La vie pure et l'ultra-paradis

Yes, the title is French. Yes, this is about TCC again. My 8th post on this adventure. A never-ending race report...

A long-due post although it did take a couple of months after coming back from the Coastal Challenge for me to write this ultimate article on my journey through Costa Rica, in French this time. And a few more weeks for it to be published in the ultrafondus magazine (issue number 51, April 2008).
I did not want to just translate one of my post, or even the article which I wrote for UltraRunning magazine. It has another flavor, a content which aims at attracting the francophone and overseas audience to come for some ultra-tourism in Central America. And, among many other good reasons, to take advantage of the strong Euro! The format is a series of thematic snap shots illustrated with post cards.
The article is the result of great team work, leveraging pictures from Andres and Tim and the talents of Romuald, ultrafondus's graphist, for the layout. Andres was the event official photographer and Tim the event director and founder.
For the Francophone readers and the other ones who are not afraid of this foreign language, I have posted the entire article on line (thanks to the ultrafondus magazine team for sharing).
For more information (and praises!) on this magazine, you can read this earlier post.

Ironically, I share this story about pure and cool life, at a time I need to remind myself about being happy and focusing on the present moment. The injury from last week 50K race at Skyline last week worsen during the week. Friday was finally better, then the pain came back on Saturday, making me limping. The quads got quite damaged and I believe they have hard time eliminating dead blood cells and other waste from the edema. At least the swallowing is almost gone and I am close to have regained full flexibility and being able to bend the knee as much as before. But not quite there (15-20 degrees still missing) so it is too early to resume running. When I should be training full speed, two weeks before Headlands 50K (the US 50K trail nationals) and three weeks before the French 100K road championships. As for work, I am still wondering how the Big Blue elephant will scoop us at the end of the year. Some people on both sides claim there is no reason to worry, yet, I can't prevent my analytical skills to kick in and make me think. And worry... But, Pura Vida, right? Besides, the family flew back home from Spain this week and everything is wonderful on this end. So life is perfect after all, Pura Vida!

Hope you enjoy your summer, wherever you are. And a special hello to the ultrafondus and all the TCC 2008 participants!

A French re-connection weekend

A weekend in Paris and several opportunities to reconnect with my French connections. Hey, I didn't say The French Connection, just my running connections over here!

A marathon in 3:14 on La Coulée Verte on Saturday morning, the 40 years of my club in Paris, the ASVP (Association Sportive des Vétérans de Paris) and a off with a few ultrafondus between Versailles and Dampierre (Yvelines county).

La coulée verte

Literally, something like the green gully or the green valley. It is a nice trail and bike path going for about ten miles along the TGV (our bullet train) line to the South of Paris. For more information, see my detailed description of the course. This post is actually one of the most visited on my blog, with people looking for a run in or from Paris. I even have a colleague from one of our European offices who heard about this trail from my blog, cool.

This Saturday, I had to cut my run short because of the ASVP lunch so I just ran a marathon. I was thinking that, before moving to California in 1998, I was really glad to have long runs of 13 miles on this course. Now, getting to Massy (the end of the trail) from my parents' in Paris' 14th district is about 10 miles and is too short for me especially as I am tuning up my training for Western States. To make the run longer I went around and through Verrières-le-Buisson, turning around at the half-marathon mark (on my Garmin 205, which I believe is very accurate on this flat and open trail).

The temperature was perfect, few people and bikes on the trail, great conditions for a good run. 1:36 at the half and 3:14 for the marathon, good for a Boston qualifier.

40 candles for the ASVP!

When I turned 40 I wanted to run in the French Nationals and other competitions in France. For that, I had to join the FFA (Fédération Française d'Athléthisme), the equivalent of our USA Track & Field Asscociation. And, like for USA T&F, I needed to join a club. There are hundreds of them in France, including more that one hundred in and around Paris, so many to chose from. I initially thought of the PUC (Paris Université Club) for the reputation and convenience (meetings in Charléty Stadium, close to the ILOG office) but the conditions and welcome ended up not so great. Since I had just turned Masters then, which translates into Vétérans in French, I contacted the club which seemed specialized in this age group, the ASVP (the V stands for Vétérans which means Masters in French)!

