Get out of bed at 1.30 a.m to get ready. After double
checking everything, set off at around 3.25 a.m to Riverland, where I catch a bus to Le Morne
Kite surfing spot, which is the starting point of the Dodo Xtreme.
Temperature around 14o C, strong winds, a slight
drizzle and calves feeling a bit tight despite stretching and a mild warm up. Add
to that miserable weather during the last few days that probably made the
trails extra slippery, 7 superfluous fatty kilos (put on 2 extra just in the
last 3 days trying carb loading!!! Hopefully it's 2 extra kilos of glycogen
stores, and none of the nasty stuff...!!! ) and close cut off times (for the hiker that I am) at each
feeding station. Looking promising... ... ...
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| Warm Up... |
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| Everyone just wants to get on with it...!!! |
5.30 a.m. and it's a go...!!! The first 3 kms run off a dirt track at the back of Le Morne Mountain, followed by another 3
kms of tarred road through Le Morne Village, before taking a left into Baie Du
Cap Chasse. I Switch on my head lamp, and start running.
Right off the bat, something is off, the head lamp is just
emitting a very faint red light, which is just not going to cut it when we hit
the hardcore dirt track!!! Thought it was just in a weird mode, and tried
fiddling with it whilst jogging, to no avail. The NEW and freshly recharged batteries are probably flat!!!
Can't stop there to have them replaced, it's almost pitch dark, and no one is
going to stop and help so early in the race. So I decide to follow other trailers
who have working headlamps till Le Morne Village, where there are street lamps
to assist with the battery fumbling.
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| DO NOT BUY...!!! CRAPPY...!!! |
Start running again and I can just see a
single light bobbing around behind me...!!! I'm next to last...!!! DAMN...!!! On
the plus side, calves have loosened up and I'm feeling great...:) Catch a few other
runners before I get into the chasse, where the trail ramps up very gradually.
As the slope gets steeper, start overtaking lots of people
who are already in tortoise mode. These same animals overtake me as soon as my
camera comes out… And I have to play
catch up continuously…L
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| Moonrise or Moonset...Not Sure which...:P Prob Moonrise, cos it was pitch dark before... |
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Hop over a set of ladders to the ‘Mont Sur Mont’ Chasse, and
we follow the fence separation between the 2 chasses up a steep single track to
'Piton La Prairie' at 505 m. Undulating terrain brings us up to 'Piton Du Fouge'
at 550m, followed by 'Montagne La Porte' at 560 m. Pictures..Pictures…and more
pictures J All
panoramas attempts failed though, because the heavy winds made the camera too
unsteady… L
Check the time and I only have 25 minutes until the cut off time, with some
very technical downhill to go, so I tell
myself to quit the picture taking, otherwise I might be out of the race. Duh... As
if not taking pictures was possible…
Cross the road and jump into a single track leading to Piton De La Petite Riviere noire (828m) , highest point of the island. On the way, I start feeling light headed, so I deliberately slow down the pace. Was it a result of under feeding caused by the nausea, or the cumulative effort so far, or both...??? Doubts creep in again… … … In any case, I have to be extra careful, otherwise, I run the risk of smashing my face on some low hanging branches and other trees scattered on the narrow trail…!!!
1 hour of steady climb and the upper parts, smothered by the clouds, are just ice skating slippery. Chains and ropes all the way to the top: Super FUN…!!! By this time, the light headedness had disappeared, and I take a couple of minutes to chit chat with the rescuers posted at the peak. Worst place ever for them, with cold temperatures and very strong winds! Follow the very muddy trail to 'Grand Piton', slightly lower down, before tackling a long rolling descent into the forest down Black River Gorges National Park. The last couple kms of the descent are just brutal steep, slippery, bouldery and hard on the joints, which are surprisingly holding up amazingly well…
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| Le Morne at Sunrise |
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| Tourelle du Tamarin in the distance, Illot Benitier in the mid ground |
Stop several more times during the descent for more pictures, and in the rush, nick my compression legging with some sharp rocks…!!! Reach PK1 (first water point) with only 5 minutes to spare…!!! Quick water top up, and a couple of electrolyte tablets, and off I go again towards 'Owen Griffiths' chasse.
Comparatively easy section until we reach the foot of 'Piton Canot', from which point, the terrain rises steeply. Since I more or less already knew these sections, decided to minimise the picture shoot and concentrate on gaining a time buffer for the subsequent cut off points. The initial descent from the 'Piton Canot' summit (467 m) is just crazy steep and slippery, with ropes to assist. More undulating terrain till I reach PK2, a kiosk at the entrance of Chamarel.
