By Katie Cormier

„You’re doing WHAT?“ said all my friends and anyone else I told, that I was planning to run 54km across Dartmoor during one of the hottest summers on record in the UK!!

Dartmoor is a notoriously wild and baron landscape, offering stunning views across the beautiful south Devon countryside. But with little to no trees offering very little shade from the relentless sun, this was going to be a bit more of a challenge than I had originally thought. Normally you can rely on England to provide a bit of drizzle, mist, wind or rain from the side to make your runs a bit more interesting, but this year there was not a cloud to be seen in the sky and hadn’t been for the 6 weeks prior to this race. This of course had the advantage of making an otherwise boggy moorland, extremely dry underfoot and much more runnable than in previous years.

I was really not sure whether I should tackle this race at all, as I was not fully fit after contracting the dreaded Covid virus about 6 weeks before the race. But being extremely stubborn by nature, and maybe slightly stupid, I decided to give it a go along with about 100 other hopeful and slightly mad British runners! 

Within the first 18km, which included almost 800m of ascent over uneven grassy hillocks, I already noticed my muscles were tired and I didn’t have the power and bounce I would have liked in my legs, but I enjoyed the trails and the scenery and chatting to lots of other friendly runners along the way.

I arrived well inside the cut off time at the first aid station where I met up with Seb and enjoyed a welcome dip in a stream. I plodded onwards and enjoyed a fairly runnable section up to the next aid station at 25km. 

After this I started to walk more than run, I felt completely drained and was seriously considering dropping out of the race at 31km. However, and I think luckily, Seb didn’t make it to this aid station, otherwise I think I would have hopped in the car and called it a day. Seeing as how this wasn’t an option, I decided to continue. 

The route continued over gently undulating moorland, over many little streams, past sheep, cows and wild ponies, all peacefully grazing at the side of the trail. Somewhere around about 40 km I ran out of water and had a bit of a melt down on the side of the trail. Luckily, a friendly runner passed me and gave me some of his water which kept me going to the next aid station at about 45km. Here I took my time to eat and drink and gather my strength to continue on for the last 9km, most of which were on very runnable tracks and slightly downhill. As I left the aid station, I turned a corner and saw a very welcome face coming towards me. Seb had hiked 8km up the trail, to run/jog/walk/stumble the last 8km into the finish line with me. My hero!! 

I crossed the finish line in a time of 7 hours and 55 minutes and was astounded to discover I was 11^th female out of 23. Not too bad all things considered!! In total, I was 40th of only 68 people to cross the finish line this year. This was definitely a tough race for me, both mentally and physically, so I was extremely happy and proud to finish it. Thank you Seb for your support as always.

Der Stadtlauf führt durch die historische Altstadt von Villingen, eine Runde ist 2,4 km lang. Teilnehmen darf jeder, der die Runden laufen, walken oder gehen kann. Es waren aber auch Hunde und Babies im Kinderwagen am Start. Für jede gelaufene Runde spendet die Volksbank einen Euro für einen guten Zweck. Da die Gesamtsumme dann auch noch großzügig aufgerundet wurde, kamen am Ende 10.000,- Euro zusammen, die dieses Jahr dem Fohrenhof in Unterkirnach sowie dem Inklusions Lebensmittelmarkt im Stadtteil Wöschhalde zugute kommen.

Ergebnisse

Anzahl Teilnehmer: 1556
Franz Lichte,
erreichte mit 9 Runden und einer Gesamtzeit von 2:25:32
in der Klasse Erwachsene M den 63. Platz und den 109. Gesamtplatz

Regine Breiter,
erreichte mit 4 Runden und einer Gesamtzeit von 1:41:11
in der Klasse Erwachsene W den 281. Platz und den 1024. Gesamtplatz

5 Läufer des LTRs waren am 7.5.22 beim Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival dabei. Katie Cormier, Mark Köller und Sebastian Cormier waren beim Marathon am Start. Sie haben 42km mit 1600HM hinter sich gebracht.

Linus und Inge Köller gaben ihr Trail-debut im Trail Rookie Lauf über 13km mit 450HM.

Die Wettergötter hatten Mitleid mit uns und gaben uns nur einen leichten Nieselregen bei 10-17 Grad. Tolle Strecke, mit abwechslungsreiche flowige Trails. Es gab Matsch und glitschige Wurzeln, und sogar noch ein bisschen Schnee auf der Skipiste. Wir hatten alle viel Spaß und freuen uns auf das nächste Mal!

