For all around difficulty it wouldn't rate quite as high as the likes of the Berkeley or possibly even the spine or you have added challenges of navigation and dealing with much more potential weather variety. You're much better idea what's coming up with the old man race, but still in terms of technical running. It's right up there. I mean possibly the hardest in the world. I certainly haven't come.cross anything quite as challenging hello, and welcome to another episode of no Finish Line podcast featuring athlete interviews and discussion and running training traveling in adventure. I'm your host John Regan, and I'm delighted to welcome back in key to talk about a recent win in the old man, but UTMB race this episode responsible great outdoors and in sponsor Columbia Sports and global warning Adventures. This episode was recorded in the new graded or store on so crazy Georgia Street in Dublin. You will find them online at www.craigswapp.com. Yay, and you also find all the recent episode. Podcast in the website. You can also listen back or subscribe and all the usual platforms. In looking back to another episode of the podcast. Unfortunately a big congratulations on winning the Oman will UTMB or hundred and seventy kilometers. Thanks very much. John a few years back when we were on a Floyd returning from some Ray. She told me of your ambition to achieve a Podium finish in the UTMB was this result in your plan. It was in a recent plan I had which was that when I turned 50, I decided to try and make myself some kind of little project to commemorate it the the project I came. What do was to try and get on my age group podium in all UTMB franchise races in a year and that turned out to be UTMB Aishwarya earlier this year where I managed to get a second in my new over-50s category and then the hardest one of all is that the main UTMB it being the most competitive Ultra Trail race in the world and I just about made my age, but Crow age group Podium there of getting third place in the over. 50s category in that which was a very good day indeed. So the last one this year is UTMB. Oh man and that just happened there at the end of November and I definitely managed to get on my age group Podium there to say the least now. The race is relatively new it started up last year. You were there for the force ruining of it. How did the fourth race called the first rice went really? Well, they really hit the ground running in terms of race and organization and just what a high standard they managed to. do it worked out really well for me as well because I managed to finish eighth overall and what my age group Podium which I could have counted towards my little project but I decided to do it the hard way and do it all in the single calendar year, but it's a race to turn out to be great so much so that I was very enthusiastic to come back again and give it another go especially when they added extra distances in the first year was a single 135 kilometers race and this year they added a 50 kilometer distance as a more introductory style and a 170 kilometers distance to really stretch things out and would your experience you knew that as the race got longer you stood a better chance of getting the results you wanted. Oh, absolutely. I've only one time ever. I haven't entered the longest race of Any Given menu to choose from and out. The one I chose a Six-Day rather than attend a so even that was pretty long. So I was definitely when I saw there are doing the 170k. I jumped at the chance to get on to that especially as And the whole point that 170k is to bring in the highest mountain in all man, which is also the highest mountain in the Arabian peninsula. I spoke to you briefly those choosy when you're waiting to board the plane and they pretend to small. Were you confident going into this race. I was very happy to be going to the race and I was reasonably confident that I'd managed to get on my age group Podium and complete my little project but I wouldn't say I was so full of confident that I expected to get the result. I got in the end. That's for sure. Did you have a list of the competitors taking part? I did at that stage. They killed the entries open for quite a long time, even though the hundred and K version that sold out first, I don't think any other races that sold as much because the cap 278 about a hundred Runner entry presumably because the logistics looking after people over that kind of distance. So it was only with a couple of days to go that I found the list of competing Runners on the LIVE trail website, which is UTMB as website for race tracking and again, they like last year. They had ordered the the runners in the order of der I tra points so Who are the person who is all given bib number one of the highest points and that was further 270k rates and then the other races like the one three five was started 1000 to end up person with the highest points was given bib number two thousand or 1 so you could have a look down and see who the likely competitors were and do a little bit of research into what their background was and how luckily I was able would be able to compete against them which of course I went and did that makes it kind of easy to check out the competition. What people were you I went in as number three that straight away gives me a game to play because this happened in Oman last year and also in the show it is here where they've known was reflected to your ranking and the game I play as a little Target is to try and at least match it preferably beat your bib number in terms of the arrays position which puts it up because right three was quite High to say the least no pressure. No pressure. Exactly. Oh, can you tell me a little bit about this race? How does it differ from the youth? Tian be in Germany, it's actually far more technical