🔥 Last week, we eagerly followed Anja and Tomi at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc – UTMB and regularly published all the news from their 300km long and 25,000 meter high test.

Unfortunately, they were stopped by the time limit at 240 km (20,000 m+), but they are both happy and satisfied with what they have done and are moving forward towards new challenges, full of new experiences that only such a brutal test as the PTL can give you.

At the finish line we were waiting for the first PTL team and while we were waiting the announcer said that PTL doesn't have first, second and third place. There are only those who participated and only they know what it's like.

Unfortunately, Anja and Tomi didn't manage to catch the time limit, but they still covered more than 2/3 of the way and proved that they are an extremely strong, capable and well-coordinated team. The children at home welcomed them as winners, which is the only important thing ❤️

Read more in their words below, which are truly moving.

Congratulations to everyone else, those who have crossed the finish line and those who will yet!

💬Anna:
This wasn't a Trail. I don't know what it was. Something really difficult. Every day something new: glaciers, granite boulders practically all the time, night crossings of passes in the snow, 1000 m ravines with scree. There was practically no path, ld boulders, scree, orientation every step. Night fog, all three thousand meters practically at night. But it was unforgettable, we enjoyed every moment. We experienced the unimaginable. But the limit meant that we practically didn't sleep, we were in a rush all the time. If we could have slept at least half an hour last night, we would have succeeded. Basically, we were exhausted, our whole body. The polona was excellent. But we did the main PTL, only descended the known part around MB. 5 days of running, 4 hours of sleep, 240 km, 20000 m. Nevertheless, we were ready to run for another 24 hours. But the limit stopped us. Everyone said the last part was easier, but in 20 hours we did 20 km. We didn't have a minute of the last night, which started with a path through avalanche terrain, continued with 800 m of steep meliss without a path, 800 m of snow where they only gave a strik and finally 1500 m of boulder. Then immediately into the second climb.... In addition, it is a miracle that Tomi is alive, because he did a head-down turn on the boulder and luckily stopped himself from falling into the abyss. We are proud of every day, grateful for all the experiences. We walked paths that we would not have done otherwise. Very tiring and unforgettable.

💬Tommy:
As part of the UTMB (the world trail running event under Mont Blanc), a special group is also preparing a special adventure with 300 kilometers and 25,000 altitudes, the longest and most difficult test, which we can no longer call running, trail running, or hiking, but a combination of all the skills that people can imagine for moving around the mountains with their own bodies: PTL "Petite Trotte à Léon" translates to "little walk". It's as if they were trying to mock those who register with the name itself.

Shortly after the start and learning what version of the route they have put together for 2021, it is clear that they think we are crazy. But this is the biggest compliment for real ultra trail runners. After my last such long test (360km Swiss Peaks Trail), the number of kilometers has even decreased, and the complexity of the conditions has significantly increased. Even compared to the PTL of previous years, since it was designed by a new course leader and led into a remote world "in the middle of nowhere", he gave us only a GPS track and a map, a few rare huts with food and with or without the possibility of emergency sleep. Teams of 2 or 3 members are required, who are inseparable and must reach the finish line together in 152.5 hours at the latest.

Support is only allowed at four "life bases", so the high mountain huts are inaccessible by car. Nevertheless, Polona Vetrih was a great help to us and also provided psychological support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! In addition to the usual things, the mandatory equipment also includes a helmet, climbing harness, self-belay kit and crampons for crossing glaciers, all equipment for emergency bivouac (we even carried a sleeping bag and emergency tent with us for a while), winter clothing, food and 2 liters of water. This made the backpack quite heavy. Due to the constant search for direction (there was often no well-trodden path at all), in some places almost impassable ground, dangerous sections and long nights and lack of sleep, the speed of movement is significantly reduced to an area that brings you closer to the intermediate time limits and Anja and I also felt all this. It's good what happened, it's good that the race came, which also showed me all the greatness, power, might and infinity of nature. It did not defeat us, but it showed us our smallness and our strength, and how much and when it lets us close enough to feel it, know it, and touch it.

