CCC (UTMB) Retrospective
What I learned about the true essence of ultrarunning
Before everyone is completely annoyed of the current UTMB recap-overkill on the interzet, I‘ll share some of the thoughts and emotions, that accompanied me during my first 100k ultratrail race, the wonderful CCC from Courmayeur to Chamonix. All for the sake of rounding this whole journey up of course.
Lets start with the most important thing: I am happy and my heart is full. That’s what I came for, that’s what I thankfully got. I was and am blessed to experience greatest joy and happiness, not only after having crossed the finish line but also during the race and even right now, 2 days after. In a fast paced world as the one we live in, it is not common to experience such deep and long lasting gratitude and bliss for the things we do. It really means the world to me.
Highs & Lows
The race itself turned out to be a true rollercoaster, as I was warned many times by people who have done similar (and worse) things. You can experience low points in any road marathon and even shorter races, but the profoundness of the downs I went through was beyond anything I had ever experienced in running before. But I don’t regard this as a bad thing. First, because I also had the most thrilling highs and second, because those low points inseparably belong to ultra running and thus are to be embraced and not to be fought against. Or to put it in other words:
I’ve been to dark places, but I liked it there.
Sounds like a song text…
Goals & Numbers
As you might know I didn’t bring a sportsmanlike time goal to the CCC. Mostly because it was my first time racing this distance and I obviously had no idea what I‘m doing. But also for not adding any pressure to something that was meant to become a 'great experience' and not an 'atheltic masterpiece'. Thus my finish time of 20:32h is nothing but a number and that’s a good thing.
Support & Friendship
But to be very honest, I wouldn’t have reached Chamonix without the help of my terrific Support Crew. Their operation was at least as tough as mine and they did an amazing job full of pure dedication all day and night. THANK YOU, Lisa, Gunther and Sascha. Being surrounded by you gives me strength and confidence in the things I do.
The Essence of Ultrarunning
There’s one more side-story I would like to share, because it very much sums up the whole event, if not ultrarunning as a whole, for me. I was struggling hard on the last climb up to Tete Aux Vents and when I finally arrived at the top in the middle of the night, I was cocooned by thick fog and made my way through a rather technical section, a barren landscape of huge rocks.
After a while I heard someone calling for help and saw a runner whose headlamp was either broken or run out of battery. She could neither move forward nor back because it was pitch black darkness all around. I immediately decided to help her, and we fixed the situation by running very closely, so she could utilize my Lupine 'Truck Light' head lamp as well. She was both very thankful, but also embarrassed of her precarious situation and continuously asked me to leave her behind if I wanted to go faster. I didn’t.
Switching to the mandatory backup lamp at the next aid station of La Flégère didn’t improve her situation. That second headlamp was very much underperforming for the dark woods we were about to enter. So we calmly continued our tandem journey all the way down to chamonix where we split up about 2 km before the finish line.
It is hard to put into words why exactly this episode of my CCC race so much incarnates all the reasons why I came. But it does and I am glad I can tell this story instead of blathering about brutal climbs and challenging downhills.
As a last comment I would like to thank everyone, who has followed me on this journey, runners and even more non-running people. I neither flew to the moon, nor invented the biodegradable car. What I did has been done millions of times before and will be done by millions more in the future. So I regard your high fives and lovely messages as distinc interest in my person, which is really flattering. THANK YOU.
See you in Chamonix. Maybe next year already.