Absolutely 
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@Matthew_Spooner â s run on Strava 
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Yeah just saw that too.
You see nearly 100 miles in winter and itâs a bit hardcore. Then clock itâs not a ride 
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Looks like he smashed it
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Lyon Saint Etienne Lyon Ultra run. It seems that this is not well know outside france, but is one of the biggest Ultra Runs in the world, with 16,000 people taking part in 156, 78, 47, 24 and 13km runs. The biggest is the 78km run from Saint Etienne to Lyon, which has 7,000 people taking part. The 156km run, which I did has around 500
The format is 500 156km runners start from Lyon at 9am on Saturday, and run to St Etienne. They then hang around until 23:30 and start the run back to Lyon with 7,000 more people doing the 78km run. The 47, 24 and 13km runs starts at the last 3 aid station at 11pm. The run is 70% on trails, mostly single track. The route goes from Lyon, over the Massive Central between Lyon and Saint Etienne.
On Saturday, we had great weather at the start of the race, 5 degrees and dry. The first 4km climbs out of Lyon, up the high banks for the Rhone and past the magnificent Roman Aqueduct. We then go onto the trails of the Massive Central. I didnât have the maps loaded onto my watch (long and boring story) so I needed to run with other people to avoid getting lost. After passing about 200 people in the first 15k, I found a group of 5 runners running at about the right pace, who imaginatively named me Anglais-Swiss, the group seemed to comprise of pretty hard core ultra athletes, one guy was really into Ultra Cycling, and had done TCR (Trans continental Race), TDS (Tour De Swiss) and RAF (Race Accross France), 2 guys have done Norseman, Swissman, Embruman and a bunch of other extreme triathlons, I think I was the only person in the group who hadnât done UTMB.
The route was much more technical than I am used to, lots of single track, lots of very steep rocky descents and climbs, some scambling up slopes in the forests, grabbing trees for support, a few steams to cross. As the day progressed and we got higher, the weather started to change, visibility dropped to under 10m in places, so staying well in touch with my group was really important, then it started to snow a little.
On the route to St Etienne there were 3 feeding stops, with some of the best event food I have experienced. By the Second stop in Sainte Catherine at km46 I was feeling pretty tired, this wasnât an easy walk in the part, the weather and terrain were proving to be challenging. Luckily, Sainte Catherine is the high point and it was mostly downhill to Sainte Etienne. As we went along, we had picked up 3 others, so 10 of us finished together in a time of 9h54m, just before 7pm. I finished the first half in 40th place.
At Sainte Etienne all athletes gathered in a hugh sports stadium, however, as the Elite 156km runners, we had a segregated area with massage, doctor, a fantastic hot food buffet, tables, space blankets and toilets, the other 7000 runners had a pasta party and that was pretty much it.
Many of the athletes looked in a pretty bad way at St Etienne, I couldnât imagine how some of them could run another 78km when they could hardly walk. My feet may also be famous, I had blisters on both my second toes this is always an issue for me as my second toe is longer than my big toe, so I asked the doctor to treat my blisters. TV station TF1 was recording the event for a documentary, they decided to film the doctor lancing my impressive blisters.
At 2300 got ready to leave and made our way to the start line, as 156km runners, we started right at the front, which was petty cool. At 2330 precisely⌠the start didnât happen: 2 cars had been left on the course and the police need to remove them. Finally at 2345 7,500 freezing cold athletes started the race.
