Trail in Paris: 25 hills trail in Fontainebleau
Who said training for a trail was impossible in the Paris area?
Trail
I have recently started trail running, thanks to my buddy Eole. However, living
in a part of France which is rather flat, training for trail is a bit difficult.
Sure, I have a few spots with small hills and an elevation of maybe 10 to 15
meters, so I can run it uphill, go downhill, and repeat. Feels a bit like a
rabbit in a cage, but hey, that's better than nothing.
So when my friend Rémi, who I occasionaly run with, suggested we go for a proper trail session in the Paris region, I was all in!
But where?
Rémi's suggestion was to go to the Fontainebleau's forest, which is south east
of Paris, roughly 45 minutes driving.
I know Fontainebleau pretty well, since I lived for a while nearby-ish (~30
minutes) and knew the forest was famous for its bouldering areas.
Rémi mentionned the 25 hills trail ("circuit des 25 bosses" in French), which a lot of trail runners use to train for races.
Let's go
Rémi ran this trail several times, so he knows it pretty well.
We drove to a nearby parking, put our running gear on, and walked to the start
of the trail.
As you can see on the map below, the trail is about 17 kilometers, and has an elevation of 900 meters. It's also a loop, so when finished you can go back to your car straight away, no need to have someone driving you back to your car :)
What is not obvious on the map is that this is a fairly technical and really hilly route, and there are only a few areas where you can run properly, making it really hard - and therefore, a perfect route for trail running.
Rémi had told me about the above, but I really realised it after a few minutes
"running" - even though we arrived quite early (around 9:30am), it was already
warming up (20 degrees celsius), and the forecast for the day was 28+.
Being in a forest, the good thing is of course that the trees protect you from
the sun, which made running a bit easier.
Kilometers vs. Duration
We finished the 25 hills trail in 3h29min, which really confirms that when
talking about trail, just disclosing a distance is clearly not enough :)
17 kms in such an environment is very different from the same distance on a
road.
Water!
I had my Salomon hydration pack, with a capacity of 1.5 liters, as well as an additional 500 ml flask, so a total of 2 liters.
And still, even being cautious with drinking (i.e. not drinking all the time, but often enough not to be dehydrated), 2 liters was the bare minimum for a 3h30 activity!
The temperature did not help, and I guess that running the 25 hills in say October is very different, but don't try this without sufficient water!
Wrap Up
I am glad that we did this run with Rémi, it was really nice and great to
(re)discover the Fontainebleau forest after a while.
And of course, after the run we had a nice lunch in a brasserie in a nearby
village :)
Fun Fact
While we were running, I told Rémi "they call it bumps ("bosses" in French), to me it looks more like hills" - and indeed, when looking at the map where we started and finished, the English name for the trail is "25 hills trail" :-)