This time she let us down really close to her heart, she was kind, she was beautiful. At the same time, she showed how vast, diverse and large, strong and mighty she is. The paths that we humans have built to make it easier to explore her are just tiny threads to her. This time, when we were able to go off the marked paths onto completely untrodden paths, we were able to feel much more of her superhumanity, and thus her infinity. A few kilometers, hills, stones, streams and pieces of ice, which are just a fraction to her, bring a person to the extreme limits of his physical endurance. And even more so on such a short part of the path, it becomes clear where each individual has set their own psychological, mental and intellectual limits.

It is very easy to retreat to the safe haven of your home couch at the slightest effort or danger. Even if you set a slightly higher goal, there comes a moment for everyone when they recognize their limits. My moment of limit came at the "Col de Serre" pass after 230 kilometers and 20,000 altitudes, when I realized that we could not catch the time limit at the 10 km checkpoint. It did not come after the first day of the hardest granite boulders, when a third of the 61 teams withdrew and I already began to wonder about the meaning of this action, when it took us 24 hours to cover 56 km, because we immediately made a double vertical on the first three-thousander from the start, and then began to dance on the moving granite blocks.

Of course, this moment was even further away on the second and third days, when I felt great and motivated others. It didn't come on the fourth night, when I literally crawled to the top of "Mont Bellaface" due to knee pain. At that time, out of anger and arrogance, I said: "If necessary, I will reach the finish line on all fours. I will show them!" To whom, what did I show? Prove yourself! The moment of my limits didn't come even on the fifth sleepless night, when I just followed Anja's steps and at times fell asleep while walking.

It didn't come on any demanding climb or descent, even if it was already 11,000 m+ at 110km or 15,000 m+ at 150km. It didn't come when we had nowhere to get water for 12 hours, and the sun was mercilessly burning even at high altitude. It didn't come when we were climbing a pass, near which a landslide occurred, and falling rocks thundered into the valley a few meters from us. Immediately afterwards, we learned that a competitor had died in a neighboring TDS race. It didn't come either when I slipped and flew headfirst into hard rocks. I find out when my moment of weakness comes and how I react in that moment in moments when my body is exhausted to the point of exhaustion, when due to lack of sleep I no longer know what is real and what is a figment of my imagination, when the pain is so great that even my head can no longer ignore it.

That's why I'm not afraid of such moments, that's why I don't avoid challenges, but I look for opportunities even in long and tiring mountain and running trials, so that in such moments I can get to know myself and find out who I am and how I react. We are different people, we have different pasts and different current situations, so I don't judge anyone who makes the wrong decision in such moments. But I encourage everyone to put themselves in such a situation where they will find out how they react, what they are like.

Trail running or a long-term/endurance sports activity is one of the options for this, where the consequences of wrong decisions will not be tragic. But by getting to know yourself, you will also have the opportunity to change yourself and act differently next time. With this realization, even at this moment, not even a day after the end of our run, I am drawn back to completing the unfinished, back to a different approach, back to taking advantage of every opportunity that life offers you. I can't go back to this run anymore (and thinking about what could have happened if I had continued running makes no sense either, we unanimously concluded that such an outcome is definitely good for something else, something even more important, and that PTL taught us a lot of new things).

But I can return to my life and receive and give more there. I can return to my family (the children accepted us at home as the biggest winners). I can return to my work at work and show even more there. I can return to everything I do in life and be better, more committed, more passionate about it. Anja also inspires me every day, who was an extremely strong team partner and would probably have reached the goal on her own, which is why I wrote about her to our children after this new experience together: "Children, your mother will never give up, never surrender. She is immensely strong. For her, there is always a way forward. She will fight until the last atom of strength, until the last drop of blood, until... in fact, for her, there is no "last chance" at all. She will always fight..."