By Billy McArthur
It all started in the summer of 2018 after finishing UTMB’s baby race, the 40k MCC. It was such a beautiful course and the experience of being in Chamonix for UTMB made it so special. I knew I had to come back for the full experience. I didn’t have enough points to qualify for a longer distance, so I spontaneously decided to sign up for a fall 100k race in Mexico. I was able to finish the grueling UTMX with little training in 19h 33m, just 27 min shy of cutoff. After securing enough points and doing some research, I decided to sign up to TDS, the more challenging and less demanded UTMB race. TDS is a 145k race starting in Courmayeur Italy running west around Mount Blank to finish in Chamonix France.
I started working with Brian of Steep Endurance in February and had a solid plan, which included hundreds of miles of treadmill at 15% (which i didn’t run). Training went ok, but was difficult to keep up with a new baby at home and lots of work travel. I did a couple 50m races and a big night run, but was far from hitting the planned weekly mileage/vert. As I entered tapering I was concerned about my fitness level and was overwhelmed with the advertised 28k ft of gain (turns out its much more than that). When I got to Chamonix my fears grew exponentially, but there was no turning back now. The morning of the race I was up at 2 am for a 2:30 am bus pickup. I didn’t get much sleep, but my mind and body felt strong. All my gear was in place including almost 6k calories of Spring energy. I knew that as long as I could eat I would be able to move and finish within the 42 hour cutoff.
The race started and very early I found myself climbing a very steep hill to the sound of hundreds of poles hitting the pavement. I had decided to start in the back of the field and figured I would save legs for later. Later came very soon, first 5 miles had over 1,000ft of gain each! I was so thrilled of being out there and it was so beautiful that I didn’t feel any pain. Morning broke around 6:30 am and what had been expected to be rain, turned into a beautiful chill weather perfect for running. 4 hours in I was at 12miles with 6k ft of climb, so things were looking good. If I could keep that 3m/hr pace, I would be done in 28-30 hours. Perfect. We continued going up and down valleys and the conga line was getting lame. We’re 15m in and I’m literally stopped for 10m as the field moves through a technical downhill. I started getting a bit impatient. The sun came up as we approached Bourg Saint Maurice, the first big aid station where I would meet my wife Ali. This was mile 31, so 1/3 done and came in exactly in 9 hours. The math worked, 27-28 hours total I would be done.
I found Ali and it was all happiness until I realized my battery wasn’t charged and my watch was agonizing. I was carrying my cable charger, but there was so many people it was even hard to move, so forget about finding a power source. I ate a vegan burrito, changed shoes and pushed fwd after the 40min break. I was still feeling strong, it was 1:30pm and only had 10 miles for the next big aid, so went out in good spirits. At this point I had passed about 300 people and was placing 1,200 or so. This next section is the only piece that I was able to recover on my watch and made it to strava: 10.1m with 6.5k feet of gain at 20:32/mi so 3:28 moving time (total time was over 6 hours including a 45min wait for my turn to come down Prasseur Pralongnan). I wasn’t complaining and was able to rest during the down time, but all the waiting was messing up my rhythm and motivation. I finally made it to Cormet de Roseland where Ali had been waiting for 4+ hours. It was getting dark and I started asking whether I should just call it quits. I decided to keep pushing and geared up for the night after some food and coffee. I gave my lamp to Ali and asked her to put in the fresh batteries (I would soon realize I had already changed the batteries, so Ali changed them again for the old ones!)
As I started moving into this big hill and the night came down, I had my first big setback. I decided to sit and rest at the top of the climb, but fell asleep for a few minutes and quickly felt signs of hypothermia. I put my jacket and gloves on quickly and started moving.. was a close call. So without a watch to follow heart rate, or a functional lamp, I started moving very slowly for the next 15 miles into Beaufort. Somewhere in the night I sat again for a couple minutes and as I raised, I broke one of my poles. Just what I needed as I was ready to face some big downhills. My quads were screaming as I moved down 3k ft into Beaufort where we would get our dropbags and rest. This was mile 57 and I came in at 3:20 am (bit past the scheduled 9 pm arrival). Surprisingly I was now placing somewhere around 1,000, not because I was faster, but because at this point over 600 people had dropped from the race. I stayed about 1:30 hours in Beaufort as I figured better to rest than going out in the dark moving so slow. I waited for my friend Claudia and we went out around 5 am after eating and taking care of several blisters. Started climbing into the 100k mark now without poles and was feeling again very strong. Made the 4 miles into Hauteluce relatively fast right into sunrise.
Next was a big climbing section towards Col du Jolly. I ran out of water quickly and was suffering from sleep deprivation. I had about 10m to go on a massive climb and was no having fun. (What is the point of doing this is you are not having fun?) I figured even if I make it to the next aid I will still have 30k to go, so no way I will be able to keep up. I called Ali and asked her to just meet me at Col do Jolly as I may just finish my race there. It would take me 5 hours but I finally made it. As I came into Col du Jolly I was able to charge my phone and it turned out there was no road nearby and would take Ali another hour to get there. Everything happens for a reason. We agreed to meet on the trail to Les Contamines and I was once again reinvigorated after cheese and crackers. I finally ran into Ali, changed again into the Speedgoats and was completely renewed coming down into the last major aid station. It took me 2 hours for 6 miles so was back in the game.
As I came into Contamines it was now 2 pm on day 2 and my mind was fully focused on finishing. I had 10 miles to Les Houches with the last 4K feet of climb. It took me another 5 hours including a stop in a country cafe for a well deserved orangina with my new buddies from Finland. This was also the peak of heat and another very tough section after 30+ hours going at it. We finally made it to the top just to realize water was another 4km. By now I had realized the dif between a regular km and a French km. When you ask people in this area it seems everywhere you go it’s 2km, and this are long kms, more like 5.
As I came down to Les Houches I saw Ali again and was so happy. I could smell the finish line and her support during the last 2 days made me want to push harder. I didn’t even stop at the aid and just ran to the finish as I wanted to come in on daylight. Those 5.5 miles took me 1:07 and I’m sure I logged in 8min miles. Turns out I did leave some gas in the tank, although it was probably because I moved so slow for so long. Coming into Chamonix was magic, so much support, so much energy, it really felt like a big accomplishment although my 40:33:42 put me in 908 place, around 54%.
There are many things I would do different next time, like training for downhills, starting further front on the pack to avoid traffic, or making sure my batteries work! But all in all I wouldn’t change my experience for anything, and more importantly I would do this again a thousand times just to see my family at the next aid station. It was a very special race and I’m grateful to everyone that contributed to this amazing experience. I will be back for another adventure.
