Topo Trail Marathon to finish a rough year on a good note

After being stuck 8 weeks in Taiwan waiting for Visa after their wedding, Matt and Vivian were back in US....just right on time for the Topo Trail Marathon. On time yes, but only 2 days before the race with a 24hrs trip and 13hrs jet lag. 

Better being out there in the woods than unsuccessfully trying to sleep, so Matt signed up last minute the night before the 2019 Topo Trail Marathon. 

As expected, short night and Matt woke up at 3am, plenty of time for breakfast and preparing the bottles and drink for the 42km ahead. 

Beautiful sunny day with temperature around 8degC which allowed for short sleeve outfit and not too much worry about hydratation. 

At 9am the 50 runners of the full marathon were set free 15min before the half marathon runners and 20min before the 10k group. 

Matt and Billy took the lead of the pack, chitchatting getting into the pace on the paved part of the race. First turn left and first (and only) mistake, taking the first trail on the right which turned out to be the end of the loop :P

Back on the road, pushing a bit to take the lead again before hitting  the right trail this time half a mile later.

Matt kept a comfortable pace accompanied by Billy and without noticing it they started to create a little gap...they will keep all along the race as no runners will catch them for the next 40k. On the last couple of miles the track was running closed to another part of the race and Matt and Billy could see runners from the 10km race pushing their way on the trail.

Finishing the first of the 4th laps together after 58min and some muddy and sometime overgrown fun trails, Matt slowed down after changing his hand bottle. 

The decision was made to keep it easy and not following Billy who took the lead, first as the lack of sleep was really present and second to make sure to finish the race strong and trying to avoid to hit the wall. With all the 500+ runners already on the loop, the trails became more and more slippery and muddy. A bit of stomachache in this lap which was cleared after a quick stop outside the trail :P 

Second lap finished and Matt was 2mins behind Billy feeling quite sleepy but with good legs. After grabbing a new bottle and starting a new lap, it was time to get a caffeine pillto shake the sleepiness out and getting ready for the second half of the race. Half an hour later, the caffeine kicked, the legs were still moving good and the stomachache was gone allowing to keep on the energy intake strategy. 

Reaching miles 22, it was time for Matt to start pushing to finish on a strong note. Around mile 23 Matt saw Billy right ahead of him giving him motivation to keep pushing an try to catch up.

Few minutes after, Matt passed Billy that went down on the trail around mile 20 and had to slow down his way to the finish.The 2 last miles went good with still some energy left for Matt to create a little gap and finishing the 4th and last lap in 1st position just 3min ahead of Billy.

The race went pretty good, pace and energy intake where spot on and well adapted for the lack of sleep. Brian did a really good job changing the race loop last minute because of the rain and still hit pretty much an exact marathon distance.

A good way to finish the 2019 season which had been a bit rough for the TJ79 US members with injuries and life events keeping them to train and race together as much as they wanted....now it is time to recover and think about 2020. The rest of the year will be a mix of orienteering events and short trail races used as tempo run training. 

SEE YOU ALL IN 2020 FOR NEW ADVENTURES!!!!!! 

Long silence period...but we are back and here some updates!!!

This year and season has been challenging at different levels, travels, injuries....even some weddings for what I heard 😁.

Despite all the life events happening, TJ79 US were  still at it and raced here and there.

First big race was at the end of 2018 in Chile, were Marc and Matt met our friends from TJ79 Barcelona for ElCruce stage trail run race. 

3 stages for a total of 100km and more than 3000m of elevation in central Chile. Marc and Matt raced in the duo category and despite not being well prepared for mountain climbs they took a final 4th place in the male duo division. An unexpected results and a race that will have some long impact on 2019 season.

Back in mid December, it was time to rest and recover from this race....high time. Not long after, Marc started to have issue in is lower back and it will take him the all season to get this injury fixed and started training again....

Not much group ride this season as spring turned to be a rainy mess and lot of work during weekend and family life added on the crappy weather. 

