UTMB Chamonix

Mebuccaneers

I just wanted to wish any boards members taking part in the UTMB this year the best of luck!!
It looks like the weather is changing for the worst towards the end of the week. But hopefully it will suit the runner who is not used to running in 25c heat and perfect blue skies!!
I'm heading over to Chamonix myself early on Thursday morning so I'll be around while the race is on and keeping an eye out for any Irish competitors taking part and give them a big cheer!!


This is one race I would love to do a few years into the future. I have walked the Tour du Mont Blanc twice in the last few years and its an amazing trip with spectacular scenery that is if you have the time to enjoy it!


Paul

nerraw1111

Really liking forward to following the race online. Minus 5 and snow predicted for Friday! It's a great race to follow on twitter.

Best of luck.

Heading, unrelatedly to UTMB, to Chamonix on Monday for a holiday, hoping to do a bit of trail running(injury allowing). If you're about then and fancy a run, give me a shout.

Enduro

There are at least 2 boardsies heading to the UTMB itself, PabloT and myself. I've written a little summary on those of us heading over whcih you can read here. If I get an opportunity I'll blog a little more when I'm over in Chamonix.

Bad weather will make it interesting, and should suit the Irish more alright. The only snag is it increases the danger of the race being shortened or cancelled.

If anyone has any questions about the event then fire away!

Kurt Godel

Enduro wrote: »

There are at least 2 boardsies heading to the UTMB itself, PabloT and myself. I've written a little summary on those of us heading over whcih you can read here. If I get an opportunity I'll blog a little more when I'm over in Chamonix.

Bad weather will make it interesting, and should suit the Irish more alright. The only snag is it increases the danger of the race being shortened or cancelled.

If anyone has any questions about the event then fire away!

Good summary! Best of luck to all of you.

Krusty_Clown

Enduro wrote: »

If anyone has any questions about the event then fire away!

Are there drop points (e.g. for clothing) or do you have to carry everything?
Is the entire course well-marked, or is there an element of navigation?
Do you have to stick to the pre-defined route?
Will you take breaks and/or change shoes?

Very best of luck Enduro, PabloT and the rest of the Irish runners.

nerraw1111

AFAIK there's two bag drops, one at 72km, the other at 119km. Race is 158km long. There's food and water stations along the way, along with four bases where you can sleep and get hot food.

Racers must carry a mandatory kit. Route seems straight forward enough but last year, course was changed during the race and in 2010, it was shortened, due to bad weather.

Enduro

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Are there drop points (e.g. for clothing) or do you have to carry everything?
Is the entire course well-marked, or is there an element of navigation?
Do you have to stick to the pre-defined route?
Will you take breaks and/or change shoes?

Very best of luck Enduro, PabloT and the rest of the Irish runners.

There is one drop point at Courmayour. You can fill a bag (standard plastic bag size) with whatever you want except walking poles. It gets transported there and back by the race organisation. There is a long (for a running race) list of mandatory gear to be carried at all times. Mostly layers of clothing, plus a few other safety thing like spaceblanket, 2 headtorches plus batteries, and working mobile phone.

The route itself mainly follows a well marked permanent walking trail (The Tour de Mont Blanc). The race will have additional indicators in place at junctions etc. So there is pretty much no navigation required, just staying alert enough not take the wrong turn at a junction by not looking! The trails themselves are very obvious. Although if it snows, as forecast, that might change.

Yes, you absolutely have to stick to the route. Not only for fairness, but also for environmental reasons. And the race takes environmental responsibility very seriously.

Last year I changed shoes at Courmayour, and was there for at least 20 minutes. That, and a similarly long stop at Champax-lac (the other really big aid station), were my longest stops. Towards the end of the race I was spending at least 5 minutes in every aid station. I'll be aiming to cut all that back and not change gear except in response to environmental changes this year.

As an aside, there are campbeds at Courmayour and Champax for runners who want to take a really long break!

RayCun

Is the race open to everyone or are there qualification requirements?
Are there cut-off times on the route?

Enduro

RayCun wrote: »

Is the race open to everyone or are there qualification requirements?
Are there cut-off times on the route?

You need to qualify by accumlating points. 5 points required this year, using 2 races in the previous 2 years. Races can apply to be UTMB qualifiers, and are assigned points based on their distance and height gain. So in Ireland, for example, The Wicklow Way ultra would be 1 point, the Mourne Way Marathon is 2 points, the Wickow Round is 3 points. Last year's world championships in Connemara were 2 points. The UTMB itself is 4 points (as is the nearby Bob Graham round in the lake district).

Yes, there are cut-off times en-route at the more prominant aid stations which are accessable by race buses, and also to finish (46 hours). Usually about 50% of competitors don't make it to the finish on time.

nerraw1111

Best of luck Enduro. You had a great race last year.

RayCun wrote: »

Is the race open to everyone or are there qualification requirements?
Are there cut-off times on the route?

You need to run in a couple of qualifying races, with 7 points (needed for next year). Races score between 1 and 4 points.

Qualifying races are here. http://ultratrailmb.com/page/87/List_of_qualifying_races.html Search Ireland.

nerraw1111

How are you going to approach the race Enduro? Any changes in tactics from last year? Besides the aid station stuff?

Enduro

nerraw1111 wrote: »

How are you going to approach the race Enduro? Any changes in tactics from last year? Besides the aid station stuff?

I'll be aiming to pretty much repeat my approach on the way to Courmayour. I was possibly just a little too fast last year and definitiely slowed up a lot on the second half. If I've judged my relative fitness correctly then something around the same pace should be about right for this year. The overall aim is to finish running as close as possible to same pace (well effort more than pace, since we're talking alpine climbs and descents here!) that I start.


