In February I had a difficult race in Transgrancanaria where I didn't finish. After the race I was feeling a little despondent and didn't quickly find the motivation to start training again. Before TGC I had done some fantastic mileage, some very race specific training, and I had trained hard over the winter so it was especially disappointing to come away with a DNF at the last checkpoint.
I tried to do a few different thing after the race to get going again including running the Swiss cross-country championships and trying some orientiering. Those races and events helped and I slowly managed to get back into a nice training rhythm. However, I still wasn't putting in the big weeks of training or running the longer runs that I knew I needed to be prepared for Gran Trail Courmayeur (edit: race report from GTC2019). I decided to find a race and place it at the end of a good week of training to try and achieve both goals and to kick start my training again.
I found a new race in Jura and went for it. Trail Trait Morbier was in a beautiful area in the Jura and it was just the right distance for a good long run. I did a good week of training and managed to find the focus I had been missing. I went into the race tired and of course that resulted in having a much longer run than anticipated, but it also let me see what needed to be done in the next round of training and to get the right momentum going.
The race was exactly what I needed and that's all that I'm going to write about it! Fortunately it was a stunning route so here are some photos that show the incredible nature in the Jura and some of the highlights from the race route.
Race result
12 May 201935km
1384m
3:44:30
47th place