than the UTMB in Germany. I would rank it as considerably more technically challenging. So the UTMB in chamonix the difficulty with that race in terms of what you're facing into is that it's the most deeply loaded field in terms of the runners who are turning up, you know by far the most competitive Ultra Trail race in the world without a shadow of a doubt where you can have literally hundreds of elite Runners all lining up to race each other the unique thing about this. It was definitely last year's race to one tree five is one of the most technical in terms of you know, degree of difficulty of the ground you're running on Races. I'd run and it turned out there 170k was even more 10 you again. So that's the probably the biggest challenge of this. Of course, the other potential challenge with this race is it's in all man. So the temperatures can get quite high but it's because it's in the mountains. It's not you know, you're not not running into this sandy desert. So it's not quite as bad as you might initially expect. So temperature is generally what range you know from High, you know, 10 to 15 degrees at night to you could get up to 25 28 degrees down low in the middle of the afternoon the race lets you use it was a hundred and thirty four kilometers. Did you erase this year follow the same route, but then add on the bit more that was one of the interesting bits because one of The checkpoints this year was explicitly the trails split and at that trail split, which is I would reckon about a hundred and twenty kilometers in you have the option of deciding to turn to just finish out on the one tree 5K course and to make it an even better trap. If you've made that turn it was pretty much downhill all the way to the finish. So it was an easy finish out where it's you carry down on to 170. You are faced with the one moderate climb followed by that the highest climb in the entire new course of the Gasps mountain in Arabia. So it was good quite a stark Choice, which was really good psychological trick to play on people. Plus they put a medical team in place at the trip. So anyone who wanted to go on to the hundred 70k course had to undergo about a five-minute quite comprehensive medical examination considering where you were is that Milton Jebel Shams. Yeah. So the race distances don't just differ in distance is also another degree of difficulty that comes with the increase in the distance without be right here. Huge out of increasing difficulty which even I looking at the profile underestimated because looking at the profile you can see there was a massive amount of extra climb and descent about two to three thousand meters, which is considerable over, you know, relatively smaller percentage. So the section that was added on was much more climie and it turned out it was much more tank again. So the original course is technical but almost from the minute you made the turn the degree of technical difficulty went up a huge notch. Ouch, go to Twitter question in that said, where do you put your Mountain Trail raisin difficulty scale from 0 to 10 and versus other races you have participated in so far this seems like a good time to ask that question in terms of difficulty technical running. I drank it up. There is nine point five to ten. It is probably the most technical running race I've ever done that I can think of at the moment for all around difficulty. It wouldn't rate quite as high as the likes of the bar. Take or possibly even the spine or you have added challenges of navigation and dealing with much more potential weather variety. You're much better idea. What's coming up with the old man race, but still in terms of technical running. It's right up there. I mean possibly the hardest in the world. I certainly haven't come across anything quite as challenging you mentioned Junction the trial that separated the one Thirty kilometer race in the 170 kilometer race. What position were you win when you approach that point I was in And position at that point and as I was it was there downhill approach into that Junction and as I was coming down I could actually see the leader departing his medical check. So at that stage it was probably about 10 minutes ahead of me. Going into the edit distance of the hundred and seventy a race. Did you feel confident of actually catching the guy that was enforced Place quite the opposite in fact because the pattern had been that I'd started that maybe 8th or 10th in the first few checkpoints and then slowly worked my way through my cell. I was running alongside an English runner in the first 20 or 30 case or the section for a while and there were three French Runners dangly out in front of us about two or three hundred meters and I came To a point where I managed to run off course last year and the French Runners did exactly what I did last year and ran off course, we overtook them without actually having to overtake them. They just ended up behind us and then it was just too or mana, mana runners in front of us one guy tired of really early then eventually the English guy faded off a bit. That's a few Pierce Higgins good runner. He was fifth last year and the it was just left with the Amana guy, but I kept asking at the a as I went to the aid stations what the gap. And as fairly consistently getting half an hour half an hour as an estimate so leaving there's one big what they call Life base, which is a main station where you will drop back. I came into that about half an hour behind him, but I departed it about two minutes behind him because he'd spent I was much more efficient and him with it life base, but after leaving that I could see him making time on me, so he's getting away in a way in a way. So before the split there was a second life base. I mean exactly the same thing. And again, he had probably gained