Resultate findet ihr hier.

By Katie Cormier

At 8am on Sunday the 24^thOctober 2021, I stood in the semi darkness, on the start line of the Thur Trail “les 3 Vallons” in Mitzach, Alsace. I looked around me and I felt like a fraud. All the others runners looked confident, happy and relaxed and somehow in their element. I just felt absolutely freezing and so tired, I wanted to cry.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, 2 nights before the race, my daughter Amelie got hit by a nasty tummy bug and emptied the contents of her stomach all over her bed/sleeping bag/sheets/mattress. After washing these in the shower and hanging them out on the balcony to dry, Seb and I took it in turns to empty sick buckets every half an hour for the next 12 hours. 

Saturday night, I was very restless and woke every hour or so, either drenched in sweat or freezing to the bone… Clearly, I was also coming down with something. But at 5am I managed to get up and force some breakfast down, before Seb and Evelyn accompanied me to the start line. 

So, there I stood, in -2°C, shivering and tired, and not at all ready to begin the longest and hilliest race of my life. 

„Cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un: ALLEZ!!“ We were off!!

Step by step, I managed to find my rhythm and cover the first 5 or 6k without too much trouble. Then my stomach warned me something else was going on and I had to quickly find a tree!!

The first 16km of the course took us mainly uphill, through forests and over fields with stunning views all around on this crisp frosty morning. 

At 7km the first aid station came and went with nothing more than a drink of coke or water on offer. No food. That’s odd. Maybe it’s too early in the race… The next aid stations will surely have food. 

From 16-25km the course was mainly downhill, dipping in an out of the forest. Sometimes running on small single trail paths, but often on wide forest tracks. Perfect for stepping up the tempo a bit and putting a few kilometers behind me. Lovely autumn scenery passed by and the sun started to warm me up and thaw the frozen ground. All was well in the world of Katie the ultra trail running super woman!!! (Sorry – inner monologue kicking in!)

After 3h10m I reached halfway – 24k! I left a quick, woop woop celebratory voice message for my family and carried on up a short steep climb to the next aid station at 28km. Still no food. Oo, but there is soup, I’ll try that. Oh my god that was the most disgusting thing I have ever put in my mouth!! Thick, lumpy, cold vegetable soup, warmed up and thinned down with hot water. That was NOT what I needed and made me feel decidedly sick for the next 6km downhill towards my planned meeting point with Seb and the girls at 34km. 

I could hear Evelyn’s encouraging cheers from far away, with our dog Charlie barking along merrily! Boy, it was great to see them! Seb handed me an enormous fresh baguette, stuffed with ham and cheese, a couple of chocolate bars and a large slug of coke, then I was on my way, with Charlie charging along behind me!!

That quick stop gave me so much power and mental energy to continue, it was just what I’d needed to help me conquer the last steep climb at 37km. 500m of climb in 3km!! Time to put my headphones on and plug in to some good music and off I went! Zig-zagging through the forest, climbing steeply and steadily up, I met a friendly chap who could speak German. Our polite and friendly chit chat helped to pass the time and the next 4 kilometers went by without too much of a struggle. At the top, I was able to give the family a quick heads up that I was into the last 8km and would be clattering down the hill and crossing the finish line in about the next hour, all being well. 

As I approached the 48km mark, the finish line was nowhere in sight and my motivation started to wane, as did my energy levels. I started to feel nauseas and was really keen to get this finished and finally eat some real food!

Evelyn’s cheerful cry greeted me once again, as I came stumbling out of the woods at 49km, and she cheerfully helped through the last 500m to the finish line. Even Amelie had managed to coax herself back from the dead, in order to trot over the finish line with me, while Seb and Charlie cheered from the sidelines.

I did it!! In 6h44m11s I completed 49,5km and over 2000m of ascent. Out of 109 runners, only 16 were women and I was happy and extremely proud to finish in 7^thplace among those women. (In doing so I also earned myself a couple of UTMB points, so I can enter the UTMB OCC lottery for next year!)

Unfortunately, my dreams of real food, had to be put on hold, as I succumbed to the stomach bug on Sunday evening and spent 3 miserable days in bed. Not quite the celebration I was hoping for!! Nevermind – there’s always this weekend J!

PS. It was explained to me by the race organisers, that the lack of food at the aid stations was apparently due to Covid regulations. So thank you to the race organisers who did the best they could under the difficult circumstances. It really was a beautiful route.