Inside the UTMB

I’ve always held the belief that in order to photograph sports, you should be able to relate to the athletes you’re covering through personal experiences. Ultra distance running breeds some unique individuals and it really is a case of having to experience the sport first hand to understand what wavelength they are on.The UTMB is the pinnacle of the the trail running calendar and it’s been on my bucket list since i first saw Kilian Jornet crossing the finish line in 2011. The course follows an anticlockwise  route around the base of Mont Blanc with 168km and 9600m of both ascent and decent to deal with. Having secured a place through the lottery, my buildup appeared to face setback after setback with me standing on the starting line knowing too well that I was a little unprepared.Fast forward 24 hours from the start and my race was up, around 60km from the finish. A number of factors worked towards my second ever DNF and rather than being disappointed, I felt content with my race despite its shortcomings. Running with the Sony RX100 I found myself taking a couple of shots from around the course that you can see below.And what does competing in the UTMB tell me of the understanding of the professional athletes that make this their job? Well I hope to find out this coming week as I embark upon a project on the island of Corsica. I’ll be travelling as part of a team with the aim of completing the GR20 route that traverses the island in a record breaking time. luckily for the team I’ll be taking part in no running, instead documenting the project as it unfolds.Stay tuned for updates and you can follow my progress over on Twitter or Instagram.