Sierre-Zinal also known as “la Course des Cinq 4000” or the Race of the Five 4000m peaks, is considered to be one of the finest mountain races in the world. Or as an American mountain runner put it: the one and only race in Europe. Don’t know about that but it certainly is an epic race that every mountain runner knows and loves to talk about. On a clear day you can actually catch a view of the famous peaks of Weisshorn (4506m), Zinalrothorn (4221m), Ober Gabelhorn (4063m), Dent Blanche (4357m), and Matterhorn (4478m) while you run. The course is 31 km with 2200m ascent and 800m descent. Compared to Jungfrau, my first mountain experience (see the story here), it’s not at all as horrible and a lot easier to pace. You do the worst climb at the beginning, when still feeling fresh, and then you just push the flatter part up to Nava, and the rest is downhill. Piece of cake.
Le profil du parcours looks like this
And you should expect a lot of pain during the run, it’s on the race menu!
Just a short notice before getting into the race itself. Things had not gone very well for me after the midsummer. I’d had some severe problems with my health and wasn’t really in a state capable of racing. This all made it pretty difficult because I knew I couldn’t push hard and was also doubtful whether I would be able to finish the race at all. Usually I love the pain and I love to race, but this time I had to be sensible because of the problems I’d had and couldn’t push myself anywhere near the wall.
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| Overview of the course from Montana |
Depart Sierre (500m). Despite the fact I just wrote above, I was hoping for the best and had made some sort of time goal for myself, mainly in order to know when and where to take gels and to be able to estimate how long I would be out there. I had found a 3,5h Sierre Zinal finisher in Strava and used his splits as my intermediate goals. I thought that 3:30-3:45 would be achievable, at least on a good day. Maybe 3:30 was a bit optimistic but 3:45 should have been possible if things had been normal. Elite class had their own start slot but, unlike the other orienteers, I wasn’t running in the elite class and had a different coloured bib number. Just before the start I met David Schneider who encouraged me to take the elite slot in order not to get jammed when we hit the narrow forest path. I was flattered but unsure whether I could actually do that. At the end I found myself crushed in between the two groups, but right in the middle of it so that I couldn’t move anywhere for a while when the wave of runners stormed from both sides. There were a lot of elbows everywhere and a furious race to get to the trail first. My strategy not to be arrogant at the start proved to be a poor strategy. I had planned to take it steady and relaxed at the first climb but after letting everyone pass me on the road, the climb turn out to be all but steady. It included several full stops and short accelerations every time it got steeper or more challenging. I didn’t want to waste energy in overtaking, so I just settled in to the pace of the line. I felt I could have gone faster and got a bit irritated being stuck but decided not to care. Soon the path turned muddy and the gradient increased. I realised my shoe choice had gone very wrong. I slipped several times and cursed that I didn’t have proper trail shoes. Apparently it had been a rainy summer in the Valais Alps.
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| Look at the pace! 15min/km seems fast... |
Beauregard 4km (1146m). 35min. 5min behind my estimation. I can’t say it was particularly fast (it wasn’t) but still the first refreshment point came earlier than I had expected and I almost missed it. My plan was to drink at every refreshment point but I missed the first table and came to bouillon. Oh crap. For a moment I considered drinking that but, thankfully, saw that there was water on the first table. After that I was careful to spot the first table in each refreshment point.
Ponchette 7,5km (1870m). 1h20min. My estimation was 70-75min. So I’m 5-10min off the pace but at least the worst is over now and I can soon pick up the pace again. For the last part of the climb I stick with a Salomon guy that I’ve been running with. But wait a minute…didn’t I just pass him? No, it’s not the same guy, it’s another guy in the same outfit. I realise that there are hundreds of Salomon guys around. Non-elite runners in their perfectly matching gear. It reminds me of a triathlon race I did last summer…Funny. I’ve reached the first hill top and suddenly it’s flat and fast. Nearer to 4 min/km. Oh I love it! To be able to run again after the tiring climb!
