With thousands of people involved in several simultaneous mountain trail running events, it's never a piece of cake for anyone. This year the rainy weather forced the organizers to make dramatic decisions.
Also it shouldn't be ignored that the main event UTMB was sabotaged by someone stealing the lighted course markings between 40-50 km, which would have been critical for safe navigating through the first night - thus deliberately putting lives of runners in danger. I've never heard of such terrorism against sports events in the Alps before. Perhaps not all of the local people agree that running around Mont Blanc in masses is such a great idea?
I'm sure the organisers did their best in those extreme circumstances. It's no use getting angry and blaming them for what happened. They will probably be able to make some improvements in the future events.
And as the excellent video composition depicting the CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) shows, many runners managed to get something worthwhile out of these chaotic adventures. At the very least, after experiencing some extreme difficulties on trails, everyday life will seem a lot easier.
Another positive outcome of the cancellation is that Scott Jurek will be able to run 246 km in sunny Greece: Spartathlon on September 24-25. He showed what pro ultrarunners are made of by tweeting:
"UTMB is cancelled, hasn't sunk in yet. Now what? How does 246 km in Greece sound? Pretty darn good when it's pouring down rain in the Alps!"
No comments:
Post a Comment