A Race With A View

Singaporean Ironman veteran Cheryl Tay gets her first taste of trail racing in the French Alps. She tells us how it went.

- Cheryl Tay

As I approached the last peak, my lungs were desperately clutching for air and my legs were burning from ascending the steep slope, but all of that agony momentarily mellowed when I saw the views from the top. Somehow, the breathtaking views and the amazing weather made up for the exhaustion… until I remembered that I had 10km more to go.

This was the Volvic Volcanic Experience (VVX), a 25km trail race with 1000m of elevation held in the Auvergne- Rhône-Alpes Region in France. The route is every bit as beautiful and scenic as it sounds – the trail passes through some of the main volcanoes in the northern part of the Chaîne des Puys, such as the Puy de la Nugère, Puy de Jumes and Puy de la Coquille. This meant I kept going up and down, up and down, for the first 15km. The remaining 10km after the last peak was similar to the trails at MacRitchie Reservoir, where it gets mostly flat with some slopes.