The Course de 2 Lacs is a beautiful mountain race climbing from Le Bouveret on the shore of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) up to Lac de Taney at 1408m. It is part of La Coupe Valaisanne de la Montagne which is a series of amazing mountain races in the canton of Valais. This year I participated in the Grand Parcours which is the longer of the two races at 21km with 1600m of climbing.
I have been working towards one of my focus races of the year, Gran Trail Courmayeur, and this race was a great opportunity to run hard and get in a good climbing stimulus before that larger goal. I have also been running races that look like fun and that are located in places and on trails that I want to experience. The Course de 2 Lacs is just 20 minutes drive from home and it climbs into the mountains that I can see from my apartment. As you'll see from the photos, the race delivered an amazing experience and was a chance to see somewhere new and to enjoy some fantastic trails.
I ran a steady pace and controlled my effort the whole way by keeping a close eye on my heart rate. I aimed to stay in the steady state zone on all the climbs with the goal of finding the right effort and climbing strategy for Gran Trail Courmayeur. This was way too slow to stick with the first group of runners who started off really quickly and in this race I think they actually maintained that speed all the way through! However, I maintained my pace too and picked up a whole lot of positions in the last 5km, I ran well on the downhill sections and flats and I felt good throughout. My objective of the day was achieved!
I enjoyed the race and these trails so much that I'll definitely be returning to train there and adding the race to my goals for next year.
Race result21,6km
2:25:39
14th place