We leave in just a few days for our grand adventure to Italy & our big race in Chamonix, France! Here are the answers to the questions we’ve been getting about this race:
What does CCC stand for?
CCC stands for the three towns that the race passes through. It starts in Courmayeur, Italy, runs throw Champex, Switzerland, and finishes in Chamonix, France, all in the Alps. We will be staying in Chamonix and taking the race shuttle to the start of the race in Courmayeur the morning of the race, which goes through the 7+ mile tunnel under Mont Blanc!
Here’s what the beginning of the race looks like:
What is UTMB?
UTMB stands for Ultra Trail Mont Blanc which calls itself the “World Summit of Trail Running.” It’s a weeklong event headquartered in Chamonix, France, featuring seven different races and culminating in the main event, the UTMB itself, which is 170km (105 miles) long. The UTMB and CCC are extremely competitive events drawing some of the best ultra runners from around the world. There are all kinds of beautiful videos about these races on YouTube that you can watch to get a better feel for it.
How long is the race?
We are running the CCC which is 101km (almost 63 miles) long. I really don’t know how long that will take me. Twenty hours on a good day? The cut-off for the race is 26.5 hours.
Have you run that far before?
I’ve done two 100Ks before, the Gorge Waterfalls in Oregon in 2017 and Black Canyon in Arizona in February of this year.
What makes this race so hard?
CCC has about 19,000 feet of elevation gain. For reference, Gorge took me 16 hours and had about 14,000 ft. of elevation gain. Black Canyon took me 14:45 and had only 7,000 ft. of elevation gain. Gorge, Black Canyon, and most other Western States Qualifiers have a 17 hour cut-off in order to get your Western States lottery ticket. You have to finish CCC in under 25 hours in order to get your Western States qualifier. That’s how much harder it is!
Have you run this race before?
Nope!
Was it hard to get into?
There was a lottery with about a 50/50 shot, but you had to qualify for the lottery in order to even enter it. The system involved adding up points from two races completed in the previous two years. We had enough points to qualify for the CCC lottery between Gorge 100K and Bryce Canyon 50 Miler, but we needed one more point to qualify for the UTMB (pretty much would have required finishing a hard 100 mile race). That’s fine with me since I’ve never run a hundred miler before and don’t want to start with that one!
The lottery system allowed you to enter as a group, so Stephen and I entered together, so that we would have both been drawn or neither been drawn. We don’t have to run it as a group though. It was just for the lottery.
How many people run the race?
Just in the CCC alone, there are 1900 runners. They come from all over the world but mainly Europe. If you order countries by how many people are participating in the UTMB event as a whole, the United States is number 9. We will be given a second race bib to wear on our backs that has our country’s flag and our first name in order to encourage interaction among runners. I speak Spanish and have been learning Italian since the day we found out we got into the race, so I’m excited to try to talk to people from those countries. Should be fun!
Do you stop to sleep or eat?
No on the sleeping. Yes on the eating. We did get a safety email from the race this week though which included a section about taking 8-20 minute naps on the side of the trail if necessary. I’m extremely unlikely to do that. There are aid stations every 5-10 miles where we can fill up water and eat snacks, just like other ultras. The one in Champex even has a hot meal. Because I’ll be reaching Champex likely after the sun goes down, I’ll probably stop for a quick dinner, but getting out of aid stations quickly is key to finishing races more quickly, so it will be a short dinner.
Will you be running at elevation?
Not really. The highest peak is just over 8,000 ft. which is lower than Mt. Lemmon here in Tucson. The rest of the race is run below that. We will pretty much be going up or down the whole time though.
What will the weather be like? (and mandatory gear)
Sometimes it rains a lot. Sometimes it’s hot. There can be blizzards on top of the peaks. Because of the volatility of the weather, we are required to carry quite a bit of mandatory gear, including things like waterproof pants, a fully waterproof jacket, a beanie, a space blanket, etc. The race organizers want us to be prepared in the event that we get injured, stop moving, and a storm rolls in. We also have to carry items like two headlamps with spare batteries for each, our own cup for aid stations, waterproof gloves, etc. A few days before the race, they can even activate one of two additional kits for either hot weather (additional water, saharan cap, sunscreen, sunglasses) or cold weather (another jacket, safety glasses). Fingers crossed they don’t activate one of those two kits! We already have enough to carry, and there are no drop bags, so we have to carry it all for the entire race!
Will you be using poles?
Europeans love their poles, but Americans not so much. I plan to bring them along, but I may not use them until later in the race, likely once it gets dark and I’m very fatigued. The second half of the race is supposed to be the most technical too, so hopefully they will help keep me upright. We ordered “Naked Bands” which go around your waist and in addition to having large pouches that will be able to carry all of our food and probably gloves, they also have two loops that allow you to fold up your poles and attach them to the small of your back (parallel to the ground). I ran my last long training run with them on like that and barely noticed they were there, so it should work out nicely. I’m really glad we discovered the Naked Band because the more gear I can get off of my back and onto my waist the better.
How did your training go?
I’ve decided to take the “arrive at the start line undertrained rather than injured” approach and do something a bit unconventional. Because I ran Black Canyon on almost zero running for the two months leading up to it due to an injury (but lots of cross training) and felt really good for the entirety of the race, I have combined that approach with a traditional approach and have been alternating running weeks with cross training weeks. I built my weekly mileage 10% per week but only every other week until I got to 60 (a new record for me). On the off weeks, I might run a short social run but focused more on strength training. This gave my body time to absorb the run training and recover, preventing injuries, while also getting stronger in order to handle all of the climbing in this race (I will NOT be running up that 19,000 feet of gain) as well as the strain of carrying all that gear on my back. We’ve done some long hard climbing days too on Mt. Wrightson, Mt. Lemmon, and Humphrey’s Peak, so climbing has been a focus.
When is the race and how can someone follow along?
The CCC starts Friday, August 31st at 9am (that’s midnight Tucson time). You can follow me at https://utmbmontblanc.com/en/live/runner/3596
Last year they even had ESPN style coverage (but not on ESPN). I think it was streamed on YouTube? Here’s a cool clip of the first major climb:
