Arrived in Madagascar on April 20th, I was ready to discover a new country. It was also time for me to rest after my last trail. So, I decided to go on a boat trip on one of Madagascar’s rivers: Tsi Iribihina. As I do not expect, this week was not that quiet. In fact, every night we camped outside and had long day of travel to discover the East coast.
On my way back to Antanarivo, I took time to rest before UTOP, a trail of 31km with 1000 meters of ascending elevation. A little bit anxious but style confident, I have planned to run between 4 hours and 4 hours and an half. To be honest, I ended this trail in 4 hour and 55 minutes. Here is my story.
UTOP race start was far away from Antananarivo city center and should begin at 8:30 am, So I set my clock pretty early. 4:30 am, I begin to get mentally prepared to this brand new challenge. When you heard that running is all in the head, it’s not a joke ! I focus on all hills, up and down before any race.
We were supposed to meet at 7:00 am in Antananarivo French High School. To go there, you can take one bus from the city center, or a taxi (Around 5€ or 15 000 Ariary) if you are late. But the best solution it’s to go with other runners, that’s what I did. Thanks to them : Vladimir, Fanny Audrey, Patrick and Maxime. I met them few days before in my hostel. Madagascar Underground is the only hostel in this country owned by the nicest couple ever: Christine, a French girl, and Ryan, an Australian guy. If you don’t know where to sleep before the race, you should definitively go there. it’s cheap and it’s a place with a really chill atmosphere. But let’s go back to UTOP.
At the French High school, I jumped in a bus which led me to the real start that is to say 31 kms far away. My aim was to go back to the High school following the path that organizers have created for us. Let’s go, I began to run under the sun, way to much sunny for me, it was only 8:30. In France, when a race begins at the same time, you don’t feel any heat. It’s alright, I am here to run, so I ran, I opened my eyes and all around because I was in a totally different landscape compared to my last races: paddy field and completely green mountains. During the first 13 kilometers, even I felt hot I kept on running and still had fun on the way down from hills. Then, the water stop, I could eat and drink what I wanted: bananas, figs, cereals bars,water, coca …. It really helped to give me strengths!
I started again to run until the next water stop so exactly 9 kilometers. At 11:00 am, hills were more and more difficult for me. I tried to find an inner motivation. I though about one thing at that moment: children who suffer from cerebral palsy; « Run Maud, some children could never do it… », I talked to myself, crazy right? Then, inside me I found that I still had some energy. Few kilometer later, I met Alice, another runner. We decided to end the race together as we had the same pace. We spent some time to talk about our lives as we did not run in the hills, you can but it is really hard! The second water stop was really a relief. In a second though, more water stops would have being better to run this race. For example, one on the top of hills would be a good idea. i ended the last 9 kilometers without falling but I started to feel tired.
Finally, I crossed the finish line after running the 31 km! I just want to tell you, if you really want to run two trails in two weeks, save some energy because you will need it and be prepared to suffer!
I can just look back and even if I spent more time than excepted, I managed to run all these kilometers which were unbelievable for me few years ago… And I get a little reward, I end 21th out of 153 women, not so bad!
If you want to participate to this race, it takes place in May. You can also go for the 65km of 120km, it’s up to you. Go on UTOP website or send me an e-mail to worldwildrunneuze@gmail.com, if you want to have more information about the race or the training. I will be very happy to answer you.