In May 1968, when many others were engaged in social and political arguments and battles in France, a group of athletes in their early 40s came with their own revendication. At the time, in France, there was no other category in races and championships than the open category. As a result, clubs were losing interest in their "aging" members. As a positive way to express their disagreement, this group created a club to gather Masters and, as a first action, they wrote a letter to the FFA to make the case of an age group for 40 years and above, which was already the case in Germany and some Scandinavian countries for instance. The Masters category was created a year letter and we were gathering this weekend to commemorate the creation of the club, 40 years ago.

Gathering for a marathon... lunch! A 5-course lunch and seated for 5 hours around the table, it has been a long time since I've done that, I'm really lacking training in this area. Oh well, I should be running more than 60km tomorrow...

With more than 50 people all with a passion for running and more than 40 years worth of running souvenirs and memories, there were lively discussions. And it was an opportunity for me to learn more about the history of the club. The most notable performance of the club, beyond this influence on the recognition of the Masters category, was a 3rd place at the French Nationals of cross-country in Fontainebleau. The team was composed of Blanchard, Colliot, Vinet, Duault and Goiset (in the order they finished that year), with Vinet and Goiset still being with us. That year, the ASVP lost to the AS Police (1st) and the Army Squadron of Rennes (2nd).

Vinet has been on the National Track & Field team for several international selections on 5,000 and 10,000 meters (his PRs are 2:31 on the 1,000, 8:29 on the 3.000, 14:36 on the 5,000 and 30:44 on 10,000). He was still running the 10K in 33 minutes at 41. Before joining the ASVP, Vinet was with Colombes Sport between 1952 and 1062 then the ACP (Athlétique Club de Paris).

Another illustrious club member was Roger Petitjean who has been the captain of the French team of cross-country for several years. Unfortunately, Roger frequently lost to French legends such as Jason then Mimoun, like Raymond Poulidor with Anquetil and Merckx on the Tour de France... (below, a picture of Roger, from parisenimages.fr, copyright Roger-Viollet) Of course the ASVP is not the older club in France. There are actually several clubs which already celebrated their 100 th anniversary like the famous Racing, Stade Français or the ASVP friend club, SAM (Société Athlétique de Montrouge).

Unfortunately, nobody had a digital camera so, no picture, sorry...

Actually, later the following week, Jean Duponq sent me a couple of scans from the old good times.

A group picture of the club members, presumably in Vincennes, and sometimes in the early 90s (already some grey and white hair, but a great mood and spirit...):
Unexpectedly Jean met the elite runner Arturo Barrios of Mexico, at his hotel while visiting Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Arturo was famous for setting the world record of 10,000 meters in 1989 (see The New York Times article). Yet, Jean told me that Arturo was very nice and approachable, and kind to discuss their shared passion and even sign an autograph.
Jean continued his journey through South America to run the Corrida of Sao Paulo (Brazil):
"Off des Yvelines" with 3 other ultrafondus

Meeting place: Sunday morning at the entrance of the Château de Versailles. Code name: Off des Yvelines. Direction: South West.

But, first what is an off anyway? I told Phil that I of course new the word, but had never heard it used in this context in the US.

Off is used here like it is used in art festivals to describes events which are on the side of the main track, off the program, unofficial. It can also be off pressure. For us this Sunday, it was really off-road and sometimes off-the-trail actually. And off pace for me compare to my run yesterday. With even off-the-records jokes, stories and gossips. Really casual and cool anyway.

Phil had even another rationale: for the French purists who would not want to acknowledge the English origin and meaning, off could be the off in the French officieux (unofficial, casual). It surely makes sense and convey the adequate meaning, but that really seems like an after-thought justification, not much of an etymological one.

As for ultrafondus, the regular readers of my blog will remember my post of last March in which I introduced the concept, the magazine and my 5-page interview in this ultra running magazine. For the others you have to click on the above link to understand this French neologism and wordplay.

I now have a few connections with the ultrafondus community and one email announcing my visit to France is enough for a mobilization of the network to get a run organized for me, Ze Californian! Like the great Fat Ass we ran around Rouen in Normandy last January.

