October we headed to Dusseldorf and onwards by train to Remschied which is
in Bergischland (mountain area), we passed over Germany’s highest bridge, past ski-lifts….. and still it hadn’t sunk in that this was going to be significantly more hilly than I was expecting.
Registration was a bit more chaotic than I am used to in Germany. Lots of arm waving later, we had our numbers and vague instructions on how things would operate on race day. On race day we were up bright and early. The race is run in a similar manner to the Connemarathon where in addition to the ultramarathon there is a marathon, half marathon, Nordic walking, 10 km and even 400 meter baby marathons for kids. It certainly added to the atmosphere on the start line and I believe 4000 people started one of the races on offer at 9am. The organisation was a lot smoother on race day compared to the pick-up day.
The route is one large loop. All races start together with the half marathon finishing at 13.1 km (and bussed back to the start), the marathoners at 42.2 and the rest of us run home. The first 5 km were on road before we hit the trails. The surface was anything from loose tarmac to mud but the path was pretty clear and little in the way of navigational skill was needed. The route was up and down from the start. I measured the total climb as over 2.5 km! Significantly more than advertised and a huge amount more than I wanted. Most sections were runable but there were one or two sections that we had to crawl up. There were refreshments every 5 km or soothe weather was cool but not so cold to be worried about getting cold.
The scenery was absolutely fantastic. We ran through forests that would rival new England in the fall, around a beautiful lake and past skiing chalets. This is definitely a good beginner off road ultramarathon for someone looking for their next challenge. I finished 4th in over 6 hours. Part of that was the hilliness and partly the off road nature of the race, but this is not a race for PB’s, it’s one to enjoy the scenery.
After the race we just about had time for a German sausage before heading back to the airport. The quick turnaround was due to the fact that in addition to not being able to read an elevation map, I appear to have lost the ability to use a calendar and I was due back to take part in the Dublin city marathon the next morning… Oh well, maybe this report should be renamed, another day, another race….
Big is usually something we haven’t done before. 2009 was the year of the Marathon des Sables. 2010 already has a couple of ultra’s and ironmen pencilled in the diary but mountain running caught my attention this year and the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc caught my attention as a possible for 2010. In order to take part, applicants need to have accumulated a certain number of points which can be earning for completing various off-road ultrarmarathons and multi-day events. We had earned most of our qualification points earlier in the year but we needed one more. There are no suitable races in Ireland but we found one (Roentgenlauf, Remscheid) near where my stepson lives in Germany so we entered. On paper the route looked fairly straightforward. Indeed I had sold the idea to my fiancé based on it being a “short” ultramarathon on paths in a German forest. The website advertises 800 meters of climbing over 63.3 km which didn’t seem like all that much really.
On 24th October we headed to Dusseldorf and onwards by train to Remschied which is
in Bergischland (mountain area), we passed over Germany’s highest bridge, past ski-lifts….. and still it hadn’t sunk in that this was going to be significantly more hilly than I was expecting.
Registration was a bit more chaotic than I am used to in Germany. Lots of arm waving later, we had our numbers and vague instructions on how things would operate on race day. On race day we were up bright and early. The race is run in a similar manner to the Connemarathon where in addition to the ultramarathon there is a marathon, half marathon, Nordic walking, 10 km and even 400 meter baby marathons for kids. It certainly added to the atmosphere on the start line and I believe 4000 people started one of the races on offer at 9am. The organisation was a lot smoother on race day compared to the pick-up day.
The route is one large loop. All races start together with the half marathon finishing at 13.1 km (and bussed back to the start), the marathoners at 42.2 and the rest of us run home. The first 5 km were on road before we hit the trails. The surface was anything from loose tarmac to mud but the path was pretty clear and little in the way of navigational skill was needed. The route was up and down from the start. I measured the total climb as over 2.5 km! Significantly more than advertised and a huge amount more than I wanted. Most sections were runable but there were one or two sections that we had to crawl up. There were refreshments every 5 km or soothe weather was cool but not so cold to be worried about getting cold.
The scenery was absolutely fantastic. We ran through forests that would rival new England in the fall, around a beautiful lake and past skiing chalets. This is definitely a good beginner off road ultramarathon for someone looking for their next challenge. I finished 4th in over 6 hours. Part of that was the hilliness and partly the off road nature of the race, but this is not a race for PB’s, it’s one to enjoy the scenery.
After the race we just about had time for a German sausage before heading back to the airport. The quick turnaround was due to the fact that in addition to not being able to read an elevation map, I appear to have lost the ability to use a calendar and I was due back to take part in the Dublin city marathon the next morning… Oh well, maybe this report should be renamed, another day, another race….
