Western Europe’s highest mountain woos African trail runners (part 1)

By Stephen Granger

The highest mountain in Western Europe and the second highest in Europe, Mont Blanc, has long offered significant challenges to mountaineers and skiers. It also looks down on the world’s biggest trail event, which got underway this week (22-27 August) from the Mecca of trail running, the French Alpine centre of Chamonix.

The circumnavigation of the 4808 metre peak, aka Ultra-trail Mont Blanc (UTMB), attracts trail athletes in their thousands from around the globe to run the 170km through France, Italy, Switzerland and back into France in under 48 hours (with the leaders looking to run faster than 20 hours) where fit hikers typically take 10 days for the journey. Many elite athletes regard UTMB as the Holy Grail of ultra-trail, on a par with the USA’s Western States 100 (WS100) as the ultimate test of excellence in the sporting code.

And while the full ‘100 mile’ circuit around Mont Blanc remains the showpiece, UTMB has evolved since its origin in 2003 as a festival of running, which started on Monday 23 August with the hiking – running adventure over 300km (the PTL), includes top-quality races over 100km (CCC) and 56km (OCC) and climaxes with the 100 miler which gets underway on Friday evening 27 August.

Those in the know believe that the ultimate ‘trail double’, winning both 100 milers in one calendar year is all but unachievable, given the quality of the fields in recent years, the relatively short gap (less than three months) between the two and the significant differences in terrain and topography – and hence skill sets required to excel – between the two great races.

It has been done. Kilian Jornet, who is the exception to almost any ‘rule’ or conventional wisdom in trail running, did so in 2011. American Nikki Kimball clinched the double in 2007 in the formative years of UTMB in one of her three victories in Chamonix. But never in trail running history has the ‘double-double’ been accomplished – the men’s and women’s winners at WS100 repeating at UTMB.

Two remarkable athletes, and among the best the sport has seen, line up on Friday evening with the talent and the intention, of rewriting history, but will have to contend with the world’s best from every corner of the planet, including Africa, before doing so.

American Jim Walmsley and British athlete, Beth Pascall, recorded emphatic victories at WS100 in June and both are eager to return to the fray at Chamonix. They are formidable distance athletes at the peak of their careers and in top form. Nonetheless, it’s a massive ask for either, let alone both, to line up below the church in the town’s iconic market square on Friday with legs and bodies sufficiently fresh and strong after their California exploits to beat the finest athletes in the sport.

But both Walmsley and Pascall are cautiously optimistic. “I hope to win UTMB this year,” said Walmsley. “However, I think in any year it takes a little luck. Training has been nice since Western States. I’ve been trying to train a lot less this year than I usually do for UTMB.”

Walmsley has conquered most that the trail world has to offer in respect to high profile races, having demolished many of the race records of the past. But he has yet to do so at UTMB. His record thus far reads:  2017 – fifth; 2018 – DNF, the latter after a deliberate and calculated attempt to win after racing to a record win at the WS100.

That year Walmsley opted to return to hard training relatively soon after Western States and was satisfied with a big training block leading into UTMB. After being forced to abandon the race someway after half way, he felt that he may have over-reached in trying for the twin victories, and that his race freshness may not have returned.  This time he has chosen a different route, ensuring adequate rest and recovery post WS100.

“Training has been nice since Western States,” Walmsley continued. “I’ve been trying to train a lot less this year than I usually do for UTMB. I am hoping that recovery from Western States will pay off more than any possible fitness gains, but I think most people agree it is a tricky turnaround on timing between the races. I hope some little pains resolve themselves in the next week, but all should be good for race day.”

Unlike many of the running elite, who base themselves in Chamonix before the race, affording themselves the opportunity to train on the race route, Walmsley planned to avoid just that. “I’m been out here now for a bit, running on some new trails in France, but I’ve avoided the course and Chamonix. It’s too busy around the race!”

Apart from the short turn-around time since Western States, Walmsley is only too aware of the quality of the opposition. “I don’t think François (D’Haene – three times UTMB winner) has lost at UTMB before and he hasn’t seemed to have slowed down at all from Hardrock (another 100 mile USA trail race which D’Haene won in July). Xavier Thévenard (another three-time winner who won in 2018 when Walmsley defaulted) is also incredibly strong on the Alpine trails. Then UTMB always opens the door for a new group of international athletes to surprise the world which I think always plays a role as well.”

If Walmsley steps up and takes the title, could Pascall create history by completing the ‘double double’?  A consistent ultra-trail campaigner, Pascall has been regarded as one of the most disciplined athletes in the sport, having had to fit in her training around her full-time work as a paediatrician in the English Peak District.

Her career took an upward trajectory when she travelled to Cape Town late in 2019, three months after placing fifth at UTMB, to race the 100km Ultra-trail Cape Town. In the absence through injury of top American, Courtnay Daulwalter, Pascall took control to shatter the race record.

The running doctor used the COVID-related absence of racing last year to build a solid base and take on the renowned 104km 42-peak ‘Bob Graham Round’ in the Lake District.  Her time of 14:34 improved the formidable record by almost an hour and gave notice, to anyone paying attention, that she had risen to the very top of the world ultra-trail tree, something which her stunning victory in the WS100 this June underlined.

Like Walmsley, Pascall has gone ‘less is more’, giving her time to recover completely from the gruelling Californian ultra and is looking back to her best. But can she prevent a galaxy of stars, including Dauwalter, Dutch – Spaniard and winner of the 2020 K-Way Skyrun in South Africa, Ragna Debats, French pair Audrey Tanguy and Camille Bruyas and Americans Katie Schide and Kaytlyn Gerbin?

“I’m feeling good,” Pascall said last week. “I’m starting to get excited about racing next week. I think the WS100 /UTMB double is possible but really very difficult to do. I threw everything at Western States this year and it’s taken me a long time to recover, so my UTMB build up has been very different to previous years.

“I haven’t done a big volume training block,” just the bare minimum to prepare me for the mountains. I’m feeling good now so hopefully this strategy will pay off!”

While several leading South African athletes will be competing in the CCC and OCC later this week, Africa’s hopes in the full circumnavigation over 170km again rest with Cape Town athlete, Ryan Sandes. Sandes has enjoyed a lengthy and stellar career and has been running at elite level for far longer than most in the game.

Although Sandes has enjoyed success in high profile races across the globe, including Western States 100, where he defeated Walmsley in 2017,  he has yet to succeed at UTMB, something he would like to remedy.

“I’m really looking forward to UTMB,” Sandes said this week from Chamonix. “My track record there has not been great and that’s always in the back of my mind. But I’m feeling positive and have had a good build-up. No real massive mileage or volume, but consistent. Hopefully with a bit of old age comes wisdom in training!

“The last time I raced a competitive 100 miler was the Western States in 2019,” Sandes continued. “So it’s hard to know exactly where I stand. I’m not putting too much pressure on myself – my first goal is just to get around the mountain. I’ll be a bit more conservative in the first half of the race and aim to finish strongly, but I’m naturally competitive and would like to be as close to the front of the race as possible.

“It has been a bit different this year with travelling restrictions – I’ve enjoyed times being here with Vanessa (his wife) but this time I’ve been on my own. I guess there’s just a lot more uncertainty, with some runners not being able to get here at all. But in general I think I’m in the best head-space ever at UTMB and just wanting to enjoy the race. It’s cool to still coming out here after so many years of racing internationally!”

©SPNAfrica News

www.spnafricanews.com