Verdon Canyon Challenge
Round and Round the Rugged Rock
Pyro / 24.06.2012
Since yesterday evening, the finishers have been steadily pouring over the line at the Verdon Canyon Challenge. The 100km racers began their long grind from Aiguines at 4am, and the twinkle of their head lamps visible in the cool morning sky as they ascended to the ridge line of les Grand Marges, then traversed along for their first meeting with the canyon proper. A steep, rocky descent into the base of the gorge left them with plenty of time to contemplate the height of the walls around them, and what they were going to have to ascend to get back to the top of them. The few flat sections in between the twisting, rocky masses gave little recovery space, and many racers commented on how hard it was to find a rhythm in amongst the mass of limestone.
The terrain also claimed its first casualties of the race, knee and ankle injuries taking their toll but even worse, for one French racer, being removed from the course at the second feed station (25km) to have a badly damaged nose set and stitched. “I was using batons [trekking poles], but they were getting in the way on the descent and my team-mate told me to put them away. As I folded them, I tripped and couldn’t get a hand down to stop myself, so this is it.”
Perhaps bizarrely, in a scene reminiscent of a CSI episode, the journalist team had been following this particular runner’s trail of blood droplets in reverse as we exited the gorge ourselves. The race route’s climb out was even more complex than ours, involving a number of fixed ropes and a couple of friendly staff from Les Ordres de Malte (The Order of Malta, first aid, disaster relief and health charity) helping people up.
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