Matt participated to different short orienteering meeting to work on navigation skills for bigger event and finally race the 361 Frigid 4hr Rogain where he took 1st overall finishing just seconds ahead of the Minto Father and Son team. 

Matt the raced in 12hr Conquer the cross road Roagain in Indianna. The race went extremely well and after 68k and 1800m D+ of navigation Matt took first overall for the second year in a raw.

As Marc was still injured Matt teamed up with other great AR racers from No Complaints, Doug and Jim, to win the 12hr NO Sleep AR in early June. A nice result with a competitive field but with the beginning of pain in left legs that would last for month.

After taking first in the Topo summer series trail race at Big Bone leek stat park, Matt went to Europe for work and stopped in France for some mountain time where with an old friend Arthur. They spent time mountain-biking in the Alps with not much run to spare Matt's left legs.

Back to US, Matt started to work on clearing his leg issue with the help of Iain Hughues who will get this issue fixed in couple of physical therapy session.

To add to the left leg injury, Matt crashed pretty bad during the Red Kite round 200k gravel race. After DNF, Matt was brought back to finish line by Doug who also dropped the race to help (less than poor organisation on this race with nothing set-up to pick up racer in case of issue).

 Lot of wounds and scratches with a pretty bad right hip cut that will take more than one month to completely hill.

At the same time Matt teamed up with Doug again. 2 weeks after the crash, to race the 361 Dead Fred 9hr AR where they took first overall. A great day with a perfect strategic navigation from Doug put them in a serious lead by the middle of the race.

By the end of Spetember, Matt left leg was finally good and the serious run training would restart with the objective to run the Ultra Maokong 50Km trail race in Taiwan where Matt will stay for his traditional weeding with Vivian.

Before that Matt joined Bill Fletcher from OutlawDonkey at teh Dino CIA 12hr AE Race along with a young new female teammate, Mackenzie, to help Bill for a last minute qualification for USARA National. Race went pretty well for this new trio and they took a nice 3rd overall and 2nd Co-Ed team places after 11hr27min. Job done!!!


To continue to work on long endurance and navigation, Matt put a last race before going to Taiwan during the Topo East Fork 12hr Challenge, and after a really entertaining race design with couple of lack crossing swimming, Matt got a 1st overall finish. 

Couple of orienteering meeting, some trail run but obviously not enough hills after and Matt was on the starting line of the UMK50 at 4am after only 2hr of sleep and a capricious stomach. After 9hr01min, 50km and 3500m D+ on wet technical and steep hills of Taiwan, Matt crossed the finish line 3rd Ex-aequo. The race went better than expected with the short sleep and stomachache for most of the race who led to a difficult food intake. 

Right after the UMK50, David and Arthur joined Matt in Taiwan for a 5 days bike trip on the Taiwan east cost before Matt wedding.

During this time Marc went to Barcelona couple of time and work on his back issue with ElMago and he is know recovering and getting back on training. 

Clearly the 2019 season has been a difficult one but with some good results and podium in almost every races and always tons of fun and friendship all around the world!!

2019 is officially launched...Topo trail series#3 at MFF and 361 Adventures Frigid 4hr Rogaine

Holidays time is over and was well spent recovering with family, friends and lot (maybe too much) food. The motivation is finally back to restart pushing while racing and getting back on a more structured training despite some leftover pain from El Cruce. 

The past weekend was perfect to test the legs with 2 races on the schedule, Topo 10miles Trail running at MMF park on Saturday and 361 Adventures Frigid 4hr Orienteering rogaine on Sunday.

The Saturday trail run was a perfect warm up race for the Sunday event that I was planning to race strongly. Perfect weather at 10am when all the trail runners were set free for the 5 or 10 miles course. The MTB trails at MFF being still wet, Brian designed an alternative course with minimal usage of road and still with some good short climbs. 

