The OCC (Orsières, Champex Lac, Chamonix) is one of the shorter UTMB races at 56km. It starts in Orsières Switzerland and ends in Chamonix in France, having traversed 3 mountains around Mont Blanc and taken in 3500m of elevation gain. 

I got this place for 2020, then with the pandemic and resulting cancellations and postponements, 2.5 years later, I was being bused out from Chamonix to the start in Orsières. This was at 5.30am on a Thursday morning in late August and I was feeling very apprehensive. 

Over this 2.5 year period since signing up, my enthusiasm for running an ultra trail marathon had dwindled somewhat and combined with a lack of even vaguely comparable terrain anywhere near SE London for training purposes, and an increased interest in cycling and running distances up to the half marathon, I lacked event specific training. This aside, I had made the decision based on good overall fitness and a keenness to travel out to Chamonix and complete an event I had booked that I would give it my best shot.  

Leaving Orsières to incredible support from the locals, the climbing started almost immediately. This was at first quite runnable then there came a point at which the gradient tipped everyone over to the more energy efficient hiking. Most people at this point took out their poles and used these to propel them forwards. A very small minority of people including myself didn’t have poles and it seemed that we moved faster uphill in general than the pole hikers. There were also less steep sections and some false flats along the route where I was jogging whilst others had decided it was best to hike. On reflection these people were clearly making a judgement call on energy efficiency and I would say judging by the number of people who ran speedily past me on the final descent when my quads were screaming at me, using poles to hike the uphills likely helped save the quad muscles for the later stages of the race. 

The first climb led to Champex Lac and was relatively comfortable. The run along the lake was spectacular and then followed a gentle downhill through a forest. The route then climbed up to La Giete, a check point and water stop, with some further stunning views of the alps, herds of cows and ringing cowbells. The descent then followed. I didn’t have the technical skill and confidence of a lot of the runners that were clearly well used to this terrain and were speeding down. But once overtaken by one Frenchman, I managed to follow him as he made his way down the 10km descent and for a fair amount of the winding route down, I quite literally followed his footsteps and covered the ground far quicker than I would otherwise have been confident in doing. This was the first point in the race where I felt I was pushing myself aerobically rather than relying on muscle strength to move upwards.

Valley reached, and the first aid station with food. A quick refuel and it was time to start on the next 10k climb up to Col de Balme. This was another steady and steep hike up switchbacks and nearer the top some flatter runnable sections before the next uphill hike. This was also the part requiring some scrambling across rocks and stones and climbing up steps along a mountain ledge with fortunately a rope to hold onto. The next feed station appeared at the top of the Col de Balme – the highest point of the route. An English guy sitting near the top told me the hardest part had now been done which only partially reassured me as people don’t always tell you the truth mid race! 

I felt ok and having refuelled, I started on the downhill relatively unscathed. The first section downhill was quite runnable. Parts were undulating and then there were rocky sections with tree roots and uneven ground on narrow downwards paths which slowed the descent. This was the point where I felt I wasn’t picking up my feet sufficiently and nearly tripped a few times and did trip once nearly causing some runners behind to run straight over me. Fortunately I didn’t cause myself or anyone else any significant issues. This was generally a much slower downhill than the previous one and after another 11km I reached the feed station in the valley at Argentière. 

Another refuel and a couple of moments in the shade and then commenced the steep climb up rocky, narrow paths, switchback after switchback up to the final summit of Flegères. This wasn’t the longest climb but it definitely felt the steepest. The climb was mainly shaded and the wooded side of the mountain gave some welcome respite from the sun which was pretty strong by mid afternoon. As with the previous climbs, I was steadily overtaking people and more people were now stepping aside on the paths to take breaks. Once finally out of the woods we saw the top of the mountain and sighting of the cable car station. Reaching this required a further quite endless feeling hike up a grassy hill, then gravel track.

Once at the top at Flegères, the final water station greeted us. Then it was a steady 7km descent into Chamonix winding back and forth down the mountain. This should have been a nice comfortable run down after all the exertion of the preceding uphill, but my quads had reached the point of overwork! All downward motion was painful, and the steeper the descent, the more I was breaking, the more painful it became. Whilst many people overtook me at quite a pace, I continued to jog slowly downhill. As soon as the wider gravel path turned into narrow paths covered in rocks and tree roots, I slowed further to more of a hike but tried to keep as much pace as my muscles could muster as I was aware the sooner I was at the bottom, the sooner I could stop. Nearer the entrance to the town, the path became wider and easier to run, although the steeper sections were still agony. 

Once Chamonix was reached, the descent turned into a flat run in through the town. It was late afternoon and the town was full of people going about their business and runners of previous and upcoming races relaxing or preparing. The atmosphere and general support as I and all other runners ran around the town to the finish line was amazing. If I hadn’t felt so drained I may have felt emotional! I think most people did!  

I crossed the line in 9 hours 25 mins whilst it was still daylight and without any serious issues which was as good as I was able to do and I was happy with that. After all, there was no certainly at the start that I would be able to finish. My goal was to aim to finish and stop at an aid station if I felt I wasn’t able to get to the end. The outcome is never certain until it’s done. 

I could definitely have made that race easier for myself if I had done some longer runs in the lead up, plus trained in some more comparable uphill hiking and downhill running terrain. In my defence, this isn’t really possible around London. A few trips to Box Hill didn’t really cut it, but were better than nothing. Were I to do this or a similar event again, I would definitely increase time on feet and try and spend a few weekends running in more similar terrain. If it isn’t possible to make it out to Chamonix to train, there will be areas in Wales, the Peak District or Lake District that with a bit of planning can provide some pretty decent training runs especially for the more technical elements of the course. On a positive though, cycling is good training for general fitness, leg strength and endurance and without the cycling training I had put in for the Etape, I doubt I would have managed the OCC in the way I did.