Marathon du Mont Blanc 2023

The Marathon du Mont Blanc is part of a festival of high altitude trail running events that attracts top athletes from around the globe....including a few WADAC runners over the years. 2023 was no exception with 5 athletes taking part in a long weekend of Ultra Adventure Running.

Marathon du Mont Blanc 2023

The Marathon du Mont Blanc is one of the flagship events in the trail running calendar, comprising of several races across a weekend in Chamonix, France. The event attracts top talent from across the globe, including a hardy team of WADAC athletes who made the journey over to compete. The menu includes:
A Vertical Kilometre (VK), a challenging 10km on the XC ski trails, a 23km, 42km, and 90km events, all of which are balloted entries, and one of the most popular events, the duo étoilé (translation: “starry duo”) in which pairs of athletes run 21km under the cover of darkness up and down the mountain side.

As you can imagine, these events are hilly and pose a unique challenge for UK-based road and XC athletes – the Chamonix valley is unique across the world in terms of steepness and prowess! Difficult conditions to replicate in training back home. However, the team had competed in the South Downs Way Relay, Welsh Castles Relay and even the Hampshire Hoppit marathon the week before to ensure adequate (and possibly too much) preparation.

First up was Mark Craven a.k.a. “Cravendale” who was truly out until the cows came home racing the 90km. Having deferred his entry to 2023 following cancellation due to bad weather in 2022, Mark was keen to get out on the trails. No stranger to tough conditions, having previously completed the Marathon des Sables, Mark started at 4:10am and began the 1500 metre ascent to Brévent from Chamonix town centre. Mark MOOved his way up the field, avoiding congestion on the narrow switch-backs, summiting in 2 hours 36 minutes. Due to heavy snowfall still present at altitude, Mark had a challenging descent to Flégere and did udderly brilliant to not fall off the mountain side, reaching the first checkpoint 3 minutes inside the cut-off time, with only minor grazing. Whilst this may sound slow to some, this was excellent tactics to preserve energy in the early part of the race. Mark then climbed further into pastures new, ultimately reaching the town of Le Chatelard in Switzerland, where he was slightly over the cut-off time and had to withdraw from the race after 45km and 11hours 54 minutes on the trails. Unfortunately, Mark was only 4 minutes outside the cut-off, which he could have easily gained had the descent from Brévent not been so icy. It’s as clear as black and white that Mark will be back to complete the 90km next time.

Back earlier than expected, Mark didn’t milk it by complaining about tiredness and he was immediately out the door to cheer on the other WADAC athletes who had entered the VK. Bracken Dawson (a.k.a. “Release the Bracken”) was first out the gates tackling the 1000m climb under the gondola from Chamonix town centre to Planpraz. With 2.4 miles of distance and 1000m of gain, the unfamiliar can imagine summiting the height of Scafell Pike from sea-level in ¼ of the distance of the popular hiking route. The VK therefore results in a strenuous climb and arguably falls outside of the “running” category! Bracken put the hammer down and summited in 53 minutes and 49 seconds. Next up was James Moore, a.k.a. “The Titan Sub” after his brain imploded and he flooded the apartment by leaving a Velux window open, despite multiple warnings from our Airbnb host. The titan redeemed himself by getting a much-needed beard trim, which enabled him to summit the VK in 55 minutes 35 seconds, a 7 second PB from last year. Next up was Adrian Faulty (a.k.a. “Faulty Towers”) whose calf was barely functioning, after an injury leading up to Welsh Castles a few weeks earlier. Adrian didn’t let the dodgy calf stop him and managed to complete the course in 49 minutes and 6 seconds, the fastest in the group. Finally, Dan Cunnington (a.k.a. The Cunnington Camel) tackled the large hump of a climb up to Planpraz, using longer than average legs to gain height quickly. Dan finished in 49 minutes and 35 seconds.

Matt Webster was lucky enough to gain a ballot entry for the 23km, and wise enough not to rendezvous with the rest of the group and therefore doesn’t receive any nicknames. The 23km (more like 26km) is a challenging course starting in the heat of the Chamonix valley, running up to Montroc and finishing at Planpraz. Matt finished in a time of 5 hours 10 minutes, which is very impressive considering 1,656m of elevation gain. Whilst Matt was running, the Titan, Faulty Towers and The Cunnington Camel began the 10km race on the XC ski trails. Fresh from his new haircut, and with minimal food stuck in his beard, the titan ran an impressive race, finishing in 44:30, a 5 minute PB from last year! The camel finished shortly before, in a time of 44:15, and Faulty Towers led the pack in 42:57, finishing in 26th overall out of 1878 competitors.

The last race on the agenda was the star-studded duo étoilié, a few hours after the 10km. The pairs lining up for WADAC included Release the Bracken and the Titan, formally entering as team “Send it”, as well as Faulty Towers and the Cunnington Camel, entering as “Winchester Elevation Kings”. The race starts in Chamonix town centre at 7:30pm, following a mandatory head-torch check and with ample support from the residents and tourists, before beginning the climb up to Montenvers and the Mer du Glace via the Chamonix luge as the sun goes down. The elevation kings proved worthy of their name, as the Camel used those ultra long legs to match Faulty’s pace on the climb. The pair summited at the first checkpoint in 3rd place overall, which is very impressive considering the calibre of the field. After dropping a few places on the ridge line, but having a radical refuel at the aid station (many slices of cake were consumed), Faulty towers began faultering with a dodgy knee. The pair hobbled their way down the descent back to Chamonix finishing in 46th place out of 577 teams in a time of 2 hours 56 minutes and 55 seconds. Meanwhile, team send it were exercising much more even pacing, and running faster than their previous attempt in 2022. Release the Bracken and the Titan put in a huge effort on the descent, matching the pace of teams around them, and despite the Titan having to perform a natural toilet stop mid-route, team send it were gaining on the elevation kings. They finished in 50th with a time of 2 hours 58 minutes and 17 seconds, which wasn’t far away from an all WADAC sprint-finish.

If you are interested in the event, come and chat to any of us at training and we may see you on the start line in Chamonix next year!

Text and photo blame : Cunning Dan