Just over a week ago, I drove up to Lake Combal in Italy at 5 a.m. with a small group of journalists. When we parked and climbed out of the van, pulling our fleece jackets on against the morning chill, we saw a long line of headlamps snaking up and down the surrounding mountains in the pitch dark for miles in either direction. These were some of the thousands of runners in this year’s UTMB, the iconic 106-mile race around Mont Blanc that is trail running’s most treasured event.
We had cheered these very runners nearly 12 hours earlier when they set off from the starting line in Chamonix, packed in with thousands of other spectators. The UTMB is a big, brazen trail running event, especially if the only part of it you experience is in Chamonix. But up here at dawn, some 70 km into the course, watching some of the most dogged runners on the planet trotting along in the peace and quiet of the Alps, powered without any applause, it’s impossible not to remember how special this race is.
