Le Trail du Pays de Sault

After a night at Pat's, we headed over to Espezel in the Aude department this morning to take part in the Trail du Pays de Sault. On my way through to her's yesterday evening, the temperatures touched 36 degrees in Foix and that was at 6pm! The forecast was for more of the same today which would have made for a tough race which was billed as 18km with 488m of ascent. But I was fuelled up, feeling good and ready to go.

Contrary to forecast, this morning dawned overcast, cloudy and with the threat of rain - perfect! We couldn't have hoped for better. It was a small, very well organised event on fantastic paths, forest tracks and trails in a beautiful area to the east of us here. The run went well, but rather than the 17.8kms advertised, my GPS indicated 15.4kms with 472m of ascent. I crossed the finishing line in 1 hr 40mins, just a minute and a half ahead of Pat and 39th out of 48 finishers. My ITB and other muscles were starting to tighten considerably in the final couple of kms which slowed my progress, but all the same, I was pleased with how I had run, with being able to keep running even on the steady climb and with the otherwise steady speed that I was able to maintain.