I decided to stay with regular runners in the leading 10 miles pack, well we will be quickly just 2 with the first runner way faster than us and another pack getting distanced little by little. We stayed together for 3 laps and then I backed up a bit at the beginning of the 4th and last lap as my right leg was a bit painful and to save as much as possible for the next day. Finally finishing 3rd at 20-30secondes from the 2nd and far behind (probably 4min) after the winner. Really happy with the feeling for the first 3/4 of the race, then the pain in right leg woke up again but it hold more than anticipated so it is a good sign.

Early wake up on Sunday, to arrive quite early at registration after the one hour drive to General Butler park to get the map and having a good amount of time to plan the first part of the race. The main race had 19CPs that would need to be all punched before returning to the start to get 5 additional CPs. Lot of strong racers and navigators made the travel but it was also nice to see lot of new faces as the day before 361 Adventures organized an Adventure Race/Orienteering clinic which motivated new person to try to race the next day.

At 10am the racers were launched in a spring like weather to collect the 19 first CPs. My strategy was to get the far out CPs first as probably most of the new racers and person/team thinking to not clear the course would go on the other side of the park where lot of CPs were packed in a smaller area. As planned, CP18 was found really fast down in a re-entrant 300m from the start. Then it was time to find CP17 that was right in a re-entrant down the road at the bottom of CP18. Well, that was looking so easy on the map that I didn't read the clue and spent 5minutes wondering in the right re-entrant not finding the flag...and I could have spent all the time looking for it as the clue said pipeline.....PUNCH ONLY...so no flag, just a punch on the pipeline that I passed multiple time looking for a flag :P. 

Well that totally put me in race mood pushing the pace on the road/path along the lack to catch couple of racers before CP16. More push collecting CP15 on the way to CP14 that required to jump over a fence as I took the road to approach my attack point. As expected I found the trail attacking just before the small hill from the road and got CP14 right in the next re-entrant. I finally caught up with the lead racer on this side of the course in the big climb going to CP12 near a pound. CP13, 11 and 9 were all found pretty easily going up and down some steep hills. Another big climb to CP10 and then I decided to go to CP8 first, then CP10 on the way to CP7 down a re-entrant and backtrack up to collect CP3. From there I took a way downhill to CP4 collecting CP6 on the way down a re-entrant

. Then back up the road to get CP5. From here, I was on my way back to the start by CP2 on a bushy spur where I cut my face and hands but with the strong runners on the course no time to be to concern about avoiding all the bushes. After collecting CP19 on the way up-hill to the start, I found Minto father and son "A Large Orange hedge" Team, just in front of me on the road and we arrived at the same time (1hr23min) to copy the 5 extra CPs on our race map. I copied the CPs as fast as I can and went back on race first pushing on the road to CPA while the 3 person arrived to get the new CPs. Definitely no comfortable lead at this point so I would kept pushing, running strong down CPA to CPE....which I missed by 5meters not seeing it on my left while going into the re-entrant near the road. The 2nd and 3 racers caught me back and we all finally found it at the same time. Well one only thing to do, being smart keeping up the pace. CPD was close to CP14 so I applied the same strategy running on the road attacking this time after the hill on the side of the road, and reach directly the right re-entrant first. As after CP14, I made the choice to climb up to reach the trail stay on the top to move in direction of CPB and went down a steep downhill before taking the trail that was going right to the re-entrant were I found CPB. Back down on the trail to run to CPC which I decided to attack from the top of the spur. Once punched, the finish was at less than 1.5km from the finish and as planned it was all on the road...so sprint time as I crossed just after CPB Minto Father and son and knew they were really closed to finish too taking another route. Last push on the stairs to the finish and even before I had time to give my punch card, the second team arrived...after 2h18min and 24CPs we finished at 10 secondes from each other after finishing exactly at the same time the first 19CPs!!! Incredible tight finish!!!

As always. post race analysis and strategy discussion with the finisher before the awards ceremony and heading back home with a first overall win in 2019, finger crossed it will continue on a good note the all season.

Definitely a fun weekend, and big thank to Topo and 361 and all the volunteers to allow us to enjoy those winter days.
Results : http://361adventures.com/Results/Frigid_2019.pdf
Details of the route on Strava : https://www.strava.com/activities/2060957114