This week, Kim Emerson, the race director of the Journeys Marathon is presenting the event she and her team organize next May.
Hello, on May 8th 2010, you’ll be organizing the Journeys Marathon can you tell us where it is located?
The Journeys Marathon is located and based out of Eagle River, WI. Eagle River is located in the Northeast part of Wisconsin near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The actual start line is located near Boulder Junction, WI on County Highway K.
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This is the fourth and final part of Laurent Thézé’s report of this participation in the North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® 2009.
Descent to La Fouly
We are in Switzerland.
Our morale has picked up with the return of sensation at the end of this climb. Since daybreak this is the first climb which isn’t a struggle! We tell each other we are well under 40 hours and we are motivated to move up in the ranking on the downhill. So we run, carefully though, but enough to pass quite a number of people.
At the Peule crossing one guy who was behind takes a shortcut and is way ahead, but the marshal calls him and he has to go back. Then we are passed by a rocket—it’s Damien! Wow! He seems to be feeling a lot better. This is great because we left him in poor shape this morning, ten hours ago and we were worried he would quit. Damien continues to zoom and after a long slope and final steep descent into fields and woods, the three of us meet on the rocky river bed and finish with long strides on the road to La Fouly and refreshments. Awesome, the trio is back together!
This is the third part of Laurent Thézé’s report of this participation in the North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® 2009.
Descent to Lac Combal
We are now in Italy.
I lead in the steep downhill, where I feel I am able to run despite the poor visibility. Damien follows, but not as quickly, and I stop a number of times to wait for him. One runner passes us. Gilles is last but passes Damien and catches up to tell me he’s not doing well. We lead off.
The fog isn’t as thick at the summit as on the Croix du Bonhomme pass, and lifts quickly as we go down. Daylight begins to penetrate the clouds and the countryside is more and more visible.
This is the second part of Laurent Thézé’s report of this participation in the North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® 2009.
Start at Chamonix
Bang! We’re off!
Umm, we’re not off. Or rather, they’re probably off at the front, we can hear shouting, but we’re not moving. Little by little we move towards the arch. It takes 1’14” to reach the start line.
We still can’t run, it’s really jammed, but on the fun side, it’s crazy, there’s spectators packed along the side, runners in between, I even see people crying. We go through Chamonix carried along by this remarkable wave of energy which we soak up in preparation for the hours of solitude to come.
We can only start running after seven minutes, just before we leave Chamonix. Despite the crowd, the four of us stay in sight of each other, and head off together as planned, at an easy 10-11 km/h pace.
