UTMB 2023 | Shakeout to Big Dance | ULTIMATE World Series Mountain Race

Start This is the place to be. This is the best race you   will ever run. UTMB world  champion 1300 metre climb. It is snowing up here. The hot weather has done  me. Everyone's fighting their own demons now. I really want to quit. Absolutely  fantastic. Come on, Victoria. Shakeout Run with @Run4Adventure and @BenParkes This is the story of UTMB 2023. From the shakeout  run to the big dance and everything in between. The shakeout run was organised by Loyd from  Run4Adventure and he invited myself and Ben   Parkes along for the ride. We met at the  church by the UTMB start line and it was   great to see so many people. Right, guys, first  of all, I want to thank all of you for coming. We're going to go on the running track,  do a few loops of the running track,   so Ben, no intervals. Don't, he'll  get injured! You don't want to tell   me any tactics because you know we're racing,  don't you? Yeah. Well, you've got no chance. What's your marathon PB? Right.  That is a good point, actually,   because the first 8k is all flat, so he's going  to be about 6 hours ahead of me before we start. Yeah. Tom Evans lagging behind  because his PB is slower than mine. Yes. How are you feeling then? Very  nervous, given last year. Given last year. As soon as we get over the top of that  climb, which we didn't quite make it to,   then I'll start to relax. Who are you?  Sebastian from Slovenia. And why are   you here in Chamonix this week? To try to  run CCC and enjoy running with Stephen. What time are you hoping for? 12  hours. Between 12 and 13. That's fast. This is Geoff Partridge, by  the way. Uber ultrarunner,   uber Zwifter as well. If you've seen me running  on Zwift, you'll know I run with Geoff a lot. This young chap is Jaco Swart, who  was our fantastic crew and pacer on   the North Downs Way 100. Jaco, why are  you out in Chamonix this week? Well,   Friday morning I'm starting CCC. It's just a  big adventure I'm planning to finish and enjoy. So we have the beautiful Mont Blanc behind us.   We're just finishing off our shakeout  run with Loyd and Ben and Sarah. Well,   have you got something big coming up then?  No, just a little jog around a mountain. This is Holly Rush, who did TDS  in 30 hours last year. 30 hours! But now I'm doing their Instagram  takeover, which I think is actually worse,   rather run UTMB. The first race of the week to  finish is one very close to my heart. Last year,   Christian Meier I completed the TDS after three years  of trying, and I was in the crowd   this year to watch Christian Meier from  Canada, cross the line in first place. The next day, I was able to grab  a few words with Christian at   Moody's cafe. This is Christian,  winner. Winner of TDS yesterday. How you feeling? Great,  actually. A little bit sore,   obviously, but, yeah, super  happy. I mean, obviously. Such amazing day. Big adventure. As  an elite runner, how much of that,   how much of those steep climbs  and how much of that course are   you actually running? Hiking all  the climbs. Yeah, more or less. And then running everything else. Christian,  really, really well done. Fantastic. It was great to see you finish  yesterday. Well done. Thank you. Finishing a little later into the night  in 12th place was Sage Canaday. And he was   Sage Canaday very happy to chat with me once he'd crossed  the line. He's won races all over the world. He's been on podiums all over the world. Sage,  a real pleasure to have you here with us today. Thank you for joining us. Like, 98 miles  this year. Oh, it's not what they say it is. It's not. Yeah. Well, we had  to do a reroute, so we didn't. We cut out some climbing? Somebody  just told me they found it harder   to go up that road. That road  is hard. That road is hard. What made it hard was the technical bits  where it's really rocky. Yeah. Yeah. It was coated in snow and slush and  mud. Like, we were running through,   like three inches sometimes. But it was good fun. It's part of the challenge, like. A lot  of people say is the hardest one of the   week. Everything's hard. If you push yourself  100%, everything, every distance race is hard. But racing in the US is totally different  than racing over here. The trails go straight   up here in the mountains. This is  like real rugged mountaineering. It was a tough one tonight. I was happy  how turned out. It was fun. That's great. Watching the elites is great, but it's  equally rewarding to see your friends or   even total strangers make it to the finish line  in Chamonix. This is my running buddy Richard,   finishing TDS in just under 35 hours. These  are the runners who often spend twice as long   out on course in tough conditions,  running through a second night. This is my mate Spencer, finishing in  just under 43 hours. The joy, relief,   and shock of finishing is written  all over his face. That was so hard. You're right. It's a hard run that, isn't it?  