To do the sun on the peak. Look at the sun on the peak.
How do you think he'll feel at this point? Absolutely knackered.
Why are you coughing? It smells bad. It does.
What does it take to get a Running Channel presenter to a mountain ultra race and back and
make a video at the same time? Well, you're about to find out.
James Dunn, Running Channel presenter and ultra runner, was taking on the IDA race, a brutal
101 kilometer race which would be his hardest and longest race to date.
And we were heading out to film him tackle this brutal route. Step one was getting out there to
film, which, thanks to Innovate, the Swiss tourism board and Iron Man and UTMB, who all made possible.
But then the challenge was working out how we could track James across the course to film him.
We knew it would involve multiple forms of transport and a lot of
planning, so we headed out the day before the race to start a rescue of the route.
Oh, wait, Freddie had a quick shopping trip before then.
So here is Freddie's remit all the kit that he has neatly organised, perfectly placed, everything has its spot.
But Freddie, what key bit did you actually forget to bring?
I forgot to bring a tooth brush and tooth paste. Have been to the supermarket and stocked up
kids bubble gum flavour, ages three to six. Who says you have to grow up?
Breakfast planning meeting done, it was time for the kit drop and to get our travel passes that would
allow us onto the ski lifts, trains and cable cars to rescue the route.
Thank you so much.
Okay, good luck. Thank you. Ok James no dramas?
No dramas. I've passed with flying colours.
Can you show us your race number?
Yes, I can.
Now the backdrop fun was done, it was time to head out onto the course. Our aim was to meet
James at key locations en route, with me acting as his crew member whilst also grabbing
bits on the GoPro and Tom and Freddie focusing on filming on our big cameras and the drone.
We couldn't get all the way up to our desired first location as the roads were restricted, but better to know
that the day before than on race day at 04:00 a.m.
So we picked a car park location instead, and then headed up in a cable car to fist our second meeting point and a stunning viewpoint location.
Pretty nice location, isn't it?
Freddie is over there just getting a bit of content.
We're going to go have a little walk on this, aren't we, James?
Yeah. If we do it now, this could be easier tomorrow.
Yeah.
Come on, hold your hand.
James is petrified of heights, has a history of vertigo, and this
section of the route was a cliffwalk where you can see through the bridge attached to the side of the
rock. As you can imagine, he loved this bit.
Definitely adding to the race anxiety.
It then got even worse for James. Why are you coughing? It smells bad. It does. I may have just broken wind, but in an enclosed space, at 34 degree heat.
Where are we, lads? Right, we have just come to
Burglauenen, definitely pronounced that wrong, which will be a
key point for James, because here he has decisions to make.
He can either run through here, carry on up and that takes him to the 101k course.
Or there is a sneaky bailout now, option to go down here and then that means
it's a 51 km route. Obviously all three of us are going to be here tomorrow going that
way. It's the only option. But how do you think he's gunna feel at this point?
Absolutely. Knacked.
Just doing another recci and we're at the 93k mark.
This will be the last time we see James until the finish.
There's a food station just behind us here.
I'd image at this point he'll just want to be sleeping and be very hungry and painful and unhappy.
It's the final push this bit, final push.
And he will have the lovely joys of Freddy waiting for him. About 03:00 A.m.
I'll probably be half asleep by then.
So the recci was done, kit all packed, James prepped and everything set for a day of
racing. All that was left to do was to cram in some sleep before our 03:00 a.m. alarm went off and we
stumbled out of bed to the start line.
Right, it is nearly 03:30 in the morning and we are awake. James is having his breakfast and then we're going to head down to the start and get this thing going.
The man of the moment. What did you say to me?
I don't think I've ever started a race in the dark before.
Well, today's the day.
And I just remembered my tracker.
so I put a reminder on my phone and you would forget otherwise?
No, but when I press a button, it will. No, I know.
So the race had started and we began our own race to checkpoint 1.
Who would have thought you'd get stuck in a traffic jam at 04:00 A.m?
Each checkpoint was an opportunity to not only film James, but get a gauge of how the race was
going. It was clear from the first checkpoint that nerves were high and doubts were creeping in about whether he could even finish it.
The guy behind me has raced this four times and DNF'd every time
Because he got caught at the cut offs. Going to keep him behind me all day.
Yes. Where's he going to be? Right, well, you got this, mate, you got this. Keep on, keeping on.
We then headed up the mountain in the chairlift and caught the sunrise on the top.
It was chilly, so we layered up in the inov-8 Venture Lite range and waited for James to appear from the valley.
We could track him on the app, which is really useful. As it turns out. Blue is a popular colour of race T shirts.
That is the shot.
Look at the sun on the peak. Look at the sun on the peak.
It's warming up.
