Nice Côte d’Azur 50k by UTMB Race Report – Julie Urbanski

Race: Nice 50k by UTMB

Runner: Julie Urbanski

Race Date: September 24, 2022

Location: Nice, France (Menton to Nice)

Results: 11:29:40, waaaaaay in the middle of the pack 🙂

Strava Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/7861053549

3 Bests – What aspects of the race did you like the most?

1. I finished! I went into this with no time goals, just a range depending on how slow the climbs and technical trails might be, and based on training, I knew I could do anywhere between 3-4 miles per hour, so somewhere between 9 and 12 hours. Bonus points were that I finished before dark (with minutes to spare!) and before our kids’ bedtime.
2. Having my boys at the finish line. I knew I’d be pushing close to bedtime with having been so slow to start, and I was so happy to see their eager faces at the end. They wanted to run into the finish so badly and it made me so proud and happy to run in with them, and for them to see me work so hard at something, not only in training for the months leading up to this, but also on race day.
3. I appreciated that it was logistically easy to get to the start in Menton by train, and really cool to finish on the Promenade in Nice, with lots of people out and about in town. I love the races where I finish just 1-2 miles max from my accommodation so it’s a quick trip not only for my family to see me, but also to get home for shower, food and bed! Considering the logistics the 100 mile and 100k runners needed to get to their start, this was a biggie to me.

Not so much – Aspects of the race that didn’t do it for you?

Ok, so get ready for a laundry list of items because this was the first year of the race, so they have a lot of things to iron out.

1. Porta-potties – They had 10 porta potties for 1500 runners. It’s just not enough, and while standing in line, a runner went in one, came out immediately and said, “No,” as he just shook his head and wagged his finger at the door of the porta potty and then went to use another one. So 20 minutes to go before the race and we were down to 9!
2. The first few miles – Within those first few miles, there were several bottlenecks. The course took us on single-width staircases a few times, so hundreds of us just stood still for 10-20 minutes at a time, waiting to get on the stairs. Around 2.5 miles in, 2 people were scanning the bibs of all 1500 of us. We were standing on the side of the mountain, in the pouring rain, freezing because we were all cooling down quickly from the climb, just waiting to get scanned in. It seemed like a terrible decision that was unnecessary. Each time there was a bottleneck, there were hundreds of us just standing there, waiting to get moving.
3. My moving time vs. elapsed time – My results page shows that I had just over 2 minutes of time in aid stations, and my Strava shows that I had 10:04 in moving time, yet 11:29 in elapsed time, so there’s about 83 minutes in there where I just wasn’t moving. Pretty much all of that was in the first 1-5 miles, just standing around, waiting to get in the conga line up a set of staircases or through a bib scan line. Even when we got on trails and could move, we would go 3 steps, then stop and wait for the traffic jam to get moving again.
4. Starting position – This was my first big Euro trail race and I stupidly started near the back because I was in the bathroom line until 3 minutes to the start, and I paid for it. It was such a slow start and I simply couldn’t move at my own pace or even attempt to run my own race until about 10 miles in. It was super frustrating and took a lot of mental convincing not to be pissed off at the race in general for having such a crowded race with so many bottlenecks early on. It felt like I couldn’t take advantage of my actual ability to cover the course until about 10 miles in.
5. The course – The course itself wasn’t overly epic. It had a few nice singletrack sections, but otherwise, it felt like a lot of patchwork to get us from point A to point B, with a few nice bits in between. I also have never done a UTMB course or even a true Euro trail race, so maybe this was normal?
6. Water – Had the day been as hot and dry as it *should* have been, runners would have really struggled from the lack of aid. It felt like plenty of aid up until 21km (13.1 miles), but the next aid was at 35km (21.7 miles), then 50km (31 miles) and then the finish at 60k (37.3 miles). I was thirsty by both the 21 and 31 mile aid stations and I had about 1.5 liters between aid, and it was cold and rainy. We passed many spots with road access and even big parking lots, so I wonder if they will add more aid in hot years.
7. Number of runners – I know I’ve already bitched about this, but hear me out. There was a section around the natural protected site of Vinaigrier, about 15km to go, where we weren’t supposed to use poles. It seemed ironic that they said we couldn’t use poles, yet they were ok with thousands of runners tromping on the trails and tearing them up in the mud and rain. If they really want to protect the area, they shouldn’t take thousands of runners on it.