Why do you think I dnf'd it so many times. Col de Tricot? Yeah, that climb. Yeah. With all that mud as well. Absolutely mental.  Throughout UTMB week, there are numerous media   Tom Evans events and I attended this one in the  grounds of the Hotel Mont Blanc where   some of the elite runners were available  for interview. I sat down with Tom Evans. Tom Evans, why are you here again,  mate? Come on. That's a good question.   A question I've been asking myself a lot. Yeah. After Western States, just, yeah,  I recovered really well and just wanted   to give myself the opportunity to be on another  start line this year and very difficult saying,   turning down a place at UTMB, it's such an  incredible race and an amazing atmosphere, and   you get a race against the best in the world in  some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. So, yeah, I'm here to have a great time.   Victorias starts OCC For five years, I've been watching  Stephen run up and down the Swiss,   French and Italian Alps, always  with a sense of envious aspiration,   but never the belief that I was good enough  to do it myself. But having been lucky in   the UTMB lottery this year, it was finally my  turn to experience the magic of the mountains. It's approximately quarter to five  in the morning. I'm waiting to board   the coach to Switzerland. And the start  time is about 08:15 for the lead runners. There's three waves. I'm in the final wave.  Hopefully I will get Chamonix on foot tonight. How are you feeling? Bit of a wreck, bit  emotional. I feel a fraud to be here. I need some self confidence. Still  feeling like I didn't belong,   I lined up at the start with the goal of simply  doing my best to avoid the cutoffs. All I   wanted was to make it to that iconic finish  line in Chamonix and make my family proud. From humble steps to soaring skies, this is  your moment, everybody. Have a great day,   have a great race and we shall see  you all in Chamonix. Welcome to OCC. This first section is very runnable trails.  So that's an hour and 15 minutes and we are   through the first checkpoint.  Welcome to the Swiss mountains. I have to say I am delighted at this very  runnable path. The first climb, there were   some very steep, sticky sections. As the race  progressed, I grew in confidence a little. I wasn't in last place. I was ahead of  the cut offs. And although it was tough,   I was actually climbing mountains. Almost 3 hours in this second climb  is absolutely killing me. But look   at these views. So many people  have overtaken me on this descent. I just can't move over stony ground.  I know I'm weak on this terrain.   I think we're about 5 hours in, who  knows? I'm absolutely shattered. Having negotiated the first two climbs,   we dropped down to the checkpoint point  at Trient and prepared for the longest,   steepest climb of the day. Up to Col de  Balme, at 2200 meters above sea level. I am somewhere on the third climb. I have no   idea how far in or what time of day it  is, or who I am. It's a beautiful view. You can see the runners making  their way across these rocks. And   I'm heading up over there. It is really difficult. Without a doubt, this is the  hardest climb I've ever done,   but I'm still moving. Reaching the checkpoint  point, it was incredibly windy and I felt a   little light headed with the altitude,  but I was really proud to have made it   to the top and I knew I just had one more big  climb to come. Looking across at Mont Blanc. Hello, Alan. Alan did the UTS 50K  with us and he's in our video. I   am just behind your head on your shoulders, Steve. Nodding with you in agreement. How busy it was.  He's doing the Centurion 50 slam this year. Last one in two weeks. Chiltern Hills,  can't wait. He's also a fellow Zwifter. Indeed, and proud owner of a Noble Pro.  