Monday, September 18, 2006
Day 13 - The day for scenery if only the rain stopped
After yesterdays 75K's was a bit worried to here that this was the hardest day with the highest point "Col De Legal" at 1231 Metres as well as numerous ups and downs around the Volcano country, at least the Nike Air Streaks had now dried so i had a choice in shoes (and the Frees are now retired from Ultras !!).
Having been told about this also being the most scenic day i must admit i was looking forward to scenery taking my mind away from pain, however the weather had different ideas. Rain was heavy at the start and basically continued the whole 64K's, apparently a highlight is the famous Medieval village of Salers, unfortunately to us running it was just this miserable soaked place with very slippery cobblestones (one day i'll just have to go back and see if i can say something positive). Certainly we ran through places that i'm sure would have been picturesque but weather was so miserable (at least it took my mind of any body pains), highlight was seeing the sprawling city of Aurillac (todays end) with about 10K's to go meant at least we were getting somewhere, certainly fired up a little towards the end when i could see the finish line in the distance (thankfully right on the city limits), 19th in 9:20 over 3 hours behind the stage winner was not doing me any favours in the overall race but by then all i wanted to do was finish (stuff the placings), had unfortunately run out of French mobile credits so was a little worried people back home would think i'd died out there.
Having been told about this also being the most scenic day i must admit i was looking forward to scenery taking my mind away from pain, however the weather had different ideas. Rain was heavy at the start and basically continued the whole 64K's, apparently a highlight is the famous Medieval village of Salers, unfortunately to us running it was just this miserable soaked place with very slippery cobblestones (one day i'll just have to go back and see if i can say something positive). Certainly we ran through places that i'm sure would have been picturesque but weather was so miserable (at least it took my mind of any body pains), highlight was seeing the sprawling city of Aurillac (todays end) with about 10K's to go meant at least we were getting somewhere, certainly fired up a little towards the end when i could see the finish line in the distance (thankfully right on the city limits), 19th in 9:20 over 3 hours behind the stage winner was not doing me any favours in the overall race but by then all i wanted to do was finish (stuff the placings), had unfortunately run out of French mobile credits so was a little worried people back home would think i'd died out there.
# posted by Aussie Ultra Runner @ 4:58 AM 