I had decided on a refueling strategy based on alternating energy gel and cereal bar every 30 minutes, but by the second hour of the race, I started to feel nauseous and the stomach would just not accept the cereal bars. Even the energy gel had to be swallowed carefully, at the risk of inducing a full bout of vomiting. I tried the Bananas at the feeding station, and they seemed to be much easier to swallow without making the nausea worse. New refueling strategy: Energy gel every 30 minutes, and PiG out on bananas at every feeding station!!!!!!!!
Ask the control people what rank I crossed this checkpoint, and I hear 70…!!! Definitely had not overtaken that many people, so there must have been an extra slow bunch of people at the starting line…!!! Plus I had managed to gain about a 45 minute buffer with respect to the cut off times at this checkpoint. Not doing so badly after all…J
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| Vire from the summit of Piton Canot |
Cross the road and jump into a single track leading to Piton De La Petite Riviere noire (828m) , highest point of the island. On the way, I start feeling light headed, so I deliberately slow down the pace. Was it a result of under feeding caused by the nausea, or the cumulative effort so far, or both...??? Doubts creep in again… … … In any case, I have to be extra careful, otherwise, I run the risk of smashing my face on some low hanging branches and other trees scattered on the narrow trail…!!!
1 hour of steady climb and the upper parts, smothered by the clouds, are just ice skating slippery. Chains and ropes all the way to the top: Super FUN…!!! By this time, the light headedness had disappeared, and I take a couple of minutes to chit chat with the rescuers posted at the peak. Worst place ever for them, with cold temperatures and very strong winds! Follow the very muddy trail to 'Grand Piton', slightly lower down, before tackling a long rolling descent into the forest down Black River Gorges National Park. The last couple kms of the descent are just brutal steep, slippery, bouldery and hard on the joints, which are surprisingly holding up amazingly well…
Pk3, the midpoint of the race at the kiosk reached soon after
(4 hours 36 minutes into the race) and I take an extra long 10 minutes break to
change shirt (personal bag drop off), feed (TONS of bananas and coke!!!) and stretch. Manage to cross the radier
without getting my feet wet by hopping over rocks, and start the deadly
Camphrier ascent with a stich on the right side (Gim reckons I must have eaten
too much at the feeding station). As usual, Camphrier is dry at the bottom, and muddy towards
the top. I manage to catch a few people on the way up, and follow a bloke all
the way to the 'Maccabee' kiosk (PK4 feeding station) after a 1 hour climb. On
the way, I bump into a trail acquaintance who was way ahead of me, tackling the
common ascent/descent section…Tried to high 5 him, but he said he was out of the race…
Upset stomach and vomiting…!!! That was very nearly me a couple of hours
back…!!!
At the feeding station, I check my water levels, and I
thought I was good till the next feeding station which the people there say are
just 7 kms down. I had printed and laminated the course profile with the
distances and cut off points, but unwittingly dropped it somewhere along the
course, (profile printed at the back of race number was no longer legible) so I
was relying on the info given by the people on the course for pointers.
Tried to stretch my quads, but
hamstrings would threaten to spasm, so had to resort just to massaging the
different muscles before tackling the super steep ‘Zepol’ descent in super slow
mode. Towards the end of the descent (steep fil section), I bump into a fellow
trailer with yellow race numbers (50K peeps) walking up again…!!! He had
forgotten to give his number to the control peeps at the checkpoint, and was
going all the way up again (about 400 meters higher up in elevation)..!!!
At the bottom of the national park,
I could only manage a brisk walk on the flat trail section till the parking,
where I bump into Sylvain, who informed me that Gim was way ahead, but that
there were a couple of friends still behind me. Boosted by that info (since I thought amongst
the people I knew doing the trail, I was last) I shift gears, and run the tar
section to the start of ‘Brise fer’. On the steep climb, I cross a fellow 50Ker not
looking good at all. He was having acute tummy ache. Offer some paracetamols, but he informs he has already taken some, and was going to get medical assistance at the next feeding station. I was not
doing so great myself, with all the major leg muscle groups threatening to
cramp up. Finally reach the end of this hill, and proceed to cross a ladder
into the 'Senneville' Chasse. More rolling terrain into surreal section with a
large stretch of almost completely flat land surrounded by hills. (should have taken pics...!!!) Once you
cross over the other side of the hills, wide open dry areas that the organisers
justifiably describe as 'savanne', with vast expanses of dry burnt land. See a fellow trailer in the distance, but I
don't even consider trying to catch up to him with the menacing cramps.
