Yesterday Thomas, Emmanuel, and I completed the 37 km Imperial Trail in the Fontainebleau forest. Here is the photo before the start.
We had a perfect day to run with cool temperatures and a high, blue sky. The course winds its way through the forest. Here is the garmin trace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/379261668
My garmin recorded 520 meters (1,706 feet) of positive elevation gain. Thomas recorded 545 m.
If you’ve ever been there, you know that there are boulders and rocky hills everywhere. We were constantly going up, over, down, around, between and even under boulders. Our feet took a terrible beating with all the uneven surfaces. We each fell a few times with bloody legs displayed proudly as badges of courage.
The race organization was well done, with two well-stocked rest stations at 14 and 28 km where we fueled up and took a much needed breather.
Each of us had our difficult moments considering the tumbles, cramps, and fatigue but we pulled each other through and finished together in 4 hours 52 minutes. For me, that was good enough to be 14th out of 28 in my category and 151 out of 280 overall.