With the ballot for arguably the most famous ultramarathon in Europe, Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, now open, many runners will be thinking about 2016 race plans. Other high-profile European ultras, such as Trans Gran Canaria and Transvulcania, keep growing in popularity, mainly due to their combination of fiendish difficulty and jaw-droppingly beautiful courses. But if you like your long races a little more low-key – perhaps you don’t want to sit at your computer hitting refresh on the entry screen repeatedly to get into a race before it fills up, or perhaps your enjoyment of single-track trails in spectacular places is spoiled by several thousand other people and their elbows and poles – then there are plenty of fantastic races to choose from. This is just a small selection of races, based on my own experience and that of some running buddies.
Laugavegur Ultra Trail
Website: marathon.is/ultramarathon
Location: Iceland
Distance: 55km
Month: July
If you’re looking for spectacular landscapes and varied terrain, then this race is a gem. It’s a point-to-point run over volcanic rock, up and down some fairly big hills, across glaciers and rivers, with occasional blasts of steam rising from the geothermal systems in the ground. It’s a unique experience, topped off with a beer, a feast and a soak in a hot spring at the finish.
Montagn’Hard
Website: lamontagnhard.com
Location: Chamonix, France
Distance: 107k, 60k or the brilliantly named Moins’hard 40k
Month: July
Julie Freeman, the co-founder of Like the Wind magazine, raves about this race as a lovely, low-key affair, not dissimilar to races such as the CCC in terms of terrain and difficulty, but a world away in numbers of people. There is an awful lot of ascending – 8,800m over 107k – so it’s not for the faint-hearted (as suggested by the name). Julie’s description makes it sound so nice, though: “I will always remember reaching the top of that last hill as the sun was just starting to disappear behind a mountain, tinting the Mont Blanc massif all sorts of pastels. The last checkpoint team was happy to see a smiley face, and I was delighted when they promised me that it was all downhill from there. I soaked up the last rays of light as I realised I had been going since the sun went up the other side, and flew down the hill to the finish line. I have never finished a race without a big smile on my face, and this was no exception. In fact, this was probably my biggest smile so far – like, ever.”
Ultra Trail Sierra Norte
Website: ultratrailsierranorte.com
Location: Just north of Seville, Spain
Distance: 100k or marathon
Month: November
I’ve just returned from this race and it was wonderfully low-key. Instead of the usual thousands of people performing a complex series of stretches and jostling for position on the start line, 200 marathon runners sat in the shade of orange trees (with the odd beer – it was an afternoon start), then set off in a very relaxed fashion. The trails through the Sierra Norte national park were beautiful, there were some quite mean hills and we finished in the dark in a town square with Come on Eileen blasting from the PA system.
Ultra Trail Collserola
Website: utcollserola.com/home
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Distances: 10k, 23k, 38k, 85k. The 85k has 3,000m of ascent
Month: November
Warren Pole, the co-founder of 33Shake, suggested this race: “Simply gorgeous trails. I spent a month here finishing Lavaredo UT 2014 training: plenty of hills, very low traffic and a great Spanish vibe. Better still, it’s only a few stops on the metro from the centre of Barcelona, so you can have one hell of a party/beach/winter sun long weekend around the race if you like. Even if you are in Barcelona outside of the race weekend, the trails are super-well marked and mapped, so packing your trainers and jumping on the Metro does the magic job of taking you from the heart of the city into empty trail hills in a flash.”
Transylvania 100k
Website: transylvania100k.com
Location: Romania
Distances: 100k, 50k, 30k
Month: May
As far as race organisers’ boasts go, “bears, wolves and Count Dracula” is pretty hard to beat. I’m not certain that a small field, where you can easily find yourself running alone, is what I’d necessarily choose when hungry bears and wolves are lurking in the woods, but I’m reliably informed that this race has an epic backdrop. The snow, mountains and navigation can make it very difficult, but what better motivation to keep going in an ultra than not being eaten by a bear?
Eiger Ultra Trail
Website: eigerultratrail.ch/en
Location: Grindelwald, Switzerland
Distances: 101km, 51km, 35km, 16km
Month: July
2016 is the Eiger Ultra Trail’s fourth year, and it has been steadily growing in popularity. It’s easy to see why, with its incredible location (a postcard-perfect Swiss village, overlooked by the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau), high levels of organisation and a staggeringly beautiful – and difficult – course. If you want an alternative to the UTMB races, with a maximum of a five-minute walk to the start from any hotel in Grindelwald and a much smaller field, then this is a good option. This was easily my favourite race in 2015.
Ultravasan 90
Website: vasaloppet.se/en/races/running-races/ultravasan90
Location: Sweden
Distances: 90k, 45k
Month: August
Holly Rush, Team GB marathon and ultra runner, suggested this race: “Ultravasan 90k is in Mora , about three hours north of Stockholm … it’s beautiful. It’s most known for the Vasaloppet, the biggest and oldest cross-country ski event. The race basically follows the same route but in the summer. It’s point-to-point, which I love as you feel as if you are on a journey through pine forests, muddy bogs, over gangplanks and through cute Swedish villages. With only 1,000m of vertical gain over 90k, it’s a fast course, but the going can be tough in places if wet. Enjoy blueberry soup and cinnamon buns on the course. Definitely worth the journey to get there.” Holly is too modest to say so, but she won the race in 2014.
La 6000D
Website: la6000d.com/en
Location: La Plagne, France
Distances: 11k 6D Decouverte, 27k 6D Lacs, 63k 6000D (with 4,000m of ascent)
Month: July
Another suggestion from Warren Pole: “The 6000D in La Plagne is a beauty. It’s bigger than Collserola, but still no UTMB/Lavaredo/etc. It’s also a manageable enough distance but with loads of climbing (running past ski stations and through resorts repeatedly, which is a nice kick), plus all the cheese you can eat, as you’d expect from any self-respecting French ultra-trail. I ran it in 2012 and had a ball, despite torrential rain for the first three hours.”
Grossglockner Ultra Trail
Website: ultratrail.at/english
Location: Austria
Distances: 110k (with 7,000m of ascent), 50k, 30k
Month: July
This race was suggested by proud Austrian Britta Sendlhofer, the editor of Run247.com. This has to be one of the toughest ones on the list, centred around Grossglockner, the highest peak in Austria. The organisers boast 300 summits over 3,000m in the area, though hopefully they don’t make you climb all of them. Definitely a race for fans of big ascents and descents.
Ultra Tour Monte Rosa
Website: ultratourmonterosa.com
Location: Swiss/Italian border
Distance: 116k (with 7,500m of ascent)
Month: September
This is a new race, included on the grounds that it has been created by Lizzy Hawker, Britain’s greatest ultra runner, five-times winner of the UTMB and exceptionally big lover of mountains. If there were ever a person in a position to develop the perfect mountain ultra, it’s Lizzy. The race follows the Tour de Monte Rosa footpath, a route that Lizzy loves and wants to share with other runners, along with her passion for the mountains: “My objective is simple – to share the joy that I have had from running. Over my years of running in the mountains, I have explored incredible landscapes, experienced different cultures, shared great experiences and explored my own physical, mental and emotional limits. I have challenged myself in all sorts of ways and learnt a huge amount about myself and others. It is all of these things that we hope to encourage people to experience for themselves – not only during the race, but during their journey to reach the start line, and their journey beyond the finish line.” (From Runner by Lizzy Hawker, Aurum Press, 2015.)
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