According to my GPS and the information given
by the helpers on the course, I should already have crossed the next
refreshment point (PK 5 @ Matala). Only problem is that I was fed wrong info,
and the actual water point was 2 kilometers further than expected, just next to
an IRS development. Only barely managed to make it there with just a few drops
of water left in the Camelbak (Hydration backpackers will know the feeling when
you suck in a mixture of air and water from the bladder). By that point, we
were dead in the midst of a very hot sun, so I made sure I would have plenty of
water to make it till the last feeding station.
Setting out again, I nearly take a wrong turn. Luckily, one of the fellow trailers who had caught up, got me on the right path, and we hike the next couple of kms together. The lady is probably in her late 40s, and talking to her, I find that she's well versed into ultramarathon trails (>100 Kms with more than 5K ascent). She was however struggling with the dodo, which she describes as extremely technical, and relentless in the steep ascents and descents. Usually, she's used to more gradual terrain, and the sudden change of extreme pitch had made her legs cramp for the first time ever during a race!! It might be 'short', but it bears the Xtreme name very well this Dodo...!!! She goes on to explain that every fortnight, she does 24 hour outings, starting from Friday night with head lamps...!!! MENTAL...!!! Ohh...And she's regularly either first or second in her category on all the ultras she takes part in...!!!
Setting out again, I nearly take a wrong turn. Luckily, one of the fellow trailers who had caught up, got me on the right path, and we hike the next couple of kms together. The lady is probably in her late 40s, and talking to her, I find that she's well versed into ultramarathon trails (>100 Kms with more than 5K ascent). She was however struggling with the dodo, which she describes as extremely technical, and relentless in the steep ascents and descents. Usually, she's used to more gradual terrain, and the sudden change of extreme pitch had made her legs cramp for the first time ever during a race!! It might be 'short', but it bears the Xtreme name very well this Dodo...!!! She goes on to explain that every fortnight, she does 24 hour outings, starting from Friday night with head lamps...!!! MENTAL...!!! Ohh...And she's regularly either first or second in her category on all the ultras she takes part in...!!!
Terrain starts to go up again, and
the landscape starts to become more interesting, so camera out, and PiGgY
dropped by the lady.
On the way, meet a friend who I tried to recruit to do the 50, but who ended up registering for the 25K... We walked a couple kms together to the last feeding station. ICE COLD COKE THERE...!!!!!!! Also medics tending to someone on the ground taking his blood pressure... Hope it's nothing serious...
Friend needs to rest some more, so I resume the trail solo. Direction: straight UP to the 'Tourelle Du Tamarin' (548m) along another fence on the ridge, with several kodak stops (Sony stops rather:P ) ...:) Last section to the summit is just pure scrambling bliss, although not so blissful doing it with cooked legs. The descent to Tamarin is just a killer with loose slippery soil along one of the steepest downhills I've ever done...!!! Quads and hams threatening to cramp up at the same time on the several occasions where I lost my footing!
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| Last hump before the Tourelle Du Tamarin ascent... |
On the way, meet a friend who I tried to recruit to do the 50, but who ended up registering for the 25K... We walked a couple kms together to the last feeding station. ICE COLD COKE THERE...!!!!!!! Also medics tending to someone on the ground taking his blood pressure... Hope it's nothing serious...
Friend needs to rest some more, so I resume the trail solo. Direction: straight UP to the 'Tourelle Du Tamarin' (548m) along another fence on the ridge, with several kodak stops (Sony stops rather:P ) ...:) Last section to the summit is just pure scrambling bliss, although not so blissful doing it with cooked legs. The descent to Tamarin is just a killer with loose slippery soil along one of the steepest downhills I've ever done...!!! Quads and hams threatening to cramp up at the same time on the several occasions where I lost my footing!
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| Le Morne in the distance, Salt pans and Tamarind bay in the mid ground ... |
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| Pouce in the distance, corps de garde to extreme left, Rempart left center, Candos Center, and 3 mamelles to the right... |
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| Last Pic before the steep descent |
The final section of the trail is fairly
non eventful with a small river crossing and flat trail to Riverland.
According to my GPS, 47 kms with
2,800 m ascent and descent in 10 hours 5 minutes, a few hours quicker than I
had extrapolated before the race...!!! Putting it in perspective, the winner,
and world trail champion (some guy named Ricky Lightfoot with REALLY light feet:P ) completed the course in 5 hours 19 and first Mauritian
resident in 6 hours 27...!!! 136 crazy animals registered for the Xtreme race... 110 completed...
Had the weather been any warmer
during the day or the trail been the full 50K and 3.5K ascent, there's no
chance I would have completed... We just got lucky that despite the crappy
weather of the last few days, the terrain was generally fairly dry and compact
(Piton and Camphrier are always muddy). I'm not looking forward to the week of
old PiGgY walking syndrome!!! :P
Race exercise log and stats:
