This question arose from my daily reading of the UTMB forum. This was a very common topic lately, a couple of weeks before the expected registration rush. Typically someone would introduce shortly his "running CV" to the community and others would comment, extremely sure of themselves, whether the runner can complete the race or not, and even give a time estimation! However, "can" doesn't only refer to the ability to finish, but also to the right of entering the race: are novices allowed on the UTMB? Indeed, there have been also some arguments about having to provide a "reference" to be able to enter the race. This became more and more recurrent as the limited number of entries doesn't match at all the growing demand. Those debates have suddenly gone into another dimension when the organisers announced that to qualify for the UTMB you must have completed a 80km trail or two 50km ones. I'll try to give you my point of view on this hot topic.

I'm always slightly irritated by the ultra-common answer "run a 70km trail first, and then try the UTMB". Of course you probably have more chance to finish if you know yourself on long-distance trail. For sure it's more reasonable to increase slowly the distance. But most of those omniscient runners seem to forget that running the UTMB is not a reasonable thing for most of the trailers. So many, even among the top 10, got injured. Running the UTMB is not a matter of reason, it's a challenge. The bigger the step the bigger the challenge!

But first of all, what's a novice ultratrailer? I think I can fairly consider I was a novice in 2005, with only 3 marathons and a 50km night run in Lake District behind me. For many people on the forum, anyone that have never run a 70km trail in mountain is a novice. And with the new rules I wouldn't be allowed to enter the race. But honestly, what about people used to go mountaineering? Days out in the mountains often start extremely early and finish very late, while accumulating a lot of ascent on top of other difficulties such as cold weather, snow, lack of oxygen, heavy backpacks, ... Are those novice ultratrailers? Probably not, although some would argue that you need to run (and not only walk) to keep in the time limits. Same arguments against hikers / hill walkers, as hiking is usually not as long.

So, can novice ultratrailers run the Ultra-Trail Tour du Mont-Blanc? Of course they can, as I did it in 2005! Some even finished in the top 100 for their first trail! Because being able to finish the UTMB is not only a matter of having run such a race before. It helps but that's not all. I agree completely with dim when he wrote that finishing is mostly "a matter of preparation, of motivation and of luck (because of the injuries)". Luck not being usually under control, preparation and motivation are the keys to success. And they are actually closely related, considering how important is the mental preparation. In fact I believe that if someone in good physical condition gets truly committed to run this trail, (s)he can finish. This means not only understand pragmatically what to expect during the race, but also the way (s)he will react to that. And obvisouly, it also means a lot of physical preparation! The global aim being to leave as little chance as possible to unforeseen events. And this is possible. Are following some of my ideas on three important points: physical, mental and also gear. You'll need to get more details on forums, mags... I may detail more some specific points later on in other entries.
  • I think that with a good experience in hiking in mountains, you're already starting well. Of course it's not enough. Many runners such as laurent73 even argue that it's very different. Being used to walk in the rocks and to spend a lot of time in the mountains helps a lot. Enjoy them helps even more. If you're a good hiker, a very natural training consists of pushing the days out a bit longer, and try to walk a bit faster, to push more on the ascent :) Walking an Alpine long-distance path a month or two before, such as the GR54, GR20 or ... the TMB is very good. This seems to be an excellent training, and you'll benefit of the high altitude effect on red cells production. You'll probably be walking fast at least half of the UTMB, so that's already a nice chunk of your training, but that's not enough. You will need to run a bit, especially at the beginning and you need to train for that. I think that increasingly long but relatively slow runs are perfect. You should be able to run a marathon slowly before the UTMB. Then you can start to mix hiking and running. In particular, training to run in the descents, without taking too much on the thighs can make a huge difference. A run/hike by night in the mountains is a good bonus too.
  • Arguably more important than physical, an excellent mental preparation is crucial. Basically, you have to know and imagine what to expect. I mean to expect the worse, not smiling on the podium after finishing in 18 hours. You litterally need to imagine yourself in hypoglycaemia, running in a freezing rain or snow with the mud up to the knees. I'm not talking about fog, injuries... The aim being to feel as precisely as possible what you will (may) feel during the race. It's not easy at first, and that's why many argue that you need to run a shorter race for good in order to get an idea. I believe that reading a lot the forum and the runners stories can be enough to be able to feel as in the race - in particular those from the first edition when it was raining and snowing quite a lot. You'll need to spend several hours in a row imaging how you will deal with the race. I'm not kidding! Brain can be trained just as muscles.
  • Dealing with the gear is not difficult, but need to be prepared carefully. Again the forum is a great place to guide your choices. It may seem obvious, but you must test ALL your gear in real conditions before the race. Your backpack may burn your shoulders only after 10h running. Your head torch may not seem so bright when you start to be a bit tired. You must know your gear and feel natural with it. That's one issue out of your mind.