Freddy has gone down there for a sec to film some
b-roll of runners going up in the corner and the sunrise. We're in position at the top here with the drone.
Here's a fun little behind the scenes fact. So right now, we are in a stunning
location and there is a shot literally every single way, every single direction that you look in you could get
a shot. However, if you watch a video like this James
is currently just over 9k in, so when he sees Freddy down there, he'll be coming up to 20K.
No one really is that interested in the first 20k of a 100k race. Nothing dramatic will have happened, so from
our side, it's about controlling the excitement to film hours of footage that probably won't get used, but it is stunning.
It's a shame that we didn't get to use all these in the main video. So here's a homage to the drone shots that you could
have had if this was a more dramatic point in the race.
I'm just still slightly baffled by the temperature difference. Going to be getting up to about 32 deg today, but for now it is bloody freezing.
So I'm very glad that we are head to toe in the
inov-8 Venturelite equipment, because you definitely want to be warm when you do this.
It was then time for the crew to split.
Hello there. So I've been dropped off at the train station. Tom and Sarah has gone up to a place called Schynige Plattw.
Forgive my pronunciation, I don't speak a word of German. They've gone up there to the top of the mountains to catch James as he comes
through, get some cool drone shots, that kind of thing. Meanwhile, I'm going onto a place called
Burglauenen I think, that's the next point on the race where we can see James.
And that's kind of the crucial point where root veers off onto the 51k one of the 100k one.
Meanwhile, me and Tom had a very relaxing journey up the mountain on the train, took in the view, had
an ice cream, even FaceTimed Tom's mum to show her the music at the top, all whilst James is still
running to meet us. And we did one fun thing. That was really fast.
The runners actually come right to the train station and they cross
the tracks and then go down to the next part. The bit where the route
splits off into two is just down there. And then there's an aid station all the way back there.
Welcome to an aid station. So this is Chinaga Flat, which is another support station, but you basically just do it yourself.
So we have some mango, which is technically mine, but I thought you might like it. Some tuck biscuits, some
pretzels gels and some Coke, which is staying cool in my bag.
We waited at the top of the mountain for James, who was having a really tough day. We'd been tracking
him and knew he was chasing the cutoff time, so we made the decision to descend the mountain with him to the
next checkpoint where Freddie was waiting. As we suspected, he might get timed out before we
reached Freddie. Our job here was to support James and then document his thoughts and feelings about the race.
So while I'm waiting here for James, Tom and Sarah. My job is basically just to
film as much broll as possible, basically, so that all the runners coming
through, getting food, water, all that kind of stuff, just things that will basically help paint the picture.
Freddie had a while to wait as our descent down the mountain was taking much longer than
expected. It was baking hot. James was struggling and it was looking more and more unlikely that he could even finish the race.
It's past 05:00 here. It's actually 05:17 and that means
anyone coming through here who is doing the 101 kilometer race has to fall out.
And that includes James.
James had missed a cut off for the checkpoint, but he was also unsure as to whether he'd be allowed to finish
the 51K race. He had around 2 km left to descend to get to Freddie with this uncertainty hanging over him, it was a brutal few moments and required grit and
determination to keep going. So I do get to go on. You need to go and see the man in the headset with the walkie talkie on.
He could finish, which was a huge relief. But we hadn't recccied the
51K root and so this was all off script and off plan. I went with James with a
GoPro to make sure someone would be there at the finish. Meanwhile, Freddie and Tom raced back to the
car park on the train to drive to the finish. The race to the finish was on.
So we are just driving back to Grindelwald now. James is doing the 50K root, so
he's got about 7k. Is it 7k? And because Sarah is not here, hi.
James had almost made it, but Freddie and Tom technically won as they beat him to the finish.
Although maybe don't tell James I said that.
All that was left to do was just relive it all again. Nope, not joking.
After a good night's sleep, we headed back into the mountains, close, actually,
to the first checkpoint where we interviewed James and went over the whole race.
He DNF'd and had a pretty savage day in the office, so this is a moment for him to reflect, process the race and also give advice to The Running Channel community.
How does it feel, James?
Kind of want to lie down now.
I'm very tired after yesterday.
Some 7000 steps after an ultra marathon. But actually reliving this race has been weirdly, very theraputic. So I'm glad I get to do this piece of camera.
Hopefully we pack it and move on from it.
Well, now Freddie and Tom get to relive it because they'll be the
ones to get this footage onto their laptop, edit this video that you're watching right now
and the actual main video. So if you haven't gone and watched James's epic ultramarathon,
then definitely go and check that out. And also, why not check out some other Running Channel videos whilst you're here?
If there's anything else that you want to see from us, let us know in the comments and we'll see you next time.
Thanks for another lovely location like Switzerland.
Bye.