84 thoughts on “du Mont-Blanc USA vs. Europeans”

1. sweet.. go karl!

2. awesome! im sending karl positive vibes. thanks for giving us updates! we appreciate it

3. What time does this thing start? Good luck WSG.

4. Thanks Scott for the updates.

   I know only Jens Lukas from Germany, he is one of the world best 24h racers and 3 time winner of the Spartathlon.
   Ultramountain racing and 100 mile racing in general is pretty new to Europe
   so I reckon that nobody has a chance against the US runners.

   I think they will crash the course record.
   Keep going Karl

   Markus

5. Best of luck everybody, go get ‘em!

6. Where on the website do you click on for updates or placement of runners?
   My French is rusty, merci!

7. Karl,

   Show them what us New World SpeedGoats are made of!!

8. Check out this way of tracking the race:
   1. go to main website http://www.ultratrailmb.com
   2. click on FOLLOW RACE IN LIVE
   3. click on TABLEAU PASSAGES and thenTOUR DU MONT BLANC
   4. click on kilometers, they are listed ascending order.
   You will then see a list of the aid stations and it will also give you the positions of the runners.

   If anyone know of a better way, please let us know. I can’t figure out the Google Earth way of doing it.

   GO KARL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. Live website: http://live.ultratrailmb.com/

10. Scott

    The 3755 # is not bringing anything up on the page. I’ve got Karl’s race # @2771, Scott’s @ 3612, and Hal’s @ 3583. Just put the # in the box and hit the French button version of enter and it brings up there info. Right now they’re all together in the top 8.

11. Karl……you’re the baddest goat in europe this weekend……..run hard my brother….

12. I’m using:

    http://live.ultratrailmb.com/tetecourse.php

    (head of the race)

    This shows the top 10. Just hit your refresh button whenever you want an update. Looks like a close one so far! Nikki has taken a good lead as well for the women.

13. Go NIKKI! First woman by a humongous margin, 41st overall as of 3:45 pm rocky mountain time!

    And go men! yee haw!

14. Dean’s really going to have to pick up the pace if he wants to win this thing. He’s the favorite isn’t he?

15. WOW Thanks Scott and others on helping us follow along…

    GO USA BABY!!!

16. i’m laughing my arse off on the dean comment……thanks jon, i was thinking the same thing…..go karl, dig deep……….

17. Red the head like the dick on a dog!!!! GOATBOY is diggin the hooves in! Watchin Mermoud take the bait and then Goatboy will go to the familiar wheel house and clickty clack his hooves over the Mts. USA men and Women are looking mighty spry!! hold on to yer seats! ya never know

    wie wie bah bah

18. I feel the same way about Karl Meltzer and Scott Jurek as you do about Dean. So I guess this makes us even.

19. Wynn,

    I can’t wait to meet your crazy ass next year at the Wasatchspeedgoat 50k 7/26/07!

    WSG

20. – is upset about Dean?

    # Jon Says:
    August 24th, 2007 at 3:58 pm e

    Dean’s really going to have to pick up the pace if he wants to win this thing. He’s the favorite isn’t he?

21. What a race. Way to go USofA. Mermoud is hanging tough but a long way to go. Looks like Nikki just has to stay upright the rest of the way.

    Is that Memphis Billy posting?

    I believe this is the part where KSN starts with the college running business.

22. I would imagine Dean’s agent has him stopping to pose for pics with the fans at each aid. I’m sure he’s on pace to finish under the cut off time.

    As for Karl, Hal, and Scott, god knows whats streaming through their minds. There’s still alot of racing left. Keep Hoovin’–Bahah, Baahhaaahhh, Bitches!!

23. Thanks for the Dean update, even though it was a bit obscure. He’s going to pull this one off; afterall, I saw him on the cover of a magazine. Get with it guys, this guy has even written a book.

24. Strong work Meltzer!!!

    Baahhhhhhhhahahahahhhhhhhh!

25. Scott Said:I believe this is the part where KSN starts with the college running business.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    LOLOLOL ya was just thinking that myself … hopefully she is sleeping

    GO USA … GO non-college runners USA

26. Looks like Koerner and Jurek are lost?

27. GO USA – non-college runners! She is sleeping thinking of Dean ! yeaks

    Jurker and Koerner are fading out of the scene, Karl is our only hope!!

    Bahahaah go Speedgoat, he learned to run at the Wasatch Mountain COLLEGE!

28. Did Hal & Scott and a bunch of others take a wrong turn??

29. race dosen’t start until “La Fouly” Lets go Karl!!!!! Head down and horns out, full steam ahead.

30. Looks like it is close at Champex, with Karl in 3rd just a minute behind Olmo and with a nice climb up ahead:)
    The Google Earth race is pretty cool (I think they only handed out the GPS trackers at Fouly). I can see Olmo and Mermaud (looks like Olmo is actually in the lead now), but I don’t think Karl’s GPS chip is working, because his position is not showing up in the right place (yet).
    Good luck Karl!

31. dean must have stopped to get a wax and full body glossing for the photographers and it is obviosly helping his aerodynamics……karl, crank up the tunes brah, your almost to the barn……………dig ,dig,dig……

32. scott, yea, it’s memphis billy here with elvis……….elvis is taking karl 3 to 1

33. Man, everything was looking good last night. Sure didn’t want to wake up to this.

34. Has Karl dropped? It says ” arrete” under his place.

35. I agree with Zach didn’t want to wake up to this..Oh well that’s why they play the game… NIKKI still kicking some major ASS though…way to go NK!

