The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I think I can call myself a mountain ultra-runner now. Does that sound funny to say or a bit arbitrary? 

Many friends, peers and professional runners I talk to have completed quite a few of these types of races but for me, I feel like I have been building up to this for a few years now and it was kind of a big deal. Spoiler alert, I did indeed finish The Lavaredo Ultra Trail (LUT) this summer, but I think it’s the journey to the finish that is of most interest. Isn’t it always that though?

Why do I call myself a mountain ultra-runner now? Well, it seemed like the races I have completed before have been leading to this in one way or another for the last few years. To take on 120km in the mountains is a big deal, IMO you can’t just roll into this. Plus you need relative index score to enter the ballot, but let’s not go into that, as I’ll probably even bore myself. You basically need to have some experience, let’s leave it at that.

This is how my timeline looks with regards to the experience I have gained to help me get to the start line:

July 2019: Eiger 51km. 3000m+

First trip to the mountains to race after a little Chamonix/Courmayeur trip the month before. Didn’t race fully fit. Had some issues with vertigo and descending. Happy to have had a fun day out. A baptism of fire but worth it!

September 2019: Cumbria Way ultra 120km. 3000m+

More about the distance here. Running for 18hours on some quite rocky terrain at times. A couple of punchy but manageable climbs in the Lake District.

June 2021: South Downs Way 100. 3000m+

Running for 23 hours, through the night. Managing sickness and dehydration whilst out for 100 miles of “fun”. Time on feet is key here.

April 2022: Madeira Island Ultra 85km. 4500+

Tackling 3x VKs in a race, rough terrain and self-management during the race. Dealing with leg issues, that caused my being unable to run in the latter stages. A gutsy race, taking me outside of my comfort zone.

August 2022: CCC 100km. 6000m+

A dream race, I had been waiting to do this for a while. Knew I would be running through the night, dealing with steep/long ascents and descents. How would I manage my body and effort levels to have an enjoyable experience? I had no plans to race this but just comfortably complete.

With all these behind me, I felt it was the right time to enter the ballot for the LUT and put all my eggs in one basket for 2023. The reason I am saying this is because in 2022 I completed 5 ultras of 80km or more. To me that’s a lot and it meant training for a whole year, pretty much non-stop. This put a burden on my body, mind and family. I made a pact with my wife, to do one big race in 2023. That race would be end of June and then I could have a summer off high volume, with my next goal race being January 2024 (more on that another time). Why did I pick the LUT? I guess it comes back to the point I made first. I wanted to join the club, to be the mountain runner I knew I could be. Plus doing a race in Italy sounded so much fun!

The Lavaredo Ultra Trail is 122km with 5800m of climbing and descending. It starts at 11pm on a Friday night and you have 30 hours to complete it. There are also 80 and 50km options.

It starts in the town of Cortina, in the Dolomites. The terrain is mountainous but different to the French/Italian/Swiss Alps I had run before. There are some big climbs but not as big as I had previously done. I wasn’t scared of the distance, the climbing/descending or the terrain individually but together they create a formidable challenge.

I started training for the race in the first week of January under the watchful eye of a new coach, Sam and physio Dana. I had had another left knee/leg issue crop up in Cheviot Goat in December. It was the same problem which had happened in Madeira and my no1 goal was to rectify it. I wanted to be able to run all the amazing descents in Italy, with confidence and skill. I did a lot of work in the gym doing specific exercises to build up my leg strength and combined this with finely tuned run sessions. I had one small injury during this block but got lucky and it only really kept me out of running for 10 days and then sessions for another week. Two other key things for this block, was picking the perfect warm up race. The Maverick Exmoor 58km, was about half the distance and half the elevation of the LUT and was 8 weeks out. The perfect place to make mistakes and take the learning into the final block. Then my Alps training camp, 4 weeks out. Where I got 3 solid days out in the mountains. Practicing the hiking up and the controlled descending, whilst also experiencing the first heat of the year. At the end of this the confidence level was really high as my body recovered well to the training overload.

With a couple of weeks to go I made up a pacing spreadsheet and shared it with Sam. Secretly my goal for this race was to finish in under 24 hours, 11pm Saturday night, thus, avoiding going into a 2nd night. I also wanted to enjoy Cortina on the Sunday before flying home. When we had our pre-race coach call, Sam said that he looked at the numbers and thought I could go quicker, maybe 22hrs. This number stuck in my brain as a goal to look at if I was feeling good and felt I could push a bit later in the race. I still wanted to have fun and take some photos along the way but with a “let’s hustle” mentality.

I was excited to go race!

