The Event trail de Royat packs steep climbing into short distances: even the 1.7 km vertical race gains 290 metres. It is a two-day November trail series in Royat, in France’s Puy-de-Dôme department, with races from 1.7 km up to 25 km. The opening day offers a 9.8 km night run with 415 metres of climbing, available for solo runners or duos, plus La verticale du rocher, the short kilometer-vertical option.
The second day moves to longer trail races: the Middle event trail is 18.5 km with 950 metres of elevation gain, and the longest race is 25 km with 1,100 metres of climbing. Several formats can be run as a pair, so the event is not only for solo trail runners. The main thing to know is that the distances look modest on paper, but the climbing is serious, especially for runners used to flatter road races.