Weird factor – What’s the weirdest thing about this race?

1. The weather! Had the weather been like it had been the previous weeks (months!) it should have been hot, dry and sunny, so that’s what I was trained for. Instead it was cold, rainy, and socked in, with very little views. The day before and the next day were beautiful in Nice, so it was literally the ONE day of our race when it rained, which created tons of mud. I think it was very uncharacteristic to have weather like that, and we had to carry our cold kit for the race. The 100 milers went 1000 meters higher in elevation than us, so they had a chance of snow!
2. The distance – It’s called a 50k but it’s actually 60k. Freaking give me credit for that extra 10k!!!

Highlights of your race – What did you do well and enjoy about your race in particular?

1. I didn’t quit. Not that I even came close, but as I stood there on the side of the mountain, waiting to get our bibs scanned in, I contemplated turning around and taking the train home from Menton and saying, “F*ck you, UTMB!” Alas, I didn’t, I got my head on straight and powered through it.
2. I really enjoyed the climbs. I’m not a climber, I’m from Ohio, total flatland, and my jam is flat bike paths whenever we travel. But I knew with 3300 meters (11,000 ft!) of gain, I couldn’t train on flat crap and expect to enjoy any ounce of those uphills. So I power-hiked the sh*t out of my training since April 2022 in Boulder, Chamonix, and what I could in Nice. At least twice a week, I tried to run double digit runs, around 12-16 miles, with at least one 3000 foot (continuous) climb in each run. It equated to some slow runs, but it also meant my legs were ready for the climbing. I loved every minute of the climbs where I was free to rock at my own pace and it was so fun. I wish I could have power-hiked that first climb without so many hindrances, but maybe I would have totally shot my legs early, who knows!
3. I didn’t fall! People were going DOWN on the downhills, either because they weren’t overly cautious or because they just slipped. The rocks were slick, the trails were a mudfest, and it felt like survival of the luckiest to not fall, and I stayed upright the whole time. It also made me slower, but I was willing to make that tradeoff.
4. Fueling. I was worried about the heat going into this because I had done a 21 mile training run going backwards on the course and I walked in the last 2 miles home. It was 2:30 in the afternoon, high 80s, and HOT in the sun, and I couldn’t eat or drink, I felt so nauseous. So going in, I was worried about eating. With it being cold, eating was downright easy and I was oddly hungry, so I ate a gel every 2 miles and I wish I had packed more than the 20 I started with. I didn’t take anything from the aid stations other than water, so I was hungry by the end. I hadn’t practiced with anything other than gels, water and Tailwind, so I wasn’t about to risk solid food on race day.

Lessons for others – Share your pro-tips on the race to help the next runner

• If you are normally in the front third of the race or normally do slightly better than average, start out closer to the front than you normally would in a race. I was shocked by how many people I was passing on just the first climb who had no business being that far up. I think because we had to funnel to staircases so quickly in the race, we had no chance to spread out before the first climb, and then the cluster of scanning all our bibs just a few miles in just made it so much worse.
• If you can, train with long, continuous climbs and long, continuous downhills. This course had 2×3000 foot climbs and descents that were fairly continuous in terms of just going up, up, up and down, down, down. Then if you can, throw in runnable trail miles after those descents so that you’re trying to run well on tired legs. If you don’t have this accessible, go for a training weekend(s) somewhere so you can practice this at least a few times.
• If it’s actually a hot day, the course is quite exposed, so carry plenty of water. I didn’t see any water sources that we could have filtered from, so you’ll be reliant on aid stations for water.

