Two of our national team athletes participated in Nice by UTMB at the end of September. For a little insight into what such a race entails, we have received a report from both of them.

Marjo Nice by UTMB

I was very happy to be able to compete in the 115km ultra race in Nice as the last dance of the season. The previous two months had been plagued with falls and knee problems, so there was uncertainty about my form and body, but my head was in the right place, and that’s the most important thing in ultrarunning, they say…? I traveled with a nice group with Silje Skorve Skarpeid from GTI and Bjarte and Tore, and in addition we got to hang out a lot with 2 nice GTI gentlemen John and Tom Erik 🙂

The days before the race, croissants and coffee were on the program. At dawn on Saturday morning, the bus took us up to the mountains behind Nice in Roubion. I was tired and didn’t feel particularly good at the start when everyone accelerated in the first few kilometers. I thought that this was not my day right then. I stayed in 8-10th place, but decided to just keep running and enjoy the ride.

The course had a number of large and easy trails/roads (which I had driven a car on back home in Finland!), which was a bit boring. But then we had long stretches of fantastic single track on the mountain slopes! It was a bit technical as well, lots of loose gravel and long downhills where you had to focus to avoid falling on the rocks. The weather was almost too nice, between 25-30 degrees and blazing sun. But to turn it into something positive – this time I got to see the fine, fine mountain peaks of Merchantour natural park!

Although the heat got to me a bit, and I was careful not to push too much in the hottest time, I was able to pass a couple of ladies between 20-50km. Okay, this can actually go a little better, I thought and just focused on working, working, working on. Eat, drink, run. After the drop bag at 70km I passed a man who said that the lady in second place was not far ahead. I thought he was messing with me, and when I passed that lady on the next uphill I didn’t dare ask what place we were in!

The last 15km and we got an unbelievably beautiful sunset over Nice. I had wanted to get a message from home if someone was just in front or behind me at the end, and was quite relieved when it said: “50min in front, 40min behind, don’t fall and you take second place!” Shit, second place! That was a big deal. I ran with a man who congratulated me on the Western States golden ticket already (2 best women and men each got one), and got a bit of a chill as we ran towards the finish in the seafront in Nice. Being able to run with real fluidity after almost 15 hours of running, feeling so strong on a day that seemed to be bad at first, that’s why I love ultra running. Anything can happen during the many hours in the mountains, it can go to hell… or it can turn around for you! Most of the time there’s a little bit of both at every race 😉 and if you manage to dig, work, take the next step forward, the feeling is to get second place as payment… it’s crazy nice!

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Tom Erik Nice Cote dázur by UTMB 100 miles

