Karine Herry Victorious at the 2006
North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc!

Karine at the UTMB winners podium

Green Foods Corporation is extremely happy to announce that Karine Herry, M.D. from Les Estables, France has won the North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), setting a new women’s record time of 25h 22min 20sec (the previous record was more than 26 hours) for this internationally famous ultramarathon race. Over 2,500 runners from 48 countries began the race while 1152 actually made it to the finish line. The race began at 7:00 PM on August 25th in Chamonix, France and coursed around the beautiful mountain range called Mont Blanc, going through Italy, Switzerland and then back to Chamonix for the finish. The total distance is 158 kilometers or 98.2 miles.

Jean and Marco Olmo winner in the mens UTMB

Jean checking race positions

Karine and Christophe Jaquerod (who won the Men’s 2005 UTMB) are both among the top European ultra-trail runners (with many victories between them) and were favorites to win the 2006 UTMB. Last year, Karine finished in third place in the women’s division of the 2005 Western States 100-mile Endurance Run (WS 100).  This year, Karine had to drop out after halfway in order to avoid the possibility of heat exhaustion due to unexpectedly very high temperatures.  Karine had only two months to recover from the WS 100 before running in the UTMB in late August.  However, Karine was confident that her strict training schedule and dietary regimen would help her finish high at UTMB.

Karineat km33 Les Contamines

Guillaume Millet 5th place UTMB

Karine began the race feeling strong and after 33 km she had already taken the lead and she steadily increased her advantage from there.  Karine was in top form throughout the tour and was remarkably fit at the finish after a total of almost 100 miles. This was her first time competing in the UTMB for Karine and it was also the first time she ran this long of a distance in France. While Karine took top honors for the women, Christophe unfortunately had to withdraw from the race due to a low body temperature, but another of Karine’s fellow countrymen, Guillaume Millet from St-Genest Malifaux, France took 5th place in a very strong men’s field.  Like Karine, Guillaume had also raced in the 2006 WS 100 and so had only two months to prepare for the UTMB. An incredibly fit 57 year-old Marco Olmo from Italy took first place in the Men’s division. We congratulate both Karine and Marco on achieving their splendid victories and in setting the UTMB course records for women and men, respectively.

Note: Both Karine and Guillaume are avid Green Magma users as are many of the participants in the 2006 UTMB according to Health Counselor Jean Celle who advises runners on nutrition and supplementation. For more information about the UTMB visit: http://live.ultratrailmb.com/classentete.php

UTMB Factoids