In an effort to post regular content, I’m starting a new weekly column, which I will post every Sunday morning.  Here’s the concept:  wake up, have my (first) cup of coffee, and then write for an hour.  It may be interesting and coherent, or it may be rambling and disjointed.  Either way, I will write for one hour, no more and no less, and then post whatever words are written down to the blog.   Think of it as a weekly “what’s Brad been thinking about” type column.  So, here goes:

—  My coffee this morning is Caveman Coffee White Gold.  It’s one of the rare and hard to find “ultra-light” roasts.  The only other one I know of and can get is by North Coast Coffee Roasters out of Santa Cruz, called Wicked Wake Up.   These are hands-down my two favorite coffee beans right now.  They have a distinct and noticeable sweet flavor, very easy to drink, with a good caffeine punch.   If you’re used to medium or dark roasts, this is a whole different cup of coffee.   Best drunk black, from a pourover or french press.

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— Big surprise:  my first non-coffee thought comes from the ultra-running world.   This past weekend was the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) race in Chamonix, France.  It is the most anticipated and arguably most competitive mountain trail ultra in the world, attracting the best runners from the international field.  It is a week long mountain running festival that includes six races varying in distance from 40k (about 25miles) to 300k (about 195miles).  The 171k mountain race, simply called the UTMB, circumnavigates the Mont Blanc Massif, and is probably the most prestigious and anticipated event of the week.  This year it had 2561 runners on the start line, and it includes ~32,000 feet of climbing over its roughly 100miles.  To get a sense for the size and atmosphere of this race, check out this three and a half minute video edit from last year’s event.

What is interesting is how American male ultra-runners have historically struggled here. I clarify male, because the females have had success, with four wins in the race by three individuals.  But in the 16 years it has existed, no American man has finished higher than third.  Last year (2017) was probably one of the best showings for the U.S., with four men in the top ten.  So the hopes and buzz were high going into this year. A few of the top American men were favorites to be on the podium, if not win outright.  But as the race progressed between Friday and Saturday, things played out differently.

The “elites” got chewed up.  The U.S. put no men in the top ten, and the top American was a relative unknown who ran smartly and finished in 12th place.    And it wasn’t just the American male elites who struggled.  Irunfar.com does a race preview article that discusses the top contenders before the race.  Of the 39 men on its radar this year, only 14 finished.   Some drops were from bad luck (one of the lead Americans gashed his thigh on a rock and had to drop, another got tripped and fell 100 meters after the start and injured his hip, and one of the favorites to win got stung by a bee shortly before the race and had allergic reaction symptoms for several hours of running before pulling the plug).  Others just fell apart.

The winner was a young man from France, Xavier Thevenard, who was one of the few elites who was able to avoid injury or freak accident, and just stay steady all night and day.   The rest of the top ten included many who weren’t even on the “who to watch for” list prior to the race.  This goes to show the unforgiving nature and field-leveling effect that come with 100miles in the mountains.  Ultra-running, even at the upper echelons, is still an “everyman’s” sport.

I watched the first few hours of the race Friday morning (it was live-streamed on youtube), and woke up at 4am on Saturday morning to watch the winner finish.  Quite a spectacle. In all honesty, a non-running fan probably wouldn’t find it very interesting, but I did.

The question is out there, so I’ll give my two cents:  why has this race proven such a tough nut to crack for American men?   It’s not that they get caught off guard by it…they know the course.  And it’s not that we don’t have the right mountains to train on back in the U.S…..there is plenty of vertical relief and rugged trail available back home to train on.   And it’s not that the U.S. doesn’t have fast runners….we do, and we have done well in other international races.

I’ll caveat that I have no first hand experience to base my thoughts on, other than following the race via online articles, twitter updates, and youtube live-feeds.  I am your prototypical armchair quarterback, sitting here on my lazyboy recliner in my sweatpants.   But nonetheless….I think that the hyper-competitive approach that some of the top American men take into this race tends to backfire.  The “race to win from the gun” approach has proven to be unsuccessful at UTMB, at least in the last several years.  It’s unfortunate that Tim Tollefson gashed his leg early in the race, because he has generally taken a more conservative strategy and probably had the best chance at finishing top three had he not gotten hurt.   Two of the other American favorites went out hard, and ended up dropping later in the race.

It is interesting to note that in the past 10 full runnings of UTMB (I say “full” because in 2010 they had to shorten the course, I think because of weather), nine of those races have been won by three individuals.   Killian Jornet (Spain), Francois D’Haene (France), and Xavier Thevenard (France) each now have three wins apiece over that time-span.  (Note: Killian Jornet was the one with the bee-sting.  My opinion is that if it weren’t for this freak incident…he would have run away with this race. He is on a different level, and in my opinion he is a class act.  Here are his comments after the event).   What stands out to me, just from the interviews I’ve seen with them, is their more laid-back approach to the race.  Sure, they are competitive and obviously want to win – why else would they do it – but there is a very subtle respect for the mountain, and their demeanor seems to say: “I’ll go out there and have fun and do my best, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

Don’t get me wrong….none of the American elites came across as “cocky.”  They were all respectful and measured in their pre-race interviews.  Maybe my perception is based more on the external hype that surrounds them, but I got the sense that they were gunning for the win a little harder than their European counterparts.  Perhaps that mindset is not best in this particular race.

Ok, I only have 15 minutes left so I’m going to shift topics.   This cannot just turn into just an ultra-running thought column.  But, I’m sure this race will be a topic of discussion in the ultra-world for a few weeks, due to the interesting dynamic that played out this year.

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— I just started re-listening to a book on type that I bought over a year ago.  “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” – by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.  I was cued back to it after listening to his discussion with Joe Rogan on a recent Joe Rogan Experience podcast.   Man – if you want to bend your brain, but not break it…check this book out.  Tyson has a knack for taking extremely deep and perplexing concepts and translating into understandable language.   Some of it is hard to grasp, even when watered down to layman’s terms.  But as Tyson says early in the book, “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”

…..ok I’m out of time.  Going to fire up coffee #2 then head into work for the day.  This will be a busy month, as I’m trying to get my thesis fully drafted by the end of September.  I’m on chapter two right now of seven, so it’s time to buckle down (is that the phrase?) and get to work….