So here's my Transpyrénéa race report.
This race is a little special. I regularly race ultras, long races, but this one is even longer than usual. The exact figures are tricky to find out, but globally, this is about 500 miles and 150 000 feet elevation. At least. Should you compare this with your standard mountain hundred miler, it's just 5 times longer. The time limit is 400 hours, that's to say a little less than 17 days. So this is clearly a race in the "fundamental endurance" category. The clock never stops, racers are free to stop, sleep and eat whenever they want, but no official rest is planned. The race director has warned us: this is about being autonomous. Yes, there are official aid stations but we're invited to be as self-sufficient as possible. And for instance, the course is not marked. Oh, I'm exagerating: it is actually marked, since it follows the famous GR10 which crosses the Pyrénées from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, but only the official, default GR10 marks are available. And those, in many places, are sparse. I believe crossing the Pyrénées following the GR10 is somewhat of an hybrid between a standard ultra-trail and a classical through-hiking following, say, the great Appalachian trail.
I signed up for this race because, well, it just had this OMFG this-is-so-crazy appeal.
The race report is divided in 4 parts, which correspond exactly to the 4 main sections of the course:
- Stage 1, Le Perthus - Merens (Eastern Pyrénées, 100 miles)
- Stage 2, Merens - Luchon (Ariège, 160 miles)
- Stage 3, Luchon - La Pierre St Martin (Central Pyrénées, 130 miles)
- Stage 4, La Pierre St Martin - Hendaye (Bearn, Pays Basque, 110 miles)
