Got up early to see Tina off at the bus station, unfortunately, as I predicted... The bus was late, 1 hour late... Thankfully she has a few hours up her sleeve at the airport, so fingers crossed she has no trouble getting onto the plane, it was nice of her to make the trip to say hi, good having a friend make contact to catch up even if you don't see them too often. After seeing her off I took a quick jog/walk around the first couple of km of the run, I don't care what people say, it's holly from the start, although the real tough climb doesn't start until about 4km in.
I went back to my room to try and rest the feet and all that, wouldn't you know it... I found another blister, 3 blisters in 2 weeks, I really am having a bad run... I think it's time to replace those shoes I'm wearing all the time. I chilled out for a bit caught up with a couple of friends from back home who touched base with me to see how things were going. Then felt I should probably get my laundry done and check out where the gear check and race bag pickup for tomorrow was. Popped down to the race pick up area and came across a lady and her family from Brazil, she is running and OCC (50km race) tomorrow while he is running the Miler, she was trying to find her race back pickup, which the app clearly showed she was picking up from Courmayeur, turns out they aren't allowing 50km runners to pickup from here, only in Chamonix, obviously something wrong with the UTMB system. Thankfully they were heading to Chamonix today anyway, so she's should still be able to do her gear check today before tomorrows race.
I then proceeded to make my way to the Laundry mat, but came across a market on, so decided to take a nosey... Oh my, I could see some roasted chicken, something I haven't had in a little while, so popped over and ordered some chicken legs and some potatoes, finally something I've been looking for. Onto the Laundry mat, only to find... It was closed, the next closest one was about 1.5km away, so slowly walked down there to get these clothes sorted out. Once the washing was completed I made my way to the Supermarket seeing it was nearby, only to find it was closed, but this time I knew why... I keep forgetting that a lot of businesses here in Italy (and other European countries) have this stupid mid day shutdown period for 2-2:30 hours... Annoying in the fact I have to sit around and wait, or walk around the township and head back, both I would rather not have to do today. Finally managed to get some food from the supermarket, I ended up walking up and down looking at the supermarkets comparing what they had through the windows, options still rather limited, but at least I was able to find electrolytes drinks and something to eat.
Made my way back to the hotel, taking in the view of my first climb for race day up to the top of Tête de la Tronche, a height of 2584m (image above). Getting back to the hotel I managed to try catch up on some rest, before race day, less than 48 hours to go at the time of typing this. I then headed out for dinner at the restaurant that me and Tina went to, they have a nice beef ragu, so I just ordered that, sat down next to a French guy called Philippe, and we got talking, he was trekking the UTMB trail, not as part of the race, about 10 days of hiking or so, he got caught out in the snow on the first day or two and hadn't taken gloves with his as the weather has been so good lately, he also lost his USB cable so wasn't able to message his wife until today to let her know he was safe.
After that, it was a quick walk down the old little streets which I'll admit, they are rather charming, then back to the hotel for an early night to get some more needed rest before the race.