Love my Noble Pro. Can't get enough of it. Go, Noble Pro. Coming into Argentiere. Argentiere  is the penultimate checkpoint on the OCC route. By now, I knew I could finish. I was no  longer worried about cutoffs. In fact,   I'd been gaining time at each checkpoint. And as I ran into, into Argentiere, I  could feel the finish line was close. All   I had to do was make it up and down one more  mountain. The climb to La Flegere is tough,   and you can see the ski lifts at the  top of the climb from a long way out. It seems to take forever to get to the final  checkpoint. I didn't stop when I got there. I just   wanted to see my family, who I knew were waiting  at the bottom of the only section of the course   I know well, the final descent into Chamonix.  When I hit the tarmac at the bottom of the hill,   Victoria finishes OCC Stephen told me to look around and take in the  atmosphere as I ran through the town. I'm glad   he did, because it would be so easy to let it all  happen around me without truly appreciating it. Running in along the river, my children  running next to me, friends and strangers   cheering my name as I passed by Mont Blanc, ever  present in front of me, watching over me as the   light faded. I was going to make it across the  line before nightfall. I was going to make it. Well done Victoria. So much better than anyone could  have thought. Oh my gosh. I did it. Dreams do come true. I took a few moments to get   myself together before going to  collect my coveted gilet. Oh no. Oh no. I'm sure it will fit. And that's  the story of my 2023 OCC adventure. Where have you been for the past 4 hours?  I've been waiting for my dinner. I went to   Switzerland this morning. Did you? I did. Robbie Simpson Whilst Victoria was still out on the mountain  running OCC, I was able to watch the elites   finishing and managed to catch a word with  British ultra running legend Robbie Simpson   coming home in 6th place. Well, how  was that then? Hard. But under 5 hours,   that's unbelievable. Yeah, it was fast.  Really competitive. Happy with that. 6th place this time. Were you hoping for an  improvement? Did you know it's going to be   really quick? Yeah, I mean, I thought I might  be be a little bit further up on a good day,   but like, I think the field was just  really strong and very tight today   at the front. I just didn't quite have  the legs in the last 2 hours. Well done. Well done. Brilliant, brilliant. And then before  I knew it, it was time for the main event. Start of UTMB Just walking to the start line of UTMB, feeling,  well, nervous as you might expect, but excited.   Really excited to get going. As you can see,  it's absolutely packed here and this is what   it's like at every UTMB. It's just so crowded at  the start and we're nowhere near the start of the   race at the moment. We're nowhere near the start  line. The air fractured in antiques anticipation. The atmosphere charged as the thunderclap  rang out across the square. There's 1 minute   30 seconds to go before the start of UTMB.  This is the most iconic race in the world. This is the place to be. This is the best race  you will ever run. The best race in the world. And we are starting in 1 minute from now. Welcome   to Film My Run. We're going to run 105  miles all the way around Mont blanc. This journey started seven years  ago when I decided I wanted to   run this. And this is the day. Now is the time. Let's go and do this. Come on. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Good luck. Here we go. Here we go.   The first 8 km is a relatively easy but incredibly  congested whirlwind of a run to Les Houche. I've got you on camera now. Did you say this  your first time? First time on UTMB? Yes. Got in. Lucky dip. Going for the big dance. Nice one. Can't wait, mate. Good  luck, Stephen. Hello, buddy. Thank you.   So who's this then? Is Paul  Fairclough. I live in Guildford. I've been allowed out for the weekend by  my wife, who's at home with my daughter,   running with Stephen. Having a great time.  We're a couple of miles in, 3 miles in. Yeah. So I reckon we've broken the back of it  by now, personally, you know. Nearly finished. Nearly finished. It's a stroll from here,  so. Yeah, just aiming to beat the cut offs. Just have a good time, good weekend  and meet lots of people, hopefully.   This is 8 km in at Les Houche. So first aid  station, just top up water bottles, really. We haven't done any climbing yet. It's  basically mostly flat. Let's get going. Bottle's filled up. There's the leaders.  We're 10k in an hour and a quarter. Sarah Place Here's Sarah with a lovely view behind her. How   you feeling? Yeah, all right so  far. It's early days, but fine. I don't really know what else to  say. Yeah. It was nice to bump into   Sarah after what was one of the most  intense starts to a race I've ever   experienced. It took until the start of  the first climb before I began to relax. 