Hours before starting UTMB with Mark and running partner Jane, photo courtesy of Elizabeth.
I just paid my entry for the 2010 Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 100 mile and am one step closer to the finale of the entry process: run the right races to get enough points to be able to submit an entry (my qualifying race was last year’s UTMB), then submit the entry, then win a slot in the lottery, then if you win the lottery, pay your entry fee. I still have one final step -get my doctor to sign off on a medical certificate stating that I’m ok to participate but thankfully she’s familiar with my running and happy to sign off on it.
Ironically, I was also going through my e-mail tonight and stumbled across the videos that my friend and fellow UTMB-runner Mark Barnes and his wife Elizabeth took of Rob and I finishing last year’s race. Even if you’ve never been around a 100-mile race, you get the sense watching this that it’s not your normal US 100. The whole town, really the whole area, comes out and supports the race all weekend long. Look at all the people and about it this way – we were only an hour and a half ahead of a 46-hour cutoff – near the end of the pack (you think I’d actually leave the camera at home??), when many races would be folding up shop. As if the Alps and scenery aren’t enough, the support makes this race a one-of-a-kind experience that’s hard to put into words.
So if it looks like we’re shuffling slowly, we are – in part, of course, because we’ve been running for 44 and a half hours and have covered the toughest course I’ve ever run, but also in part because we didn’t want it to end. After running that long through temperature extremes, over cloud-bound passes, through two complete nights, with friends, with strangers from other countries, through amazing scenery, and always heading toward one goal – the finish – it’s hard to turn the corner lined with cheering throngs of complete strangers and see that finish, the end of this wonderful, indescribable experience, only steps away.
So here are the links for the clips. Enjoy – it’s the perfect month for dreaming those dreams!
WOW Susan, Very Cool video of you guys finishing. I hope you get in again and I must add this to my ultra wish list… but need to log a few more years of USA ultras first
January 26, 2010 at 3:20 pm | Reply
It looks like you guys were moving great to be going for 44.5 hours! I can only imagine the emotions you had running through that crowd. I hope it happens for you again.
January 27, 2010 at 3:03 pm | Reply
You’re right, it was the perfect finish for such an incredible experience. I hope you have your own version of an incredible finish in a few weeks!
January 27, 2010 at 3:25 pm | Reply