Trail de Combe Noire:
Sunday 5th September 2010

Following the 'Descente de la Lesse' in Belgium, we immediately headed south towards the French/Swiss border for the remainder of our holiday. As usual I had googled the area for trail races on suitable dates.

Gorge of the river Doubs

The ½ marathon 'Trail des Eschelles de la Mort' (stairway of death!) sounded interesting. We walked part of the route along the spectacular gorges of the river Doubs, then found the 'stairway' - a series of metal ladders bolted to the walls of the gorge, reputedly a smugglers path. Climbing the first section was OK, but then it became a severe test of my vertigo. "Hold on while I take a photo" says Alec, as I clung on over the abyss. No way did I want to try running up here.

Eschelles de la mort

	So we went on upstream another 50 miles to the next option, sightseeing en-route. A stroll across this bridge over the Doubs took us (very briefly) into Switzerland.

'Trail de Combe Noire' seemed more suitable. Although the full 35k route was beyond our current abilities, there was a 12k 'Trail Initiation' for weaker mortals. Arriving Friday, we camped by Lac St.Point, then drove 5k to look for the race start in the small alpine village of Vaux-et-Chantegrue.

The door to the Mairie (town hall) was open, so I ventured up the marble stairs, to find a helpful lady - "Le trail? Un moment." On the phone, she summoned the headmaster from the little school next door. In excellent English he explained he was a race organiser from the ski-club, and the course followed their cross-country ski-training routes. "Very hilly?" we asked - "not at all" he said. He was happy to take our entries on the spot, and even Alec was seduced to take part by the beautiful scenery, so we paid our fees - only 9€.

Then we walked part of the route.

Early Sunday morning we gingerly drove through thick mist to the start - lots more cars there than we expected. We collected our numbers, and a goody-bag including a 'trail label' jar of local honey.	Morning mist across the lake.	The mist cleared as we set off up a steep road out of the village, the sun shining on an even steeper track into the woods, going up for at least 2k ("not hilly" - we should have known better!!).
It got a bit easier, but it was the real off-road stuff we all love - mud, grass, rocks, even a track well-chewed-up by forestry workers - just like home, but with more dramatic views, alpine pastures and cows with bells. At least we could blame some of our gasping on the altitude - at 1000 metres up, the air was quite noticeably thinner.

It seemed no time at all until I was flying down the final steep hill back into the village, crossing the line, to be greeted by a man with a microphone who wanted my comments. All my limited French deserting me, all I could say was "Magnifique". Alec finished quite a bit later, thoroughly enjoying his first race this year, despite having taken an extra ½ mile detour around the village when he missed the final course markers.

We didn't see any other English people in the area, and apart from our friendly headmaster, no-one spoke any English. We were the first 'international' runners to enter their race, and were treated like celebrities, with a special presentation of wine for Alec and flowers for me (though that could have been for being the oldest runners, all the announcements being in French).

Rosemarie's time: Alec's time:

1h:13m:05s 1h:44m:26s