Sport / Elated Anderson celebrates after beating brutal Alps course
Bressay runner completes intense ultra-marathon
A BRESSAY man has conquered Mont Blanc after completing an intense 100km ultra-marathon in the mountains.
James Anderson, who only took up running in 2020, finished the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) final late last month in a time of 21 hours and three minutes.
The gruelling 62-mile long race trails through Western Europe’s highest mountain from Courmayeur in Italy to the finish line in Chamonix in France, bringing together over 2,200 of the world’s most dedicated endurance runners every year.
Anderson said the race had been a long-held goal of his since his running journey started, and he was delighted to finally tick it off his wish list.
“We got there a few days before and I was looking up at it thinking, ‘how am I going to do this? How is it going to be possible?’,” he said.
“But it went quite well, I only had a few issues.
“There was a few times at the start of the day when I was pushing hard, and had to tell myself just to slow down a bit to make sure I didn’t burn myself out.”
The UTMB CCC race, as it is known, is not for the faint of heart.
Competitors can reach heights thousands of metres up across the race, which can take anywhere from 18 to 26 hours to complete.
And as if that is not enough, temperatures can hit 30 degrees – as they did when 32-year-old Anderson was racing at the end of August.
“I threw a bit of a wobbler at the 20k mark because I’d just had to do a massive climb,” he said.
“I basically just took myself off the route, sat myself down and had a word with myself.
“I told myself to ‘get a grip’ – I’m here now and I’m going to do it.”
Anderson, who now lives on the Scottish mainland, said if he had the money of an elite endurance runner he would have headed to the Alps a month early for altitude training.
Instead he spent the best part of the year trailing the glens and mountains of Scotland as he counted down to the big day.
Ben Nevis stands 1,300 metres tall – more than three times smaller than the highest race peak in Mont Blanc – which is less than ideal preparation for the race course.
But Anderson said his coaches put him through the “perfect” regime for UTMB CCC, which eventually saw him beat his previous best ultra marathon time.
“It really has been excellent – I could have kept going, if it wasn’t for the chafing.”
Anderson said he had never experienced many issues with that athletic ailment – until he encountered the scorching Mont Blanc heat.
“The last 20k was really tough, just because of the chafing,” he added.
“I was on course at one point for a 17 hour finish, which is really good going, and at the 80k mark I was in 470th place.
“But I was really struggling with the chafing and about 200 people overtook me towards the end.
“I was about 700th in total, but I was predicted to finished about 1,500th because I hadn’t done many ultra marathons.”
“I told myself to ‘get a grip’ – I’m here now and I’m going to do it.”
Checkpoints are set up at ten mile intervals, and Anderson said he had to take on 70 carbohydrates an hour – the equivalent of two bits of toast and jam – while maintaining his race pace.
He said one of the world’s top endurance runners had described an ultra marathon as “more of an eating contest” than a run.
“I’d packed about 18 hours of food in little bags, and then they were handing out things like watermelon,” he said.
“Then you had a few stops where you can get whole food.
“That was one of the worst things with training, eating a big meal then going out running straight away. It’s absolutely horrendous.
“You have to drink things like salty water, with sodium tablets, and flat Coca-Cola is good too.
“At the 70k mark I had to break out the can of Monster.”
Anderson said there are “just so many things working against you” in a race like Mont Blanc – including running in the pitch black at night, which requires a headtorch.
After a full-on year of training for UTMB CCC, Anderson is now setting his sights on a less strenuous 2025.
“I want to push my marathon time – I’ve never actually done just a marathon, which is weird.
“My marathon time is three hours 38 minutes, which isn’t great, so really the plan is to pull that down to the three hour mark next year.”
He thanked his coaches and his partner Kristen Wishart for all of their help and assistance in the build-up to, and on the day of the race.
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