The French are friendly and generous, Mont Blanc is beautiful, and we’re adjusting to life in Chamonix wonderfully. Leah and I rented a two bedroom apartment which we’re sharing with Karl Meltzer and his wife, thus I have a kitchen to do my own food prep. There is a little bio store (bio is how the Europeans refer to organic) right around the corner from us, with also a few more in town. Great local and vegetarian foods! Eating lots of local organic fresh fruits and veggies, breads, and lots of French lentils. Also plenty of other vegan staples available. I’ve adjusted to the time change and am getting lots of rest. We’ve run the last 25 km of the Ultra-Trail Tour du Mont-Blanc, as well as another 15 km in Italy. I also ran the first 8 km. Although I didn’t come early enough to do more, many people have been helpful in providing tips on the course. I’m feeling ready!

There will be multiple ways to “watch” the UTMB. It is necessary to know my race number is 3612. Definitely the highest number I’ve worn for an ultramarathon!

Runners will be wearing two chips to monitor our locations through the 25 checkpoints which will be updated automatically on the race website.

Runners can also be followed by SMS (a type of text message service). This service allows you to receive all the information about the runners of your choice directly to your mobile phone as they pass through the checkpoints. You can sign up for this on the race website. There is a fee of 5€ for the package, plus 5€ per race number followed. Note that you should receive a confirmation message immediately. We have heard that in previous years there have been some problems with US numbers.

They are also going to experiment with a new system of following the race leaders. A GPS/GSM radio beacon will be given to the top ten men and top three women through la Fouly, 107 km. This will be carried with them and the device will automatically transmit its position to an internet server every three minutes during these final 56 km of the race. People will then be able to watch the precise position of the race leaders between la Fouly and Chamonix, nearly in real time. In addition to being uploaded to the internet using Google Earth, there will be a giant screen set up in Chamonix for the public to watch. Goolge Earth can be downloaded free of charge. The race organization says to download it from http://earth82.com/. The instructions for using this for the race will be downloadable on the race site.

You can listen to live coverage of the race on the internet radio station Radio Mont Blanc. In French.. English interviews?

For anything written on the race website or elsewhere, a great free translating service is available online.

The race starts at 6:30 PM (Central European Time) Friday August 24. This is six to nine hours ahead of the US.

Thanks for all the support. I plan to put on a good show!