A week of ultramarathons (behind my PC)

By Julien on Wednesday, August 31 2011, 11:15 - PTL - Permalink

It's been a good week, following events unfolding in Chamonix.

I didn't realise how much fun it would be to follow the PTL live GPS coverage. I was mostly following Team Green, but it was rather entertaining to see other teams getting away from the original path. Sometimes it seemed to be planned (shortcut the Mont Rogneux like us last year). Sometimes not. Sometimes they gave up... Sometimes it was clearly a GPS mistake ("Pierre qui roule" rolled down to Milano, before coming back on track). Sometimes it looked like some had forgotten to give back their beacon: "Team du Risoux" ended up in the Jura, not far from the eponymous mountain range :) Easier than running it!

It's been sad to see Jon dropping from the TDS, Andy, Flip, and Jez from the UTMB. But so goes it during tough events like those.

It's been good to see Börkur flying through the super tough UTMB this year. First delayed start to 23:30 to avoid the storms. Then extended via Martigny while the race was on to avoid a dodgy section near Catogne. It must have been tough to take this news en-route... And all that in a visibly cold, misty weather, with snow on the ground.

Well done to you guys, you made me want to do it again! Or not...

Ultra armchair runner

Comments

1. On Friday, September 2 2011, 10:20 by Team Green

Julien, thanks for the support, great to know you were keeping a watchful eye over us.
Your help in our preparation for the event was immense. Your blog from last year was read at least four or five times during the last few months and that's what kept us going throughout. 'but Julien said this or Julien said that' was a common topic in the conversations of team green.
Interesting to see that the 'graw' to go again is now entering into your mind!!