He’s done some pretty extreme races in his time but the TOR130 Tot Dret might just have been Patrick Kingston‘s toughest challenge yet. The full distance of route is 135.8km and it incorporates 12,000m of ascent, with the start being in Gressoney St Jeant and the finish in Courmayeur. The location is Valle d’Aosta in Italy.

The mountains of Monte Rosa, Cervino and Mont Blanc provide a stunning backdrop and there are some insanely steep and at times very technical climbs. Patrick loves the high mountains though and tends to thrive when he’s on them.

His last ultra was La Moins’Hard in Chamonix which was 70km and had 5,600m of elevation. Patrick completed that one in just under 15 hours.

Earlier in the year he completed the Ultra Trail Vipava Valley which is 110km with 4,800m of ascent. That took him just over 18 hours. He’s done several other big ultras in recent years including the Krakonošov 100k in Czechia which incorporated 13,000ft of ascent. He got through that in 16 hours 24 minutes.

He’s done the Nivolet-Revard 55k which is in the French Alps and features 2,860 metres of ascent. Then there’s the CxM Sierra Blanca “Destroyer” in Marbella which he’s completed twice. That’s 43.2km with 2,800m of ascent. His best time for that is 7 hours 35 minutes.

It’s difficult to put into words how hard the TOR130 Tot Dret is. The race starts at 9pm so probably for the first nine hours or so, it’s pitch black, making a bright head torch as essential piece of kit.

The first ascent contained three miles that were over 1,000ft of elevation each. It’s just brutal really from start to finish. Not everyone makes it to the finish though. In fact, a lot of the participants didn’t manage to complete the course.

Patrick was one of those who didn’t quite make it to the end. He did get to 90.6km though which was a hell of an effort. That had taken him 28 hours 18 minutes and he just couldn’t go on any further.

It was an incredible effort though and he’d covered 58.23 miles and amassed almost 25,000ft of elevation. The time it took him included some stoppages as well and his moving time was about 19 hours 30 minutes.

There were 162 runners who didn’t manage to make it to the finish in the end and Patrick was one of those who made it the furthest. There were two athletes who retired at 97.2km, 12 who dropped out at 107.3km and one who retired at 124km.

211 runners successfully made it to the finish, completing the full distance of 135.8km. The fastest of those was Italian Davide Rivero who did it in 21 hours 44 minutes. Another Italian, Mirko Marchi was second fastest in 22 hours 47 minutes, with Gabriel Dupont of France taking third in 23 hours 29 minutes.

There were a couple of Brits in the top 20 and they were Michael Harrington of George and Falcon Trail Runners who came 17th in 28 hours 50 minutes and Tim Landy of Dartmoor Runners who was 18th in 28 hours 52 minutes.

Italian runner Cristina Vecca was first female and 15th overall in 28 hours 37 minutes. Marta Vigano of Italy was second female in 31 hours 10 minutes which put her 29th overall and Enrica Gouthier, also of Italy was third female in 31 hours 42 minutes which put her in 31st place overall.

Hannah Rickman was the first British woman to complete the course. She got round in 36 hours 41 minutes which put her 79th overall.

The TOR130 Tot Dret is almost like a game of survival really. It’s often a case of ‘get as far as you can’, as opposed to ‘get to the finish as fast as you can’ like it is with most races. To have the courage to take it on in the first place is quite something but to have got as far as Patrick did is all the more impressive.

Even though he was forced to retire in the end and couldn’t quite make it to the end, it isn’t one that you could really class as a failure for Patrick. It was an incredible experience and he will have taken many learnings from it.

It may sound crazy to say but the TOR130 Tot Dret is actually the middle distance race of the TORX event, with the TOR330 Tor des Géants being the next one up and the TOR450 Tor des Glaciers being the longest.

The winner of the TOR450 Tor des Glaciers took 124 hours and 53 minutes. That five and a half days. Irishman Brian Mullins was second in 131 hours 25 minutes and Brit Lea MacLeod came 24th in 157 hours 52 minutes. 91 runners successfully made it to the finish, with the longest of them taking 188 hours 47 minutes.

It just goes to show the different levels of running there are and how extreme it can get from an endurance perspective. That could be one to ponder when facing the next ‘hilly’ 10k and you’re about to start moaning about how tough it was.