Running vertically

If you watch track and field, you’ll find all sorts of running events: sprints, middle-distance, long-distance, marathons, and ultra-marathons.  But this summer I was introduced to something I’d never seen or heard of, a vertical kilometer.  My b-i-l was participating, so we all rolled out of bed early, heading for the mountains near Gérardmer, France.  As you can see from his photo below, it was cold and foggy when we arrived very early and no inviting place nearby to get a hot drink.  My s-i-l and I decided we’d leave after the race started to get some coffee or tea and a pastry.  🙂

By the time the race started, the fog was clearing.  The race started down a very steep slope at the bottom of the ski lift on the right.   The “runners” then came up between the people you can see, then up towards where we were standing, staying inside the white ropes.  I put running in quotes up above because on that slope no one was running!  Many people used poles, leaning forward most of the time. It was steep enough to even make walking quite an effort.

The man below,Stephane Brogniart, is famous for distance running.  He does challenging runs all over the world.  In this race, he seemed to be always in this pose, at least when going uphill, and at a pace that never appeared to change.  My understanding is that he didn’t even enter the race, just did it for fun, doing four ups and downs before the first place person finished three.  AND he “ran” all the way down as well, not taking the ski lift the way almost everyone else did!!  If interested, you can find him on Facebook or, mostly in French, on the internet.

The way the race works is that a participant’s time starts when s/he leaves the starting line.  Upon arrival at the top, time is stopped and s/he gets to rest while riding down on the lift.  Whenever s/he gets back to the start line, time begins again, with the total time being the sum of the three segments.

After my b-i-l finished his second time down the lift, I took the lift up, waited for him, then both of us took the lift down after his last lap.  The view was spectacular as you can see from these last two photos. In the last shot, you can see the steepness of the run under the lift.  You also get a great view of Gérardmer Lake on the left and the city on the right.  It turned out to be quite a day for all of us.