Verdon Canyon Challenge
Proper Preparation ...
Pyro / 22.06.2012
Preparations are well underway for the start of the 20th Verdon Canyon Challenge. In the town of Aiguines, the race village is in full swing with the 500-or-so runners (230 of whom are taking on the 100km course) registering, picking up race materials, picking through their last-minute gear checks and generally getting ready for tomorrow’s 4am start.
The race village area was once reputedly a grain drying and processing area for the commune of Aiguine, and while many jokes could be made about ‘sorting the wheat from the chaff’, many of the racers, as well as the race organisers, believe the Verdon Canyon Challenge to be one of the most technical Ultra races in France. The early parts of the 100km race route take the competitors along a series of ledges and levels in the canyon walls themselves, with wired handrails in places, and sections alarmingly close to vertical.
Helen MacDonald, probably the furthest-flung racer in the field having flown from Sydney, Australia, has been reconnoitering the area while acclimatising over here and came to an alarming conclusion early on: “I got to the end of what looked runnable, and thought “Well, this can’t be it, then” when I noticed some wires going more-or-less straight up the wall. I realised we were right on-route…”
Tim Haughton, a competitor back in the multi-stage race history of the race who’s back to try the continuous format agreed: “When I last ran here it was a 150km, 4-day stage race, and they pretty much tried to kill us on day 1”. MacDonald, who has been trying to tick off all the races in a book of the World’s Greatest Trail Races and has made it over to knock this one off the list, is philosophical. “If it takes me 35 hours [ the maximum allowed time ] so be it.”
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