Twenty years ago, a small band a runners came up with an idea: hold a race around the Alps’ highest peak, covering more than 100 miles through Italy, France and Switzerland. They expected a few crazy souls. Instead more than 700 runners showed up. Running was changed forever.
This is the improbable story of how Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) became one of the world’s great sporting events even as it set new limits of human endurance. It is a story of how world’s best runners, in the historic...