house of the ugly runners.
chamonix during utmb week is very busy. of course the main reason for someone to go there, is to run the thing. well, the thing is not one thing but many different trail running races during the week. we'll leave it up for the specialists to talk about the different distances / difficulties / altitude but you can summarize it as a lot of runners running massive amounts of km's and vertical meters. people come here, prepared.
as a brand we would love to present at this event. actually we are pretty sure we will do so in some shape or form, soon. main reason is that there are so many people from allover the world attending, supporting or cheering, that it would be the best way to meet up. we have all sorts of ideas floating already.
stan and jurian decided to go to chamonix to meet with a number of people from the industry and media, since everyone is there. we rented a little ground floor apartment of a chalet on the edge of town. we planned our week including lots of running, as runners do. then we got some requests from friends; if we had a place to stay.
runners among runners don't say no, so we said yes. that is how we unintentionally created the house of the ugly runners; an american, a brit, a frenchie and a cheesehead in one tiny appartment. we didn't even go to a bar; we ended up waking up early to run our mornings, skip lunches, meet as many people as we could and take dinner on the run. and admire trail runners, big and small.
trail running is becoming a big thing. but it is not simply about time and distance. trail is about a whole lot more. that is why we named our trail shoes 'get lost' and 'sayonara'. trail is about the experience. it is about you and the beautiful mountains, the weather, the pain, the suffering, the surrendering, the overcoming. trail is emotion and it is also about togetherness.
lead by stan, utmb finisher, we ran around, up and down the trails around chamonix. we talked and ran, talked and ran and then talked more. about running, podcasting, trail camps, books, films, everything. if you bring together 4 dudes who love running and actually make a business out of that, there is a lot of energy and ideas floating.
we ended our week in vallorcine, some 18km before the finish line. we dissolved into the crowd of trail running lovers and floated. we cheered for the utmb heroes, the legends. it was spectacular, inspiring and so simple; no entry fee, no dresscode (other than the space or dino suits), to be accepted.
during utmb week, it feels like we went back in time. we went backwards into a less complicated world, one from our younger years, without the interference of mobile devices during conversations. we woke up discovering why we run. sometimes we just run to get the metabolism going before we go. simple as that.
an american, a brit, a frenchie and a cheesehead walk into a beer & taco bar called 'stories' in chamonix and they say;
trail running is ugly
but you got to take it