13 km in 2 hours in the first evening of UTMB.  And that is Mont Blanc in the evening sunlight,   looking absolutely beautiful. We are  halfway to Saint Gervais and it will   be head torches on at Saint Gervais, I imagine. So far everything's good.   Okay, this is San Gervais. So I've got to  fill up my bottles here, get some water. Water and get some food because I'm quite.  I'm quite hungry. So San Gervais at 21 km in.   Hi, guys. Cheers, buddy. Okay, so bottles filled up. San Gervais  is absolutely packed with people. I've   had some coffee, some coke, and  I've got some chocolate to eat. And we're going to start  our next climb. Thank you.   So I don't know if you can see  what complete melee is in here. It's absolutely packed with people everywhere  trying to get food, drinks, fighting their way   through. And it's really difficult to get what you  need. But I've got soup, some bars, I've had coke. I filled my water bottles up and I think we're  about 5 hours into the run and 20 miles in. This   is Les Contamine, by the way. Les Contamine aid  station. Runners can meet their crew here as well. So this is a changing area and place where they  can sit down for a few minutes. I'm not going   to sit down, I'm just going to get  going. So this is pretty awesome. Hoka Light Tunnel They did this last year, the Hoka  tunnel, and it's pretty cool.   So we're not far off starting a massive climb. 1300 meters climb coming up in  a minute. It's going to take   us a good few hours to do. I've been  having a little bit of a low period. Just not feeling strong, you know, and  knowing so far to go. But I don't know,   I think it's normal. I think I'll  get over it and I'll be on my way. Feeling good again soon, hopefully.  So that was the Hoka tunnel. Good,   wasn't it? So this is Balme. We are about 41 km in and we're climbing. This  is a really big climb. We're not even halfway   up it here, but yeah, 41 km in and it's  around 01:00, five to one in the morning. So a little bit of bread and cheese.  Let's get going back up this hill. Now,   when you come to run the Mont Blanc UTMB hundred  miler, try not to get any grandiose ideas about it   being just a lovely run through the mountains  because much of the time what it is is a very   silent, monotonous grind up a 20% incline  through the night with your head torch on. That's what we're doing at the moment. Nobody's   speaking. We're all just concentrating  on breathing and getting up the hill. So here we are at the top of Col de Bonhomme.  1300 meters climb. It is snowing up here. Summit of Col de Bonhomme Oh, no, it's not snowing, but  there's snow on the ground up   here. So we've been trudging  up a few meters in deep snow,   which has been really cool. And then we've got  a 900 meters descent now from Col de Bonhomme. But that was a pretty awesome  climb. Fantastic. It was,   I mean, really tiring, but awesome nonetheless. Look, here's the snow. Right,  let's get on then. Right. 50k in nine and a half hours. Still  on this descent. Got about 370 meters   of descent left over about 2km to  do. Loads of people are passing   me because I'm just very tentative on the  descents. I'm not too bad on the climbs. I'm tending to pull away  from a few people on climbs,   but on descents I'm just absolutely  rubbish. But we're just keeping going. I don't know if you can see the lights down the  hill there. So 9 hours and 30 minutes is 03:30 in   the morning. The checkpoint at the bottom of the  hill closes at 05:15 we should get there on time   and then it should be hopefully head torches off. So some people are getting random  bad checks to make sure they've   got all the right kit. And here  we are. Arriving at Le Chapieux. I was feeling more fatigued than I wanted  and doubting my ability somewhat given   how slow I was on the last descent. But I  had made the cut off and we were now 50 km   into the race with the first two climbs  behind us. See how crowded it is again. I left Le Chapieux as dawn was beginning  to break and we headed off to start the   third ascent following a train of head torches,   all marching doggedly up to Col de la Seigne.  