Good run up to the Ultra Tour du Beaufortain

Well, the van's finished, the entry is confirmed, the family is (almost) ready. Time to head out to Albertville and the Beaufort region of the French Alps for the Ultra Tour du Beaufortain, a 105km 5600m route starting at 4am a week on saturday.

Last year was the first time the organisers had been bold enough to float the race as a single stage ultra, but they were thwarted by unseasonable weather and storms on race day which put down over 12 inches of snow on the route in only a few hours. The race was stopped after 5 hours and so hopefully 2010 will see a complete running of the course for the first time.

It's very hard to train for a race of this length. I still maintain that form over this kind of distance has more to do with last year than last month, and my training times seem to agree with me. This week has seen me post PBs for all my regular routes from 10k to 15 miles, and I can't quite explain why. Still, being fast over 15 miles is one thing, 15 hours another.

It's almost impossible to feel prepared for this, so I shall enjoy feeling unprepared and amateur, and just hope that I can sneak into the pack on race day without anybody quite knowing why this tall Brit in long shorts is keeping up with the who's who of French distance masters. I can dream.....

I will at least have company - Chris is going to be there too (it was his idea in the first place, as it happens, so I'm not allowed to beat him). It will be strange racing against each other rather than together, but knowing Chris he'll head off into the distance from the gun, and I'll be facing a 14 hour catch up race plan.

Cross your fingers for us, and lets hope the knees hold out.