Just as like in 2005 and 2006, I will try to run the Ultra-Trail Tour du Mont-Blanc (http://www.ultratrailmb.com) at the end of August. This is a mountain "race" of 163km and 8900m of positive ascent (ie. the Everest altitude) in 3 countries - France, Italy, Switzerland. In 2005 I took 35hours 31min to complete the loop, but in 2006 I had to withdraw after 110km and 22hours because of a tendinitis at the ankle. I'll probably take 35h to 45h to complete the loop, half of the trail being run by night. The difficulty is more due to the ascent rather than the actual distance. I hope to complete half distance.More details and pictures:UTMB 2006UTMB 2005I have decided to use the occasion to raise some funds to fight AIDS in Africa, through a charity called AVERT(http://www.avert.org). There is a serious lack of political and religious commitment to provide enough funds and resources for eduction and medical care: G8 always gives lots of promises but never really commits. Patents on specific medicine leave millions of people without efficient treatment: 2.3 millions of inhabitants of Subsaharan Africa died because of AIDS in 2004. There is still time to reverse the epidemic that is sweeping across Africa.It's time to act now !I've chosen AVERT, a charity contributing to numerous projects around the world, helping with the problem of HIV/AIDS in countries where there is a high or increasing rate of infection such as South Africa or the Russian Federation.It would be great if you could make a donation or a pledge online. Alternatively, you can donate offline and why not make a pledge per kilometre: see also http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~jpansiot/utmb-avert/ Thank you ! Julien.