A few weeks have passed and you’ve finally got the time and the necessary distance to be able to absorb and process your second 100-mile race. A real mountain race of the tough kind… This race was planned relatively late in the season, after I felt I had underperformed on the last edition of Xreid in Trollheimen at the end of June this year. There was a growing need to maximize my potential on a long and very demanding race with factors such as high altitude, many cumulative positive and negative altitude meters, 11-12 hours with a headlamp and also strong heat. After some quick planning during the summer, I booked my flight, race ticket and apartment via Airbnb. Just under a month before the race, I also got the go-ahead from our coach John that he was ready to be support during the race. YES!!! I thought. John and I have done very good races together before, including the World Ultra Trail Championships in 2018. Nice by UTMB is a relatively new race in the UTMB world series where tickets are handed out for the main race in Chamonix, which takes place at the end of August each year. In total, about 3,300 people participate in the 4 distances; 100 miles, 100k, 50k and 20k. To get among the top 3 in the 100 miles and thus get direct qualification was also the goal for u.t. On the start line this year at the second longest distance, 100 km, was none other than Jim Walmsley – perhaps the world’s best off-road ultra runner and this year’s winner of the main race UTMB finals. “At the start line I felt very strong and well prepared. I’ve trained as well as I’ve felt I could since the decision to race was made in June. The most important and decisive training week with 300km/15000hm through Jotunheimen on the tourist association’s trails with friends had gone beyond all expectations. It was warm and sunny at 1700 m above sea level in Auron, where the race started. From there, we would cover 167 km and 9300 hm uphill/11000hm downhill over the mountain ranges down to Nice. Due to a hornet’s nest found on the path from the start that had to be removed, the start was postponed 10 minutes:) By pure coincidence, I then got to know the hard-working youth Gvideo from Latvia. We talked a little further out from the start, including about how fast we thought it was going at the front and gradually agreed to share the path for the first few miles. After all, the race hadn’t started yet. It felt like it went nice and neat until the first food station after 8 km with about 100 hm up and maybe 300 hm down. I took some quick drinks with me and gave a high five to my fellow Latvian runner before we pulled up the poles and began the 1300 hm long climb towards the highest point of the trail and the next food station. The weather was fine, although the heat took its toll even at an altitude of 2600-2700 meters. I was a little worried that the lack of acclimatization would make it hard to run up here, but it went well so far. We were now around 16th-17th place, which we both thought was a reasonable opening. Down towards Isola and the 3rd food station, we would now descend 1700 hm in 6 km!!! even on unmarked paths for parts of the course, before we would run the last flat 6 km on asphalt towards the station. The hills went smoothly, but you could already feel this starting to materialize in your thighs. After talking to John (who I now met for the first time in the race) and eating and drinking a little, Bjarte Wetteland from DFL surprisingly came into the checkpoint. This stressed me out a bit as I thought it meant I might have opened a bit too slowly. I tried to convince myself that it was Bjarte who instead ran well or maybe had opened a little too much. We climbed some new mountains and still worked well together me and Gvideo. I think it was me who launched the idea of trying to work together a little longer and maybe into the night. If one of us felt a bit stronger than the other, we would just say so and it was okay to run away. We chose to stick together and when dusk fell we were on our way to the first big checkpoint where you could pick up drop bags. The headlamps had been turned on and now over 10 hours of running through the night awaited us.

Already on the first climb from here, the full moon became our companion. The higher we got, the less need there was for the lantern. Magical!!! I still felt good both in terms of breathing and muscular strain. The fact that we had a good trend in the race was confirmed by the fact that we picked up new runners steadily. At the next big food station at 116 km, we had had a nice and fast climb up about 400 meters. At the station, I got my legs smeared with Vaseline for the second time by John and was ready to give the iron the last 50 km. John confirmed that we were running fast and were now only 5-15 minutes behind numbers 5-9. On the way out of here we ran a little wrong and Gvideo complained that he had eaten too little food at the station. On this climb where we were going up 1000 new altitude meters, we probably also started to lose ground to those in front. Down from this mountain, we were again on gradient percentages of about 30. This really started to hurt my thighs and there was a lot of walking downhill on slopes where I would normally have “opened” my legs and given gas. Gvideo introduced me to the term “shuffle” about off-road ultra runners who are finished and unable to lift their legs properly anymore due to muscular fatigue. This was now us 🙁 We took our time at the last food station where we saw John about 21 km before the finish. The heat had now become quite fierce and it began to rush to get to Nice. The finish was beautiful, but anything but easy. The satisfaction of finally crossing the finish line after just over 25 hours on the trail was therefore great. Even though the ambition of a top 3 finish was not achieved, the race was still a great experience and an important lesson for future races. Running/being with another person for over 24 hours while working hard physically is an experience I wouldn’t want to be without, and Gvideo is already considered a good friend because we shared and mastered this experience together. That said, running a race with someone in this way will probably always make you a little less competitive along the way. It’s quite possible that I could have run a few minutes faster if I had given it my all and run the last few miles on my own, but the benefits of running together, especially at night, probably outweigh the disadvantages of this race for me in my opinion. In retrospect, you can also wonder if you should have run harder on the hills with a higher heart rate for a better end result? In the end, it was the muscular strain of running downhill that slowed you down, so perhaps a little higher speed uphill would not have affected this.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to run the UTMB final in Chamonix next year despite not finishing in the top 3. Then, in the training work leading up to the race, more hardening of the legs for downhill running will be prioritized. Finally, I would like to thank John and GTI-Friidrett for their physical and financial support for this great race. It is highly recommended to other GTI runners whether they want to run 167, 115.65 or 20 km. If anyone wants more information about practical things regarding the race, just ask:)