UTMB is Live!
And trail running is becoming an absorbing sporting contest for fans.
UTMB is live, and I’m finding it compelling viewing.
I’m sure many of you have heard of UTMB, or “Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc”, to use its Sunday name.
You’ll hear it called the Superbowl of trail running. Although not as rich in history as races like Western States or Hardrock 100, it’s become the pinnacle of ultra-distance trail racing.
It’s like the Tour de France, but all in one go, on foot, and over singletrack through the mountains.
The main race (UTMB itself) has been held since 2003. It begins and ends in Chamonix, France, and the course follows an established hiking route known as the Tour du Mont-Blanc. This route circles the Mont Blanc massif, crossing into Italy and Switzerland along the 171km and 10,000m of ascent.
But UTMB isn’t just one race anymore, it’s actually multiple races with the headliner as the main event.
Briefly:
The CCC (Courmayeur - Champex - Chamonix), 101km, 6,100m ascent.
This race begins on one side of Mont Blanc and ends on the other and was first contested in 2006. The men’s record for the full course was broken yesterday by Sweden’s Petter Engdahl in 9:53:02. The women’s record similarly fell yesterday, to Blandine L’Hirondel, who won in 11:40:55.
The OCC (Orsières - Champex - Chamonix), 56km, 3,460m ascent, has been held since 2014. It takes place mostly in on the Swiss side of Mont Blanc before crossing into France for the finish. Jonathon Albon of the UK broke the men’s course record last year with 5:02:57, as did Blandine L’Hirondel, who claimed victory and the women’s record with 5:45:08.
The TDS (Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie), 145km, 9,100m ascent has been completed since 2009. The translation of the title is “following the footprints of the Dukes of Savoie”. This race begins in Courmayeur and ends in Chamonix. The full 145km course has only been completed for the past three editions. The fastest men can expect to take more than 18 hours to finish, whilst the women’s record currently stands at 21:36:15 and is held by Audrey Tanguy.
The PTL (La Petite Trotte à Léon) is the longest of all the races at a monster 300km and with greater than 30,000m of ascent! The course for this race varies slightly and it is undertaken as a team event. Teams may consist of two or three members as men, women or mixed. This year’s edition made unfortunate headlines when a Brazilian runner died on course after a fall.
Three other races are also held: The MCC (a significant 40km, 2,300m event for volunteers and locals); The ECC (15km, 1,300m, aimed at more novice runners who want to be part of the festivities); and the YCC (Youth Chamonix Courmayeur), a series of races for young people.
All of the main races fill up with 2000+ entrants. Entry is governed by a lottery system, and you gain access to this by collecting points from designated races around the world over similar distances and terrain.
However, since the UTMB group amalgamated with the Ironman brand in 2021, UTMB has become not just a standalone week of running events, but the UTMB World Series.
This series comprises three different types of events under the UTMB brand around the globe: Qualifiers, Events and Majors. Each offers a step on the ladder to gain entry to the UTMB World Series Finals, which will remain the showcase event in Chamonix in late August.
But it’s the coverage this year that’s made for engaging fandom. On the UTMB site, and on YouTube, the races have been streamed live and in their entirety, capturing live footage all through the mountains. This gives us an insight to ultra-endurance trail running like never before. It’s as if we’re running alongside the athletes. We can even hear them breathing.
The camera work, captured by a combination of drones and operators on ebikes and foot has been exceptional. There’s footage from nearly all parts of the course (except during the night, obviously) and live commentary in multiple languages.
Given the scale of the course and how challenging, mountainous and technical it is, the logistics of covering athletes along the route is mind-boggling. I don’t know how many different camera operators there are, but to cover such an immense field of runners and terrain, across three countries, and ensure sufficient connection to stream all of it remotely, I imagine it’s a lot. It’s a monumental effort from the producers, but somehow they’re managing it.
This changes the game for trail running. Endurance sports are more popular with participants than ever before. If they can now be accessed by fans, the attention and money generated by the trail running industry will surely explode.
Yesterday in the CCC I was gripped by the power of Blandine L’Hirondel as she led the woman’s race for over eleven hours. For most of this she was comfortable, thirty minutes+ ahead of her nearest rival, but for the closing section she was chased down by a Nepalese runner named Sunmaya Budha, who closed the gap to within two mins after nearly 100km of running.
Budha, the commentators informed us, had left home as a teenager in order to escape an arranged marriage. Instead, she became an ultrarunner.
At the head of the men’s field in the same race we treated to the dubious pleasure of seeing Jonathon Albon, breaking stride to throw-up in a bush as he left an aid-station.
This sort of coverage, seeing runners in the throes of pleasure and pain, provides insight to the web of emotions and experiences that might occur in races of this kind, and it’s exactly the type of thing that will make fans tune in.
As are the epic battles between the sport’s top athletes. Last night, when darkness fell, I turned off the stream. Jim Walmsley would continue to run through the night, leading UTMB from the likes of Kilian Jornet, Tom Evans and Pau Capel.
Tuning in was the first thing I did when I woke up. Walmsley still led, but Jornet was in pursuit a few mins behind. There were whispers of the potential for Kilian’s race to be over. He’d been dropping back. He’d overcome Covid symptoms to make the start line in the first place.
We saw the two men in an aid station after 120km of running, marvelling at how bouncy their legs still appeared. We watched the different approaches and noted how long each took. Walmsley stood, and had almost an entire change of outfit, including new shoes (an unidentified Hoka prototype).
Jornet, by contrast, sat at a table, as if waiting for breakfast to be served. He did not change his shoes. Allegedly he’s wearing the same pair (not the same model, the exact same pair) for all of his races this year, as testament to the durability of his new brand, NNormal.
But the gap between them was significant, and then Jornet was caught by Mathieu Blanchard. They ran alongside each other whilst Walmsley bounced ahead, looking comfortable and strong.
But the next we saw them was from a drone shot as they climbed to Alpage de Bovine, surrounded (appropriately) by cows in the morning sunshine. All of a sudden, Jornet was in the lead by himself. Somewhere in the unseen km he had passed Walmsley. The commentators tried to temper their excitement as they attempted to confirm that Kilian was now leading and figure out what had happened to Walmsley.
A few minutes later we located Walmsley, still moving but seemingly hobbling up the climb, and now in third place.
Watching Kilian put his foot down and take the lead was stunning. In some way you might expect greatness, but every time he does it you’re no less staggered.
As I write, we’re about 16 hrs in and have about 50km to go. At the head of both races absorbing battles are being fought. Jornet is exchanging the lead with Blanchard, but Walmsley looks to be running well again in third.
In the women’s race, American Kate Schide, having led comfortably through the night, is now fighting in second place behind French-Canadian, Marianne Hogan.
After nearly a hundred miles of running, somehow there are just metres between the top two runners in both divisions.
I’m all-in, and I would predict that over the next few years as the UTMB World Series continues to evolve, many, many more people will be, too.