Running News Daily

UTMB Is Back!

The world's most important trail race is driving forward-pandemic or not-and despite a tough year across the board, it seems to only be gaining steam. 

While many races struggle to fill their 2021 entry slots, that was not a problem for UTMB, Chamonix, France's Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc-now six races from 40 to 300 kilometers, all of which take place during the final week of August in the legendary mountain town at the base of Mont Blanc. Despite a year off due to the global pandemic, interest in the race series remains very strong. 

For the 16th time in a row, the UTMB races have sold out, with 10,000 runners slated across all the races. With the pandemic continuing to complicate international travel, the event's mix of nationalities has shifted, with more participants from within Europe and fewer from China and Japan. Despite the long-haul travel involved, U.S. interest in UTMB continues to grow, up slightly to 338 participants. 

The UTMB organization is contemplating a number of changes this year, including a streamlined bib pickup system and wave starts with a few hundred runners in each block. Runners will have to wash their hands on their way into aid stations, with social distancing and masks being de rigeur. Shared food bins will be a thing of the past, and it's possible runner assistance areas may be altered or eliminated. 

Despite the global uncertainty, 2021's marquee race around 15,774-foot high Mont Blanc looks to be among the most competitive trail races ever, on a par with 2017, which some observers have considered the most stacked trail race in the history of the sport. That year, France's Francois D'Haene edged out Catalonia's Kilian Jornet by 15 minutes, and Spain's Nria Picas won in a down-to-the-wire race, edging out Switzerland's Andrea Huser by under three minutes.

How did such a strong field coalesce? "It was really just organic. We didn't do anything specific to make it happen," says UTMB's Press Officer, Hugo Joyeux. One example is a post by three-time UTMB winner D'Haene, who asked on Instagram, "Who's coming back to take part in the party? I'll be there!" D'Haene went on to tag his top challengers, gently teasing them into showing up at the starting line next to the Mayor's office in the old part of Chamonix this August 27th. Most are in, with Jornet notably absent as he continues to reduce his trail-racing schedule to focus on mountaineering objectives. 

The USA's top runners didn't need a social media ribbing from D'Haene to add the race to their calendars. Starting for the women will be Courtney Dauwalter, aiming for a second consecutive UTMB win, along with Katie Schide, Kaytlyn Gerbin, Brittany Peterson and Stephanie Howe.  Schide, second in the CCC race in 2018, and 6th in the UTMB in 2019, currently lives in the south of France, in the maritime Alps region, and is easily the most experienced European racer among the U.S. women's elite entrants. 

"UTMB reliably draws the most competitive field of the year," says Schide. With top runners coming out of an usual pandemic year-plus, Schide is eager to go head-to-head. "Time trials and personal challenges are fun, but racing is where I'm really able to find the absolute limits."

The U.S. men's delegation is equally competitive-with a dose of angst added, too. In 18 years, no American male has ever won UTMB. It's long since started to be a topic of discussion. Flagstaff, Arizona's Jim Walmsley has started UTMB twice, finishing fifth in 2017 and dropping out in 2019, while Tim Tollefson, from Mammoth Lakes, California, has had four starts, with two third-place finishes. In 2018, he took a serious fall, fileting a quadricep-yet he still managed to run another 90 kilometers before having to drop. The wound ended up requiring eight stitches. The following year, he showed up at the starting line feeling ill, and eventually dropped. 

About 2021, Tollefson says, "It's going to be another barn burner," revealing that comparisons with others toeing the start line has been something with which he has struggled over the years. "Contrary to what most may believe, anxiety over who is or isn't in a field has tormented me historically," he explains. "Insecurities over training, fraudulent thoughts of belonging, self punishment and disrupted sleep were commonplace." 

For Tollefson, that mix of emotions has added up to sleepless nights and high levels of stress. This past year, counseling has offered him a better perspective. In addition to the usual training, he's working on "becoming mindful in life and believing that the quest to become the best version of myself-which is not dependent on the love, acceptance or applause of anyone else-is the ultramarathon worth mastering." 

"I left the Chamonix valley in 2018 full of anger, guilt and shame. What brewed over the next 12 months was a toxic cocktail of unchecked emotions and coping strategies," says Tollefson. "No matter how much I lied to myself and others, I simply did not want to be there." 

How will he feel, arriving in Chamonix valley this August? "For the first time in years, the thought of being back in the valley, truly present, is beginning to excite me."

The restart of UTMB this summer is welcome news to this Alps tourist hub, which historically welcomes close to 100,000 guests for the race series at the close of each August. When last August's races were cancelled, the organization refunded 55 percent of the entrance fees for the 10,000 registered runners. The split created grumblings on social-media platforms. Meanwhile, the staff of 30, which includes UTMB's international races, suffered its own share of disruptions. They began working from home starting with the first French lockdown on March 17th, and didn't return to the office until this past December. They now operate with 50 percent of the staff in the office-masks required.