We met for a start at the Château de Versailles (Place d'Armes) at 9am. The hordes of tourists were on their way for the visit of the castle. At the train station, we saw many Japanese and still a few Chinese (they just got banned from their government from visiting France because of the protests against the Olympic torch in Paris last month...). We left this busy part of town for a much quieter one, going South and quickly getting in the forest. Phil was our guide for the day, first using his memories from the many years he had trained in the area before his parents moved 40 miles further South, 11 years ago. Phil was also using a (car) GPS to get overall directions toward his parents' house, 32 miles away from the start by the road. Needless to say, such a GPS is of some help but does not show trails, only roads and highways, so the navigation gets really approximate sometimes...
Here is a satellite view from our start, picturing the amazing layout of the park of the castle as viewed from the sky (click on the picture to enlarge and see our route):
The complete route is posted on Google Earth and Google Maps. In Versailles we entered the forest (Forêt Domaniale de Versailles). Our first stop was at the bottom of the so-called "Oak of Louis XIV" for a group picture (from right to left: Stéphane, Thierry, Phil and I):
Phil told us it was the oldest tree around but we learned from his mother at the end of the day that the real oak which had seen Louis XIV had died since and has been cut. Don't tell Phil, he will be so disappointed and may actually get traumatized by the news and the end of this legend from his childhood... ;-)

By the way, all the pictures from this run are from Stéphane, aka runstephane on the ultrafondus forum. You can see more pictures in his Picasa album.

Leaving Versailles' forest, we crossed a quite modern (~30 years old) urban area (Guyancourt, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Voisins-le-Bretonneux). We erred at the entrance of the Forêt de Port Royal and ended up in a large farm of the Agronomic Research National Institute after crossing a stream and high grass fields (with ticks...). This is really getting off...control and reason, when we got caught inside the INRA farm...
Pommiers? Not completely lost yet...
With our feet wet and checking several options to get back on the original planned route, we were definitely not going the shortest path and Thierry started feeling the heat and wanted to return to Versailles on his own after these first 13 miles. Phil discouraged him, arguing rightly that we were half way between the start and Dampierre where Stéphane had parked his car with some food.

A policeman ensuring the security for a local bike race (we saw a young gal with the French tri-color jersey) told us the way to Milon-la-Chapelle.
We left Milon running/hiking up the famous hill of la Madeleine (Côte de la Madeleine), the steepest and longest hill around for local bikers (a bit of hill training for Phil and Stéphane for their return to UTMB in August, although it is not that long actually!).

A bit of heat training for me for Western States... ;-)

We asked our way to several hikers, got conflicting directions until one shown us a detailed map with the GR11 leading to Chevreuse and Dampierre. It was 1:15 pm and we were 20 miles in our run when we got to Stéphane's car in Dampierre. Stéphane had brought the perfect ingredients for a great aid station: coke, mineral waters, quinoa/tomato/mozzarella salad, potato chips, sausage, bread, dry fruits.
Dampierre has a large castle too and is therefore pretty busy with tourists. But this Sunday was also special with an Art Festival and many artists displaying across the town. There are also many special events throughout this year to celebrate the creation of all the counties (départements in French) around Paris. It was used to be only two huge ones 40 years ago called Seine and Seine-et-Oise. In 1968 (yes the same year the ASVP was born!), 5 new counties were created out of the split: Yvelines (78), Essonne (91), Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis (93), Val-de-Marne (94) and Val-d'Oise (95). Our "off des Yvelines" was another way to celebrate this anniversary.
After 30 minutes of re planning and wondering about the timing for the rest of the day (I had to be back to Versailles by 5:30), we left Thierry at the car. He was going to drive to a place with several lakes/ponds and will wait for us about 6 miles from Dampierre. After our break, Phil started showing some signs of fatigue and we alternated walking, jogging and...sprinting (go figure, it became a game, really an indication that we are...ultrafondus!).
Anyway, after 27 miles and 6 hours we reached the pond of Saint Hubert where Thierry was waiting for us and decided to end our run here, then drive to Phil's parents who were waiting for us. Their hospitality was particularly warmhearted and re comforting, with drinks (beer, orange juice, water, coke, hot chocolate, coffee), food, laughs and more ultra stories. We really felt the ultrafondus family spirit and it was hard to leave in a rush because of my time constraints. We were even given a copy of the latest issue of the ultrafondus magazine, just off the press, which includes my 6-page article on the Coastal Challenge, with a great picture selection and lay out made by the magazine designers. Kudos again to the ultrafondus team!

Was another busy and very enjoyable running weekend, on the other side of the Ocean. Ultra running, the international and universal way...

PS: scoop! Phil is going to the 6 days of Antibes next weekend, and here is a sneak preview of his new technique to save time, sleeping right off the side of the road (yes, yet another off...). Beware, competitors, this seems to be an even better technique than Dean Karnazes', who claims in his best-seller book that he sleeps while running!!
And another secret: Phil even smiles while sleeping. This definitely shows great optimism and mental, less than one week from the event. Good luck for next week, Phil!