I actually felt OK at the start, and started out at a nice steady pace, however, I was swapped by several thousand âfreshâ athletes, setting off like they were just starting Parkrun. The first 8km out of St Etienne was all tarmac, then we were into the mountains, on the steep climbs, I was amazed that at least 50% of the peope were running up the really steep climbs, grunting, panting and gasping - not a good move. Around 00:30 it started raining, and muddy trails become quagmires, descents were a test of skiing skills while the steeper climbs required careful foot placement. Due to my blisters, I had decided to change shoes, my spare shoes were my Nike Tempo Next%, I find them really comfortable, so was prepared to lose a bit of performance, however, they have reasonable grip. Given the state of the trails, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was having no more trouble than everyone else around me, wearing trail shoes, actually I think that mud was sticking to the lugs on trail shoes and making them heavy and even more slippery
By the first food zone at km17 I was feeling pretty low, 61km felt like a hell of a long way. I really didnât feel like eating and made a really big call not to take any more solid food, and rely just on 50% coke/water in my bottles. I put my headphone on as a way to distract myself and carried on. Amazingly after a few KMs I started to feel better, and with each passing KM I was getting stonger. I was now Matthew Maurten Mover again, and passing many of the people who had passed me earlier. I was shocked how many people were walking the flat sections after just 25km of running.
Around the second aid station at KM 31, I started to feel twinges in my left knee, however, didnât seem to effect my performance a great deal, but knew that this could become a bigger issue at any point. The other challenge after KM31 was that the 47km runners had also run the course a few hours earlier, I am not sure if there is a word to describe something more muddy than a quagmire⌠however, that is what it was like: I even had to tighten my laces to avoid my shoes being pulled off by the mud, this certainly made my shoes less comfortable (my shoes are by no means loose normally).
Despite not eating, and having run for many hours, my energy levels felt OK. On flat section I was still able to maintain 6min/km, however, descents were becoming a problem, my left knee was getting worse on the down hills. For most of the run, I was looking solid for a 10 hour finish time, but then my knee went from a niggle to a much bigger issue. Flats were fine, uphill no problem, but running downhill was getting harder and harder. By checkpoint 4, with just 10.8km to go I was in 28th place overall and comfortably 1st in my Age Group⌠Then my knee stopped working, on the flat I could limp along at 8:40/km however, I could hardly descend at all, My pace was 12-13min/km on easy tarmac descents⌠and as fate would fall, the last 10km is almost all descending. I lost my lead, then with just 2km to go I lost 2nd place. Eventually I finished in 3rd in my AG (49-58) and 40th overall
The step up from a 100km run to a 150km+ run is like going from a half marathon to a full marathon⌠ie it about 5 times as hard. I never really appreciated just how big a jump it would be. Its also nice to discover that I am really competetive on my first outing, without knee issues I would have been 1st, but coping with challenges is something that everyone is facing on a run as long as this. I donât feel that I respected the distance well enough, maybe with some more time to prepare, a different nutrition strategy and different footware I would have done even better. I am not saying that I did anything wrong, I just need to learn and gain some more experience
and Gruesome foot pics. I think 4 nails gone today
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Epic @Matthew_Spooner - congratulations!
Although the trotter shot we could have done without 
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@p00key and @tunster brilliant news about Western State. Looking forward to heaing about the adventure
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Canât unsee those bad boys !
Matt well done sir!
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Well done @Matthew_Spooner , amazing sounding race and great effort.
What did you do between 7pm and 11.30, were you somewhere dry and warm?
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The organisers had a great rest area setup for us. People doing the 156km were really well looked after
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Good to hear. 156km is no joke for in this weather. Sounds like youâd do well at Arc100 
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Hope that knee is OK. Your mental toughness must be off the scale ⌠the last 124km on a sore knee.
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Not quite that bad, it was km31 on the return leg that knee got sore, so âonlyâ 47k on a sore knee
Knee is still sore, but hopefully with some rest it will be OK. It doesnât feel as bad as I feared
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good stuff Mr Spoons - chapeau.
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At the moment, I wish I could unfeel them
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Well done Matt, great report as well, not a surprise to hear about the suffering, especially in the overnight section.
Iâm afraid to say those toes might take months to heal though!
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Good one Matt
Donât know which will heal first. Those toes, or the mental scars of us who have had to look at them.
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Just catching up on this thread.
Congrats @Matthew_Spooner great effort and splendid write up. Now rest those feet!
And @tunster and @p00key . Congratulations doesnât feel like a big enough word. Looking forward to all the race prep discussions and the event itself 
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Didnât someone here do this race?
