Tens of thousands every year beg to have a shot, even if it’s the only one they ever get.
Some say it’s the Super Bowl of its class, but you won’t hear about it on the news tonight, or read about the winner in tomorrow’s newspaper.
They come from all around the globe, trying to emulate the sport’s legends, like Jim Walmsley and Kilian Jornet.
Never heard of them? There’s no better week than this to learn.
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On Friday, the pair will lead a select group of athletes seeking their moments of glory in the face of extraordinary pain, but also, danger.
Created in 2003, Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) every August offers around 2,300 runners — including many of the world’s best elites — the chance to attain one of the rarest levels of human physical achievement.
To enter, athletes must accrue enough ranking points in the previous year to go into a lottery, in which they only have about a 20 per cent chance of being picked to race.
As such, it’s not unusual for some UTMB aspirants to never gain the privilege of stepping across the start line.
“For me, it’s like the Super Bowl or Wimbledon or Monaco Grand Prix of ultra marathon running,” says Patrick Mihalaras, who won the lottery for this year’s event.
“It’s super iconic. The world’s best elites always go … It’s just a huge event and the whole town of Chamonix for a week is packed.”
Runners gather on the start line in the French resort town and, at 6pm local time, embark on a route of mind-boggling proportions.
About a third of all starters will be broken physically, and many more mentally.
Participants are faced with a 170-kilometre journey that circumnavigates the highest mountain in the Alps, Mount Blanc, stretching into Italy and Switzerland, before circling back to Chamonix.
Adding to the torture is a whopping 10,000 metres of vertical elevation, which includes steep pitches with gradients exceeding 25 per cent, while runners hit peaks more than 2,500 metres above sea level.
In short, that is the running of four-consecutive marathons, up, down, and around a mountain, on a rugged trail, partially at high altitude, exposed to brutal winds, the night-time cold, the daytime heat, while wearing a backpack full of equipment.
Four-time winner Francois D’Haene last year finished in 20 hours, 45 minutes and 59 seconds. Back-to-back female champion Courtney Dauwalter took 22 hours, 30 minutes and 54 seconds.
The average finishing time, however, is closer to 40 hours, spanning two nights and adding sleep deprivation to the list of tribulations.
About one in three competitors either pull out, or don’t finish inside the 46.5 hour cut-off time.
The distance is the rough equivalent of running from Sydney to Newcastle, Brisbane to Byron Bay, or Melbourne to Geelong, and back.
The famous 102-storey Empire State Building Run-Up features a climb of 1,050 feet — 31.2 times less than UTMB’s total climbing demands.
With a height of 2,228 metres, even Australia’s tallest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, is only worth less than a quarter of the UTMB route’s total elevation.
If the scale of UTMB is still lost on you, even with those comparisons, then don’t worry as you won’t be alone.
They may somewhat contextualise the effort involved, but the full picture will remain hazy for everyday people and regular marathoners alike.
What can’t be understood here is the sheer mental punishment involved.
Over the course of 20-40 hours, the pain, doubt and impulse to simply stop is, at some point, inescapable. As is the sheer loneliness, with some stretches between aid stations lasting more than four hours.
Competitors are known to burst into tears upon seeing their crew at aid stations later in the race, mentally broken by the torture that preceded their arrival.
And still, most of the rare breed will somehow put one foot in front of the other until the bitter end.
Some of their ambitions are tangible, such as becoming a UTMB finisher, but others are not.
Ultra-marathoners speak of outer-body experiences, and moments of life-changing self-discovery in races of unimaginable brutality.
Most of us will never know how those experiences look.
It’s akin to reaching the fourth dimension: Mere mortals can grasp its concept, but know nothing of how it looks, smells, feels to stand on the absolute edge of human limitation, and then, somehow, step beyond.
Mihalaras has been there before, competing in Ironman races and a 108-kilometre UTMB qualifying event.
This year, he features in a group of 37 Australians that will tackle UTMB – many of which are doing so for the first and, most likely, only time.
Asked by foxsports.com.au what drew him to the 100-mile race, he says: “There’s only a few days in your life that you can absolutely find out what you’re made of.
“I think that’s quite special.
“It’s exciting to put yourself in a situation that you’re only in a handful of times in your life, when you can push yourself to the limit and find what you have inside you.”
It’s an outlook that many ultramarathoners share.
Ultra legend and seven-time Western States winner Scott Jurek explains in his autobiography how his pursuit of race victories was ultimately dwarfed by his pursuit to escape.
“I’m convinced that a lot of people run ultra-marathons for the same reason they take mood-altering drugs,” he wrote in his book Eat and Run.
“The longer and farther I ran, the more I realised that what I was often chasing was a state of mind – a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus.
“I don’t think anyone starts running distances to obtain that kind of vision, I certainly didn’t. But I don’t think anyone who runs ultra distances with regularity fails to get there.”
For Mihalaras, to simply finish the race is one thing. The opportunity for the ultimate escape is another.
It’s a jaunt into an alternate reality where the rigours of 21st century life have not stymied the ability to move, and explore, completely untethered.
“Just the fact that you can be at one with nature, in the elements, and be totally vulnerable — you don’t have to think of anything but your body and the amazing place in the world that you are,” he says.