It's daytime, although covered in cloud,   Col de la Seigne so you can't see a thing. But here's Col de  la Seigne at 60K, although my watch says 63. We've got an 800 meters descent down to  Lac Combal, which closes at 10:00 this   morning. It's now just after about  closest to seven in the morning. Sa   we've arrived at Lac Combal aid  station after a pretty huge climb down. 600 meters down. Now we're not even at halfway  yet, so we've got another 450 meters climb   to negotiate before we get to the descent into  Courmayeur. So still a long way to go to halfway. But we might have a little rest here because I'm  shattered. Amazing views. It's just incredible. The scenery is fantastic, but yeah, it's hard to  appreciate when you're really tired. Cut off here   is at 10:00 by the way, and it is about quarter  to nine. This is a very runnable flat section. Just before we start the next climb, I'm  finding the climbs really tough. I've just   thrown up. I had some soup at Lac Combal and it  was just too salty and I brought it all back up. But my stomach does feel better now for  that. This really set a tone that was to   continue for the rest of the race. Stomach issues,  feeling nauseous, trying to eat and throwing up. Rinse and repeat this for the  next 50 miles. So we've arrived   Arete de Mont Favre at Arete de Mont Fauvre. We've got  9 km down the hill to Courmayeur. That climb has killed me. If you recognise  this, by the way, you get up here on TDS   as well, but in the opposite, opposite  direction. It's amazing with the cloud. We've been going for 16 hours and nine minutes,   74 km done. So we're still a little way  off halfway, but nice long downhill now.   Hopefully it's not....I seem to remember  it's not too gnarly from coming up.   And we're just coming into Col Checroux  aid station. And you may remember this from   the TDS because we do this on our first  climb in the opposite direction to this. We're going down into Courmayeur. TDS starts  in Courmayeur and comes up here. 49 miles done.   Not really much point in stopping here,   to be honest. Just straight down  the hill and there's the mountain. But I know you're all getting a bit bored of  the mountain now! So we're about to arrive at   Courmayeur, which is the big drop bag  aid station. So I'll get my drop bag. I'm not feeling very good, I have  to say. Stomach is really playing   up and legs are shot. But I'm going to keep going. I mean, we're not even halfway yet. I will  keep going. Hopefully stomach will settle down. So we're now in Italy. Courmayeur is like   the Chamonix of Italy. It's on  the other side of Mont Blanc. Courmayeur - Half Way ish There's Mont Blanc up there and it's  where the tunnel comes out. So the Mont   Blanc tunnel between Courmayeur and  Chamonix. Okay, this is Courmayeur. It's kind of halfway, but  it's not halfway. Drop bags,   crew helping people out.  What's your name? I'm Gary. Gary. You live in Brighton, you follow  the channel? Thank you very much, buddy. Take care. That is Courmayeur done. That is the drop bag done. So now we have an  800 meters climb up to Refuge Bertone. Five   kilometre distance. By the way, Sarah Place is  ahead of me. She's absolutely killing it today. She's halfway up the hill already to Bertone. Good   for Sarah Place. Ben's dropped  out, unfortunately, Ben Parkes. Just soaked myself because we have a long climb   now. Lovely cold water. This is  a killer climb out of Courmayeur. Still got 400 meters of elevation to go 2 km.  Everyone's fighting their own demons now. There's   no cut off at Refuge Bertone at the top. We've  got to get to Arnouvaz by 6:15 tonight. Hopefully   we'll get to the top of this hill by about  03:00 and then we've got 3 hours to run there. It's nice and flat. I'm not sure  how far it is. The other thing is,   at least we're in the shade  because it's baking hot as well. Refuge Bertone So this is Refuge Bertone, top of the  beautiful climb. The run between Bertone   and Arnouvaz is arguably the most  beautiful and impressive section of   the UTMB course and it certainly lifted  my spirits. But as well as throwing up,   I was now burning up and struggling  to maintain a decent pace in the heat. All I wanted was to lie down in a river. Lucky  then that the perfect spot was just around the   corner. Well, look, I've lost some time,  but going full on in there was absolutely,   totally refreshing and I've really  needed it because I am struggling. The hot weather has done me.  I am absolutely dying here.   And the other problem that I've got is  that my stomach is all over the place. I don't know what to eat to keep  my stomach settled. I've thrown up   twice and I can't eat or drink anything,  really. Even water is making me nauseous. Wanting to Quit at Arnouvaz So we've arrived at Arnouvaz. I really  want to quit, but I know my wife and   kids would be so disappointed and, you know,  Victoria finished, Richard finished, Sarah   Place is going to finish. Just feel like  I owe it to them to try and get it done. We've got time. I've got time to get to  the next checkpoint, which is La Fouly. There's a big old climb up to  the highest point of the race,   which is Grand Col Ferret. 