UTMB Replacement/Resumption in Place
August 27, 2010 by Bryon Powell · 11 Comments
Runners are getting on buses now to go to Courmayeur. Runner have the option of running the CCC (Courmayeur Champex Chamonix) 98 kilometer (61 mile) race as a replacement for yesterday’s canceled Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. Not sure who’s gonna show up, but we’ll be covering the race again on Twitter. (iRunFar Twitter feed)
From the elite field, we know that Geoff Roes and Tracy Garneau will not be restarting. For the Americans following, I know that at the least Helen Cospolich, Mike Wolfe, Scott Mason, Cory Johnson, and Erich Peitzsch are running. UK fans, Lizzy Hawker and Jez Bragg are in. From France, Sebastien Chaigneau will be representing. We’re pretty darn sure that Karl Meltzer and Nicholas Mermoud will be there. More runners we’ve learned of: Julien Chorier, Samuel Bonaudo, Fernanda Maciel & Nérea Martinez Urruzola.
We’ll try to update folks on who else is there via Twitter.
Related articles:
- 2010 Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc Live Coverage Resouces Resources for following the 2010 Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) live....
- Exciting UTMB Cancelled… or Not? A report of the start of the 2010 Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, UTMB's cancellation, and possible replacement events....
- Michael Owen 2011 UROC 100k Pre-Race Interview Michael Owen interviewed before the 2011 Ultra Race of Champions (UROC) 100k....
Filed under Races ·
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Excellent updates guys on UTMB – best on web at moment. Gutted for the runners. Did this last year and it was epic. Got 5 friends there this year, one of who is Mike Wolfe – he’ll be proper gutted. Safety first though. Hope CCC goes well. There’s nothing like the feeling when you run back into Chamonix.
Would have been nice if they would have let us all know…. Nothing about it when we got off the buses last night in Chamonix. No text, to e-mail, nothing. Had heard a rumor of a restart on Sunday. I was okay with them calling off the race last night, but this isn’t cool. Not cool at all!
I had the same experience. Glad to be safe Friday night, but no communication at all about a re-start/make-up race (or heads-up when we picked up our drop-bags BEFORE the make-up!!!) Not only was that not cool, but the organizers are not being at all understanding, simply choosing to blame a “carrier issue.”
If there was an issue with my “carrier” how come I received the pre-race e-mails and texts? How come many other folks like my training partner, like Susan & Rob, like Tim – all on different carriers! – received no text?
They are also choosing to be very callous about options for next year after denying us a chance to run this year.
Agree, NOT cool at all.
Hi Mark,
Hadn’t heard the excuse about “carrier issues.” For what it’s worth, we have a french phone on the Orange network – the biggest carrier in France and operated by France Telecom. No, I don’t buy this excuse.
Am very curious to know what the race organizers will say when all the dust settles. I hope they make it right (although I can’t afford to come back next year anyway).
-Tim
The organizers are certainly making it seem like the dust has already settled, they held a race, and it is over for 2010.
Very interesting to hear that you had a France # on a French carrier.
Did you notice that despite the fact that there were nearly 4,000 racers in the UTMB + TDS (both canceled), they said in their press release that the re-start was “reduced to 1,300 runners?”
Perhaps “carrier issues” helped them to “reduce” the field of runners???
I will certainly be interested in seeing if their stance changes as the “dust settles,” but so far, after making a very courageous and correct decision Friday night, they are not making themselves, or the sponsors look good at all.
Mark
Mark, Tim and Byron,
I finally got my blog post on the race done (http://www.susanruns100s.com/2010/09/09/utmb-vanished-without-a-race/). No, I don’t buy the carrier excuse either. I don’t know about you guys but I’ve received no communications from the race organization, even though I finally emailed a few questions to them. Disappointed is not the word.
Susan
PS – Byron, thanks for being one of the few sources of information that weekend – wish I’d known to look here first!
Thanks for the updates and the great writing on trail/ultra running. I am just getting started and have found a great community out there but thought there was scant info on the web. Until I found irunfar. Great resource, I will be a regular now. Also, the coverage on UTMB was excellent despite cancellations and re-starts.
Thanks again.
Jason from Chugiak, AK
Thanks Bryon.
I’m french but Irunfar was my best source to follow the UTMB before, during and after the course ! Despite the bad conditions you kept giving good information and even some pictures (though you maybe should invest in a better camera ;-))
I hope to see you again next year on the race, but with the blue sky !
manu from south of France
Manu, the issue is not with the camera, it’s with a method to upload the data. I have a decent digital camera, but have no way to quickly upload the images to the internet. So, until I have a way to directly connect an external camera to an iPhone or the like, it’s photos and upload on the iPhone. :-)
Bryon, this is insane. I am reading this with my jaw literally wide open. Emotions must be crazy right now with the runners. Stay safe man.