Date:Â Â Sun, 9 Mar 2008 20:04:30 -0500
From:Â Â Marcy Beard
Subject: Race announcement = La Grande Traversee des Alpes (GTA)
Hello fellow runners,
In 2006 my husband and I competed in a 14-day stage race in the French Alps, running from Lac Leman near Geneva down to Menton on the Mediterranean Sea. Each day we ran approximately a mountain marathon (38-50 km and 2000-3300 meters elevation gain), taking 5 to 13 hours to complete each stage. The scenery was amazing and constantly
changing, and finishing the whole 650 km course is quite challenging.
I actually didn’t finish the last 2.5 stages because my knees became too painful on the downhills. So I have a good excuse for going back to try again this year.
If you’re curious about this event, here are some details:
* August 31 =96 September 13, 2008
* 14 stages of mountain running in the French Alps
* Follows the GR5 (national trail system) and variants
* Entry of 1300 Euros includes: Lodging in gites (typically nice dorm rooms), breakfast and dinner each day, baggage transport, one mid-course aid station per day, course maps, and access to medical and massage assistance each evening
* It is possible to run only the northern or southern portion (7 days each) for 700 Euros
* Registration deadline is July 30, 2008
Philippe, the race director, needs at least 20 racers expressing strong interest by the end of March in order to commit to holding the event. There were approximately 10 of us at the end of February.
Anyone who is interested should take a look at the race website, and feel free to contact me with any questions. I’m not part of the race organization, but I would be happy to help with French translations and forwarding questions to Philippe.
http://www.couriretdecouvrir.com/
Here is a (really long) report I wrote, which is worth looking at just for the photos:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/gta_report_2006.html
Thank you for your time,
Marcy Beard
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