The day of the race I had to collect my bib in the morning, which was fine. That was done with no drama, and weirdly, no kit check at all. I went for a nice filling pasta lunch with Paul [JZ1] before retiring to my hotel room to try and get some sleep. I think I slept for about 3hours, then just chilled out in a dozy mode, kind watching TV on my iPad. I got some pizza around 7pm, had a shower and was out the door about 9.45pm to take my drop bag across town. It was a long day, I think I was more scared of the 11pm start than the distance at that point. Would I get “sleepy head”? Before I knew it, it was 10.45pm and somehow Paul had found me in the chaos of the starting area. The music started playing, the MC gave it his all and we were being crushed into the surge towards the start/finish arch. See you in 24hours, I said to myself and set off at my chilled pace. Keep it steady Jon, enjoy the ride.

The Good

After running through the streets, we started the steady climb upwards. It wasn’t too steep, my poles stayed in the quiver. I caught up with Jess, we chatted a little and I moved on ahead. There was some hiking, running, hiking and more running. We were told it would be a cold night and as we moved further from the town, I found my groove but added a layer to keep on top of body management. I think there were around 1550 starters so it was quite congested but I am used to this now and just ignored the few idiots and kept myself moving forward. Eating, drinking, eating, drinking etc. The terrain was alpine forest paths, the ground under foot dry, it was really runnable but I was being careful to not over exert myself. At some point, I thought we were coming to the first aid station but no it was a club of some kind in the forest, I remember “Sing It Back” coming out of the speakers and it made me chuckle. I was about to pull a very different all-nighter. 

A couple of KMs later and I was in the first CP at Ospitale. This was a long section, about 19km but the field was still packed and it was rammed inside the tent. I just refilled my two bottles, grabbed a chunk of banana and left. I was about 30mins ahead of schedule and in 1093rd place. I had no idea of this at the time though. My phone was on flight safe mode.

The next part really doesn’t have much to talk about, I think it was more of the same. A shorter distance to the next CP but up above 2000m, then back down again. Then back up again. As dawn broke though, it brought a smile to my face. Entering the CP at Misurina, with about a marathon distance in the bag I was in 893rd and still around 30mins ahead of schedule. I ate a bit of cake here and some more fruit but didn’t want to stop for any hot food yet. I knew the next section would be tough, then fun from what I had been told. There was a water stop in 7km, then a long part to the half way aid station (17km). We would also be going past the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo peaks, which I was super excited about, but I get ahead of myself.

The climb up to the Rifugio Auronzo, was tough. It got even colder now, even with the sun rising, I put on my wind proof as another layer and just kept on moving, up, up and away. It was stunningly beautiful at times but I was also conscious that we were on a tourist trail with some road bits. Many hikers had been up there to watch sunrise and were coming back down. Plenty of cheers and encouragement, which was nice and made the climb a smidge more fun. Seeing the Rifugio was a lovely moment though, as I decided I would take a few moments here to sit down and eat, after filling my bottles. I also added in a 3rd bottle for the next section as I had been told by Dai, that I would definitely need it! At this time, I briefly turned on my phone and saw a lovely message from Maria , so I sent her a silly selfie as a thank you. Now it was time to roll out in 866th place.

More ascent and some runnable bits. The light was stunning, that golden morning where you just want to bask in all its glory as it makes the roughest granite peaks sparkle. Before I knew it I summited the climb and turned round the corner to see the 3 peaks, which made my smile wider. I had reached here in good time, I felt really good, could I now push on a bit to go for the stretch goal? We were over 50km in, it seemed plausible that I could do the rest of the race in 12-13 hours, easy! But first a really fun descent had to be shredded. This was what I had been training for. Time to push, but not too much, let your legs flow, Jon and keep the quads in check. Oh, boy it was fun!

The Bad

It was starting to warm up now, the layers came off. The run was flowing, I was happy. Then I came round a corner and saw a woman sat by the side of the trail with a couple of guys not really doing much. Her head was bleeding, and it didn’t seem like they knew what to do, so I stopped and asked if she needed help, she didn’t really speak English but I managed to tell her that I was a first aider and got my kit out. Checked she was not concussed, cleaned up her wound and patched her up. Then told her to check in with the medic at the next aid station, which was still some time away. She thanked me and we ran off. A short while later, I reached into the back of my pack to get out my spare water bottle, but I couldn’t find it! I stopped to check again but it was gone. Somehow it must have fallen out of my pack, and I hadn’t noticed. This was a disaster; I was almost out of water and only had a bit of electrolyte left.

We had about 6km to go, and it was getting warm now. To make matters worse we were on a terrible fire road with an annoying incline which was runnable  but my energy levels were low, and I was pissed off. I did run some bits, but I could feel the dehydration kicking in. Mentally I had to start preparing myself for the next aid station. This was at 67km in, and we had our drop bags here. I had a backup bottle, so was happy I could finish the race. What did I need to do though?

Toilet: I needed that badly. There were only two, it took a while.

Rehydrate: I downed a 500ml bottle of squash.

