Race Report: Bayard Snow Trail 2016

With the exception of ultra marathons with early starts/late finishes, I’d never really done any night racing so I was looking forward to this evening trail race on the snow trails of the southern French Alps.

I had some eye surgery at the beginning of the year which meant I had to take it easy on physical exercise for a few weeks. The upshot is that I’m only getting back up to fitness and so I wasn’t expecting great things in the first race of this season, the Bayard Trail Snow Race near Gap.

My pre-race warmup, consisting of standing around the firepit chatting to my mate Manu.
My pre-race warmup, consisting of standing around the firepit chatting to my mate Manu.

I’d also forgotten how hard racing was. 90 minutes of full one exertion with no opportunity for micro-rest like on training runs where a little fiddle with your shoes, or a drink of water gives you a small chance to get back some breath.

The full moon rising above the mountains of the Ecrins
The full moon rising above the mountains of the Ecrins

This was the first edition of the Bayard Trail and its part of the Challenge Trails 05 events that I competed in last year so I fancied getting stuck in, especially since my goal this year is to run longer stuff so I might do less of the shorter, sharper races. To be honest the organisation wasn’t the best – first of all despite having registered online a few days before, I had to queue along with all the people registering on the day. Why don’t race organisers (I know some do) have separate lines for ‘on the day’ entry?

Lining up at the start
Lining up at the start

Anyway, because of the enormous lines (I think there were around 150 racers) the start of the race was delayed 20 minutes. Luckily there was a huge fire pit to keep warm by as the sun dropped and the full moon came out.

Race profile
Race profile

Eventually we were ready to race – the course consisted of two loops, with one of them done twice. The total distance was around 16km with 400m of vertical. It was undulating rather than steep with some quite punchy changes in gradient that made it difficult to keep a rhythm. Upshot, it was tough going.

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After the typical fast jostling for a position at the start I settled into somewhere around a third of the way down the course and pretty much kept position, maybe losing about 10 places around the duration of the race.

The biggest thing that struck me was how little scenery you see. Despite being entirely on snow, with clear skies and a full moon, using a headtorch meant my night vision never got established and all I ever saw was the trail a couple of metres in front of me. There was a nice view over the town of gap, with the city lights twinkling in the valley below, but for the most part it was a fairly monotonous race.

Fellow racers climbing the hill behind me, with the lights of Gap below in the background
Fellow racers climbing the hill behind me, with the lights of Gap below in the background

At least the race meant I got some points in the bag for the Challenge Trails 05 competition.

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There were a couple of ravito stops during the race but I never took advantage – at the end however was a bowl of the hottest noodle soup I’ve ever had in my life.

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