Pura Vida in UltraRunning magazine

First, a quiz: do you recognize the three runners on the cover? Read down to the end for the answer...

This week I received my issue of UltraRunning. With ultrafondus, they are my two favorite magazines. This issue is special: there is a long section on adventure running, a sport I discovered this winter. The section features several remote and multi-stage races, including a 1-page article on The Coastal Challenge by... me!

As the course change every year I tried to give the article a generic spin, conveying the philosophy of the event, rather than going back to the details I already provided you with in my series of post on the TCC (not tired about it yet? ;-).

For instance, I start with the following very special cocktail recipe:

Mix 130 miles of running through the Costa Rican jungle, 7 stages, a handful of micro-climates, breathtaking views, top quality food, ultra running camaraderie, a pinch of competition, outstanding logistics, rustic but non-dry camping. Shake for 6 days and you will get a memorable Coastal Challenge cocktail. No counter indication!

This is also known as the Pura Vida Cocktail, the ultra and healthy way, of course! Read the magazine for more...
And now, ultrafondus presses me to write a much longer article to be published overseas. Like I had not enough with a two jobs, blogging and many other activities... Patience and tenacity...

This is also a special issue in another way: UltraRunning is starting a series of articles featuring running clubs, kicking it off with... The Stevens Creek Striders, my running club in Cupertino (I'm also a member of the Association Sportive des Vétérans de Paris)! Here we are, manning the Last Chance aid station at mile 43 on the Western States course, in June 2005 (I was the co-captain with Bob and Marsha).
And one year later, same place, celebrating 25 years of service to the race.Thanks to the Striders I can join USA T&F (Track and Field, Pacific Association Chapter) and compete in the US; thanks to the Vétérans de Paris, I can register with the FFA (Fédération Française d'Athlétisme) and compete in France (although far less). I work for a global company (900 people, 15 offices in 9 countries), and my running business is global too! That said, there are so many new places I still want to visit and run at/in.

Yes, Farther, an endless dream...

Once more, Pura Vida to you all!

PS - The response to the quiz: Zeke Tiernan, Kyle Skaggs (the brother of Erik who came in 2nd at Way Too Cool this year) and... yes, Tony Krupicka (you should have known if you read my American River post last week!). Kyle and Tony are on their way to something very unique: both winning the Moab's Red Hot 50K (0r 55K actually). A tie, setting two course records at once! By the way, Kyle is 23 and Anton 24 so they have a huge "Farther Faster potential" ahead of them... (Need to patent this expression and pick a unit. Any suggestion? ;-)
PS: adding links to the scans of both articles in this issue of UltraRunning (April 2008):

1. A Pura Vida experience Experience
2. The Stevens Creek Striders
   

Jean, another ultrafondu, by Vincent

Ultrafondu (latin ultra: exhalted, exagerated - french fondu: melted and fond: long distance running) fem: ultrafondue, pl. ultrafondus (1) n. person passionate about ultra running; (2) adj. crazy about ultra running!

Ultrafondus the monthly magazine of the Francophone ultra running community. Available through subscription or at www.ultrafondus.fr.

Ok, I concede, these definitions do not come from the Harrap's or the Collins, but they are much needed before reading this post.

This week and weekend I am in Paris for business and found two copies of ulrafondus at my parents' where I have my subscription delivered to. Vincent (Toumazou) had given me some heads-up and I was anxious to read the January issue. For the frequent readers of my blog, they will recall the visit of Vincent in the Bay Area last December, our run at Rancho and the nice lunch at home afterwards.Vincent is a contributor to ultrafondus and interviewed me with questions covering many aspects of my running career. Resulting in 5 pages in the printed magazine including pictures the editor selected from my online photo albums and blog posts! Of course it is in French which the francophone readers will appreciate, for once on my blog. The magazine is not online, but you can access the electronic copy I have uploaded on my website (pdf). By the way, the title is a nice play of words from Vincent: Gens d'ultra, Jean de Californie. Gens means people (ultra people) and his homonym of my first name.

