Marathon #14-Marathon Du Mont Calm

Of all the Marathons I did, there were times where I did not manage to finish or I finished but to realise that I did not run the correct route ( for the case of Twin City Cyberjaya Marathon).  There are bound to be such cases especially when you are doing a sport more often.

THE CHOICE
When I decided to go France for 2 months.  I was already thinking of doing the Marathon Du Medoc.  It was a dream I wanted to do all the while.  But I thought, just one marathon?  So I decided to go for another one.  The sentiment was since Marathon Du Medoc is a road race, I decided to go ahead with another trail race. Usually I will just go to the running site: ahotu.com to check on the type of races which I would like to join. There are, of course, many races to take up in France but some are more challenging than the others.

The more famous B& B in the town L’escaletta

Sporting events in France requires all participants to be certified by the doctor that he or she is healthy for the participation. Unlike Singapore where just at PAR-Q questionnaire will suffice. The doctor will need to certify that your overall health and well being is suitable for participation of a Full Marathon. My guess is that they would like to have full indemnity of the participant and that the participant will not hold the organiser responsibility for any mishaps.

MARATHON DU MONT CALM

The Marathon starts from the town of Auzat. Auzat is a French commune in the Ariège department in the Midi-Pyrénées region of south-western France. Auzat is located some 45 km south by south-west of Pamiers and 40 km north by north-west of Andorra la Vella. Its south-western border is the border between France and Spain and its south-eastern border is the border between France and Andorra. To get here from Paris, you need to take a train to Toulouse and from Toulouse take another train towards Vicdessos. From there, this is where the challenge comes. There are no buses or chartered taxi service to bring you anywhere in southern France.

The town in fact has only less than one thousand inhabitants. It is even quieter these days with most of the inhabitants going and moving towards the town areas and larger cities to find jobs. Most of the people living here are either retiree or running some B&B for cyclists and holiday makers. There are also a couple of farmers who grows wheat and other vegetables and fruits. Another common farming is cattle herding. To speak the truth there are not shopping, big malls or any common services of that sort. It is just a simple county or town.

Being the first stop for me in the “adventure” to France, I made some arrangements with the organising committee to have some one fetch me to the race point. It was about 20 plus Km away from the main train station and along the way, there were many natural scenery and beautiful rough high terrains.

Accommodation

I settled for the night at a local school camp area. It was more like a dormitory. I was expecting more people to come but there were not. At night the area has totally nothing, just imagine a wilderness. That’s it, there is not even a petrol kiosk, it was a good thing, I brought food and necessities from Paris. There were also no wifi or television. So I spend the night studying the hardcopy map which I brought along. Natural Scenery is what this town have to offer, there are no big hotels. You can do some home stays or Bed and Breakfast. The start point of the race is in the centre of the town. There is a bakery and a post office. Which is about all the amenities.

 

The more decent B and B is
The ESCALETTE
Bed and breakfast
Yves Boulitreau
rue des Pyrenees 09220 Auzat
05 61 01 13 40/06 21 05 72 64
It is not listed anywhere ( booking.com, trivago.com etc and you need to contact the host themselves directly. )

Race Collection
The race collection point is in the indoor basketball court of the school in Auzat. There were in fact not many people participating in the race. And when they do, you bet these people are really there. They came prepared. There were checkpoints to meet on your way up the mountains because they do not want to have to evacuate late comers down the hills as there are no proper tracks or roads within the mountain. Some points there are nothing but you have to use the climbing sticks.

There is a simple dri fit tee shirt with the race name inside the goodie bag and also a sports drink. It was pretty cold in the morning of the race which starts at 7am. I was freezing when I walked to the start point. At the indoor basketball court, hot drinks and snacks were provided for all the runners. One look around, I realised that I was indeed very underdressed 🙁 I did not even have the mountain sticks! some of the runners were surprised to see an Asian girl at the race and to speak the truth, I did not look prepared and was cold.

The Course
The marathon is about up to 2580 m elevation, 42.5km, 2 peaks to be achieved over 3000 m. The check points are the killer. Basically you have 2 hours 30 minutes to get to the first check point about 1800m. It is actually the pond. Along the way, there are no luxury of water points and refuelling. But the cooling weather makes one hardly sweat. The elevation was the one that I was trying hard to combat with. It just goes up and up and up without much support, you do not have the luxury to walk up.

Actually a lot of prior training is required for this race, especially so if you are living in a place like Singapore where there is a lack of high altitude mountains.
This race is a sky runner recognised race. You can check out their 2016 race info here

( click here) Marathon DU Mont Calm 2016

Aftermath
I was rejected to go further up at the 21km Mark. The organiser showed me a shorter way down the mountain so that I could get down faster due to the bad weather. During 2014, there was a ultra marathon for 60km but I guess they scrapped it due to many being disqualified.