To all you mountain goats out there.. I salute you!

A little bit of context: I am from one of, if not the, flattest country in the world. I am an average trail runner, who's only just started dabbling with 50Ks. Again, on very flat terrain. Trails nonetheless, but I can do a 50K with less than 200m of elevation gain lol

At the moment I am in the French Alps at the foot of the Mont Blanc. As I am staying in Les Contamines, which is one of the villages the UTMB passes through, I figured I'd run a little part of the course.

Decided on running up to the first refuge from Les Contamines and from there deviate from the course and hit another refuge higher up and run back down the same way.

Total course length: 12.20km with 847m of elevation gain.

I - got - humbled. Holy shit! I think from the entire 6km up, I maybe ran 2.5 at best. I know in mountain races people hike up, but after I went off the UTMB course the terrain was so technical at places I couldn't even run down either. My calves and quads nearly exploded when I came back to the car. To imagine people do this for 174km straight is mind boggling to me.

So to all you mountain goats out there, you are crazy, and I love it!

Added a video from one of my favourite parts of the route!