Biel 100km race report

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This race starts at 10pm on a Friday, and runs overnight and into the next day. We arrived in Biel by train around midday and checked into the Mercure Hotel, I think I had already had an early lunch. After picking up my race bib at 4pm, I had an early pasta dinner at a neighbouring restaurant. I made a conscious effort not to eat too much because of the limited time left for digestion, and headed back to the hotel to try to get a couple of hours sleep: although not feeling overly nervous, I could not sleep at all. 

 

Just after 9pm we headed to the start area. Soon enough, the starting pistol sounded and off and I waved Ursula goodbye. Around 1000 people had signed up, making this potentially the biggest ultra event for this distance in Europe. 

 

The first part of the race wends its way around the city. Immediately, I noticed that my water bottle, filled with a sticky sports drink, was leaking all over my behind and legs: bad preparation, not ideal! I called Ursula while running to see if she was in the area because I had given her my spare (I only carry a phone on Ultra events, in case of emergency). Unfortunately, she was out of the way. So I spent a bit of time trying to screw it up better. It continued to leak but less, and when I replaced it with water I decided to just live with it. 

 

After passing the river at about 6km, you leave the city proper and there begins a 2km uphill slog through more residential areas. Gradually, you leave these confines and it is soon time to switch on the head torch, which will be used until the sun comes up. The route is rather up and down, passing through countryside and small towns, with large expanses of cross country trail running in between. I had thought that given it was now the middle of the night, crowd support would be minimal at best, but actually it was surprisingly good: the locals decided that tonight they would party, so we got to see a fair bit of drunken cheering at the crazy nuts running through their domain.

 

On this night I was not feeling my strongest. Time and again, I have felt that the tapering before a race does not always benefit me that much. I can say with certainty that I felt much stronger during the 74km Rennsteiglauf a month before, and that came six days after the Geneva marathon and weekly marathons before that. The Rennsteiglauf also has even more brutal climbs and descents than Biel, though of course it is a third shorter overall. 

 

Somewhere around 3am, the 50km marker appeared. Almost exactly at this point, a female runner next to me took a big tumble and smashed her (rather thick) glasses to pieces on the the ground, scuffing her arm quite badly at the same time. I helped her up and asked if there was anything I could do to help, but she said she would be ok. I hope she still made it. 

 

During a normal marathon, I quite often find that by around 38km, I am really looking forward to finish (this being a euphemism for “suffering like hell”) and get it done, so it’s hard not  to start counting down the km as the markers pass. At Biel, my clock watching started already by this 50km mark! Not encouraging! 

 

Eventually, I settled back into rhythm and I focussed on meeting Ursula, who was riding out the reverse route on her bike to meet me at 70km, where she would support me on the way in (moral support, carrying my water bottle, etc). That would mark the first time I had support en route during an event. 

 

The overall route of this 100km roughly resembles a massive rectangle. You head south out the city, then make a left turn and head to Kirchberg at about 55km Here you head north to Gefahrlingen (just South of Solothun) at about 70km where I h

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part 2

The overall route of this 100km roughly resembles a massive rectangle. You head south out the city, then make a left turn and head to Kirchberg at about 55km Here you head north to Gefahrlingen (just South of Solothun) at about 70km where I hoped to meet Ursula, and then left back along the River Aare all the way into Biel. Right now I was beginning my northward leg, which also follows a river and includes about 10km of truly tough off road trail with lots of rocks and tree roots through a forest. You really need to take care on this part, it would be very easy to fall or twist an ankle. It’s also super hard on the legs. On the flip side, during this part the sun began to rise and the birdsong in the forest was astoundingly lovely. A real cacophony. Crowd support from the avian locals.

Eventually I met Ursula, which provided a great boost to morale and after that distance, even being able to offload a small water bottle makes a tangible difference. I had worried that it might be a bit tough on Ursula, not only because she had had to get up at 2:30am and ride 30km to meet me. By that time, I was tired and didn’t have a lot of energy for chit chat, and was not feeling great anyway, but it worked well enough most of the time. We made the final major turn left and aimed at Biel, 30km away. 

Soon after, another substantial hill arrived, which was too steep to run up, so I power walked it as best I could. Because I had previously biked the whole route in training (over two days!), I knew that there would be another few km of more gentle uphill and then, I would see a break in the road, flanked by trees on either side, which would mark the beginning of an extended beautiful downhill lasting more than 5km. I also knew that the route after that into Biel would be long but relatively flat along the river. 

Cause for celebration, though in general I was not enjoying myself much at all, it was just a struggle. There were some bright spots where I could take pleasure, and when passersby give you support, it genuinely helps, but it was also a slog. In terms of nutrition, I had been eating gels once an hour every hour. I had promised myself a Cliff bar white chocolate energy bar as a “treat” at around 6 hours in (meaning 4am), but in the end it was too sweet and sickly and I had to throw most of it away. So I squirted in another gel. After ten hours of gels, you really have enough of them! One positive note: I had set a target of beating 14 hours and at my current rate, I was looking at a sub 13 hour time. I had also somehow convinced myself that I would be finishing in the afternoon, but I realised that if I kept it up, I’d finish before 11am. This really helped boost my flagging spirits.

 Slowly but surely, we began to edge closer to Biel, even though I still had a few hours to go. At this point, I was able to increase my pace again to a slightly more sprightly level. Eventually, the city limits came into view. Now I could begin to count down the km left to go, with an actual finish in sight. I asked Ursula to join me in riding over the finish line. It had not been easy on her either to crew me, as at some points I had just had to basically blurt out my needs to her, but she had been a great help, as she always is.

My finish time was 12 hours 32 minutes. Afterwards I found a spot to lay down on some concrete in the shade for a few minutes and never has being flat felt so good. I hobbled over to collect my finisher shirt from an adjacent building, ate a sausage and limped back to my hotel a while later. It was now Saturday afternoon and I had not slept since Thursday night. Even so, I only managed about an hour of sleep back at the hotel. I am not really sure why I could not sleep for longer. We then got up and went to a very nice Thai restaurant

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part 3

Even so, I only managed about an hour of sleep back at the hotel. I am not really sure why I could not sleep for longer. We then got up and went to a very nice Thai restaurant in the old part of town. Before eating, we stopped for an aperitif in a local bar. Proudly wearing my finisher T Shirt, I had two drinks and was immediately pretty drunk! 

I suppose what is left to say is, would I do it again? All during training for that Ultra, I have said that it is a one off thing. Ultra training is really brutal, there is no two ways about it. Running marathon+ distances week after week, and back to back long training runs. And there was a lot of the actual race that I just could not enjoy as much as I wanted, because it was of course hard and I was not in peak form. Nevertheless, I am writing this two weeks afterwards, and once or twice I had the merest flicker of a thought that perhaps I could revisit it to see if I could enjoy it more next time. 

 

Oh, one last thing. While some had speculated that a 100km would ruin my feet or you would need to plaster them, I correctly predicted that in my case I would be fine on that front: I ran with normal shoes and socks only and did not even suffer a single blister.

 

For context, the Biel 100km takes place in Switzerland every June, and is one of the biggest and oldest events ultra events of it's type, first running in 1958.