about half an hour and me, but when we exited I was only about a minute or two behind him. So when we got to that aid station the fact that I was 10 minutes behind a man to is still faster than me and still pulling away from me. So I was thinking at that stage that he was going to yet again pull away from me. There were no more life bases left. So it would be interesting to see what would evolve but then again I'd like we were discussing earlier. I told my research on the runners. I knew I had more long-distance experienced and Anyone else in the top of the fields that no one had gone as far as I had done and no one had gone more than about 20 hours racing. So I was kind of in terms of not so much a plan. But I hope that you know, he would not have the experience to do his pacing right and I might be able to haul him in a notice from a photograph that there was a near-vertical climb that they were rulers honest invoice for a pastoral. Did this happen frequently during the race? There was two or three points where you had via ferrata type climbing going up to the first life base of the Leela Hotel. They're actually have a man Forever at a section where there are people there safety people to make you put on a harness and helmet and your wife were out of gear and you have to work your way up the Via ferrata staying technically safe with you go. I will be useful exercise to be an Alpine climber. So I was able to work my way. A section reason they quickly and then one we are on the hundred 70k part of the course. We are on the highest mountain. There are two or three sections where they were sort of chain ladders for want of a better description and they were unprotected and no safety people around but it was a pretty pretty vertical climb where you could potentially be. I mean the jains are there because of all the very steep climb and you wouldn't want to be working and open your own. On particularly hundred forty K and on a big huge time in the middle of the day again something else to notice in the course description. It said participants need to be confident in their ability to cover very challenging terrain will be completely self-sufficient for periods of more than ten errors there just significant distance between the aid stations that was on the final section of the race. Did you find that you were on your own for long periods of time during the race? Yeah, I was left on my own but it wasn't quite as bad as they made it out the aid stations as far as I was concerned. We're pretty well spaced and no point came anywhere near running out a water or anything like that or a feeling that if I don't get to an aid station soon. I'll be in big problems. They wasn't that case at all. There were very logically based apart, but there were large chunks particularly after I got myself in the first place where I was on my own and of course at that point when I I'm in first place hoping to defend that I want to be on my own. I don't want any company. So there was a many many many many many hours of running Along on my own thoughts and being quite late in the race, my mind started to wander a bit and you know nearly getting to loosen the restate at some point, but suppose if you were down to walk and pace of less than 4 kilometers in error. Ten errors is only what 24 30 kilometers. Yeah, but the eggs, I think I would guess that the largest Been Aid stations about 10 kilometers or so. So it's pretty good having said that some of that could be over very technical ground. So that time they would be doing quite a slow pace. So you could be even, you know, even running at the front of the race. You could be good to three hours between eight stations on particularly technical grounds. What was the temperature low Jordan erase it varied about it? Probably at its absolute hardest right at the start of the race because we're down low in a lovely Village which we start from and that was at one o'clock in the afternoon and temperatures. Teachers seem to Peak out at around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, but the required obviously be very high at one o'clock. Anyway, so along flat run started in and within a valley created by one of the bodies, so the T tends to hold our so that was definitely one where I pasted very carefully and didn't run very hard because I knew it if you're trying to run that at full speed you just exhaust yourself way too early in the race as regards the rest of the race when the Sun goes down, you know things Almost perfect in terms of running temperature no matter where you are higher low up. I sometimes it actually got quite cool because you know, if you're running along a rainbow Ridge, you might get the wind effect. So for maybe an hour or two, it was marginal about what I was going to put on a jacket so and that was yeah running High along a ridge eise action in the first night again, when the temperature came when the sun came up during the day, I was lucky enough that I was Under the high mountains at that stage. So the sun produces the heat, but the course the high produces it back down again. So it was it was warm. I had my son hat on but it wasn't excruciating the warm and it wasn't affecting my performance too much in terms of the Heat and then when the when the sun went back down and I had to finish out the race in the nighttime temperatures if anything were little just a little on the warm side of felt kind of humid, but I had armor. Is ready to go but never felt the need to put them on quite the reverse. Let's suppose that suited you is you don't look to hold through the me down to the ground. There's a lot of things I like about this race is that the temperature is really really good and there's you're pretty much guaranteed Sunshine during the day and at night time the skies are clear. And if you actually