Lavaredo Ultra Trail (120km, 5800m D+)

With too much luck in the 2022 draws, the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in Cortina D'Ampezzo was the second out of three 100k+ races me and my brother had foolishly signed up for this year. The course runs through a very scenic part of the Italian Dolomites mountain range, going around the famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo and passing several popular passes in the mountains close to Cortina. While the first half is righfully considered to be mostly runnable, the second part cranks up the difficulty particularly on the downhills. Motivated by missing my target time at the Transgrancanaria by about 4 hours and having to run in the dark twice, I was determined to finish the Lavaredo Ultra Trail way before nightfall within 18 hours which seemed a fair goal given the ITRA score of previous 18h finishers. During the tapering period ahead of the race, again various niggling injuries emerged, of which a tendonitis or inflamed ligament in the left foot was particularly annoying. Even when I was just hiking, I could virtually not do a single step without some level of discomfort. But this would be manageable for 18h, or so I thought.

The race started in the centre of Cortina at 11pm. We had arrived earlier that day and were staying in a hotel about 2km outside of the town, adding some undesirable walking distance to organizational matters like obtaining our bibs and handing in our drop bags. Sleep proved to be fairly elusive in the afternoon, but I at least managed to get a reasonable amount of junk food in. We got to the starting line shortly after 10pm, wedging ourselves into an already packed corral where no mask was to be seen and no social distancing was to had. Turns out both my brother and me likely used this opportunity to catch Covid for the first time as we both started showing symptoms and tested positive 4 days later. After a fairly unpleasant wait of 45mins we and about 1500 other runners were finally let loose to the magnificent tune of Ennio Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold".

After about 200m through a densely packed crowd and a short downhill through the town we hit the first runnable ascent. As we were fairly far up in the field, crowding wasn't a problem, but videos from slower runners showed massive congestion issues. Despite my admonitions to just hang on to my tail to coast through the race at a reasonable pace, my brother decided to already slow down to run his own race, which put him behind me by only a couple of minutes for the first half. Feeling energized and eager to compete, my feet did not bother me much, but there was already some noticeable pain, particularly on the first pretty technical downhill which some runners used for suicidal kamikaze descents. I managed to get through this section without being too much of a roadblock, and put in a strong showing on the next couple of kilometers before reaching the first aid station at Ospitale, 19km, 800m of climb and about 2h in. I had copied a timetable from a 2021 runner finishing in exactly 18h, and I was dead on target time at this point. I don't remember too much of the next part, which included some pretty steep climbs and downhills and an aid station at Passo Tre Croci where I tested and approved the "Crostata" cake. Conditions were pretty good, with only a short light drizzle drifting through, and generally good ground conditions and temperatures. I arrived at Federavecchia at km 34 after 3.50h and started the long climb up to the Tre Cime. At this point I started feeling a bit off, and trying to force down a cereal bar with the help of isostar didn't help much. As I was on top of my nutrition at this point, it was probably just my natural low point at 3am in the morning where not being asleep and ingesting copious amounts of liquid and solid sugar would trigger nausea. I was hanging on to the thought that it was only a couple of hours till sunrise, and things were likely to get better then (and they actually did). Still, being overtaken by other runners on the ascent made a dent in my theory that uphill was where I would excel and show the others how we do it in the Bavarian foothills. After a steep climb and some undulating paths through a forest, Misurina aid station appeared out of the darkness just when the sky started to brighten noticeably.

As I had read the race report of a Latvian pro runner who apparently made it through this race only on soup and cola, I decided to try the soup at Misurina which surprisingly was handed out in one way bowls (officially these were not supposed to be available). The hoped for positive effect on my stomach and morale really kicked in quickly, and I started the final ascent to the highlight of the race. During the climb, I met another German who was going for a 16-17h finish and actually ended up in the top 100 with a time around 17h (props!). I reached Rifugio Auronzo below the Tre Cime just in time for sunrise at 5:25am, and was treated to a great panorama and a couple of "this is actually worth it" moments.

Even this early, there were already some tourists around for the early morning vistas. I didn't dare thinking about how crowded it would get when the back of the pack would have to make their way through the throngs of tourists in this spot later in the day.

We went around the Tre Cime and over the Forcella Lavaredo before starting a long descent down to the Dürrensee and the half-way point at Cimabanche where the drop bags were located.

This was also the spot where professional photographers would take the "money shot" of runners with the Tre Cime in the background, but they somehow managed to miss me, or I blended in too perfectly with the scenery.