“And you also have a lot of time to think so you can think about your loved ones or everything that has helped you get to that point.
“It’s very reflective, and humbling.”
While UTMB, and other ultras, provide a form of escapism, their trials and tribulations can also mirror life itself.
As such, it also offers a rare chance for self-discovery, and growth.
“Life isn’t just about one race, it’s about getting up and being motivated every day, getting disciplined and doing things that you don’t want to do,” Mihalaras says. “It’s about pushing yourself a little bit further every day so you can get the confidence to do more with yourself.
“If you just stay inside every day, you’re not going to have confidence to take on bigger challenges in life.
“If you can test yourself every now and then with these challenges (like UTMB), and go through the process of being disciplined, then you get more confidence to equip yourself for life.”
‘IT COULD BE YOUR NEXT STEP…’
Unlike some other ultras, however, UTMB is not a matter of tying up your laces and seeing how long you can last.
There is danger involved in long stretches of dicey trails, many of which are tackled in darkness with only a headlamp to guide the way.
This year, there are thunderstorms forecast for the Saturday afternoon when the vast majority of competitors will still be on the mountain.
“I think the biggest risk is falling because the trails are already quite technical and you’re going up, you’re going down, there’s rocks and tree trunks and roots everywhere, and you’re doing this at pace downhill,” Mihalaras says. “You’re doing thousands of steps and rolling an ankle could be your next step.
“Everyone you see crossing the line will have bruises and dirt over their knees.
“I think the danger is the night, really, taking a fall. Part of the challenge is to take it easy a little bit and be very vigilant and keep your concentration levels high so you can get through the night.
“The first 12 hours you need to be really switched on and get through unscathed.”
Competitors are issued a list of mandatory equipment to carry, including — but not limited to — a working smartphone, one-litre water reserve, two torches and a survival blanket, should anything go wrong.
Nonetheless, no equipment can account for the worst scenarios.
In the dead of night on August 25, 2021, Czech athlete Ondrej Tabarka fell to his death on the mountain, becoming the first fatality in the history of the event.
That toll tragically doubled on Tuesday when a Brazilian national had an accident near Refuge de Plan Glacier during the week’s PTL event; a team race on the same trail as UTMB.
THE SIX-MONTH JOURNEY
While those rare deaths serve as a wake-up call to UTMB’s potential dangers, few will be deterred on Friday from chasing what is known as the holy grail of trail running.
Athletes dream for years about competing, and then spend the best part of the year embarking on a multifaceted training program to best prepare them for Mount Blanc’s trails.
Even for those already into ultra-marathons, Mihalaras says about six months is needed to properly get into race condition.
The first step is to get close to race weight, which is about 10 per cent body fat for men, and about 14 per cent for women. This makes for more efficient training sessions and helps with injury prevention.
Mihalaras’ runs have varied between five and 50-kilometre efforts, including recon missions in Chamonix, a brutal max effort run at the Wendover Woods night 50km, and regular training runs from his base in Brussels.
Every run has a purpose. Some target recovery and endurance, others push the lactate threshold, while more intense efforts help improve the maximum rate of oxygen consumption, known as VO2 max.
Mihalaras says that the end training goal is for weekly mileage to match race mileage; i.e. 170 kilometres in a week.
‘IGNORE IT’
As for the mental preparation; unless you’ve raced for 20-40 hours on foot while climbing 10 kilometres, there’s little you can do other than expect pain, but not be consumed by it.
“You kind of have to ignore it,” the 34-year-old says.
“You have to know it’s going to come, but you can’t focus on it because it’s a negative. You need to be as positive as possible and think, ‘I’m going to finish it. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be a great experience.’
“Yeah, there’s going to be lots of pain but there’s not many times in your life you’ll get to do or experience something like this, so it’s just a small price on the side.”
He adds: “You just have to break it up. For me, when I do kilometre one, I’m not thinking there’s 169 to go. It’s really, ‘where’s the next aid station’ and just break it into 10 different checkpoints, ‘get to halfway, get to the next aid station’.
“You get distracted by breaking it down so much that you’ll cross the finish line and go, ‘oh that was quick’.
“You can’t focus on it, you’ve just got to be prepared for the pain, and it’ll come, but you’ve got to ride it out and accept it’s a part of it.”
Mihalaras has two goals for the race. Well aware of the high dropout rate, his first ambition is to finish.
A second, more ambitious target is to cross the finish line in under 30 hours.
Many will be in awe of that level of physical and mental endurance, but few will be lining up to overhaul their own lives in a bid to reach it themselves.
Even so, Mihalaras says that just one small step outside of the comfort zone can trigger an endless, positive chain-reaction.
“You just have to set your mind to doing something a little bit crazy,” he says. “Something a little bit different.
“Stretch yourself a little bit and then, once you realise you got there and it was fine, it keeps snowballing into bigger things.
“Everyone is a bit nervous for something, but you just have to commit to it and believe in yourself and you will do it.”
He adds: “Enjoy it as well. It’s not about going out there seven days a week and running your heart out and slogging.
“It’s supposed to be enjoyable. I think that’s a big part of it as well.”
This year’s UTMB starts at 6pm Friday local time (2am Saturday AEST).
