My first DNF at a race: Grand Trail du Saint Jacques by UTMB
DNF also means I learnt a lot from that race, let's dig into that!
Trail du Saint Jacques
History
This is a pretty old trail race, as it was the 11th edition this year.
It was "bought" by UTMB last year, so it was the 2nd edition branded "UTMB World Series".
Choosing that trail race
If you want to run one of UTMB's races in Chamonix, with the newly introduced UTMB rules (~2 years ago), not only do you need an UTMB Index for the race category you'll run, but you also need so-called "Running Stones", which you can only get by running (and finishing) one of the UTMB World Series trail races. Then you can apply to the UTMB lottery.
Since Julien, Matthieu and I want to run one UTMB race in 2024 or 2025, we looked at options in France - there are 4:
- Trail Alsace Grand Est (May)
- Trail du Saint Jacques (June)
- Restonica Trail Corsica (July)
- Nice Côte d'Azur (September)
We chose Saint Jacques as it was a perfect timing (~3 months after the Trail du Petit Ballon we ran in March).
Runners
Initially, we were supposed to be 4: Julien, Matthieu, Cyril and me.
Unfortunately, Julien injured himself during our previous trail in
Alsace, so he had to give up.
Cyril registered to the 50K (46k + 1450m elevation), Matthieu to the 100 Miles (126k + 5250m elevation), and myself to the 100k (75k + 3100m elevation).
Pre-race
Travelling to Le-Puy-en-Velay
I travelled by train and Matthieu joined me in Saint-Etienne (which reminded us of the SaintéLyon!), then when arriving in Le-Puy-en-Velay, we walked to our Airbnb, which was conveniently located in the city center.
We had diner in a nice restaurant (burger!), then we went for a walk to see the cathedral:
and also where the finish line was:
I had a few work calls, before heading to bed.
Friday as a tourist
We had Friday off, so after a good night, we picked up our bibs, I bought a nice UTMB hoodie, as well as a cool compressport long-sleeve t-shirt.
There's even the runners name on the back!
We then had lunch at the Airbnb (pasta, surprisingly!), and went walking in the city - we had seen the "Notre Dame de France" statue the day before, but it was closed, so we decided it would be nice to visit it.
It was a bit hilly but it was really worth it:
Diner and Matthieu leaving for his Ultra
Back to the Airbnb, Matthieu took some rest and we had diner (again, pasta!).
Matthieu's Ultra was starting at 11pm, so he had to be at the shuttle at 9pm, meaning leaving at 8:30pm.
I told him I would be walking with him, but just when we were leaving the
apartment, a huge storm started, so Matthieu took a taxi and I stayed at home!
Cyril arriving and going to bed
Meanwhile, Cyril, who was coming from Switzerland, was driving, and arrived at the Airbnb around 9pm.
He had diner and we chatted for a while, before going to bed around 10pm, as we had to wake up at 5am the day after, since the shuttle was at 6:15am.
D-Day
Bus ride
I arrived at 6am at the parking where the buses were waiting to drive us to the start line.
Not long after, I was seating in one of the shuttles, and discussing with
Thierry, a trailer coming from Lyon. We discussed all things trail of course -
Thierry ran the UTMB last year and wanted to run it again next year, so running
the Grand Trail du Saint Jacques, with its 3 Running Stones, was great.
Before the start
We arrived at 6:45am, and I was in the 2nd wave (starting at 8:15), so I had around 90 minutes to wait.
I walked around and tried to locate Mathieu, who is a fellow NNormal Community member (NNormal is the brand launched by Kilian Jornet last year).
I knew Mathieu was running the same race as me, as he told me on the Community Telegram group.
By chance, I saw a guy wearing a Nnormal hydration jacket, I looked at his bib and that was him!
We chatted for a while, it was really nice seeing him face to face!
The Race!
Start
We started 10 minutes late, so at 8:25am.
The first kilometers were easy, with a super annoying bottleneck just before km 2: there was a steep ascent, which forced us to wait almost 30 minutes.
Other than that, nothing special, really.
Aid Station 1 (KM 8)
- Arrived at 10h15
- Refilled water and had a few snacks
- Stayed ~5 minutes - left at 10h20
- Mood/shape: good
Aid Station 2 (KM 17) - cutoff time 13h
- Arrived at 12h10
- Refilled water, ate mostly salty food (cheese and biscuits) and drank sparkling/salty water (St Yorre)
- Stayed ~10 minutes - left at 12h20
- Mood/shape: good
Aid Station 3 (KM 29)
- Arrived at 14h25
- Refilled water and had a few snacks
- Stayed ~10 minutes - left at 14h35
- Mood/shape: mixed
We had a storm in-between aid stations 2 and 3, so my mood was not as good.
Still, it was still positive, even though I felt super tired, which was unusual during a race for me.