Chandolin 11,8km (2000m). 1h45min. Had hoped to be here in 95-100min. On the other hand I was 5-10min off the pace already in the previous split so it’s not that bad. Maybe I can hold it there…After a while the path turns upward again and my love is gone. It’s not that steep anymore and fully runnable but nonetheless I change back to my slow motion rhythm. I just don’t feel like racing. At some point I look up over the valley and see the snow covered hilltops in the horizon. A mesmerising view. I try to count them. One, two, three, four, five…yes, I believe they are all there. Seen them, check, now continue your running. But I need to take another look and try to figure out which is which. Is that really Matterhorn there? I had been looking south face of Matterhorn for about a week during the Swiss O Week in Zermatt but it looks very different from this side. It’s not at all as characteristic and distinct from here... “Excusez-moi” suddenly wakes me up from my thoughts and I understand I need to keep going. “Oui oui”, it was just the Matterhorn, yes, patience, I’m going...
Tignousa 16km (2180m). 2h15min, now I’m 10-15min behind the schedule. Oh well, I wasn’t going to win this anyway… I’m feeling relatively fresh but there’s no way I could pick up the pace at this stage. There’s a nice relatively flat stretch again and I’m just enjoying it. These alpine paths are wonderful! If I wanted to do well, I should push harder here. Nah, not going to do it. We approach the point where you do a U loop in the open hillside just before the climb up to Weisshorn. It’s beautiful and I can see the line of runners far ahead hitting the climb. Oh no. I wish I hadn’t seen that. I’m ok but feel that I’ve climbed enough for a day.
Nava (2425m) - highest point of the course. Wohoo, I’ve done it! The rest is downhill and it shouldn’t be too difficult for an orienteer…
Barneuza 26km (2210m). 3h23min. There are some tourists in the way (that is walkers who started at 5am! how the hell can they still be here??) but otherwise it goes well all the way to Barneuza. It’s technical and rocky but not too steep or wet and I’m in my element. I’ve been alone for some time but suddenly I’m catching people. Yeah, I’m totally going to make it in 3:45. But then, somewhere around 29km, comes the steepest decline and the path turns muddy. I’m just sliding and other runners come storming past. I don’t understand how they do that. Maybe they’ve got trail shoes. Around here I also have an incident with a dog walker. It was strictly forbidden to take dogs there. But there she is, a middle-aged woman with a confused dog on a narrow alpine path in the middle of the steepest climb, obviously without means to control her bewildered dog. Idiot. I curse her in my mind, jump aside, and try to slide through the busses without hurting myself too much. Damn. My sacrum is still not up to something like this. When I hit the path again, I’m not sure if I’m still on the course but continue.
Zinal 31km (1680m). Arrivée. Finally. 3h56min, 26min behind my optimistic goal and 11min behind the realistic one. I’m not over the moon but not too disappointed either. I mean it’s far slower what I had hoped for but on the other hand I wasn’t able to race or push myself at any point. It felt more or less like a training run. I took myself around the course and had a lovely day out in the mountains without suffering too much. So, in a sense I’m happy. Maybe just a bit annoyed that I couldn’t get down faster. It was just technical, nothing to do with the fitness. It’s stupid to lose so much time in descent. There was a guy who was just a bit behind me at Weisshorn but who finished in 3:47. And another one who was 2min behind me at that point but finished 7min ahead. That’s a bit frustrating. Don’t know whether to blame my lack of descending skills, lack of madness or just a bad shoe choice but I will definitively need to change them all before I come back.
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| Against all odds, I did finish |
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| Super proud of Tessa! |
This was just my story but if you want to hear more (obviously you’re a bit of a mountain geek if you came this far) about the race and the battle of top positions you should take a look on Ian Corless’ in-depth race preview and his race day summary and pictures. Another good coverage of the race in the Skyrunning site. The race is a good mixture of everything and suits well for different kind of runners (orienteers, athletes, mountain runners). I love the way Kilian Jornet put it in his FB page: “It’s too flat in between the big uphill and the short downhill”. Interesting...
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| Route map of the course |
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| A view from the course (Ian Corless) |
