Joy and Pain: D'Haene and Hawker show ultra class at UTMB
Number 5 for Lizzy Hawker at UTMB
The 2012 UTMB will be remembered for a number of reasons. The weather, the change of course, the withdrawals, the dropouts, the racing, the winners, the dropouts, the drama. A bit like most years then? Yes and no.
Somehow the 2012 event was even more dramatic than usual, with the twists and turns of the Friday, where the organisation had to firstly change and shorten the route due to the pretty horrendous weather which included snow right down to 2000m, then amend the start time a little and in doing so also completely altered the complexion of the race.
The likes of Julien Chorier and Iker Karerra had trained and psyched themselves up for a 100 miler with 9400m of vertical gain, instead they were faced with a 100km ‘dash’ with a mere 6000m of vert, based around the valley of Chamonix. For them, this was no longer the challenge they had trained for, so they decided against racing – for others it was still game on!
And then there was the race.
On the men’s side, the early leaders comprising D’Haene and Miguel Heras (would his injury hold out?), Jonas Buud, Carlos Sa, Seb Chaigneau, the dropping out of Jez Bragg, Heras with around 60km covered and Chaigneau with just 10km to go, the pulling away of D’Haene, the storming though of Mike Foote, the joy of the win for the Frenchman.
Francios d'Haene, UTMB winner 2012
Lizzy Hawker remained typically cool, calm and dominant throughout. Typical if you can call a top 20 place overall, typical. The British ultra legend is now 5-times winner of this event, and the manner of her win suggested that she can win another 5 of this iconic race.
Never challenged, the commentary via Twitter and Facebook was not whether Lizzy would win, but if she would make the top 10, something she herself believes is possible in the future and few would bet against it.
Lizzy Hawker
Then there was the media coverage. Amazing, truly amazing.
From the (sometimes erratic, but always compelling) Live TV coverage, to the brilliant photography via Damien Rosso and Jordi Saragossa on Salomon Running, Ski Alper and Ian Corless plus others, to the untiring Twitter and Facebook activity of Talk Ultra and iRun Far, simply brilliant.
Francios D'Haene
I wont attempt to report on the race, the finishers, the times, as all of these guys do it better, with results on the men and women now online at iRunFar, and a ‘quickie’ by Ian Corless – with much more to come in the way of interviews and the like, we are sure.
Yes, the UTMB was memorable once again in 2012, and somehow one of the best ever!