After a long and increasingly painful downhill, followed by a couple of gently ascending kilometres through a valley which led us almost back all the way to the first aid station, I arrived at Cimabanche, 67km, 3000m of climbing and 8.21h in. There were a couple of pro athletes, recognizable by their sub-170 bib number, hanging around in various states of disrepair, with their support crews desparately trying to get them back on track. I later learned that some of the favourites like Pau Capell had already quit at Rifugio Aurenzo - many pro athletes call it a day when a podium finish no longer seems to be in the cards, while eager amateurs make it to the finish line in 30h with 2 broken legs and 2 salt crackers for food. I spent almost half an hour at the aid station, changing shirts, refilling bottles and gels from the drop bag, and doing some back and forth to the water fountains which were located on the way out. There was definitely room for optimization on this stop.

Feeling somewhat refreshed, I then tackled the next 10km/500m climb section to Malga Ra Stua which took me about 1.20h. I still tried running some of the flatter uphill sections to compensate for my slow hiking speed, but generally was happy with just keeping the same pace as other nearby runners. At Malga Ra Stua, I asked volunteers for a toilet and they pointed me to the mountain hut/restaurant nearby, which led to some misunderstandings with two race marshalls who thought that I was quitting the race when leaving the race course through a barrier. Fortunately, there was no queue so I was back on track after about 5 minutes, ready for one of the tougher sections with 13km and 800m of climb up to Malga Travenanzes. After a not very runnable downhill and a short flat stretch the course led up a narrow mountain path, before entering a high valley in a mountain cauldron which was heating up quite nicely. Fortunately, it wasn't a particularly hot day, as with 5°C more the challenge would have been somewhat greater.

My left foot was starting to turn into a real problem, but I finally thought of using the headband I had been carrying into a water-soaked cold compress for my ankle and ligaments, which somewhat relieved the pain, but had to be renewed at every creek I passed. Malga Travenanzas was just a large shed with some friendly volunteers who were even offering cool beer (but nothing else). Here, I met two runners with serious issues, one local who had cramps all the time and even tried some beer to get rid of them, and an American who told me that he had been throwing up for most of the night, but somehow managed to rally and now was doing OK.

The climb wasn't over at Malga Travenanzas, though, and there were another 500m to cover before reaching the big Col Gallina aid station after 7km where, due to it's accessibility by road, a lot of spectators were cheering us on. On this stretch I also started to get overtaken by the front runners of the 80km race who, despite looking considerably fresher than the ultra distance runners, also mostly resorted to hiking the climbs. Even though I was aiming for a particular finish time rather than a particular position, the mix up was still a bit annoying as now it wasn't quite clear anymore with whom I was actually competing.

After Col Gallina, a series of shorter climbs started which looked like minor bumps on the altitude profile, but were still quite a formidable challenge at this point. On the climb to Rifugio Averau, I was passed by the leading woman of the 80km race, but couldn't quite latch onto her, particularly as my already meagre downhill skills were further cramped by feet issues. 

 

The views, although I took in way too few of them, were still compensating for the discomfort, and after Rifugio Averau which I reached after 14.45h only about 19km were left. I had managed to get ahead of my schedule by about 15 minutes, making me quite confident that I could get the last stretch done within 3.15h to stay within my 18h goal.

At the Passo Giau aid station, where I again filled up on soup and baguette with olive oil which was about all I had during the race except for gels and isostar, I saw a runner likely affected by the heat being treated in the medical tent with an infusion. In contrast to my feet, the heat was fortunately not bothering me too much, and legs, back and arms also still felt fine, indicating either that I had been going too slowly, or that my preparation was well suited for this kind of race. Leaving Passo Giau, there was more climbing and descending, until we finally crossed the last pass and saw Cortina lying in the valley more than 1200m below us.

I had the misconception that after the aid station at Croda Da Lago we would be routed down to Cortina on broad and easy-to-run forest roads, but unfortunately there had been a re-route and my expectations had been off anyway, so the downhill was mostly on very steep and rocky forest single-tracks, exactly the kind of terrain feet do not appreciate after 110km. This was also the last chance to catch an injury, as I met a fellow German runner from the shorter distance who had managed to crash and injure his knee, but still looked fit enough to crawl to the finish line. As always, a few of the more suicidal downhillers passed me here, but according to the leaderboard I still improved by 6 places on the way down to Cortina. Down in the valley, the heat was quite significant, and I was starting to again feel a bit nauseous as I had decided that I wouldn't need more gels just to run 10km downhill, but I still managed to get in a sprint finish for a 17.47h total time, ranking 128th. 

 

 

Ultimately, the Lavaredo Ultra Trail is an experience not to be missed, it's just unfortunate that one mainly concentrates on running rather than on enjoying the scenery. Volunteers were incredibly friendly, aid stations were well stocked even though I didn't make much use of them, and the size and atmosphere of the event is almost comparable to the UTMB races in Chamonix. While during the race me (due to feet issues) and my brother (due to knee issues) both decided independently to sit out the final 100k+ race of the year (TDS) and do some crewing instead, we're both likely to toe the starting line in Courmayeur in August for another 145km of punishment as one forgets too quickly...

Official race video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZnV91FOPq8