Lessons you learned that will help you next time around

• Start closer to the front or at least the first third of the field if I had any hope of running my own pace from an earlier point.
• Work on my downhill skills. I’ve known all along this is a big weakness of mine and it didn’t help it was slippery and muddy as hell, so I was even more cautious on the downhills. I was with another runner around the halfway point and he put 2 HOURS on my finishing time because he was faster on the downhills and the flats.
• Work on my running speed. Since having Brecon 3.5 years ago my easy pace has slowed significantly and I think if I had better leg speed, I’d have had some faster easy miles in there, as I had my running legs all the way to the end, I just didn’t have any speed in them. And with the final 10km being so runnable, I could have used more speed!
• Get stronger at running the slight uphills later in the race, that in a “normal” training run look like totally runnable sections. It’s amazing how later in a race, even the slightest incline looks tough and you revert to walking. I’d love to get stronger to where I’m still running those easier sections, as this race had a lot of them in the second half of the race.

Most important course specific knowledge to know about the race

• There are a lot of runnable sections if it’s not raining. Yes, power hike the uphills, but there is a lot that’s runnable besides those two big uphills. The mud made for really slippery sections that I was especially cautious on, even the sidewalks and roads through towns. I took those so easy and had it been dry, it would have been so much more runnable.
• If it’s hot, be prepared to go without water on the second half or be prepared to carry a lot of water to make it between aid stations. There were two sections of 15km without water and 1 of 10km (the last section), and I ran out of water each time. It felt like plenty of aid up until the top of the second climb, and then it felt like the aid was few and far between!
• The last 10km is very runnable, so if you have your legs left, there are sections of road, sidewalk, stairs, and other non-trail terrain that you can really run on. Aside from an annoyingly steep downhill on loose rock coming down from Mt. Vinaigrier, it’s very runnable past that. I did the last 10km backwards on a training run, so I at least knew this as I was slogging through some slow kilometers in the middle.
• Also in the last 10km, there are A LOT of turns. Up until that last aid station, it was easy to follow the course because there were either so many people to follow, or there were only so many ways to go. They also had volunteers at several important turning points, BUT, in the last 10km, keep your eye out for the flag markers, especially given you are going down staircases several times rather than roads. I almost missed one key staircase and then missed the next one! Also keep your eye out for when you cross the street, as there were volunteers at most crossings, but not all, so it wasn’t immediately obvious where to go on a tired brain and body.

Aesthetics – Is it a pretty course?

• Even with the rain and being socked in most of the time, there were big sweeping views on the big climbs and descents in the first half, so yes, definitely. If it’s sunny, have the camera handy!
• There was a really cool section in the last few miles where they took us along the water before taking us into the Port in Nice and along the waterfront. It was stunning, even in the moment where I was just DONE with the race, I appreciated it. I went back and took pictures in the day time so I could capture this really unique section.

Difficulty – Is it a tough course?

Yes, as far as trail races go, 11,000 feet of gain over 37 miles is difficult, as that’s almost 300 feet per mile of gain. About two-thirds of the gain is in the first third of the race, which I kind of liked, as I came to like long, continuous ascents in my training (yet I didn’t get better in my long, continuous descents, head-scratcher for sure). It’s a “stone” earning race that you can use to put in for the UTMB races in Chamonix, so it’s going to be on par with how difficult those races are. Had it not been muddy, I think it would have been slightly less difficult in terms of being more runnable, but that would have meant it was hot and sunny, which would have arguably been even harder, especially with the lack of aid in the second half of the course.

I would say the trails weren’t overly technical. There were spots with rocks and such, and sometimes it was hard to tell how technical it was given puddles and squelchy mud, but I’ve run more technical trails than this one, and there were enough sections of road/sidewalk sprinkled in that it didn’t feel overly technical.

Organized and well run – Did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants?

