The Dodo Trail

Lightfoot Triumphs At The Dodo Trail

Ricky Lightfoot (Salomon Trail Team) / 24.07.2014

When Mauritius comes to mind most people will associate it with a holiday or honeymoon destination, little do they know that the small island in the Indian Ocean plays host  to one of the roughest, most technical races I’ve ever ran, The Extreme Dodo Trail!

At 50km and a massive 3500m+ it’s not what you’d expect when the highest mountain on the Island only stands at 828m, Piton de la Petite which you climb 20km into the race.

The race starts under the shadow of Le Morne, an historical mountain that stands alone on the very South West tip of the Island. We gathered on the beach for a 5.30pm start, the recent anti cyclone was showing its might as the wind blew hard and cold with showers just to make me feel at home!

I knew that there were some quality runners entered, Jean Pierre Grondin and Jeannick Boyer from Reunion Island were both strong runners and of course Xavier Thevenard last years UTMB winner would also be a big threat. The race got underway prompt and an array of fireworks lit up the sky, the first 6km was on a mixture of undulating beach track and later ran on the road through the tiny  fishing village of Le Morne before turning up into the trees on a 4x4 track.

I decided on the off that I would run hard as my legs didn’t feel too good after the long day of travelling a day or so before, I thought that if they were going to be tired it’d be towards the end of the race so I wanted to see if I could possibly build up a good lead early on.  Under headlight we ran along the beach, the pace was fast but felt comfortable, by 2km there was only one other headlight with me, it was Xavier. I thought I’d push a little along the road as I could hear he was working hard and by the 6km turning point I’d made about 40 seconds.

I continued to work on the way up the climb; I couldn’t really see any headlights behind so relaxed a little. I approached the first summit as the sun began to rise, unfortunately I didn’t get much of a view, as there was a lot of cloud cover.

The trail was steep and very technical with roots, rocks and undergrowth. Some of the trail was so steep my Suunto Ambit stopped as it thought I was standing still! Over the first summit and down through the first check point, I was told at this point I had a 4 minute lead.

The next 13km was run on single track through the thick of the forest, the race snaked through the trees to the second check point at Chamerin before heading up to the highest point of the race at 828m, the trail didn’t leave much room to negotiate the trees and quite often I took a branch to the shoulder or found myself crawling over trees or running crouched over but quite often it was quicker to power hike the trail as there was no room for running.

The weather turned bad again at the summit with strong gusts and rain, the summit was completely covered by cloud. There was no worrying about which route to take as there was one way up and one way down via the narrow single track strewn with roots, rocks and thick, heavy mud. I made my way down to the half waypoint which was really slow due to how difficult the terrain was, there wasn’t much of a path but the route was really well flagged.

Check point 3 was at the 25km point, I grabbed some water and took a Kinetica energy gel and carried on. We had a good climb after check 3 on a wide open track luckily as I started to pass the 25km runners, there was some great support out on the route from spectators and other runners.

From the top of the climb we were rewarded with views of the coastline and an excellent view of the last 15km or so of the race. A fast descent and a few ladders to negotiate between private grounds and we reached the savannah where the ground opened up. Through the last check point and all was left was a climb to the last summit and a descent to the finish, I was told at the start to leave a little behind for this as it was a tough climb - that it was!

The last summit was definitely worth it as you could see for miles with panoramic views of the island, I had to pause for a few seconds to take it all in. The last descent was made even more difficult by the number of people on the trail, we were right in the thick of the 10k race so trying to pass on the dusty narrow single track was a slow affair. I could hear the crowds at the finish and surely enough a final bit of trail and across the river and the finish was in sight. I crossed the line in 5:19. Landie Greyling from Salomon SA won the ladies race in a new CR and in doing so finished 13th overall.

Congratulations to everyone who ran the Dodo Trail, a very tough technical race an adventure in itself! It was great to see friends old and new, hopefully I'll be back in 2015 for another crack at this hidden gem. Thanks to @dodotrail for the opportunity to race in such a beautiful place.

For more info and results go to www.dodo-trail.com

Thanks to Salomon, Petzl, Suunto, Superfeet, Kinetica and Rocktape UK for the continuing support.

[This article was first published on http://www.salomontrailtour.co.uk where you can find out all about Salomon Trail running events and athletes./

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