Running, 'cycling', skiing and baking.

Fri 26 Mar 2010 08:58 GMT

The snow is finally on the move in the village, the waterfalls along the valley are spouting back into life and the stream at the bottom of the garden is in full swirl and gurgle. On Friday were able to use the road next to the house for the first time since November, making unloading shopping and building materials seem effortless, no more 'It's a Knockout' 500 metre waddles with plasterboard and bags of cement!

Fortunately there was just enough snow at the top of the col for the inaugural 'Trail Ornon' on Saturday; a running race on the snow over 10km or 20km and a 1km or 500m event for children. Unfortunately the snow was very soft which made for chilly toes and some erratic running styles, but despite this it was really well attended (photos) and hence has made it's mark on the map for coming years. I took part in the 10km event and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had the added advantage of knowing most of the marshals along the route so got some very enthusiastic encouragement!

After the race it was back home for a cake baking marathon: 2 x lemon drizzle, 1 x coffee and walnut, 1x carrot cake, 2x batches of brownies. These were all whizzed off to an English/French charity night where they were sold to raise some money to send groups of French language students to London this summer. The evening was really lovely with a fair 50:50 mix of English and French, all very friendly, that was until the rugby was put on to a big screen....I soon took my leave!

The following day, Sunday, was less pleasant for another event taking place on our valley; 'Oisans Ski Cimes', a well established ski touring race that covers some of the higher peaks opposite our house and beside the Col d'Ornon. Sadly attendance was down about 50% due to rain and high winds. Some of our friends and neighbours who were marshaling at the higher and more exposed positions on the course are still thick with colds now.

Guy and I did a bit of cross training/active recovery on the Sunday afternoon on the banks of the lake at Aix-Les- Bains. Don't really know how to describe the contraption we hired (photo top left and below) apart from 'a bicycle made for two'!

This coming weekend we will be having our last cross country ski of the season at an event on Sunday and then it's out with the 'real' bikes.

Helyn