• Pre-race, I was ready to answer, “Of course, it’s a race run by UTMB!” but alas, the answer is, “Somewhere in between.” We didn’t have quite the cluster that the 100k did. Their shuttle buses realized on the way to the start that they were too big to make it up the tight switchbacks, so the buses had to drop runners off in a parking lot, then the runners had to wait in line for smaller shuttle buses, so the race ended up starting late. I can’t imagine starting off a race like that.
• Something I wish UTMB would do is a staggered start, especially on a course that funnels into stairways and singletrack trails so quickly. Maybe they don’t want someone later in the race winning based on chip time, but shit, is it really better that I had about 80 minutes of standing time just waiting for bottlenecks to clear just so they could have a cleaner finish line celebration?
• For me, having two people scanning 1500 people’s bibs a few miles into an already bottlenecked race, on the side of a climb in the pouring rain, seemed unforgiveable. Couldn’t they see the jam it was causing and make a game-day decision to stop scanning and let us just run the damn race?

Competition – Is there a strong field?

• Oh yeah, absolutely. I think any race with UTMB branding on it has to be competitive, especially because of the sheer number of runners in the race. The winner ran sub 6 hours, which is fairly mind boggling given the mud, though he was also the first footprints, so maybe the mud wasn’t too bad for him yet?
• Like a lot of UTMB (and maybe European?) races, our field was only 10% female. Where are all the women?!?! I felt like a lot of women were around me, which was surprising given that it was only 10% female.

Logistics – Does it require a special handshake, registration a year in advance, hotels all booked? Give us the low down on the nuts and bolts of making the race happen.

• I signed up for the race in January and it eventually sold out, but I don’t know when. It was the first year for the race and it’s likely to get more popular given it’s a stones race, so sign up early!
• Hotels are plentiful in Nice and given it’s post-summer, lodging is likely easier to find. We stayed about a mile Northwest from Old Town, where everyone else stays, because we stayed for a month and it was significantly cheaper to do it that way.
• Getting to the start was thankfully easy, as we just rode the train from Nice to Menton. It was about a 30 minute train ride, there was plenty of space for runners, and it was free to ride it given we were in the race.
• We did have to walk about a mile from the train station to the start, which felt oddly far and by the time we got there, I only had 20 minutes to stand in a very long porta-potty line, with 3 minutes to spare to get to the starting line.
• If I were to do it again, I would have taken the earlier train at 6:06am rather than 6:36am, which would have gotten me in at 6:46, with a start time of 8:00. That would have given me more time to go to the bathroom and then get a better spot in the starting line.
• I met a runner who stayed in Menton the night before, totally a smart idea, then her crew checked out of Menton and met her in Nice for the finish and to stay in Nice after that. Brilliant.

Aid Stations – Standard fare or anything special to know about the aid stations in terms of what’s available or when?

• Get in and get out. With the rain, there were a ton of people enjoying either a dry spot under a tent or inside, along with a hot cup of broth. Hell no, get in and get out while you can, and pass 20, 30, maybe even 50 runners in the process.
• They felt a bit chaotic, as it wasn’t clear whether we filled our own stuff or people helped us, so I picked volunteers to help if they seemed available; otherwise I just filled up my bottles with plain water as fast as I could.
• Standard fare available, cookies and sweet stuff, salty chips and such, Coke, water, and maybe an electrolyte drink, but I never found it. I didn’t want one, so I just made sure to only get normal water.
• I only ate 19 of my 20 gels the entire time, carrying all of them from the start, so I only took water from the aid station. I was really hungry with 10km to go, but I wasn’t going to mess with eating solid food so close to the finish, so I just hammed the rest of my gels early in that section and ran as fast as my legs would go!
• No drop bags allowed, so if you have specialty food, pack it from the start. They had a bag drop at the start to be there at the finish, but I didn’t mess with it and I was glad I didn’t have another thing to do at the starting line.

Weather and typical race conditions

• For the 3 weeks leading up to the race, it was hot, humid and 80-90 degrees all except one day. I was shocked to get pouring rain and cooler temps, though it was a blessing in disguise, as I had no trouble eating.
• Given the freak weather, expect anything! Train for the heat and be pleasantly surprised if it’s cooler.
• Much of the course, at least the “big” climbing and descending, was exposed, so if it is hot, it’s going to feel HOT.
• The 100 mile course was expected to have snow at about 2300 meters and they climbed to 2500 meters. For perspective, we “only” climbed to 1300 meters, so we were quite a bit lower in elevation, as we only climbed up from the sea rather than starting at any kind of elevation.

