by Glenn Mackie

Chamonix, France

August 24, 2007

Poised at my computer keyboard at 1:00 AM on January 8th, I wait for the “Inscriptions”, or registration, for the Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc to open. Although only in its 5th year, the UTMB, as it’s known, has gotten harder to enter every year. For this the 5th running, the race organization imposed entry requirements of an 80K or two 50K trail races. Any US 100 miler is accepted. The 2,000 spots offered online went before the
hour was up. The race date was 24 August, 2007 and just 6 weeks after the Hardrock 100, which I’d gotten into for the 3rd straight year. In 5 years of running ultras, I have a poor history of doing races so close to each other and I gave thought to canceling either Hardrock or UTMB. A tough decision between, IMO, the two best races in ultrarunning. I couldn’t bring myself to cancel either one.
vie PDF with pictures