A Bright day as Simon conquers gruelling Mont Blanc challenge

Simon Bright completed the North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc OCC race

The event is a gruelling 53km trail run in Switzerland, and Simon finished in a time of 13 hours, 26 minutes and 10 seconds.

Simon said the run was ‘very hard’, especially as he was unable to hold down any fluid for the final four hours.

“It would have been very easy to give up, but I’m so glad I didn’t as the finish through Chamonix was beyond belief,” he said. ”We were cheered on by entire restaurants!”

The race started in the morning from the village of Orsieres, at the foot of Mont Blanc – the highest mountain in the Alps – and wound up through stunning scenery to the ski resort of Chamonix, with an altitude gain over the 53km of 3,300m.

Simon had struggled with altitude sickness in the past, failing to finish ultra runs in Chamonix for three years in a row, so was delighted to have completed the race this year.

The Hemel Hempstead runner has been based in Dundee in Scotland for the past two years and trains there and in Europe, competing in several ultra runs each year as well as a number of UK-based races with Dacorum & Tring AC.