Making peace with CCC
“Imagination is beginning of creation, you imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at least you create what you will”. George Bernard Shaw
In my case, imagination started when I was following a good friend Max during his CCC run last year and the logo of the UTMB runner among the hills covering each hill was exciting and somehow it felt like a calling to finish a task for a friend, an unfulfilled wish.
CCC : A run that starts in Courmayer, Italy leads to Champex in Switzerland and ends in Chamonix in France, a total distance of 101 Km and elevation gain of 6000 metres
The experience of CCC , meant climb and climb and more climbs and cold weather and more colder weather or call it challenging thrice.
To stand there at start line on Friday Sep 1, Morning about 9 A.M was a dream come true for many of us and we were all smiles.
To reach to start point one needs to earn the points, then be successful in ballot and most of all have the faith to fulfil the dream among a throng of runners who stood looking up and and looking down, praying perhaps or thinking like me in unbelief of how I could end up here. The drones that flew above sent cold winds and the helicopter above taking pictures and the song that played was, another one bites the dust, good beat but the lyrics..
The initial run walk turned into a steady climb that pushed me to dig deeper to keep going.
The climb goes on for several hours and you watch all the shoes that goes up and the gasping for more oxygen. Some will stop to take a breather and you walk past with a nod among views from the hills that are breathtaking.
Soon the downhills started and there was the first check point, Refuge Bertone. Filled my water and took couple of salami and cheese bits and walked along.
Downhills were always a pleasure, but I had never run downhill with steep valleys beside you and initially felt clumsy and cautious with my downhill steps with no flow on downhill running but later picked up the focus and felt better. The weather was getting colder and had to stop and wear the jacket and gloves.
In Ultra runs, the mystery is the beauty, you can never claim to finish the run till you finish the run.
Next two check points passed smoothly as I accepted and made friends with the climbs and welcomed them on reaching Grand Col Ferret and felt happy.
New Salmon Mesh shoes was very grippy and at some point I felt a blister forming on the right feet behind the ankle. I was glad to have Elly coming to support at Champex with my La Sportiva shoes.
Came down running to La Fouly and had some soup and filled the water and tried to add overstim energix with hydrixir to get a good flavour and mounted the headlamp and came out of the tent. The sudden gush of cold air from the mountains hit me and mind began to question the purpose of the run and at the same time the path was stretching ahead and it was runnable, held my trekking poles in left hand and started to run and the body became warmer with the run and felt better as it started to drizzle.
A young boy of 7 or 8 years with freckles on his face stood outside his house in the rain and clapped and said bravo, we smiled at each other and I kept running and the wooden houses on the green patches looked cosy.
People stood by the path, clapping and cheering.
Saw Champex signboard at a distance and felt glad to have reached 55 Km mark. Went in and saw Mark and Elly.
Elly had prepared rice, fried egg, boiled potatoes, delicious spread for us , sorry a picture would have done justice to the hard work she put in. Most importantly I had my spare shoes and socks and spent about 30 minutes at check point and changing into shoes then deciding to wear water proof pants and additional top to keep warm in the cold weather.
The rest of the path was muddy descents and uphills and slippery ways and was so happy to reach Trient CP 7 at 72 Km and to see Elly, Jeric and Wendy.
My lips were numb with cold as Jeric offered to remove my gloves and gave me some warm drinks and watermelons.
He showed me the finisher jacket and said, look at this, you should get this too and keep going. With added motivation and warmth started out from CP 7 and before I reached Vallorcine at CP 8, Elly travelled by bus and waited for us and I had the tastiest spicy noodle with boiled egg inside. I was fully charged with the warm soup and noodles.
From CP 8 another 3o minutes and head lamp started to become dim, quickly stopped and removed the gloves as the hands were almost freezing with the wind from the rivers , batteries changed and time to move on and saw in an hour the dawn was breaking.
Felt good to see the sceneries and started to run till we entered a climb that was never ending and the hope to see the downhill was shattered again and again with steady climbs. Repeated to myself to be calm and accept the moment and keep one foot in front of another and tried to listen with all senses and suddenly I could hear bird calls and see the beauty of nature and felt happy to climb.
Finally the descent that went round and round and the crowd cheering bravo and bravo.
Thiery was happy to hear that I used Salmon Mesh Shoes till 57 Km and asked his staff to take a picture with him. Felt good to be part of the big running community. When I mentioned Singapore, the first name he mentioned was, do you know Jeri ? Small world and big names :)
Big Thanks : Mark, William, Ian and Azlan for the little tips and advice and the being able to spend a lovely time at Chamonix with you guys and especially to Elly for the fantastic support to me and my friends.
“Remember there is no such thing as a small act of kindness, every act creates a ripple with no logical end”. Scott Adams, the cartoonist
