Courmayeur is a little jewel in the crown that is the Italian Alps. It is the prettiest little town you can ever imagine with quaint buildings featuring slate rooftops and every balcony holds little planters filled with red geraniums. I find myself in heaven wandering down the narrow cobblestone streets, looking in the windows of all the cute little shops featuring everything from fresh cheese (Ahhhhhh, the cheese!) to designer clothing (Hermes?!) to tech shops with fantastic hiking gear (I'll take one of everything please)
Let me backtrack for a second. Getting here was a breeze...no "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" for me on this trip! Everything went like clockwork. Jim and I took a cab to the airport and we arrived early for our first flight, which took us from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to New York. We had a layover in New York which seemed to go by really quickly and we had a bite to eat at a New York style diner that played 60's music.
The flight from New York to Milan was surprisingly painfree. The flight attendants were great, passengers were quiet, there were no screaming babies, and I watched a very touching movie to pass the time..."Darling Companion" It is a real tear jerker about a woman who finds a dog on the freeway and adopts him. (DUNE, I MISS YOU!)
I took a sleeping pill after the movie ended and slept through the entire flight. I woke up for breakfast ( A teeny croissant with 4 pieces of fruit) and then swilled back some swill...(coffee). There was a huge line waiting to get through customs for foreign visitors, and there were hardly any people waiting at the line for European Union residents. So I took a chance and headed straight over to the que which only had 3 people in front of me. When I got to the agent, he looked at my passport and said, " You are Canadian, you are in the wrong line." I apologized profusely and explained I had not realized and did he really want to turn me away? He looked at me, and I looked back at him...we both knew that he knew what I was up to. He smiled, stamped my passport, and said "Go!"
My luggage was all there waiting for me...Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!! I grabbed it, loaded it up and headed out the double doors to look for my driver. It is not easy getting to Courmayeur from Milan. Rather than deal with the hassle of buses and trains, Jim had hired a driver to take us straight north to the Alps. Sure enough, Leonardo was waiting for us and we climbed into his Mercedes for the 2 hour drive. I tried to stay awake to take in the scenery, but I slept the entire way. I woke up and there was my home for the next few days....Hotel Croux.
Now back to what I was telling you about this little Italian town. There are only about 3,000 people that live here. Courmayeur sits in the Aosta Valley at the foot of Mont Blanc...Western Europe's highest mountain. On the other side of Mont Blanc is the town of Chamonix, in France. I have been here for two days now, and I love it! The people are friendly and every store has a poster or sign up about the race. I have restrained myself and have not done any shopping here, with the exception of buying a Tor des Geants T-shirt that I really like.
The food is amazing. I have gone to the market a few times and bought fresh bread, tomatoes, mozzarella, artichokes, olives...well, you get the picture. It is going to be embarrassing because I will be the only runner in the history of the event that will have to admit to gaining weight at the race. I will have to practise some restraint.
But did I mention the gelato shop? Oh My!!! I went in there just to look, but I haven't had any yet. I am fantasizing about the experience...dwelling on what flavor I am going to try...or maybe I will just throw caution to the wind, get really crazy, and put two flavors together!!! The Chocolate Nutella looks good, really good. But then so does the Mango, and the Strawberry. I have always liked Pistachio...and then there is banana, I could pair that with Chocolate and make my own Chunky Monkey. So many choices...sometimes having a choice is not a good thing!
The start line is already up in town and I have already met some of the other runners. For the first time in the history of the event, there are some Chinese runners. I bumped into them yesterday. I saw two athletic looking guys sitting on the church steps and as I walked by I asked if they were runners. Turned out it was Daniel Probst and Bruce Grant sitting there taking in the day. I have also bumped into Wade Repta whom I have raced with previous to this at the Marathon des Sables and at the Atacama Crossing.
Right now it is 2am and I can't sleep. It is early Saturday morning and I go through race check-in at 2pm this afternoon. I will get my race number and my bag that I will be able to stuff with stuff and it will be transported to each lifebase I go to during the race. I am as ready as I'll ever be. Of course, I look up at the mountains and think that maybe I could have trained harder, or done this or done that to prepare...but that is all just useless second guessing.
I just want to start now and take this on. I have heard a gizzilion times that this is the toughest race I will ever do, so I just want to finish the thing. I have called on everything I know of to help me through this...so hopefully all of the stars will align and I will be able to cross the finish line. There is an Arabic word I love that comes to mind right now as I write this...Inshallah...God Willing...
God Willing...I will finish this race... Inshallah. (Allah)
The race begins at 10am Sunday morning, and will end the following Saturday at 4 pm. Good Luck to all of the other competitors and a Million Thanks to all of the volunteers who will be helping us along the way...you are all amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! (I am going to go to bed now...please let me sleep. I will post again after the race. Maybe it will seem like a dream...or maybe a nightmare? I will let you know.)
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