DPMR members are representing once again at the “World Summit of Trail Running”, Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in the week long trailrunning festival in Chamonix that started on August 28th and ends on September 3rd. Among them are Mike Kreaden, Krissi Polentz, and Steve Rowbury who are returning for the second consecutive year. After taking on the UTMB in 2022, Mike is going “shorter” in the 100K CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) race. Krissi returns to retest herself in the 50K OCC (Drsieres-Champex-Chamonix) and likewise Steve returns to give CCC another go to try to improve upon last year’s 4th place age group finish. Denver Armstrong, coming off a strong Western States finish this year, makes his UTMB debut joining Mike and Steve in running the CCC. Also competing are local heroes Helen Mino Faukner and Michelino Sunseri taking on very competitive elite fields in the CCC and OCC respectively.
This year’s weather saw a shift from extreme heat the week before to threatening rain and snow during race week causing the race org to opt to use alternative race course routes to the finish. As of this post, the active system seems to be fading with OCC and CCC runners looking towards much improved conditions.
Close to 10,000 runners will compete across the 7 different races, through mountainous terrain along the famous Tour du Mont Blanc trail and takes runners through three countries: France, Italy, and Switzerland, all courses ending under the famous finishing arch at Place du Triangle de l’Amitié in Chamonix, France. Entry into most of the races require participants to earn lottery tickets or “stones” by completing official UTMB Series races and being lucky enough to have their name drawn.
The OCC race starts at Thurs, Aug 31 at 8am CET or Wed, Aug 30 at 11pm PT.
CCC starts on Friday, Sept 1 at 9am CET/Thursday, Aug 31 at 11pm PT
Live Coverage and Results can be found on http://live.utmb.world
Steve Woo will be out supporting and crewing – look for his updates on to DPMR’s Facebook page as well as his Instagram: @travelwoo
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