Chapeau! We finished the 40Km Vercors race. We suffered of no injuries, no blisters, no chafing, only slight dehydration (I lost about 4kg in weight, even if I emptied the 1.5l-bladder about three times), and had a huge appetite afterwards.

This was what Tei was planning to carry on her (a long-sleeved second layer and long pants were still missing, since it was not clear at this point if they were mandatory — they were).

Our goody bag contained some very useful items, such as flip-flops and a belt for the bib. No more pin holes in our running tops!

Fast forward to the next morning and the first climb of 1020 meters in 8.7 kilometers that took us to the first refreshment stop at the 1968 olympic ski jumping hill at St. Nizier.

From there we had 660-meter climb in 3.4 kilometers to Moucherotte (elev. 1901m), the first peak of the day. So far we’d climbed 1680 meters in about eleven kilometers.

After a smooth descent of 440 meters and a sharp climb of 550 meters we reached the second peak of the day, Pic St. Michel (elev. 1966m).

And down we went again to Col de l’Arc (elev. 1736m)

A last glimpse back to Moucherotte.

Col de l’Arc. From here we had a quite technical descent of 1360 meters in 6.4 kilometers to St. Paul de Varces. The trail was steep and luckily not muddy, but it took forever. We also crossed a waterfall on our way.

In St. Paul de Varces we had our last refreshment stop before the last climb. This was not it, though, but some nice neighbor had put out water for the passing runners.

The daunting descent from Col de l’Arc to St.Paul de Varces.

The last climb to Montagne d’Uriol, with very muddy legs, was just 430 meters in less than 4 kilometers, and then the final descent to the finish line in Vif 490 meters in 4.9 kilometers.

The recuperation dinner at our neighborhood Italian restaurant L’Atmosphere.

The finisher T-shirt. We finished in 11 hours and 15 minutes, which is surprisingly less than three times our regular flat marathon time. We were also very lucky with the weather; even it looked a little gloomy in the morning, we had a lot of sun but it never got quite hot up in the mountain. Today’s runners are less lucky; it has been raining heavily from the early morning, so the trails must be quite muddy and slippery.