It's been exactly a week since I ran @utmbmontblanc MCC in Chamonix, France and I've had some time to reflect on my experiences. It was absolutely huge energy coming into this race. The Alps were incredible - literally the biggest, most beautiful mountains I've ever seen in my life! At the starting line in Martigny, Switzerland a wave of emotions hit me: like, this is really happening. The little kid in me was in awe of being there. I mean, this is an experience I could only have dreamed about a few years ago and here I was getting ready to fulfill that dream. I knew I had to rip up to the first check-in: 8.2km of distance and about 3500ft of climbing in under 2 hours. It had stormed several days leading up to the event so the ground was very wet and muddy. I smashed the first mile up and then as soon as I hit the trail I had to slow down and figure out a system to keep moving up the climb safely. This is what draws me to trail running though, figuring out how to prevail, and I did. I made it to the top of this massive climb only to find out that I had missed the cutoff by 30 min. Before I made it to the aid station I was told that I was going to be allowed to continue on in the race - but when I got to the top where all the race workers were the vibe changed. The sweepers and volunteers basically used their own perceptions to say I couldn't continue, even though it was only 12:30pm and I was in great shape and more than able to run many more miles. There was a language barrier, so I can only speculate what was said in French. I understand that all races have cut off times and they are there for many reasons, safety being one of them. But the thing is, that I know other athletes who have been allowed to continue at UTMB races even when they are late. I can only speculate that I was not afforded the same opportunity because I made people uneasy on the course. What I believe this comes down to is the need for UTMB to have more education and awareness around adaptive athletes. Continued in comments @on_running @utmbworldseries #adaptiveathlete #disability #trailrunning #trailrunner #OnTrail #OnCloud #utmb #runonclouds Photo credit: @mountainslegacy