ultrafondus is really a top class running magazine. First the presentation is impeccable, professional, colorful, modern. Second, and even more importantly, the content is amazingly rich and captivating. Not only for us, ultrafondus, but also for our family and friends who can share thanks to these articles some of our passion and understand better why we spend hours and days on the trails. Furthermore, it is printed on glossy paper which makes the layout and numerous color pictures standing out and enhancing the text beautifully. It is hard to convey such a high standard of quality through words, you really have to experience it by yourself. To me, with 80+ pages of such quality, it's like getting a new book on ultra each month in the mail. Kudos to the ultrafondus team! How is this relevant to most of you, the non Francophone readers of my blog, especially in the US? Well, it actually is to some extent thanks to connections between the ultrafondus and UltraRunning (UR) magazine teams. Last year Philippe (Billard) and (Tropical) John (Medinger) have met in France, exchanged ideas and engaged into a collaboration to establish links between the American and European/Francophone ultra communities. For instance, once a month, ultrafondus now include a translated article from the last issue of UR. I have to think that ultrafondus influence the UR team to move to the color cover last year, something which received a lot of positive from the UR readers on the ultralist forum. By the way, I am also an avid reader of UR, and contributor too (the next issue should include a write-up on the Coastal Challenge). I am also a subscriber to other magazines (Runner's World, Trail Running, California Track & Running News), plus reader of books, and DVDs... Yes, definitely, I am an ultrafondu...! Maybe yet, an ultranut...

I met Philippe for our inaugural "French fat ass 50K" in Rouen in January. Philippe is the Editor-in-Chief of ultrafondus. His passion has always been journalism but his parents pushed him to get in IT (Information Technology) for a safer career. In College he majored in IT and, after a few years in application development, made the jump into IT journalism, working for the major French publication, 01 Informatique, after getting back to school to study journalism. Later, he discovered running which he added to his range of passions. Naturally, he made another career move, leaving the IT world to specialize in ultra running journalism. Took a stake into the small ultrafondus corporation and that became his full time job. It is nice to see passions being combined this way! Similarly to what Sarah and Wendel accomplish with their Pacific Coast Trail Run (PCTR) venture in California, surfing today's ultra wave!

Here we are, with Rouen in the background, in very good ultrafondus company: Annick (Le Moignic) in charge of proof-reading the magazine before publication, Philippe, Stéphane (Couleaud), another ultrafondu, and I:
As a serious ultrafondu, I went for a run this weekend. It was a special and packed weekend with the last 3 games of the annual 6 nations rugby championship (Italy-Scotland at 2pm, England-Ireland at 4pm and the much expected Wales-France at 6pm). I left my parents' at 9:30 in the morning, initially for a run of at least a marathon, starting with La Coulée Verte (see my review of this great run along the TGV line). By mile 13 I was feeling good so I took the road toward Palaiseau. Stopped by the very nice church of Vauhallan with a crypt from the 5th century, Clovis time (the King of the Franks at the origin of the Gaul reunion), which is really prehistory for us living in the US... I kept going on to Saclay, along the National Center for Nuclear Research to end up in Gif-sur-Yvette 20 miles from my parents'. I stopped twice a bars to get my bottle refilled (with water, not beer!), yet missed electrolytes for this long (long) run. 40.4 miles in 5h22, I had enough exercise to enjoy three rugby games on TV! By the way, that is my third longest training run since I have been running.

Unfortunately that afternoon, the Wales-France fight turned to the Wales' advantage. There was a lot of expectations from both sides. Wales had to win this last game to complete a grand slam (5 victories). France had to win the game by more than 22 points to place first of this year championship. To simply win to place 2nd and, because England had just won over Ireland by more than 22 points, would finish 3rd of the championship if losing this game. Which is the scenario which finally happened...

In the evening and late in the night we did celebrate my older brother's 50th, despite this disappointing news on the rugby side. Thierry is a fan of rugby and played for many years, first in our hometown club of Tours in 2nd division, and later with his school, Sciences Po (for Institut des Sciences Politiques, a top grade management and administation school in Paris). Last month he received the prestigious Hintze award from IFACI, the French association for internal audit he belongs to. Much to celebrate with family and friends!
Here are some French-flavored notes from abroad. Back to the Californian trails next week.

Plus loin, plus vite!

Les balcons de Rouen: a French Fat Ass

January sees a nice ultra tradition across the US: the Fat Ass 50K. This is an unformal run or race of 50 Kilometers. No ranking, no course record, no registration, no aid station. A way to get the new season started with running buddies and friends. Getting your butt out!

