The North Face® Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc® - some figures

Race news: The North Face® Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc® - Chamonix, August 26 - September 1, 2013

Registrations for the 2013 The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® show a record number of nationalities will be lining up on the start-line:

Some figures

6944 runners are registered for the start of one of the races

Each year, around 10 to 15% of those registered are not able to be on the start-line (injury, illness, etc.). There will therefore be around 6000 runners on the star-lines at the end of August 2013.

74 nationalities represented in all the races

Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldavia, Monaco, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Northern Ireland, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, United States of America, Venezuela, Wales, Zimbabwe

In all 4 events: 49.5% of runners are foreigners and 50.5% of runners are French

At the top of the ladder for foreign participants: 9% are Italian then 8% Spanish, 5% British and, almost equal 3% are Belgian or Japanese.

Percentage of foreigners in each race: UTMB® 58.2%, TDSTM 40.7%, CCC® 46.8% and PTLTM 40.9%

698 runners 'are playing at home'. This means that 10% of the 6944 runners registered for one of the The North Face® Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc® events live in the Mont-Blanc country (Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Valais and Aosta Valley)

The percentage of female participation has been stable for several years

9% of the UTMB®, 14% of the CCC®, 10% of the TDS® and 9% of the PTL™

The average age increases with the distance

43 for the UTMB®, 41 for the CCC®, 43 for the TDS™ and 45 for the PTL™. The youngest man or woman registered is 20 (CCC®), the oldest is 81 (CCC®) and 70 (TDS™) for the women.

34% of the participants for one of the The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® events are participating for the first time:

UTMB®: 19% - CCC®: 56% - TDSTM: 31% - PTLTM: 17%

40% of the participants are already finishers of one of the The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® events:

UTMB®: 49% - CCC®: 14% - TDS™: 55% - PTL™: 74%

Etienne Klein

Etienne Klein, physicist, philosopher of the sciences and loyal participant, describes the emotions and his experience of this race which everybody comes to experience:

Physicist and philosopher of the sciences, Etienne Klein, 54, manages the laboratory of scientific matter at the Commissariat of atomic energy (CEA) at Saclay (Essonne). An experienced climber, he has run the CCC®
six times since 2007. This year he will be on the starting line for the TDS™.

What made you register for the CCC® in 2007?

I go mountaineering each summer in Chamonix and I run to be fit for the mountains. In 2006, I found myself in Chamonix during the last week in August and I felt a very special “electricity”.

On the Saturday I saw the first UTMB® runner finishing, the Italian Marco Olmo. He arrived after running 169km, he didn’t seem tired, and I experienced the most incredible emotion. I watched the finishers until the following day. What struck me was that all those who arrived were beautiful, apart from the signs of fatigue, transfigured, as one is, after climbing in the mountains. I told myself that I had to try this race.

Why have you returned each year since? I believe that I continue to run this race due to a loyalty to the emotion that I felt when I saw Marco Olmo finish. Ant then, each year, I learnt something. The first time, I abandoned at Trient (71km). I had not yet learnt that the pain, even very violent, does not end up disappearing… The following year, I finished despite the apocalyptic conditions. The year after, I had, once again, to abandon at Trient because I had been unconscious for 15 minutes at Champex (54km). Last year, with the passage over the Grand Col Ferret in the snow, it was winter! In fact the conditions are completely different each year and this means that the race is never the same.

You do not run any other trail races during the year. What is it that brings you back here each year? I like running, I like the mountains and I have many friends in Chamonix. And also, with the UTMB® races, we go too far, without a play on words! We discover what the body can do, nothing happens as one would imagine. It is a race which places you in a sort of bubble, as if one has turned ones back on everyday life. Paradoxically, in this race where one is very physically and physiologically stretched, we feel completely free, freed of all that is futile. Like climbing in the mountains. We are the masters of the project which we have chosen.

For further information check out www.ultratrailmb.com and ultratrail.tv 
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