**UPDATED** Mont Blanc Ultra Trail: Full Coverage

2384 intrepid, lycra-clad competitors. Twenty-one gruelling hours of pure exertion - if you're amongst the quickest. High times and even higher energy; high altitudes and higher hopes. It can only be the Mont Blanc Ultra Trail; where the individual sport of trail running comes to the valley, sets off from the Mairie, and circles the Mont Blanc massif. Cutting through Les Houches, St Gervais, Les Contamines, Courmayeur, Champex, Trient, Vallorcine and La Flégère before arriving back into Chamonix a mere day later, this unimaginable feat of endurance brought a real festival vibe to town this weekend.

The route itself would be tiring enough by 4x4. A total altitude gain of 9404m, a total distance of 166km. But now we're talking numbers, and numbers have a way of distancing themselves from the real world. Let's put this into real, British terms. We're talking about having breakfast in Trafalgar Square, then dashing off for last orders at a club in Birmingham, whilst climbing Ben Nevis seven times on the way. Not something for your common-or-garden block jogger, you'll agree. And even more impressive considering the most popular category, with over 40% of entrants, is the 40-49 age bracket.

For the 2009 event, which started off Friday (28/8) afternoon, insult was added to the unavoidable injuries when the 2009 regulatory body insisted on competitors remaining eco-friendly...taking their Powderbar wrappers and Red Bull cans with them, carpooling to the race start and lugging spent head-torch batteries to rest-stop bins.

The UTMB attracts runners from all over the world and yields surprises year after year. Last year's winner Kilian Jornet (Spain), a whippersnapper in the trailrunning world at a mere 20 years old, finished a clear hour ahead of his nearest competition, shaking the snoozing judges out of their chairs by arriving almost an hour earlier than expected. Before this year's race, he was smiling and quietly demure, rocking a baggy t-shirt, slacks and flip-flops in a pre-race press conference, surrounded by older, serious-looking, spandex-clad competitors.

The race got underway in a wonderful, carnival-like atmosphere Friday evening, as trailers headed off from the Mairie, past the Post Office, between Chocaus & Le Pub before heading out towards Les Houches, under foreboding, grey skies. It looked more like a riot than a race for the first few hundred metres, as competitors jostled for position. Like the Tour de France, some competitors choose to follow a peloton of other runners, or run in teams. Others head out, lone-wolf-style, to tackle the elements and the mountains by themselves.

After a mere three hours, Jornet was leading a small, international group of seven runners as the race passed through Les Contamines just after sundown. One can only imagine the emotions running through the runners' minds at that point; old injuries beginning to nag, the anticipation of tiredness beginning to creep in, arm-warmers going on as the temperatures plummet to just a few degrees above zero. As the darkness took hold, the intrepid young Spaniard Jornet began pulling away, extending his lead by seventeen minutes over the course of just two stages under clear, star-filled skies.

Though struggling on the Italian-Swiss border, though cold temperatures and hardened snow, Jornet got it back together, leading the competition as it headed through Trient and Catogne. He hurtled into Vallorcine in brilliant shape; on the other hand his closest rival, Frenchman Sébastien Chaigneau - nearly an hour behind - looked like he'd been to hell and back.

In Chamonix town centre, the vibe was electric and emotional as the ten-thousand strong clowd clapped and cheered as competitors edged closer to the finish line. And it was the man of the day Kilian Jornet taking the gold in 21hrs, 33 minutes and 18 seconds. The story goes that he grew up in a refuge in the Spanish Pyrenées mountains, and his daily commute was running down from his 2000m home to school. And back up in the evenings. With an upbringing like that, it's no surprise that trail running is in this young man's blood, enabling him to clean up so efficiently this weekend.

Final rankings:
MENS
1st Kilian JORNET Spain 21:33:18
2nd Sebastien CHAIGNEAU France 22:36:45
3rd Tsuyoshi KABURAKI Japan 22:48:36
4th Uli CALMBACH Germany 23:10:49
5th Lionel TRIVEL France 23:34:28

WOMENS
1st Kristin MOEHL USA 24:56:01
2nd Elisabeth HAWKER GB 26:04:42
3rd Monica AGUILERA VILADOMIU Spain 29:17:31
4th Denise ZIMMERMANN Switzerland 31:16:38
5th Audrey EHANNO France 33:17:53

Whereas last year saw 1114 retirements, the 2009 event saw far fewer. That said, Nepalese Dawa Sherpa and Italian Marco Olmo were the shock retirements, both pulling out after the Les Contamines stage with similar leg injuries. Likewise, Frenchwoman Karine Herry retired on on of the final sections, the climb from Trient to Catogne (above Vallorcine) a misplaced foot resulting in a short but agonizing fall. Just goes to show that they are all human after all.

As the crowds began to melt away from the town centre as the sun set last night (Saturday), brave trailers continued arriving into town, all to raptuous applause from the street-lining crowds, mostly comprised of mountain dwellers shedding the occasional tear for these ambitious, limit-pushing mountain masters. See you at UTMB 2010.