In the Bay Area, "our" Fat Ass is organized by David Kamp. Usually on one of the very first days of January, but on the 19th this year. A year of particular importance as Schwarzeneger is planning to close about 50 of the State Parks thoughout California, including the one we go through for this run, Portola Sate Park. The news just got out this week, such a bad one for our running community. Which has hard time believing this will really resolve the economic crisis of the Californian administration.

Anyway, I will not be in town for that weekend, but skiing at Lake Tahoe for Martin Luther King birthday (memorial) weekend. Yet I wanted to run a 50K before the Coastal Challenge. After Vincent Toumazou's visit, my blog on our nice run together in December and his report on several ultra forums in Europe, I got in touch again with Phil, the chief editor of the superb UltraFondus magazine in France (the equivalent of our UltraRunning magazine, but all color and even more professional). Phil suggested we run together next time I was coming to France. Which was this January.

Jean, Laurent, Stéphane, Phil, Annick

Phil lives in Evreux, West of Paris, near Rouen, where two of my sisters live. When I mentioned this connection with Normandy to him, he asked Annick to organize a run in the Rouen area.

Annick suggested "Les Balcons de Rouen", a 47K-course she had designed and ran several times with some local buddies. Meeting point was Saturday, 8am, at her home. Balcon means balcony, to describe a flat trail longing a mountain or hill, not at the bottom, nor the top (crest). There is such a balcony trail over Chamonix for the ones familiar or going to UTMB or the Chamonix Marathon.

It had rained all week, which is kind of normal weather for this region, Rouen being the worldwide capital of umbrellas. But it was not going to rain this Saturday and the sky was wonderfully clear which allowed for wonderful views over the city and its famous cathedral.

Rouen still in the dark at 8am

And with the rain which poured all week, the trail was muddy, perfect preparation for The Coastal Challenge and Way Too Cool. Temperatures in the low 50s.

Sun rising over Rouen (view from La Grand Mare)

The time to gather the group, we took off around 9am. In addition to Annick and Phil, we were joined by Laurent, a local who had run the course/loop with Annick, and Stéphane, who had driven his motorcycle from Paris (90 miles), in the morning. It happened that Laurent, a dentist, knew one of my sisters, also a dentist. And I had chatted in a forum with Stéphane in December, to help him prepare a ski trip to Royal Gorge, where he will go next weekend, the same weekend we will go skiing in Tahoe, close by. We say "small world," I say "connected world...!"

With the collaboration of the perfect weather, the course was as advertized by Annick, offering wonderful views over Rouen. And quite some elevation too with about 3,000 feet as we were going from one to the next hill around the city, 7 or 8 of them.

Rouen, "The city of one hundred bell towers"

Overwall, we crossed these following cities and neighborhoods: Rouen, la Grand Mare, la Petite Bouverie, Darnetal, Saint-Léger-du-Bourg-Denis, Bonsecours, la Colline Sainte Catherine, the piers up to the newest "6th bridge," the harbor and the MIN, Croisset, Canteleu, Bapeaume, Deville-lès-Rouen, Mont Saint Aignan, Quartier Saint André, Bois Guillaume, Bihorel. Phew!

Panoramic view from La Colline Sainte Catherine (click to enlarge)

You can track our journey thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS log either on:

1. Google Earth
2. Google Map
3. Google Earth Community
   

On the way we alternated running, walking and sightseeing, and a lot of talking, sharing about our own experiences and backgrounds.

The majestuous "6th bridge", officially named Pont Gustave Flaubert (missing funds to get finished...)

Learnt that Annick had run 97 consecutive days, along all the littoral of France, from Belgium to Spain, then from Spain to Italy. 3,100 miles, 10,000 steps/strides, 184,000 of cmulated elevation; more than 6 times Mount Everest! Back to my sister's house on Saturday afternoon, my nephews remebered seeing her on television 2 years ago. And at my parent's house on Sunday evening, my mother reminded me she had given me a newspaper article about Annick's feat. Such a modest celebrity!

Yet another sightseeing break (Canteleu)

We talked about UltraFondus with Phil. Phil has majored in Computer Science but his real vocation was journalism, which he studied afterwards. He then became a successful journalist in IT before taking taking over the UltraFondus magazine and forum a few years ago. Combining all his passions into one job.

One of the several revolving doors, to prevent bikes and motorcycles to get on the trail

Stéphane ran UTMB last year (and so did Phil), and told us how ultra running compares with rugby, his other passion (he plays what he calls "folklo", that is in non organized leagues, just for the fun of the oval ball).