950 metre climb  now to do that, but we don't have to be in   La Fouly till 10:30 tonight. So we've got four,  5 hours to do this. So I'm just going to finish   my food and slowly walk out and try and get  myself together because I feel terrible. I can't keep food down. I'm eating  a bit of cheese and bread now just   to see if that will stay down. I  just can't eat anything too hot. I'm hoping also that it'll cool down as the  night approaches and I'll feel better. Okay,   time to go. I've had soup, I've had  peanuts, I've had bread and cheese. All of that seems to have settled.  So if I just walk it out now for the   next ten or 15 minutes and we'll see  how we go. Cut off there is at 6:15. It's now it's around 25 to 6.   Here we are, summit of Grand Col Ferret. Made it. Thank you. Beautiful place.  And we have a view this time. At CCC it was completely mist covered  in 2018. Right, let's get down. Let's go down this mountain. It's a long way down.  The descent to La Fouly did indeed take forever. La Fouly But getting over Gran Col Ferret felt like  a milestone in the race and gave me a new   determination not to lie down and not to be  beaten. Okay, we've arrived at La Fouly. It's   14km to the next aid station at Champex  Lac, which just seems horrible to me. Let's get on with it. I am  finishing this. I've decided now. I'm finishing this whether it takes me forever  or not. Okay, let's get out of here. Time to go. It's a pretty flat route, apart from the  last bit, which is a horrendous climb. Right,   where do we go? It was a little cooler now and  I was able to run much of the distance between   La Fouly and Champex Lac. Unfortunately,  the climb at the end dragged me back to   despair and I reached the check point dead  on my feet and feeling nauseous yet again. So this is Champe Lac. I've just been sick.  I had some fizzy water, threw up everywhere. Well, I threw up in the bin. But  I've had some pasta bolognese,   which actually has gone down. Okay, it's  packed. There is 1 hour to cut off here. So 1 hour before everyone has to get out.  So I've got three hills to climb now. All three are around about 800 meters climbing,  so it's going to be a long night and the last   one will be in the daylight, I imagine.  So where are we? It's 1:30 in the morning,   so we've got an hour on that cut off there.  And the next one doesn't close till 08:00 a.m. And I'm hoping we'll be there well  before that. And we have about 28   miles left I think. It's a beautiful, clear night. We have made it to pretty much the top of  the first climb. I remember when I did CCC,   I pretty much sat in exactly the same  position to give you an update. It's just   too hard to update whilst climbing through  the woods and it's just really difficult. As I made my way to Trient, the  sun began to rise on day three. And   with just two climbs remaining, the  end was becoming more tangible by the   hour. So after a very long descent,  we are just checking in at Trient. Trient Here we go. Hi Stephen.  Hi. So it is getting light. It's about half six in the morning.  Two more climbs to go, and then it's   down into Chamonix. I have thrown up again. Race time is currently 36 hours and 36 minutes  and it's going to be another at least 6 hours,   I would have thought. Okay, here is Trient.   I didn't want to tempt fate, but the new  day brought new hope for my stomach issues. I was starting to feel a little better. I  was still completely shattered, of course,   and the rising temperatures weren't going  to do anything for my speed over the ground.   But it was something to be positive about  in a race littered with so many problems. We're at a small stop called Tsepts, which  is about three quarters of the way up the   climb. A bit more than that, actually.  We're nearly at the top of this climb. At the top of the climb now out of Trient,   so down to Valorcine. Beautiful  day. It's about ten to nine. Hoping to get down to the ground level  at Valorcine by about ten. 10:15.   Some people have been saying they're a bit  worried about the cut off at La Flegere,   but I can't imagine it's going to be a problem. Suddenly on the descent into  Valorcine, I was full of life,   full of positivity and confidence. I was  excited at the thought that in a few hours   I would be home. In a few hours I would  cross the best finish line in the world. Valorcine One last push. Four more hours,   one final climb. How hard could it  be? Okay, we have reached Valorcine. So this is our last stop. And then it's  just up over one more mountain and back   down into Chamonix. You can see here  we've got to get to La Flegere by 2:45. La Flegere is just here.  