Eco-Trail de Paris 50k - Lisa's race report

Lisa and her friend, Carol, flew to France to run a 50k trail race. The Eco-Trail de Paris 50k goes from Versailles to Paris and finishes at the base of the Eiffel Tower. How cool is that?

A few days before the race, Lisa emailed me a picture of her breakfast. I was drooling...

Petit dejeuner

Here's Lisa's race recap:

We finished! It was a mud fest and felt like 14 Hogsbacks in a row. Harder than the Volcano Marathon. I was doing good up to 40k @ 4:31, but then shuffled to the Eiffel Tower. Finished in 5:54. Carol was 5:36. Oh, we first had to walk a mile to catch the train to Versailles then walk 4k around Versailles Gardens to the race start line. So it was like a 55k! Lucky the rain stopped just as race started. It was a downpour for 15 hours before. The mud was crazy!

1 min. to START

at 10k - trudging up through the mud

Aid stations had chocolate! We are now having champagne and chocolate macarons.

Mmm, and fromage too

See attached Garmin data. You can see where the Garmin lost mileage in spikes of speed and I also recall looking at my Garmin 4-5 times and seeing it searching for satellites, lost signal.

4,500 feet of elevation gain (this is in garminconnect.com)....and when I downloaded to the Garmin Training software, it posted 7,000+ feet of elevation gain. It felt like 10,000!. Who knew if was going to be 20 times 200-foot hill gains. It was a Hogsback repeat race after all!

Race Required Gear:
- 2 liters water minimum (Nathan HPL Hydration 008 race vest with a 45+ oz Camelback bladder with electrolytes plus a Nathan 9 oz handheld bottle).
- Personal cup 15cl minimum
- Food supply (for me: 6 Tri-berry Gus, a few pretzel sticks, 1 pkg Clif Shots, 1 scoop Spiz)
- Rain Jacket
- Tights (CW-X)
- Trash keeper (race-provided mesh holder for your sports gu trash).
- Cell phone
- Reflective arm band
- Whistle
- Survival blanket!!!?
- Adhesive elastic band enabling you to make a bandage or strap (mini 80cm x 3 cm)
- Cap or bonnet (“buff”)
- Proof of identity (Road ID)
- Medical certificate (“fit for competitive running”)

Other personal gear:
- Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra trail shoes
- Long-Sleeve jersey
- SmartWool socks
- Electrolyte tab and Advil
- Map of race course
- 10 euros

My gear + water stuffed into the Nathan vest weighed 6 lbs! But very comfortable the entire race.

Links:
- More of Lisa's Paris pictures
- Eco-Trail de Paris site
- Blog post from 80k 4th place finisher, Ian Sharman

All photos by Lisa Reinke.