You may be hesitating. What can you loose anyway? jmd wrote that you could be "disgusted for life". If really you are, I guess it means ultra is probably not for you anyway. Otherwise, what doesn't kill makes stronger!

Beside that, should novice runners be allowed to run the UTMB? Because of the traffic jams at the beginning of the race and the limited number of runners (2500), many runners such as philippe argued that the rate of non-finishers was far too high and the organiser should set up a filter at the registration level to allow only runners having references. This is common on some races such as the Spartathlon. Many runners like him actually come from much more competitive sports such as cycling or triathlon, where they have to qualify to be able to enter a proper race. But ultra is not cycling! And I hope it will just never be like that. Modern ultrarunning has actually grown on the freedom-based ideologies of the 70s. Ultra races were much less codified than any other sporting events, that took place on carefully measured stadium tracks or playgrounds. For example, on the famous Millau 100km, you can be followed by a cyclist to deal with food and drink. When all marathons are 42.195km long, most of ultramarathons are pretty unique. They cover any distance from 43km to 40,000km (but is there really a limit to ultrarunning?), in a stadium, on the road, on a trail path or even purely in ascent on ski tracks.
Looking at how cycling is going at the moment, I don't feel like ultra-running should follow the same route. Filtering the registrations is the best way to loose the charm of the ultra (*), where your are free to run at your pace, to stop to take a picture, to chat with the people around, to enjoy a glass of mulled wine or to code a free (**) software on your PDA, where novice runners are free to meet the elite. Of course, I'm not very happy to hear that some people (and not only beginners, by the way) withdrew because of the bad weather when I had to stop on an injury, and when lots of ultra motivated runners couldn't enter the race because of the limited number of tickets. But there is no way to filter people purely on their motivation. It is forbidden to forbid!
Now what I feared happened. You need to have completed a 80km trail (road races not allowed) or two 50km ones to be able to register. That's such a shame! From an open trail, we've now moved to a closed race, allowing only runners already members of the trail running family. Of course some will argue that you can still start with the CCC or other trails, but that's different. As I mentioned earlier, the dimension of the challenge pushed me to this. I think that otherwise I wouldn't have tested ultrarunning. And now I won't be able to invite my running friends to take part to this race, build a team, etc, any more. I've done a long trail, so I'm in whilst others are out. An invisible, but real border in between. Ultratrailers are already very often considered a to be bit different - not to say insane - now they're going to be even more cut off the world. More and more ultra-runners are going "off" (out of an officially organised race), that's maybe a sign...

I've never replied to those omniscient ultra-trailers on the forum, because I wanted a more complete answer to many different posts. I may translate and post that one day. I don't think I will make only friends with such a reflexion :) I planned to finish this article on a very optimistic tone, such as "go for it!", but the latest news cooled me down. Your comments are welcome.

Ultra long entry.

(*) Just like having a broad media coverage. To some extend I'm glad the UTMB was slightly less covered by media this year.
(**) Like free speech, not free beer :) (more details on free software).