We returned to Briançon and Vallée de la Clarée in Hautes-Alpes to run the 10K race of the Névache – Briançon half marathon event. We drove to Briançon in the Friday afternoon via the Fréjus tunnel — it was a smooth and pleasant ride with almost non-existent traffic.

On Saturday morning we walked up to the Cité Vauban to warm up our legs and to acclimatize to the higher altitude. It was still nice and cool. The light conditions were quite challenging for photography as you can see in the pictures below.  We returned to the old town in the afternoon to pick up our race bibs in the nearby park, Jardin Chanoine Motte. It was not nice and cool anymore, but hot, maybe not quite as warm as home, but still hot.

On Sunday, the race day, we climbed one more time to the Cité Vauban to catch the shuttle bus to the start line in Val des Prés. It was quite a wait, since there were a lot of runners, almost 1000, getting to the buses. Still we were at the start line about 50 minutes before the start. That was a long time trying to keep warm — it was chilly in Val des Prés since the sun had not climbed over the mountain, yet. When it did, about 30 minutes before the race start, it got warm and hot quite fast. The last couple of kilometers of the race were a bit hard, since there was neither shade nor breeze.

Other than the heat, and there being only one single drink station after four kilometers of running for us ten kilometer racers, it was a nice experience: the course ran predominantly downhill with just few short sections of gentle uphill (D+ 50m /D- 180m), and there was a good number of local people cheering on us by the route.  We may as well be back next year for the longer race!