This is the official itinerary of the Trail des Dents du Midi race which usually takes place at the end of September. Having done the race in a relay with Antoine, this route represents 28KM of the 57KM race. From my point of view, and seeing the state in which Antoine arrived at the end of the race, this first part is probably the easiest. I had a lot of fun during this race because of the beautiful scenery I could witness, but mostly because of the "pleasant" structure of the trail.
Starting at 6 am
The start of the trail is in the charming little village of Champéry. The ascent does not start immediately. We ran, lamp on the forehead, in the middle of the night for about 2km until we reached a forest. Once we reached the edge, we climbed along a narrow path, one behind the other. From the bottom of the forest, we could see the headlamps of the participants flickering through the night, drawing the path we were about to take.
Until Soi
The climb in the night lasted about 1 hour before the sun came up around 7 am. My legs were a bit grumpy from the cold night. I kept my windbreaker under my trail waistcoat throughout the race. When the sun was up, we came out of the forest. There, the mountain peaks were beginning to emerge with the sunrise. It was a beautiful sight. We continued to climb. The climb did not seem to stop. We had a few moments of respite where we could run but we didn't get to unload our legs until we reached Soi.
Downhill
In Soi, there was the first refreshment stop. I had already run out of water for a while. Because of the COVID, the organization had reduced the number of refreshment points. I took the time to rest a bit and to prepare myself for the descent: the rest of the race was all downhill. At that moment I felt like I was on a cloud. I went down like an arrow at full speed. The path was very practicable to run downhill without the risk of spraining an ankle.
Finish Line
Now it was the descent that was endless. The organization had announced a course of 25Km for the first relay. Only that at 25KM, I was still far from the finish. This killed my mood. I was only waiting for the finish but the village seemed so far away. Indeed, I arrived only 3 km later at the final point of the first relay. This last part of the descent was very difficult because of the state of the road: herds of cattle had made many holes in it.
At the finish, Antoine was waiting for me impatiently with Saki and Rio asleep under a bench. Saki was barely three months old and exhausted by this new environment. Having handed the number to Antoine, he set off for the rest of the trail. I met him at the finish line 5 hours later.
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