Life is an ultramarathon

A rather strange scene happened this morning as I walked in. On busy High Street Kensington, a SUV (these things seem to always involve SUV) started to turn right to take a small side road. A cyclist riding at decent speed came in the opposite direction. Apparently not a good enough reason for the car driver to wait, who carried on crossing the opposite lane. As the bike didn't appear to be willing to slow down and give away his right, the SUV eventually stopped, completely engaged in the opposite lane. But with enough space for a bike to pass in front of it.
The cyclist started to pull slightly to his left to go around the front of the car. But oddly straightened up at the last second and went straight into the SUV's front wheel, from its side. I was a bit confused by what had just occurred. The cyclist could have gone around the front of the car. Maybe he thought the car wasn't stopping and tried to pass it from the back? The cyclist shouted at the driver, who was probably happy to be secure in her big SUV, a window away from all troubles: cyclists crashing, people shouting, ... The cyclist eventually cleared the road and went a bit further to check his bike. Everything looked fine, and when I asked him whether he was alright he answered positively with a big smile! He had clearly headed straight into the car to show the driver that she was wrong.

A couple of years ago, as I was working in Grenoble over the summer, I used to cycle to work every day. I had a mountain bike, which means high position, good breaks and decent stability. That allows you to ride fast, as you can take quick decisions. The trouble being that car drivers don't realise you ride as fast as them if not faster. Or they just don't care. Many times I got my priority denied. Several times I shouted at the drivers, but this hasn't obviously the slightest effect. My frustration grew higher and higher every day. At the end, I thought that the next time I was denied the priority in a roundabout I would ignore the car and just go straight into its side and break its mirror. This never happened, but today I noticed I wasn't the only one which such thoughts.

At the end of the day, many drivers don't care about cyclists or at least don't realise how fast bikes can be. There is no easy way to change that, shouting and lecturing is useless. When people simply don't care, a bit of physical contact (even if it's only between two vehicles) helps them remembering there are other human beings out there. That's why bumping into the car seems a decent solution, if not actually the only option. Eventually careless drivers will realise. If not because they feel guilty, at least because they'll have to pay for their mirror and/or scratches. Which will be much more expensive than the average commuter bike (*). The essence of an individual revolution...

Ultra radical cycling style

* And as they were legally guilty, their compulsory third-party insurance must pay for the damage on your bike.

I just found an e-mail I wrote at the end of April, ie. 2 months before the Ironman. It reads:

For me the marathon should be the "easy" bit - touch wood.

I mustn't have touched enough wood ...

Ultra forecast.

Some people including myself, suggested that ultrarunning is some sort of extension to hiking. Just as if hikers progressively build up their walking pace and end up running. I think this is actually only partly true. It depends how and why you like hiking.

The hare

I've noticed that during most of my hiking trips, I try to see as much scenery and attractive features as possible in the given time. This leads to walk fast, climb up to the summits and dive down to the gorges and lakes. There are clear spatial and temporal objectives, set more or less consciously. I want to climb up this mountain, I want to sleep at this lake tonight, etc ... To some extend, this is fairly similar to race conditions, where I want to pass this checkpoint at that time, etc ... Everything is planned beforehand and I'm adrenalin-driven towards a set of objectives. I'm not running, but I'm already a hare in my mind.

The tortoise

Another way to hike is not to bother too much about location and time. Just walk and see. Change plans on the way. Add extra detours. Rest somewhere for sometimes. This approach is advocated by many hiking guide books. Believe it or not, this happens to me as well. When I'm depressed and I don't have the mental energy to chase after an objective. Or when I see the end of a multi-day hike approaching and I don't want to rush it anymore, to stay longer. Being the tortoise is not as easy as might look. Because less planning also means more uncertainty that could potentially lead to stress if not well handled.

The tortoise approach is not reserved to hikers, though. Many non-competitive ultra-runners are also tortoises in their mind. This typically happens when you don't have a time objective in mind and want to enjoy the scenery. The race is there, but not considered as such. It's an aid to the run (water stations, route marking, massages, ...) and a nice way to meet like-minded people. It's worth noticing that many hares on the UTMB reduce this event exclusively to a competition and suggest tortoises to run around the Mont-Blanc at another date if they're not happy with it. They completely miss the point and just don't see that the event is much more than a race.
Some event organisers already caught this trend. Many ultra-races are open to tortoises, with a fairly long time limit. Even some marathons now welcome walkers by extending the time limit to 8 hours.

Being hare or tortoise is not so much a matter of physical capabilities in the end, it's mostly a mental state. Hares can hike and tortoises run.