Eat: I had a bowl of noodle broth, some banana but nothing else took my fancy.

Sort out feet and kit: I changed socks and reapplied the trench foot cream (water crossings incoming), changed tee shirt and applied sun cream.

All of this took about 50mins, I should have stayed another 10mins though. I didn’t drink enough; I didn’t eat enough. Tbh I felt a bit crap and did wonder if I would finish. When I left at 10.51am (just 9mins ahead of schedule), I had lost 87 places. I turned my phone on and received a message from Cajsa “There will seem like there’s no way out of the canyon but there is and you’re making your way there! Hang on boy! You’re doing great!!”. It made me chuckle but I also got the fear. Paul had talked about “The Valley of Death”, I wasn’t looking forward to this section, not one bit!

The Ugly

We started with a climb up in some woodland. My stomach wasn’t great, my pee just about acceptable colour and then I puked up a load of electrolyte. Yay! The scenery was beautiful, but my body didn’t want gels, it wanted to stop and have a lie down in the shade. I forced some jelly babies in, two at a time, must fuel. Must keep moving forward. It was only 10km to the next aid station. I would drink more; I would eat more. I must do this. Weirdly, even with all this crap going on, I was still moving forward. It was steady up and over, I could still run at times, the downhill was pleasant, I think. I had stopped taking photos, so my mood must have been a bit crap. I was happy to make it into the next aid station. I drank some more, then found some salted potatoes. I ate a bunch of these and some banana. I switched out my electrolyte for squash. I had brought a little bottle of concentrate with me after Jules had brought hers to crewing for CCC and it was a life saver. 2x water, 1x squash for the win. I just wish I had taken more potatoes in a bag. That was an error! I was still 15 mins ahead of schedule and had gained 75 places. 

The next section though, could only be described as hell. It started with some nice rolling trails but it was heating up at 1pm and I was still suffering. I could feel us getting lower and lower into the canyon. At some point then the 80km runners joined us. Some were chirpy, some were not. It’s  really weird to suddenly be confused about who you are racing. I mean, I use racing in the loosest of terms but I technically was. Even feeling like total crap I wanted to still do well, I still wanted to move forward with gusto. The gusto just wasn’t as good as it should have been. I think I hit almost rock bottom in that canyon (the irony), when we trudged along the riverbed of rocky horribleness. Sometimes I couldn’t tell where the path was but just followed whoever was ahead. Sometimes stopping at streams to put icy water on my head and into my bottle. Sapping the energy and morale, from my bones. I then remembered what Cajsa had said. Clinging on to the hope it would end. Please make it end.

Then we started climbing, up, along, up and up. Crossing rivers, being careful not to get my feet soaked. Taking rests to fuel when I could. More jelly babies please. Keep drinking! Until finally we came across a water stop, with a trough. I decided I would take a few mins to sit here and drink and eat a gel or something. Weirdly, I was now 2 hours ahead of my schedule! I think I must have screwed up the maths or something. I was in 846th place, having gained another 15 in that crappy canyon. After 10mins, I headed on out as there was still more of this never-ending climb to go. I think a small part of every runner died on this section. I had taken to having a sit down each time I took in fuel. I found it then gave me the gusto to push on again. Some other runners were copying me, lols. Not really, we were just all delirious! I even sang out loud “I want to get away, I want to fly away”, thank you Lenny.

Then finally the top, there was so much celebrating and relief from all around. The downhill looked fun too. I chucked a gel down and set about to attack it but after just a couple of minutes my left calf decided to seize up. Shit! Like seriously WTF! I had worked on my quads to do this whole final section! The energy levels were good, I was ready to run but my body decided at that point to say no. The calf caused my leg to lock up, differently to last year but a similar effect on the down hills. Running was painful. So annoyed, so pissed off. I knew at this point my race stretch time goal would be gone, there were still some climbs but they were not too crazy long and there would be a lot of fun downhills. If I couldn’t run, that was it! I smiled through the pain for some photos but made it my goal to just finish. I don’t think I was really thinking straight though, I wasn’t even looking at my time sheet. At the next aid station, I was still 90mins ahead of time and had gained 87places, sitting in 759th! I added in some Coke to the fuelling to give me the caffeine boost as well the extra calories my body really needed.

I set my mind to enjoy the views of the late afternoon/early evening light, as we climbed to Rifugio Averau music was coming off from the side and another building. Just like in the night, it seemed there was a party kicking off, alas it wasn’t at our drinks stop but I think this lifted all our moods. I stopped to refill my bottles and eat some food for a few mins. The next section had a steep downhill which, was painful but then, there was quite a nice traverse round, with some semi runnable sections, which I attempted to jog when I could. When you accept your fate you just have to work with what you have and try to make it work for you. I think this was possibly my worst section. It took me 2 hours to do 7km and I came into Passo Giau aid station, slightly delusional and confused. I think I thought the Rifugio was the aid station. I used the toilet, ate some banana and filled my bottles and checked my timing sheet. I was now 20mins ahead of schedule. Looking at my placing, I was also holding that in 746th, I guess a lot of people found that part hard also. I think it was at this point that I made a pact with myself to try my hardest to get to the finish sub 24 hours. I would be racing again!

