Ultra trail de Mont Blanc report

On Friday I did the UTMB-CCC the 98k 5500m little sister to the 160k UTMB proper. This runs from Courmeyeur in Italy via Champex in Switzerland to Chamonix in France After changing forecasts race morning the forecast was for thunderstorms so they decided to reroute us so that instead of a few high passes from Champex we descended deep into the Rhone valley at Martigny and took a lower route for the last 40km or so. As usual, the views are spectacular (recommend you look at the great video on their web site) and pretty well organized with the trail very well marked despite the late change in course. I got off to a very strong start but may have overdone it on the 20km descent (yeah, really!) down from the big pass of Col Grand Ferret as I had low energy on next uphill. However, I bounced back (after the greulling 1000m climb to col de la Forclaz from Martigny – straight up!) and finished incredibly strong, passing many people in the last few hours (despite the pretty heavy rain that materialized as predicted). While I felt I'd done good, my placing in my division was a bit weaker than last few years, but still an excellent experience and made some new friends on the adventure. Back to Honolulu today and looking forward to a nice "recovery jog" with you all next Saturday ;). Nick K.