UTMF 2013 by Eric Lebrasseur

A short report on UTMF 2013.

I retired at aid station A3 (55km).

At about 38km, in a very steep slope I fell down and twisted my left knee. It was not so bad at the beginning, but after one or two hours, it got more painful especialy when going down.

I rested an hour and a half at A3, then I tried to continue, but after walking one hour, my knee was still painful and any small slope down was very difficult. As there was 100km more, I decided to go back to A3 and stop.

I don’t think it is a serious injury and I think I can run again soon and have fun in shorter race, and maybe try again more than 100km later.

However, I need to improve my diet during long races (or buy a new stomach) because I was not feeling good quite early in the race due to bad digestion.

It is very different from trails in France. There were long and relatively flat sections alternating with very steep and technical slopes. I never fell down so much in a race, and from what I have heard, I’m not the only one.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience, and the Mont Fuji with the full moon was beautiful.

The winner is a Japanese, Yoshikazu Hara, in 19:39:48. He is a doctor in “real life”. It was his first 100miles. He’s unknown in the word of Ultratrail, but he is a very good Japanese ultra road runner (he represented Japan at 100k world champs and he won the Lake Saroma 100k in 6:33:32).

Last year winner, Julien Chorrier, was second. He was disappointed because he could not run fast on the road. There were 5 Frenches in the top 10 :) (can you guess where I come from? ;) )

Men results 1.Yoshikazu Hara (Japan) – 19:39:48 2.Julien Chorier (Salomon – France) – 19:48:28 3.Sebastien Chaigneau (The North Face – France) – 19:50:13 4.Gary Robbins (Salomon – Canada) – 20:20:39 5.Brendan Davies (Inov-8 – Australia) – 20:38:17 6.John Tidd (Uruguay) – 20:50:44 7.Antoine Guillon (La Fuma – France) – 21:04:44 8.Koiji Yamaya (Japan) – 21:05:12 9.Cyril Cointre (Hoka One One – France) – 21:10:16 10.Lionel Trivel (France) – 21:10:16

Women results 1.Krissy Moehl (Patagonia/Ultraspire – USA) – 24:35:45 2.Shona Stephenson (Inov-8 – Australia) –  25:56:52 3.Hitomi Ogawa (Patagonia/Vasque – Japan) – 26:15:25 4.Kumiko Amikura (Japan) – 27:26:33 5.Hiroko Suzuki (Japan) (Salomon) – 27:52:06 6.Akemi Ban (Japan) – 27:52:27 7.Chiaki Fjelddahl (Hong Kong) – 28:43:59 8.Claire Price (Salomon – Hong Kong) – 29:37:08 9.Matsuura Mayumi (Japan) – 31:53:29 10.Yoshiko Takahashi (Japan) – 32:20:14