The Good – Again!

I have always said, one of my superpowers is fast hiking. I can walk faster than some people can ultra-shuffle. I would use this over the last 17ish KMs. There were two more climbs and a lot of downhill, which I knew would be painful, but you have to be all in if you want to achieve. I had 3hrs 20mins to get to the finish.

The terrain was rockier now, which made some bits tricky. Over the first climb and mini drop down I made up another 18 places, pushing up to 728th, true mid pack heaven! I just topped up water at the CP and kept moving. I have vague memories of the next climb being totally not fun and a fair amount of moaning from all the runners. Then came the descent to the final aid station. The sun was starting to set, I stopped to take a selfie, but a kind runner offered to take my picture, I returned the favour. Yes, this would cost me some precious time but, I knew I would probably never come back here and wanted this memory captured. It was a truly special moment; the head torch was on and ready. I had 12km to go and it was pretty much 1000m straight down.

The verbalising of the pain started (swearing), I ran when I could, power hiked mostly, trying to find the best line down to the final aid station, where I didn’t even stop. I had worked out that I needed to be doing at least 12min/KMs to do it. Some were 14, some were 9. I cursed the mud (from the rain the previous day), I cursed the steep sections, where I slipped on my ass a couple of times. I was full of joy for the less steep bits where I could move faster. Normally in these races I always step aside to let faster runners go past. Now I was a man possessed, I wasn’t stopping for anyone. If you wanted to overtake you had to go past! The paths were wide enough in most places, so I didn’t feel too bad. My mantra was “Hike like a Mother Fucker Jon”, you can do this. My head torch was on full power, I wasn’t going to screw up by tripping over, that would be poor form. The descent was endless though, but I could taste it, see the town, though the trees.

When I finally hit the tarmac, I knew it was in the bag. I had time but wanted to run a little, when I could, finish strong Jon. Even run up the little hill to the finish straight, like Paul had said. Turn the corner and run in it. I felt so good crossing that line, with the MC shouting my name.

I crossed the finish line at 10.49pm with the biggest smile.

Post-race, I found out that I only lost 21 places in that last section. 749th out of the 1182 who finished. 369 DNF’d. I only added the placings into the blog for reference, I had no idea during the race where I was and couldn’t have cared less to be honest. The placing really doesn’t matter, I was more interested in seeing how I moved through the field, as that’s a sign of strength. The time is kind of ambiguous also, but it was nice to have a personal goal. I am a bit annoyed I wasn’t faster because I felt pretty good at the finish, like the strongest I have felt at the end of a long run like this ever. My feet hurt a bit and I was of course tired but relative to what I was expecting to feel, I know I had more gas in the tank because I couldn’t run much in that last part.

Reflections

A mixture of bad luck (losing my bottle) and bad race management caused the dehydration issues. I then didn’t resolve the situation correctly. I know better than this. The calf issue, who knows really, I did so much strength work on my legs. It could have been partly due to the hydration or just abuse on the climbs adding to fatigue. Without these issues, I think I would have been at least an hour faster, maybe more but that’s life.

The fuelling could have been better, I am pretty sure now after running 4 European races, that I just don’t like the aid station food over there. I even packed some crisps, but the body didn’t want them for some reason. I missed having some sandwiches and other softer real food. It all just feels dry. Something to ponder for sure.

The course, well it was lush, apart from the canyon section, which did come in the heat of the day. The trails are awesome, sometimes smooth, sometimes technical. The climbs and down hills are mostly fun. I did a great job of using my Leki poles here. Taking them out when needed and putting them away when not. This allowed my legs the freedom to run the downhills with a fluidity that I haven’t before as I have been too lazy to put them away because it’s been a faff. The views on this course are amazing and I think the night section is perfect as its mostly just in the woods, so you don’t really miss anything. The course markings are spot on, I didn’t have my map screen on at all but then again, I was around the same group of runners for most of the race, so never really felt alone. That could be a negative of a big race like this but after the initial 20km it didn’t feel too congested. I do think this is a way harder race than CCC though. Yes, its longer but it deserves your respect as the climbs are just different here, they just keep popping up and surprise you. A wonderful course!

Am I proud of my performance, hell yes. I didn’t stop, I problem solved the best I could and used the tools available to me to give the best I could. I raced a 120km Ultra in the mountains, I am now a real mountain ultra-runner.

Lavaredo Ultra Trail and Cortina, you gave me it all and I gave back the best I could. Thank you x

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