U-T-M-B Week
The final week of August in the Trail Running world means one thing, and one thing only: UTMB Festival of races.
People from all over the world make the trip to the Alps, specifically to the Chamonix Valley for running, crewing or even being spectator of one of the races of the whole festival happening this week. It is definitely a experience you need to live at least once if you’re into the sport.
We’ve already seen the results from TDS, OCC and CCC this week, all that before the big dance that already started; the big round on the Mont Blanc Massif and the one that gives the name for all this, The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc.
We invite you to review all the amazing material that iRunfar has put for us about the races and of course, follow the live updates from them. Also, you can check the actual live track that the organizers put for us to follow our runners!
Ruth Croft smashes the OCC again.
On Wednesday we already saw great performances on the new TDS route and yesterday was time for the shortest race of the whole festival; the OCC. Packed with strong female’s (and male’s too) aiming for a podium spot this year, Ruth Croft once again proof to be really strong on this course winning it for the second year in a row with an a amazing performance. Kuddos to Ruth!
You can read some impression of her race here.
American’s on the UTMB.
There is said that americans, in general, doesn’t do well on the UTMB. In past years, many of the strongest “MUT” runners have gone to this race to ended up with empty hands or just podium finishes. Every year we’re seeing better and better performance on the american male’s (female’s have been crushing it for years now), but still, they haven’t figure it out completely yet, at least in comparison with the Euro guys that usually perform very well here. Will this year be the one that we see an American at the at the top of the podium? Will see!
WHAT INSPIRED US THIS WEEK
What to read:
Are you familiar with the type of races that does laps on a track for a long time? And for a long time we mean, 12 hours, 24, hours, 48 hours and even a full week! Well, this past weekend, one of the most famous started (Six Days in the Dome) and Zach Bitter managed to break the world record for the 100 miles recorded on this type of event. 11:19:13 took him to complete the distance doing laps on the track. Completely insane!
You can read more about it here.
What to watch:
Matt Carpenter record on the Pikes Peak Marathon is still alive and more so than ever. Many people thought that the record was on a serious threat by Kilian taking this race “seriously” enough, but he came a long way from the record set by Matt in 93’. It is really impressive to see how this record seems to be really un-touchable even nowadays. On the female side, Maude really surprised everybody crossing the finish line more than 12 minute under the course record set last year. With her performance at Sierre Zinal and now this, Maude prove to be on another level from her competition.
