PANVAC runner is ready for a mountainous 50k challenge in the Alps
PANVAC runner Stuart Haw is preparing to take on one of the world's toughest ultra-marathons, a 50km race which takes place on the slopes around Mont Blanc. Quite a challenge for a runner from the Peterborough flatlands.
Haw has just returned from an intensive training camp in Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur which is at the other end of the Mont Blanc tunnel in Italy.
He has been training with professional athletes and coaches from the Kailas FUGA team, an elite Chinese mountain running club.
Haw will be heading back to Chamonix for the Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc (UTMB) race which takes place today (Thursday) with renewed confidence and a new hunger to discover what might be possible.
The training camp was designed around the challenges of ultra-distance mountain running, with sessions on learning to handle technical terrain and running at altitude. The programme combined vertical running, technical mountain trails, long runs and race-specific sessions across the UTMB route. The experience provided something equally important, confidence.
“Coming from Peterborough, the mountains have always felt like a bit of an unknown,” Haw said. “I have had plenty of doubts about whether or not I’m capable of taking on the 50k stage of UTMB and succeeding. Training alongside the best has changed that. It’s given me the confidence to believe I’m capable and, more importantly, a new hunger to find out just how far I can go.”
The Chamonix camp followed Haw’s earlier preparation with the Kailas FUGA team in Courmayeur, where professional coaching was combined with expert support in physiotherapy, massage and race preparation.
“Training with these athletes and coaches has shown me that I’m capable of much more than I perhaps believed,” Haw added. “It has made me realise how much more there is to learn. That’s where the hunger comes from. I’m not going to Chamonix pretending I have everything figured out. This year I've run fast times over 5k and 50k so I’m going there believing I belong on that start line and ready to see what I can do.”
The Alps may be a long way from Peterborough, but the belief is no longer quite so far away for Haw.
ROUND-UP
PANVAC ace Archie Faulder ran a new 1,500m personal best of 3:50.03 at the British Milers Club Record Breaker meeting at Tooting Bec in South London. Felix Bowling, also of PANVAC, ran a 2:03.00 800m at the same meeting.
Isaac Fell clocked a 4:10.09 1,500m at the Watford Open Meeting. The PANVAC athlete was joined by his dad Simon Fell who recorded a time of 4:26.21.