look up at the stars, they're spectacular. I was at one point looking at the moon and it was looking really spectacular. So you had good visibility at night time to appoint your good visibility anything. You could see but interesting enough with something was dark. It was jet black. So they have the course marked out extremely. Well extremely extremely well. So at nighttime, they have a small green dots little reflective dots placed along the course. Oh look you can look like you can running along a Runway at times but where there's jit danger nearby, they'll put red dots so you don't run over the red dots and so what I would see the red dots and I'd know that there's a clear for You know something like that nearby something dangerous to get fall into but all you see is Blackness. You wouldn't know what it is. So it's the one thing that is a little frustrating as you know, that there's a spectacular view there. But all you can see is the red dots to indicate that what you're missing. How did your clothing differ during this race? I very want to put the emphasis on some protection for this one. So I was wearing a Columbia on the Columbia Sun reflective t-shirts, which have detained him oxide. Some of them which help reflect sunlight back out. It's a very interesting design. And so I wore that I'd only test run it once before during our summer here and I the way I described it with like closing the curtains, it's actually pretty effective. So be a little heavier than a standard lightweight, you know running t-shirt for for the Sun but it's what you know, you don't notice the weight but you do notice that the reflectivities the other thing I had desert. Cap with the you know code which is asking mandatory gear on this race so that your neck is protected and you put that on and it makes a big difference in the middle of the sun. Then just a normal Columbia Mantra running shorts. I also had a new pair of Runners which Columbia had given me to test which turned out to be brilliant grip as I think they're called. I've Katie's and there they these turn out to be superb on the rocky terrain and I absolutely bashed the hell out. And they survived that but I wanted something that was guaranteed. Good grip on the right on the Rock and he's that nice soft rubber on them. So I knew that the group would be well on Rocky terrain didn't have to worry too much about dealing with any wetness. Although it did get the shoes wet once or twice because some of their bodies do actually have rivers in them. So you end up getting your feet wet, but they dry out no time. So no waterproof shoes. So this one better having the full venting of non waterproof shoes. Yes, hold the big Advantage with that is water gets into Norm waterproof. You can get out the shoe is waterproof the water gets in it stays in. Yeah, although in this case. I might have had a cooling effect. So when the bother me, but in general just a venting would be fine here, you know, it's definitely different decision-making to 95% of the races. I be doing where what part where tends to be the problem. And this one where it's not a problem. It's actually a useful attribute really bulky did recent winner of the Katie way Ultra. He wore the same shoes the fptrq. Use and he mentioned something similar to what you've just said there that's good to hear rest periods. Did you take many breaks or did you take any breaks the longest break? I took was an enforced break at the trails split where I had to sit down for my five-minute medical examination now is the only time I sat down and entire race, even when I was getting the big life bases, which are the major Aid stations. I made sure to stay standing up got up my drug got the stuff out of my drop back as quickly as possible and just try to get through everything as fast as possible. So very much in my case. It's a tactic of using Aid stations as the easiest place in the entire course to gain time on people by the simple process of getting in and getting doing what you need is fast as you can doing the minimum amount to just get out and get going. What would your gear? He'll do that differ in this rage or did it the rest of your not a lot of difference in this race mainly was the clothing the differed. Yeah. Can I was able to Got a lot of lightweight gear. Whereas normally, you know, I'd be much more cautious and go for stuff. That's you know gonna be much more robust and resilient what I want for the weather goes absolutely to hell but in this case didn't have to worry so much. So it's a matter of picking up the lightest thing I could get away with bar my phone so I had a really lightweight phone but I chose to take my own personal smartphone just to have a GPS navigational device with me because if I did go off course I had a loaded with Good maps and the course plot and I did actually use it once to check where I was where it was. I'd lost track of the green dots and I was turned out I was about 20 meters, of course what happens with your phone and the maps if you can't get a signal I have offline maps loaded on the phone get them for free from the places like open and roadmaps and have offline mapping software like locusts Maps, which will T be able to handle those then it doesn't matter cuz G Yes it go. You should be able to pick up. It doesn't matter. If you don't have a mobile signal GPS or still work and he'll you conserve your phone battery. I have a very big battery on my phone. It's 4,000 milliamps. I think so, I would know from experience of testing it out that I can actually get more than two days of use normal use out of my phone without recharging it and Eid when I had it. I didn't try and conserve any power in the race and I did use a GPS once or twice and when I got to the end. End of the race after 36 hours of running the phone was still over