Five Romanians will represent the country and run this year at the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) marathon, a complete tour of the Mont Blanc Massif, passing through France, Switzerland and Italy. Gabriel Cojan, Mihai-Adrian Godeanu, Zsolt Kovacs, Andrei Tale and Marius Valentin Vasilache will run 168 km during the marathon also known as “the race of all the superlatives”.

The UTMB will start in the center of Chamonix on August 30, 2013 and the maximum number of runners is 2,300. The route has a cumulative altitude of over 9,500 meters and the maximum race time is 46 hours.

“My first contact with this sport was in autumn 2010 when I attended the toughest mountain marathon in Romania, in Piatra Craiului, on a distance of 42 km,” said Gabriel Cojan. Since then, the Romanian runner attended some 15 national and international marathons.

Seven other competitors from Romania will attend two shorter races this year, also part of the North Face - Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc competition.  Ionela Paula Dogaru, Remus Filip, Masha Kovacs, Florin Totalca and Victor Vasluian will run 100 km in the CCC marathon - a semi-tour of Mont Blanc starting on August 30, while Daniel Musat and Ferenc Sisak will attend the 119-km TDS (sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie) marathon, which starts on August 28, 2013.

More about the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc competition here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Ultratrailmb.com)