Repeat staircases, in Bois Guillaume: a good exercise for the quads!

After 6h45 of such good time, and many more stories, we were back to Bihorel where a surprise was awaiting us. Laurent had brought a bottle of Champagne and 6 flutes, to celebrate this new friendship. And indeed, we left like we were old (i.e. long time) friends, when we had just met for the first time in the morning. One of the many wonders of the ultra running community!

Herman (a local cake made by Annick) and Champagne!

I left suggesting this run and circuit become a new local "Fat Ass" tradition. The only drawback being that the name really does not translate well in French, literally. Just keeping "Fat Ass" then, and only the insiders (or the ones fluent in English) will understand...

On the following day, I could not resist to the temptation to get back on the trail for a shorter run as I didn't have much time before a family reunion (with the traditional Galette des Rois, commemorating the Epiphany). What was my surprise to meet Annick on my way back, who felt into the same... temptation. Connected world...

Nice gathering with my sisters and their families

This run, plus two others this week, provided a great field/lab testing for my new Brooks Cascadia 3 which just got released last week.

1. Amazing cushioning, perfect for mixed terrain.
2. Very roomy like most of the Brooks.
3. Efficient lacing system (cannot imagine losing a shoe in the mud).
   
4. Good grip all along the outsole which is useful in both up and down hills.
5. Great look (in red at least).
6. Very light shoe, almost good for road racing, and definitely good for trail racing.
7. Very breathable mesh, drying quickly.
   
8. Only drawback in my opinion: the upper mesh and shoe extremity are light and may not protect your foot so well on rocky terrain (lose rocks).
   

Merci, Annick, Phil, Stéphane et Laurent, et à bientôt!

The French Connection: views over Silicon Valley

I often wonder who reads my blog. Recently I started using StatCounter and found out that many of you stop by, from all over the world, without leaving a comment. Anonymously. Which is the beauty of the asynchronous and open model of the world wide web.

Last week I was exchanging some emails with Phil, the editor of UltraFondus, a wonderful magazine on ultra running, in French. And Phil introduced me to one of his friends, Vincent Toumazou, who was trying to reach me to see if we could meet this weekend. Vincent was coming again in California to attend the AGU Fall meeting, which has been hold for 40 years in San Francisco and gathering 15,000 geophysicists from around the globe! I saw quite a few of them on the plane on my way back from Europe last Saturday. Reading and annotating scientific publications, preparing slides, quite an unusual studious ambiance on a flight to Silicon Valley. Per their website: "AGU is a worldwide scientific community that advances, through unselfish cooperation in research, the understanding of Earth and space for the benefit of humanity." Right on for my interest in sustainability!

As a matter of fact, I had read Vincent's account of the Cannonball ultra race a few days before we connected. And Vincent knew everything about my 2007 season from my blog. Vincent has his own website too but composed of static pages, not a blog, so more maintenance work to keep it up to date. The usual saying is "small world" but I prefer the expression "connected world" to describe these coincidences and unforeseen connections.

We were both flying from France to San Francisco on Saturday (December 8), although on two different itineraries. I emailed Vincent instructions to get on the train, picked him up at the Mountain View station on Sunday morning and 2o' later we were set to go for a run in Rancho San Antonio Park.
We decided to take it easy as Vincent was still recovering from a 24-hour event (where he ran 200 km!), and I am recovering from last week's Saintélyon, and officially in an inter-season break (shh!). Well, looking for some sun and heat in this clear and cool morning, we ended up at the top of Black Mountain, while talking all the way (something I'm not used to) and stopping for some stunning views over the Bay. Up North to San Francisco (see below, over the Palo Alto and Standfor hills), Mount Tamalpais and beyond.
Mount Diablo and Hamilton on the East side, and the Pacific Ocean on the West side.
I rarely saw that far in every directions, Vincent is quite lucky.

We climbed to Black Mountain via Chamise Trail, through Rogue Valley. On the way back we used the shortcut getting us back on the Upper Meadow trail, then the Wildcat Loop down to the Farm and the parking lot (see the map). For a total of 14.8 miles (~24 km), 2,500 vertical feet (~760 m) and amazing views, perfect for this guided tour of trail running in Silicon Valley.
Shower and lunch at home, captivating discussions about our passions and projects, and it was time for Vincent to head up North to meet with his colleagues at the AGU symposium in San Francisco.

Let me know if you are interested for such a tour when visiting the Bay Area!

Au revoir!