Aid Station 4 (KM 43)
- Arrived at 17h40
- Refilled water, had pasta and soup
- Stayed ~20 minutes - left at 18h00
- Mood/shape: tough
I stayed a lot longer at this aid station - and that was not to enjoy the surroundings (we were near a lake, so nice view). I was tired and soaked, so the motivation was going down.
I talked with Olivier and Bruno, 2 runners from Le Mans (nearby Angers where I live) as well as Christophe (from Rouen), joking about the "west mafia" - since we were all coming from West of France.
One fun thing: I recognised one trail runner who was leaving the aid station and discussed with him: it was Serge, who I met during the X-trail Corrèze - the world is really small :)
Serge left before me, and I left the aid station with Olivier and Bruno a few minutes later.
Aid Station 5 (KM 54)
- Arrived at 20h15
- Refilled water and had a few cakes
- Stayed ~5 minutes - left at 20h20
- Mood/shape: bad
This aid station was super small and at that point, the storm kicked in again,
so I was more than soaked.
It was also windy and it was really difficult to find the motivation to keep
running.
Aid Station 6 (KM 59)
- Arrived at 21h25
- Refilled water and had soup.
- Mood/shape: super bad
I arrived at this aid station with Christophe, it was still raining a lot, so we stopped 5 minutes to warm us up, refill our flasks and get some soup and food.
When I tried to follow Christophe to start running again, I felt really cold and bad, and thinking about at least 3 hours running like this, I realised it would be impossible, and even risky, so I told Christophe to carry on without me, and asked the trail staff if the shuttle service could bring me back to Le-Puy-en-Velay.
2 other runners also gave up at this aid station - not that it helped me feeling better, but at least I was not alone ;)
What went wrong / what I learnt
There are 2 key takeaways for me:
- equipment
- food and water
Equipment
By far, this is the #1 reason why I had to stop: my wind/rain jacket was just not good enough, when it started raining too much, it was completely soaked, and so was my t-shirt, as well as my cap.
It got colder and colder, and with the tiredness after 60 kilometers running in the mud and water, it was just too hard for me to keep running, knowing that I had at least 3 hours left (15 kilometers at 5 km / hour). Too hard and also probably too risky, since I was clearly risking hypothermia!
Another equipment related pain (although a lot less important): with the rain and cold, my fingers got cold (as in: super white, meaning blood not flooding there). This makes sense, since I was using my running poles with mitten.
Since we're talking about rain: I had no hood, only my cap - which means that when it started running heavily, my cap got soaked, which I guess didn't help in keeping me warm...
It's really super frustrating to stop so close to the end, especially since my training paid off (see below).
Food and water
I hesitated writing that section, since it was not that bad, but compared with my previous races, I felt something was wrong.
It's still a bit early to come to a conclusion, but:
- I felt extremely tired between KM 20 and 40
- this calmed down when I started talking to fellow trail runners I was following, so this may not be related to the food,
- electrolyte drink: I know the one I usually take can be a bit "disgusting" after a few hours (as in: it's harder to sip) - but this time it got worst
- maybe not enough salt? As with other trail races, I had no salty food with me, but ate cheese and snacks at the aid stations.
- water: I had 1 liter in my running jacket, with a 3rd 0.5L flask in my back, but I didn't use it.
After discussing with Mathieu, there's a few things I'll try next time:
- gels: I took only one, whereas Matthieu used mostly gels on his Ultra (25h),
including 2 with caffeine which really helped him when he was feeling tired.
- I'll definitely have to test using gels again - I used to do it e.g. while running half marathons, but stopped doing it when I started running trail races.
- electrolyte drink: of course it is a good idea to use it, however if it's sickening, I should try finding a new brand - Matthieu gave me the one he's using, I'll give it a try during my next training and see how it goes.
What went well
Fruitful training
My 2 last trail races went well, but I suffered quite a lot at the end and after the race, because my hamstring muscles were not trained enough.
I worked a lot on that in the months before Saint-Jacques, doing a lot of downhill training, as well as core training focusing on my legs.
This really paid off, as I had absolutely no pain during and after the race.
I guess the mud helped a bit as well, since I couldn't run as fast as I wished, but still I'm glad that this training succeeded - I will definitely keep working on this!
Moving forward
I already started "fixing" some of the issues I encountered:
- Equipment:
- I order a proper wind/running jacket,
- as well as a new trail running bag, a bit bigger, more comfortable and more convenient in terms of front pockets,
- also new gloves,
- and finally a new cap.
- Food:
- as explained above, I'll try some of the things that Matthieu advised
Wrap Up
With the above, you may think I'm super sad about this trail - while I can't say that I'm happy to have a DNF, I can only recommend the Trail du Saint-Jacques, it's super well organized, the surroundings are stunning, and well, it's a trail, with its tough ascents which we love to have! :D
One More Thing
I'm finishing this article 1 week after the race, and during that week, I
discussed a lot with Matthieu
and Julien, and we registered to the 50k trail race "Nice by
UTMB" at the end of September :)
That means I have 3.5 months to train, and test my new gear and food!
Super excited to be there!