fifty percent of battery capacity. It's actually mandatory gear in the race that you have to bring a power bank with you too so that you can recharge your phone or a second phone so that you always have a mobile signal so I had the smallest power bank. I have my collection because I knew I needed a nerdy curiosity but phones. My phone is zami MI 90s called a news with the Hub such a good bachelor in this thing. H, no, I'm not going to ask you about nutrition. How was the navigation at no time. I know you're a good Navigator bought hell. Do you think it was for navigation? It was excellent because they marked the course so so well funny enough. It was actually easier to navigate at night time than it was in the daytime because the daytime you have to watch out for green-painted dots and rocks. So you pay more attention but a nighttime you have a head torch on and they have reflectors along the course. So the reflector stand out from miles away and they're much easier to follow along. So navigation wise it was very very good. There was only one spot where there was a I didn't see a reflector and that was I was it was probably the easiest place to navigate because I was running on a dirt road and I reckon the reason the reflectors went missing is because where there was no reflectors there was a camel standing by so I guess I'm guessing the camel actually ate one. You using polls during the race. Did you use them from the start or will you select the videos in them? I had them out and ready to go from the start and I would have used them from the first time onwards. Absolutely. In fact, one of the Irish Runner is Tony Burke who was there in the 1 3 5 kilometer race was using Nordic walking poles and he's a Nordic walking and structure and they were talking about it and I was agreeing with him that his tactic of Nordic walking was likely to be highly. A successful and very efficient with new qualification criteria for the UTMB in chamonix. Anyone that completes the one Thirty kilometer or 170 kilometers raised will boy passed a lottery and have a guaranteed entry for the UTM be in 2020. Does that mean that this is an extremely difficult race or a very expensive race to get into well, it's definitely not expensive a certainly there's plenty of other races around that are similar level expense considering the amount of distance covered and amount of logistical support given to Erase, it's no more expensive than you would expect in terms of difficulty. Yes, and I actually like this. I think this is a feature because the UTMB organization are involved, you know, the Pilates who are the founders of the UTMB. Michelle pilati was racing and Catherine pilate was around as well making sure everything was running well, so they've looked over the course they know it well, so they know the standard. So to me it's an advantage that you can get straight in because if you you know, I've done now two of the UTMB franchise races Aishwarya and oh man and they're both what I would call up to standard if you can complete the franchise races, you can complete the UTMB races themselves. So I think it's a good thing that there are a sufficient level of technical difficulty that you know that anyone who completes these is going to have a good shot at being able to complete the dtmb itself. So it makes sense that these give you a an automatic entry and if you complete them because you know, it makes sense. From a point of view of being fair. I think it's an improvement actually on the old system because on the old system. There are plenty of races that on paper have a similar distance and climb but in reality are far far easier than what you're likely to encounter in the UTMB in the Alps whereas Aishwarya and Oman in particular are so technically difficult is that you'll actually find UTM cell UTMB itself a lot easier. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. The point system is to show that you have experience of these races and you have to accumulate more of a couple of years. We avoid if you're doing a race and can finish the race as technically difficult. It proves that you have the ability to finish the race in Germany. Absolutely and that to me is definitely a good thing. I know there's been a lot of talk and controversy about it at seeing as a money-making scheme for the UTMB, but I don't think so to me. It makes actually very good logical sense, and it's actually closing. Gap that did exist. Where was it in ways to easy to qualify in races that did not give you the experience you needed for UTMB. Whereas if you do one of these races you have and you'd managed to complete the meat then you have the experience. You need to complete UTMB and you can actually go into the UTMB with a lot more confidence knowing that and you improve the chances of the people who can actually finish the race getting the opportunity to take part in around and somebody just trying to cross it off a list inside of donut or Troy to do it. Yes, and absolutely and another thing I've heard is that you know, it's making it a with such that people with money can get will be the ones again because they'll be able to afford to traveling to go to races. But the reality is that you have to travel to go to races no matter what they are and for the UTMB itself you need to do at least three races to qualify. Where is the only need to do one of these races to qualify and quite frankly. The money involved isn't such a massive expense boy person the lottery and having the guaranteed entry will Make it a lot more attractive to anyone thinking of doing the race in chamonix for anyone planning on taking part in the human race. How do you get there? Well, a man is one of the more accessible countries in the Middle East. I would say I certainly found it a very welcoming and friendly place. I loved my