In three months there will be 160-kilometer mountain race that traverses the four massifs around Grenoble: Vercors, Taillefer, Belledonne, and Chartreuse. We are going to run the last 40-kilometer leg on Chartreuse. Today, we had a recce run/walk on the first part — the major climb — of that leg. It was about 8 kilometers out and back and took us from about 300 meters to 1425 meters of altitude, and back down. The whole 40-kilometer leg will take us above 1800 meters. The race profile is here.

We woke up at 5:15am., and hit the road at 6:30am.

We were in the walker category today, but my gosh these people walked fast, especially when coming down.

That’s up there on the upper left corner where we were heading today, and we pretty much climb directly up the slope.

This is about 1000 meters above from where we started.

We ended the recce with a picnic: quiches and pies, lentil salad, charcuterie, and of course a lot of wine, bread, and cheese. We brought muffins aux fruits rouges.