It was a two-year process to reach the start line of the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc (UTMB) with qualification at Val D’Ran in 2021 and then a further year of training. The UTMB is effectively the (unofficial) World Championships of trail running and sits alongside Kona (Ironman) in terms of prestige. The race is 171 km long with 10,000 metres of vertical ascent.
The usual protocol is to “taper” for about two weeks to arrive at the start line well rested and in peak shape. Unfortunately, my tendency to try and do everything meant that in the final week I climbed the Taschhorn and spent full three days rock climbing, giving me effectively a one-day taper – at least I abandoned the plan to climb the Lauterhorn straight after the “Tasch” much to the annoyance of all concerned.
Originally my goals were “Gold” top 150, “Silver” top 250 and “Bronze” top 350 but in light of my one-day taper, I knew these were unrealistic, but I decided to follow my original race strategy anyway which was captured in an overly complex spreadsheet!
The general advice is to start ridiculously slowly but as the field of 2,500 athletes in the UTMB results in a bottle neck at Les Houches, which means standing around for a long time, I had trained to run hard off the start line and then settle into sustainable race pace on the first climb. I had also decided to run a little harder (bottom of zone 3) than “ridiculously easy” as the Pierra Menta stage race had shown me that I can recover pretty well from harder efforts. I have worked hard on descending and, compared to many, am now pretty fast and so I planned to capitalise on that but backing off a little from full gas to protect the quads for the whole race. Another element of the plan was to minimise time in the aid stations because with 15 aid stations it is easy to lose literally hours if you are not efficient.
I was positioned probably 300 athletes back from start as we waited for 6:00pm and I was surprisingly calm and not very emotional. The gun went and I set of reasonably hard without ever coming close to red lining and then on the first climb backed right off. I usually prefer to “hunt” than be “chased” and so when I eased back for the first climb, I was constantly being overtaken which was quite hard to deal with but I just had to let them go and each time I said to myself “I will see you again later” believing they were starting too hard and would not be able to sustain the pace.
They say that a 171 km race starts at km 100, and I was feeling very comfortable at the 100km stage. My expectation / hope was that whilst I continued to run a very steady pace throughout, others would tire and I would start passing people. It seemed to take a long time before this started to happen – I would overtake people on the descent but they would then pass me again on the climb. At 76km I was still outside the top 500 but I was now at least “holding my own” amongst the runners around me. Then, from this point I slowly began moving up the field and this accelerated after 100 km, although my legs were really tired at this point.
I was incredibly lucky to have Catie, Frank, Tristan and Amelie supporting me. My coach, Elisabet Barnes, had sent me videos of Pau Capell (2019 UTMB winner) in the aid stations and I modelled the support that I wanted on his videos. It worked brilliantly thanks to the perfect execution of the crew. I would enter the aid station and sit down, my backpack was stripped of water bottles and used gels, etc and replenished. Meanwhile, I would eat from a selection of foods that the crew had laid out as well as drinking from a selection of water bottles containing water, coffee and coke. If I decided to change my shirt, it was easy to hand and a towel to dry myself off. I would say that the crewing was faultless and we nailed it.
At Courmayeur, km 76, Catie and Amelie were crewing and I knew I could spend a little more time at this aid station. When it came to leave I was in tears because there was still 100km to go, give or take, and it seemed so intimidating – I did not want to leave. Catie did absolutely the right thing and simply shoved me towards the exit and told me to get on with it! In my preparation, I had planned with how to deal with dark moments but I never experienced any, I was emotionally stable throughout. Once again, I was disappointed not to experience any hallucinations which many runners report.
I do not have much recollection of each stage – I was very focused and simply stayed in my rhythm on the ascent and enjoyed the descent, it was satisfying to descend at only a fraction of my maximum and still pass so many people and I was rarely if ever overtaken. I did however take an occasional moment to look around at the extraordinary beauty of the Mont Blanc Massif.
I had some modest issues with nutrition from the outset, possibly from a slight bug prior to the race. I suffered from slight stomach cramps and had to utilise my supply of loo paper on four occasions which was annoying as this meant lost time. I had to force myself to keep eating although it made me feel like I needed the loo again – failing to eat would easily end my race. Although I had avoided gels in my nutrition plan, I actually switched exclusively to gels for the final part of the race as from a stomach perspective, they caused the fewest issues.
On a few occasions I was a little “out of it” according to Catie. I definitely suffered some mental fatigue due to not taking any rest at all. Unfortunately, I became confused about the final stage of the race and it entered my mind that from Vallorcine it was simply a slightly downhill road stage amongst cheering crowds. As a result, I pushed a little hard before Vallorcine and entered the aid station in 293rd position. When Frank told me I had another 1,000m vertical and really tough climb to come and then a long technical descent I was somewhat shocked.
At the foot of the climb I felt I had a choice, I could push really hard and try and further improve my position (although this was now hard as the field was very spread out) or simply complete the race with minimal effort and protect my legs because on Wednesday I am heading back to the mountains for an attempt to complete my 4,000m Swiss peak challenge. I knew I would finish the UTMB so that goal was in the bag and I had proved to myself what I was capable of and I knew that even if I took it easy, there was a good chance of finishing in my bronze medal position, whilst silver would not be possible. I therefore decided to take it easy, especially as I felt a little dizzy at the foot of the climb and was worried about hurting myself. The only reason I ran the final part was because I did not want to keep Frank and Tristan waiting any longer than they needed to.
I was remarkably ambivalent about the finish. It was nice to run over the line with Tristan, but there was no emotion. I collected my duck egg blue race gillet (I would have preferred a medal) and headed home. I am very proud of my race, I executed my strategy perfectly and was always focused and given the build-up, quite frankly, astounded by the result. Of course, part of me wonders how well I could have done if I had tapered properly but I can say with a high level of confidence that I will not be running the UTMB again. I am close to “going back to the bike” but I might devote another year to trail running as I am thinking about some of the iconic American races and some of the other famous races in Europe.
Expeditions 