Gear – Did you need anything special or is there anything you’d recommend for the next runner?

I was actually stoked with how my gear turned out. No chaffing, no blisters, no bouncing of my pack, and I was fairly “comfortable” the whole time, comfortable a funny term given the weather.

• The North Face (8L?) vest + Naked waistbelt – I was able to carry all my required gear, including the “cold weather” kit, along with 12 gels and 1 liter of water, in this vest, and it never felt heavy. I wore it on every run that was 10+ miles, so I was very used to it. Then I put 8 gels in my Naked belt and ate those first, as I don’t love having stuff around my waist/hips. I really liked this combo and love this vest. It’s simple yet carries a lot comfortably higher on my back.
• Black Diamond collapsible poles – Likely the only reason I stayed upright and I practiced every damn climb with these things. I couldn’t imagine a vert-heavy run without them.
• Fueling – A mix of Huma, Maurten, and Neversecond gels. I rotated these three and purposefully didn’t carry any Spring gels, as they’ve wrecked my bowels in the past (aka, a guaranteed mid-run poo). I gagged on the 19th gel, a Huma, with about 3 miles to go, and didn’t try to eat the last one. I’d call that a win. I wish I’d had more Neversecond gels, they were a little heavy but tasted so good.
• Trail shoes – Have some with some grip. I run in the Nike Wildhorse and they aren’t the grippiest shoes out there, I tend to slip on rocks even when they’re dry, so these weren’t the best option, but I also wasn’t about to change shoes just because of the rain and mud.
• I always carry my required gear in a dry sack in the back compartment of my vest and it was definitely necessary on this day, as it was a wet one!
• I saw a runner with a rain jacket that looked like it had a zipper to open up a bigger space to accommodate a running pack, and I should have memorized the brand. My only beef with my current rain jacket (a Salomon one, maybe the WP Lightning?) is it’s just not big enough to fit over the outside of my pack, so once I put it on, I was hesitant to take the time to take it off. Granted, I likely bought it a size too small, but I also didn’t want to be swimming in it. When we started the second climb, it had cleared and felt hot and humid, so I took the time to pull over and take it off, and about 5 other runners did the same right behind me. Then I put it on as we started that descent and never took it off again, though I got pretty toasty the last 10km.
• I used KT tape for the first time on a spot on my back that always gets chaffage on long runs from my vest and this time – nothing. KT tape for the win!

Spectators – Is this a friendly course for your friends?

Not really. They could see you off at the start, then easily ride the train back to the finish in Nice. I *think* I saw some crew and/or spectators at the last two aid stations, 35km and 50km, but they could have easily been people just there and randomly cheering us on. According to the runner’s guide, there weren’t any crew locations. If people wanted to cheer you on at aid stations, they could easily figure out how to get to them, unlike the 100k and 100 miler, whose courses seemed much more remote.

How’s the Swag?

Pretty cool and unique! We got a waterproof/dry sack backpack, which I thought was pretty sweet given the entry fee was just 99 Euros. I’ll take that over much other swag, and there were finisher’s medals at the end, which I somehow missed until I saw others wearing them around when I left the finish line. No t-shirt, a bit surprising for a UTMB race.

Pre-race you can buy tons of UTMB branded gear in the race expo area, which I splurged and bought a Camelback travel mug with the UTMB logo because I’m a sucker for travel mugs.

The Overall Score – How many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it?

Out of 5 stars, I would give it 3.5. They need to iron out a few details, and though they couldn’t control the weather, it definitely put a damper on the event given the crazy mud and lack of sweeping views. If you’re not too far from here and want to earn stones to put in for the UTMB lottery, it’s definitely a good option, just train for those hills and be ready for any weather.