CR Semi d'Aletsch

Saturday June 17th. Woke up 6am. Took a shower. Slapped some clothes into a bag. Shoes. Shorts. Watch. Downed a coffee and banana and flew out the house by 7am happily shuffling my bones towards Saint Lazare to hop on line 14, metro it to Gare de Lyon and get on board the first train to Lausanne with 20 minutes to spare. 

0759. Train scheduled at 0757 departs two minutes late. I couldn't give a fuck. Who would? It's early. I've had my coffee, I've a good book to read on my tablet and it's a beautiful morning. 

Train rides soothe the fuck out of me. The rythm. The comfort. The moving about on board. 

My kind of locomotion for sure. And I can actually get some reading done. 

Now and again some cunt talks too loud to his neighbor. I turn up the volume on my iPod glad I'm not the one in that guy's company.  

Quick change of train in Lausanne. I leave the TGV behind and go with the regional rails along the Lac Leman all the way to final destination Brig.

Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté (accéssoirement aussi un très bon film avec J.P. Belmondo)

Train régional de Lausanne à Brig. Quelquepart entre Aigle et Martigny.

Terrain de jeu du weekend.

Betten Altsation en levant les yeux vers Bettmeralp

Got off at Brig. Walked out of the train station, crossed the road, and boarded the local tram to Betten Taltstation to depart 10 minutes later. From Betten, climbed a short flight of stairs and hopped into the cable car that would take me up to Bettmeralp, alitutde 1950m. That's where the race would start the next morning at 10am. Checked out the place. Retrieved my bib. Walked around the plateau d'Alpage, dipped my toes in the lake. Lovely place.

Bättlihorn depuis Bettmeralp

Village de Bettmeralp

Seul banc à l'ombre par cette journée de cagnard à 30°

Then, feeling relatively acclimatized, I swung back all the way down to Mörel in the valley below where I would stay for the evening.

Ordered me a few beers, chilled, had dinner or at least tried to but the swiss germans made it more complicated than expected, and so I went to bed early, and still half starved. Only to have an allergy attack untill about midnight. Damn hay fever.

Apéro time Samedi.

Pinte numéro 1

Sunday. Woke up at 7am  had a huge breakfast, got dressed, checked out and... waited 30 goddamn minutes for the tram and cable to show up to haul all my shit all the way back up to Bettmeralp.

Dimanche 9h30. H-40min. Ce foutu tram prends bien son temps. En haut à gauche on distingue au loin le Bettmerhorn, lieu de la ligne d'arrivée et sommet de 2872m

When I got to the top. I pushed my way through the crowd of onlookers here to cheer the runners and made my way to the storage wearhouse. Logged my gear with the staff. Then rushed to the starting line where my bloc of runners had already departed 6 minutes earlier. I then just basically kept running until I made it here. The fucking finish line.

Dimanche 13h15. Vue depuis la ligne d'arrivée en miroir parfait avec la photo précédente. On aperçoit le Matterhorn au centre au loin. 

Compte rendu de la course sur Strava. Admirez ce temps tout juste en dessous de la barre des 3h. 

Le finish de cette course était un poil raide. Vous en conviendrez. 

Non content de me laisser terminer cette course en moins de 3h, je recois ce texto odieux des chronomètreurs officiels de la course. J'ai beau contester 3h00min03secondes c'est le temps officiellement retenu. Les juges n'ont que faire de précision archi fiable de ma montre Suunto Finlandaise. Non mais on se moque de qui je vous le demande.  Fichu Suisse Allemands!

What can I say, it was worth it.
Exactly like being on top of the world for a few hours.
So at 3pm Sunday I started climbing down the mountain and began the reverse process back to Paris.
By 6.30 I was aboard the TGV and pulling out of Lausanne.
At 10pm sharp sunday eve I was back in Paris.
All just a big blur.




;)
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