    OLMO is one strong MOFO — lol

36. PS: Just looked Marco OLMO up a little bit….geesh 59 years young—friggin amazing, what kinda pasta does he eat…i want sum

37. just got up and this ruined my day.. cascade crest 100 (http://www.cascadecrest100.com/) is today. i’m pacing jamie gifford – should be a blast.

38. Hang tough Karl. And way to go Ryan Cooper… slowly moving up the ranks to 29th!

39. It would seem that Hal and Scott might have DNF’d about midway. The live update said both had stopped at Courmayeur along with a few others. I wonder what happened?

40. Great run by Karl! Also notable is Topher Gaylord (20th) who’s run a number of races – and runs with Dean. Nikki at 24th. Peter Bakwin was 43rd. Dean was 54th.

41. hmmm Anyone know if CCC100 is doing any LIVE updates ??

    I don’t see anything on their site :-B

    Thanks

42. Hey all…here is what Hal sent me about the race this morning…word for word…another race in another country with different rules, techniques and trails…a huge learning curve. -Ian Torrence

    “well, I guess there is a learning curve for this race. We just watched a
    60 year-old man devour the course and have yet to see the second place
    finisher.

    The course was as billed, yet I believe we all overlooked the eurocentric
    nature of it. Running through the night for me was a daunting task,
    especially when you combine the enormous descents (no switchbacks, straight
    down!) Into the 50k mark I think I slid most of the 5k descent and thought
    for sure I was going to end up like Bo Jackson, I’ll have to see how my
    hips hold up. Knowing this course is the crux, we watched countless euros
    cut the course and the switchbacks, up and down. Not so bad in the light,
    but at night impossible to follow.

    Scott bowed at a few minutes after Carly and I tried walking out of
    Courmeyer but I had nothing left and with my knee’s on fire I shortly
    followed suit. Rather dissapointing, but the mountains we were able to
    traverse made it the most amazing course I have been on. The atmosphere is
    on par with the Tour and running through the early towns could only be
    described as “uplifting.”

    We went on a little to watch Karl, but he has certainly faded proving that
    we all overlooked the difficulty of this race. This would be one to solely
    focus for.

    I wanted to let you know that besides destroyed legs we are ok and we’ll
    talk as soon as possible. KarL has a phone and I’ll get on that as soon as
    he finishes.

    talk soon………”

43. i’m crawling back into my cave now……………well, it’s kinda like steve prefontaine…….the boys don’t run for 2nd……..and sometimes for that, you pay the price…..great effort……….

44. uh-oh – looks like Karl stopped. The GPS tracking hasn’t had him moving in quite a while and a lot of people are coming in and out of the checkpoint that he stalled at.

    As I type, the top 16 have finished – and barring something dire, Nikki Kimball will finish soon as top woman.

45. Hi
    where are the champions ?
    I only see KARNAZES Dean arrived 47 !
    and KIMBALL Nikki 1 st !!!

46. No doubt these guys race a strategy I know nothing about, run at the front to win or die trying. I’m happy to make up a few places in the final miles and sneak into the top 10 once in a while. It was entertaining guys, thanks for show.

    Nice running Kimball, Gaylord and Karnazes. IMHO, the Dean bashing is pointless.

47. Cascade Crest 100 Miler Endurance Run –

    i’ll be sending text messages to my blog as updates on the race happenings. hopefully i’ll have good service and the updates will be frequent. – http://coachingendurance.com/blog/blog.shtml

    so far:
    tom chapman is leading
    darcy africa is leading for woman

48. Looks like our American hopes were dashed just like in basketball. We knew there were tough Euros out there, but none of us saw our top three big dogs dropping out like little puppies. In with a bark, out with a wimper.

    Dean proves that experience and toughness can win out over speed and good looks, sorry Scott.

    Hope the boys all had fun traveling Europe and apparently drinking too much good beer! Cheers for a good first attempt.

49. Tough to see all three big dogs go down, I didn’t think any one even could have predicted such a outcome! Way to go Dean! He must be licking his chops after that race!

50. “Dean proves that experience and toughness can win out over speed and good looks, sorry Scott.”

    Sorry, Larry, I don’t see it that way at all. It would be silly to question Scott’s or Karl’s experience versus that of Dean’s. Methinks all three of them have run plenty enough to know most of the ins and outs of the ultra distance.

    And as far as good looks, that’s subjective–and really has nothing to do with the outcome of the race either way.

    One could claim Dean was competitive in this race, yet he was at least fourth among the Americans, and the Americans proved a small contingent in the overall field.

    Beyond that, the demands of being competitive in the top ten of a race like Tour du Mont Blanc are what most of us can only imagine (myself included; and believe me, I did a lot of imagining as I followed it well into the night Friday).

    Dean was obviously not out to win this race; he wanted to finish and to the best of his ability. Did he push himself outside a comfort zone that might cause deeper questions of finishing or not? Only he can answer that.

    But people drop in an ultra for any number of reason–Jurek himself has already posted on his blog what motivated him. One may or may not agree with a paritcular runner’s motivation for dropping, but it seems futile to make comparisons between those who finish and those who don’t in terms of who “won.”

    Brennen