First race!

Sunday, October 11

The whole team on call!

Special guest: Paula, Matthieu

This week-end training was a bit special as we participated to a real race organised by Salomon on the most difficult part of the MacLehose - sections 3, 4 and 5 (36.7Km - around 1,500m of positive elevation, same negative).

That was really exciting as it was for 3 of us a first real competition, in the same conditions than the D day, and above all, because it was the first time that we manage to walk all together for a long training.

The first section went smoothly, except for the big fear when Lorene twisted her ankle on a rocky slope down. She finally managed to finish the trail thanks to her two walking sticks and her iron will!

We made a break at the check point between sections 3 and 4 of 20minutes, which made us realize that it's the time we need to do the things we have to do in a hurry (eat, refill the camel bags, stretch) and leave us no time to rest at all.

At the end of section 4, it started to rain and mood started to shade... Fortunately, as we will most probably do on D day, we stopped at the noodle shop few hundred meters after the check point and enjoyed a rejuvenate hot meal... Break was a little bit longer than expected (40min) but it really worth it. After the rebirth, the 5 of us finished the race in 11.20hours which was a bit more than expected but remain in the average time advised by the organisation team to finish the whole trail in 35hours.

Due to the incessant rain, it got dark quite early which was a bit problematic as we brought only 2 lamps for 5... Nevertheless, the Beacon Hill part enjoy the lights of the city and we didn't suffer too much from the night (but more from the rain!).

Anyway, in these difficult conditions, we were just happy and proud to cross the finishing line as a whole team.