Guadarun 2010
Day 4: Lots of variety on Terre de Haut, Iles les Saintes
Jacqueline Windh / 10.04.2010
The Guadarun course planners have done an incredible job at route planning. Today we ran on Terre de Haut, a narrow little island only 4 km in its longest direction. But they managed to design a great 15 km route that included a bit of everything: trails, rocks, beach, lots of pavement - both through pretty little villages and following the shoreline - and lots of hills.
Today’s route included two out-and-back sections. Although sometimes repeating part of a route like that can be boring, it was actually really good because it was a chance to see the other runners, rather than just the few who happen to travel at your own same speed. There are almost 50 of us doing the whole thing, as well as a few of the accompanying guests and volunteers who ran today’s stage, and our whole group has bonded really well, so there were lots of shouts of encouragement along the way.
We started in the village of Terre de Haut, and ran just over 1 km of road to the first trail, a steep rocky trail through the forest to the top of Morne Morel hill, 136 m. The day was overcast, but still very hot and muggy. The navigation was a bit confusing at the top - first there was a split that was signposted: as long as you had paid attention to the map and knew you were heading to Baie de Marigot it was easy, but apparently several of the frontrunners did an extra few hundred meters here. Immediately after there was another signpost, but there were only two signs for four trails here and it was unclear which one was the Baie de Marigot trail indicated. I was with Daniel and Gilles, and we lost a couple of minutes up here. They didn’t have maps with them, but I did, so I pulled mine out and picked the one that seemed to go in the right direction. I called to them to go that way but they were reluctant - Daniel asked if I was sure and I had to be honest - no, not 100% but I am pretty sure - and I took off.
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