It's a race were you have to constantly adapt to conditions, and to your own state, so its much more important to adjust tactics and speed on the fly than to worry about sticking to pre-race strategy, no matter how good that strategy is. With bad weather forecast the changes of big route changes being thrown at us mid-race are hugely increased as well, making dynamic strategising all the more important.

Some prominant American runners seemed to have big problems adapting to changing circumstances last year, which was very surprising for such experienced runners.

Experience of the route, and how I felt running it last year is the big "extra" in my armoury this year. Absolutely nothing beats experience in improving your ultra-running!

ultraman1

best of luck guys,hope there is less uppy bits than downy....

jeffontour

I have been in Chamonix since Monday. The weather took a turn for the worse today, thunder and torrential rain for a time earlier but that has now cleared. For how long is the question.

Spare a thought for those out on the Ptl course since last night,
with another 3 or 4 ahead of them!

I can't wait for the lads to get racing and follow them round, there is a great bus setup for supporters. The ballot being favourable I will be here racing next year, the place is amazing. A dreamland for those who enjoy the outdoors.

Mebuccaneers

Yea Nerraw1111 I would be on for that alright if we can work it out. I'm staying in Chamonix until Tuesday morning then I'm moving on to Saas Grund in switzerland for another weeks Alpine climbing.
I'll send you a PM .

I'll be camping at Camping Glacier d'Argentière www.campingchamonix.com in Argentière a few km's outside of Chamonix centre. But there's a good bus & train service up and down the whole Chamonix valley.
Just for anyone who has not been to Chamonix before or might not know about it. If you have what's called theCarte d'hote you get free travel on all the local bus & train services during your stay in the Chamonix valley and it will save you a few euro!!
To get the Carte d'hote just ask where ever your accommodation is and they should be able to give you one, even campsites have them.


I would know most of the Irish guys heading over to see as I photographed the Donadea 50km Race earlier this year and I posted the photos on my facebook account and a few of the lads used them in their blogs and on facebook etc
I'll have a camera with me this time but not my pro one as I have so much gear to bring as it is between my camping gear, running gear and my Alpine climbing gear I'm at my 20kg limit!!


So if you are walking or running around Chamonix in the next few days and some random guy walks up to you and starts talking to you it will probably be me!!!

Mebuccaneers

Enduro wrote: »

There are at least 2 boardsies heading to the UTMB itself, PabloT and myself. I've written a little summary on those of us heading over whcih you can read here. If I get an opportunity I'll blog a little more when I'm over in Chamonix.

Bad weather will make it interesting, and should suit the Irish more alright. The only snag is it increases the danger of the race being shortened or cancelled.

If anyone has any questions about the event then fire away!

Enduro
I have loads of questions but you wouldn't have the time now to answer them all with the UTMB looming!!
If I ever get the chance in the future to put some questions to you I might take you up on your offer!!

nerraw1111

Course changed due to bad weather and shortened to less than 100km.

http://www.irunfar.com/2012/08/2012-tnf-utmb-course-changed-start-possibly-delayed.html

TFBubendorfer

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Course changed due to bad weather and shortened to less than 100km.

http://www.irunfar.com/2012/08/2012-tnf-utmb-course-changed-start-possibly-delayed.html

It says at least 100k, not less than.

ThisRegard

Didn't some competitors get upset at the late course changes last year, surely this year they'd be prepared for such an eventuality.

jeffontour

Brr! It's cold over here!

Conditions far from ideal but the Irish are up to the challenge. Adrian Tucker finished the TDS in a little over 24 hours, there is around a 50% drop out rate in it, which puts it all in perspective.

Barry Murray is going well in the CCC and the rest will be kicking off on the much changed UTMB course in about 2.5 hours.

nerraw1111

And they're off!

@TrailRunningMag: UTMB starts http://t.co/d7HcwkNy

Check out the music

jeffontour

Conditions are wet! The lads are moving through the field, picking off places at each stage.

Pablot is persisting with the short shorts despite the weather.

nerraw1111

Daniel Doherty is 22nd moving through the field. Paul Tierney is going well, 85th up from 121.

Any word on enduro?

groovyg

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Any word on enduro?

Going well too , has passed through checkpoint at La Balme, 33rd overall, 11th in his category

ultraman1

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Daniel Doherty is 22nd moving through the field. Paul Tierney is going well, 85th up from 121.

Any word on enduro?

enduro. 29th
pablo t 48th

Krusty_Clown

ultraman1 wrote: »

enduro. 29th
pablo t 48th

Fantastic results both. Well done guys!

Enduro

For once I've managed to get a race report up in a reasonably timely fashion, which you can read here.

Despite the re-routing and shortening of the race it was still an awesome experience. I couldn't reccomend it strongly enough!

As usual, if anyone has any questions about the race I'll happily answer them.

pablo t

Enduro wrote: »

For once I've managed to get a race report up in a reasonably timely fashion, which you can read here.

Despite the re-routing and shortening of the race it was still an awesome experience. I couldn't reccomend it strongly enough!

As usual, if anyone has any questions about the race I'll happily answer them.

I have a question .... How the f%*k did you manage to drink so much fruit juice over the 4 days and not drop your bowels all over the floor?? Sorry, forgot to ask before you left early on Monday. Its been nagging ever since:D:D:D

Enduro

Oh the irony of being asked about dropping things all over the floor (of the bathroom presumably) by Toilet Trasher Tierney :eek::D

I'm back down to my normal 1 litre per day now anyway!

jeffontour

Had forgotten the tale of Triple T. Funny stuff!