time there and no hesitation going back for a second go getting there is pretty straightforward. Oh man is well connected with unfortunately. No direct flights from Ireland, but there's plenty of One-Stop. Lights and so on and off lights aren't too expensive with a huge range of choice that takes you into Moscow airport, which is big modern airport. That's actually one of the best airports. I've been in and the race as shuttle buses. You can pay to get onto and they will take you direct to your race hotel. If you take one of the race hotels and they have four designated race hotels where you can sign up for a package and stay there so you can get it all done without too much difficulty the race facilitates. As much as possible to make your life pretty easy so that all you have to do is essentially take the boxes. And once you get on the plane, you'll be taken care of start to finish. So does the shuttle bus from the airport outer race would help out the right? So tell them their shuttle buses that run from the race hotels to the start line and the finish line and so on and there and the race registration. So there you're no matter which of the race hotels you staying and you take care. Of course, you could also hire a car and just be self-sufficient and stay anywhere you want. I know a few people who are doing the 50k certainly did that because it worked out easier for them. But I've gone with the the race Logistics on both occasions and they were very happy with it. Well, that's a big positive. You don't get that many races. No, no, certainly not and there's some races I would avoid because it just becomes too logistically complicated. Can you explain to us a little bit about the it reporting system for runners? So when you finish a race that has been registered for it. I tried International Trade running Association, you get points awarded based on your level of performance. So Elites and then for your top five races are think they're averaged to a certain extent with degrading over time. So you clearly can accumulate a points by running races and and then you have your your interest score which is your your your running total. So a lot of races like the UTMB and various other races will rank you based on your points. So an elite Runner if your mail is classified as someone with 750 points at the moment, I'm actually not ranked as a later time. I'm just a little bit below and different races depending on the grading will might have might be easier or harder to get Sun and you can figure it out. There are ways to game the system to get get high points you want it so I'll get low points for actually winning the oh man UTMB because it took me such a long time to go to course because the points isn't see generally doesn't take enough count of degree of technical difficulty. So you find Runners who run short races in America tend to get very high points because they can cover the ground with speed and they got high points as a result. So the top points athlete when I check the last time was Jim Walmsley was the top points good women then are ranked on exactly the same points, but just a lower threshold for being ranked as athletes and their benefits. If you can get in the league ranking a lot of races will give you free entry and things like that before we finish your painting. Can you just give us a reminder of your finishing position in the race? I actually managed to win the race which for me was quite an achievement. Because UTMB races, you know there it's a big organization to its prestigious organization UTMB and cells instead most prestigious in the world. So I never envisaged find myself position to actually overall win a race. I mean, I've been targeting podiums for my age group, but to actually win outright was Way Beyond what I ever expected and count for me counts as one of the my career highlights, so I'm ecstatic at the end of that. Well, congratulations once again, and I'll be getting you back in. In to do another podcast so we might talk specifically though training or kids selection in the next time around something that will become a more General towards. All Races curled are be great. Okay believer that and for anybody that's listening in if you don't join the podcast you might consider leaving a review on Apple podcast if you use that or whatever else you might get the opportunity and yeah, thanks again. Wait, yeah.
Eoin Keith was the winner of the 2019 Oman by UTMB 170Km race. In this podcast he tells us all about his race and includes some tips and strategies for anyone thinking of taking part in future events. The JBS is an incredibly tough and technical challenge only recommended for extremely experienced adventurers. Participants must be confident in their ability to cover very challenging terrain whilst being completely self-sufficient for a minimum of 10 hours as there are significant distances between the Aid Stations on the Jebel Shams section of the route. Athletes taking on this epic challenge will follow the 130KM route up Jebel Al Akhdar, including the vertical climb out of Balad Sayt, before carrying on along the top of the plateau and following the trail around Jebel Shams, where they will climb to an altitude of almost 3,000m. Runners arriving at the Aid Station at Col Trail Split within the barrier time, the point at which the Jebel Shams section starts, will be evaluated before being allowed to continue with the JBS. Those runners found not to be in a condition to take on the additional section will be re-directed onto the JBA route and will be reclassified into the JBA race. This also applies to runners arriving after the barrier time. With the new qualification criteria for UTMB in Chamonix, runners completing the 130KM or 170KM distances will bypass the lottery and have a guaranteed entry for UTMB 2020. 