Hi Guys,
I thought it might be interesting to hear a wide range of stories; my attempt at Trail de Aiguilles Rouges last Sunday wasn't succesful and here's my story:

Trail description:
Trail is a gross understatement, some sections are really steep and go straight up the hills; some of the steepest sections even have ladders drilled into the rock. In short it was a treacherous route (atleast as I saw it). According to the UTMB formula it approximates to 51 km + (3300m D+)/10 = 84 flat-equivalent kms.
To join the race we need to wake up around 2:30 am to catch the bus and reach the start point; then the race started at 5:00 am in pitch darkness. The first few hours was pure adrenalin, hurtling down the forest trail in pitch darkness/headlights, oh I just loved it. I realized my heart rate was way too high, but it was irresistable, so I switched off the beeper and continued. Well, it was fun upto the first few cut-offs, but by noon my left thigh started complaining. I managed the Le Brevent half an hour before cut-off, but the rest was torture.

In the first hour I was crossing 205 bpm without realizing it, but by late afternoon I could barely cross 140; was down to a painful limp. I failed to meet the cut-off time at Servoz, and I had to give up there, with just about 10% of the race effort remaining.

Some good things: I was using hiking sticks; damn useful and made the uphills not so back-breaking. Also served as crutches in the last section when I was down and beaten. Managed hydration and food well. Weather was awesome, took some nice pics and Mont blanc in all its glory (oh, as an aside, it looks tantalisingly close; I might climb it with a mountain guide next year; already have 1 "strong maybe" from office; would love to have a few more English-speaking companions)

And some bad things:
Things to watch out for, anyone trying next time:
The way this is organized, the pre-race briefing, start point, and end point are all at different places, public transport takes 1-2 hours, so wherever you end up staying overnight, you might have a sleepless night. In hindsight, I think Vallorcine would be the best choice to stay over.

I think the single biggest cause of my failure (apart from the obvious lack of requisite fitness and training) was the backpack. Like most races of this level it is semi-autonomous. I ended up carrying a 3-4 kilo pack and with that extra load, running downhill I must have screwed my legs. But there seems no way out, everyone carries it and must learn and adapt to it.

And then came the worst part: at the end point I looked down at my thighs and found one was visibly swollen . It left me badly shaken, I was clueless what remedial action to take, stuck in a French speaking country and cursing myself for my predicament. The guy who did the massage said there must be water in the knees, whatever that means Luckily it now seems to have passed, after 2 nights of 11 hour sleeps.

Overall I found the experience very rewarding and educative; I no longer feel over-awed by this sport, but also developed more respect for those who do it safely and in a disciplined way. I guess this will be the last event in this year for me; been a long and fulfilling path after getting intitiated into this thanks to ZRG.

Hope to meet some new runners next year!