We've also got Col de Montet,   which is there. So up there and basically down. I went to a shop, actually, before this and got  coffee, a Perrier, because I'm just not getting   on with anything that I find at these stations.  I have got myself some apple there. I am feeling. I'm feeling great now. I mean, my  feet are in bits. They're wrecked. But generally I'm feeling good. Right,  final climb. Let's get this finished. Let's do it. So let's kiss  Valorcine goodbye. Yeah. Like I said, I had. As I came down the  bottom of the hill, there was a cafe.   So I got Perrier and put some lemon in it  because they didn't have lemon Perrier. So I just put some lemon from the aid station in  the Perrier. Here we go. I can't wait for this. I cannot wait. We've got a big climb now, though.  I mean, it's still a 900 meters climb, but who   cares? We're going home, we're going to get  another gilet, we're going to cross that amazing   finish line again, and we're going to cross it  with people there for the second year running. So that's awesome as well. Simon from Huddersfield  and what are you doing in Chamonix? I've come out   to spectate, but I also just completed,  on Friday I completed the soft UTMB. Yeah. So I did the full UTMB course, four  days, staying in refuges. Oh, lovely. Thank you for being a watcher of my videos.  This guy's been running UTMB dressed like   this for the whole time. You okay? So I'm  just pushing a bit up the final hill to   make absolutely sure that we don't miss the  cut off at La Flegere, which is at 2:30. We've got 3 hours, but I just want to be sure.  So I'm just going a bit quicker than I might   normally go. So do you remember this from early  in the morning of CCC in 2018? So we've been   sent this alternative route again and we've got  all these rocks to deal with at the end of the   race. Not quite the end of the race. We've still  got to get up to La Flagere and then down again. And I really shouldn't be holding the  camera while I'm trying to negotiate   these rocks. Very bad idea.  Accident waiting to happen. On the way up the final climb, I was surprised  and delighted to bump into Herbert, a friend   from Zwift. He'd been running CCC earlier,  but was forced to pull out with breathing   issues. We spent a few minutes walking together  before I made the final push up to La Flagere. My earlier exuberance had faded somewhat as  the sun had drained. The little energy I had   mustered finally arrived at La Flegere.  That was such hard work, that last climb. La Flegere Thank you, La Flegere aid station. I'm not  going to get anything. I might go in the cafe. So. Yeah, I'm not going to go in there.  I'm going to go to the cafe if it's open. Reaching the foot of of the descent into  Chamonix is an incredible feeling. Just a   The Finish in Chamonix couple of kilometers of tarmac, and if you finish  in daylight, plenty of people lining the streets   to cheer you home. I do feel sorry for the faster  runners who finish this race in the dead of night,   but right here, right now, this is  the only way to finish this race. Completely exhausted, but pumped  with adrenaline and surrounded by   like minded souls who want nothing  more than to see you achieve your   dreams. Best finish line in the world.  Running through Chamonix town centre. That's the grassroots of  running and that's a community.   I love these moments. Job well and truly done. Come on! You don't get a medal  or a buckle at UTMB. You get a   gilet. I tell you what I've earned, well  earned that today and yesterday and the   day before. Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  Some 24 hours earlier. And Victoria had   witnessed history as Courtney Dauwalter  won UTMB for the third time, completing   the triple crown of victories at UTMB, Hard  Rock and Western States, all in the same year. She crossed the line this year in 23  hours, 29 minutes and was 20 overall   out of over 1700 runners. But for me, the  weeks most emotionally charged finish was   that of Jim Walmsley. Having literally moved  to France to realise his dream and having   fallen short so many times, it must have  been incredible finally to not only win,   but beat Kilian's course record,  finishing in 19 hours, 37 minutes. What a race. What a week. And  we'll all be back again in 2024.