We wanted to bring some French voices into our coverage of this year’s Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. Fortunately, Vincent Delebarre and Julien Chorier obliged us. We’re aware that many Americans may not know about these runners, so here’s a quick introduction to both prior to the interview. They’re both the real deal.
Vincent Delebarre won the second UTMB run in 2004. He has also finished second in 2005 and third in 2006. He has been earning podium positions in trail races for a decade… and was even on the podium level cross country in his scholastic days. Not only a runner, he’s been the French national champion in snow triathlon and placed well in traditional triathlons. His blog, naturally in French, can be found here: Ski Trail and Mountain.
Julien Chorier is a younger runner on the Salomon squad. Last year, he won the Grand Raid de la Réunion, a volcanic French island with nearly a million inhabitants off the east coast of Madagascar. This year, he won the Andorra Ultra Trail. More relevant to this interview, Chorier won the Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix in 2007. The race, more often called CCC, is the 98-kilometer little sister of UTMB that starts on the same day and runs primarily on the same course. Those who read French or can deal with bad translations from Google or babelfish, Chorier’s blog is here.