Tortoise and hare in summer 2005

The hare's need for symbols

Whether it's hiking or running, the hare approach often needs strong symbols. Such symbols push people forward by supporting and augmenting the objectives. They add extra motivation on adrenalin-driven races and create virtual objectives on hiking paths. They could be for example running from a city to another, cross a mountain or follow a river. These symbols are one of the reason why races such as the UTMB became so popular so fast: around the highest mountain in Europe, across 3 countries... These same symbols drove lots of attention and admiration to the "Tour du Mont-Blanc" long-distance hiking path before the race was first organised. For example it was described on TF1 (a French populist TV channel) as one of the most famous and hardest hiking path. This is clearly not true. While it's not an easy path, several French long-distance hiking paths are technically harder (GR54 and GR20 to give only 2 names), not even considering the rest of the world... This shows how the symbols can augment the physical reality of a hike or a run in the hare's mind.

A symbol I quite like is to join two places with my feet. Modern transportation methods are more or less a form of teleportation, as you are very little involved in the navigation and certainly not immersed in the environment. And you miss a lot. The world is not continuous anymore, but made of a set of discrete points. Running or hiking makes you feel like you reconnect these points, and gives a very good feeling of belonging to this continuous space. While running from London to Brighton for example, I've seen every meter of ground in between the two cities. Note that this also applies to smaller scales; for example walking in cities instead of taking the tube.

The tortoise's need for simplicity

On the other hand, the tortoise seeks for the simplicity of the journey. Running and walking are simple activities by essence. Simplicity can mean various things depending on the context and person. Hiking with a tent makes things easier, as you are free to sleep wherever you want, thus reducing the need for planning and reaching objectives. Sleeping in refuges also simplifies things, as there is less equipment to carry and you get to meet more people.

The best of both world

And often hikers/runners are tempted by both the hare and the tortoise. I've been thinking of running the whole length of the Thames (300km) in one leg. This is the most extreme option (at one end of the scale) that would probably take between 40 and 50 hours. In order to see more landscape and therefore run during daylight only, I've also thought about splitting the journey into 3 consecutive running days of about 100km. This is a bit of a softer option. But it still involves major milestones and fair daily mileage. It's still a hare option. Lately, and somehow strangely, I've been thinking seriously about walking along the Thames following a day-to-day basis, without real plan. Without really knowing where and how to sleep the next night. My new very-waterproof clothing may have helped this thought, as it would allow to sleep outside anywhere by virtually any weather and without any further equipment (such as sleeping bag and tent) that requires more careful planning.
Note that running in the rain is often perceived as a form of escape: the hare seeks the finish line to get a hot shower. Hiking in the rain shouldn't be seen as an escape. The tortoise feels comfortable in the rain. The hare mentally projects himself towards the next checkpoint whereas the tortoise enjoys the current moment.

The same person can clearly be hare or the tortoise or anything in between at a given time. Now, is it possible to become simultaneously the hare and the tortoise? Get the best of both worlds? I'm actively looking after that. I don't think I've reached this stage yet. This probably requires a bit more experience too ...

Ultra confused.

As planned, I didn't try to register for the UTMB this year. It looks like it was a quite a mess, with tickets gone in minutes...

The organisation seems to have anticipated such a rush, as they've added a pre-registration step to fluidify the traffic. But they reckon it was so busy they couldn't even access their own database themselves... I let you imagine how easy it was for the runners - F5 is my friend! In the end, they added a small draw to pick up a couple of extra lucky runners. This only looks like a method to calm down disappointed/angry people to me, and not a real solution. It's a shame that such a great organisation on the terrain fails miserably on the registration side.

Using a very basic mathematical function, I forecasted exactly a year ago that the registrations would take 8 minutes. Today, Utrafondus reports they were gone in 7 minutes. Not bad for an estimation! Following the same model would lead to a 2009 registration time of 3 seconds ... but users and servers won't definitively follow the pace :) .

It is clear that there is no perfect solution. But the UTMB organisers don't seem to really try to find a better one: they simply apply patches here and there. Indeed it was clear a year ago that a first-come-first-served system would end up in a sort of ballot, based on luck and Internet connection speed. Are they going to stick with this one next year? In this case, I humbly suggest a proper ballot from the start: not only it would save the users & organisers stress and the computer denial-of-service, but that would call a spade a spade...

Ultra mess.

According to Michel Poletti, the trends for the next edition of the UTMB are the following:

• Not much changes on the UTMB.
• The CCC will most likely be 100km long for 5300m ascent, including a starting loop around Courmayeur in order to stretch the group of runners before the ascent to Bertone.
• There may be a third race starting from Champex (so that each country has got a start), but nothing decided yet.

Ultra trend.

As detailed in the press release, in 2008 10% of the tickets (ie. 200) will be offered through a ballot to runners that were not able to enter the race in 2007.
I honestly think it's a bit ridiculous. Will that really change anything ? 200 tickets is nothing. Most of the people will have to enter again through the regular entry method. Indeed, some reckon 6000 runners may have been willing to enter. This system will then remove 3% of them, whilste reducing the number of entries by 10%... The rush effect will be even stronger !

Everyone will be back again behind his(her) computer at 8am, knowing that last year it was done in 10 hours... The rush will be intense ! I forcasted 8 minutes. We'll see.

Ultra confused.

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).