Modern Athlete Mag Feature Issue 155
In September, Matt Healy climbed on a flight to France and headed to the Mediterranean resort city of Nice, on the gabled Côte d’Azur (Coast of Azure), also known as the French Riviera. It’s part of the world known for its sunny weather and idyllic days spent on the beach, enjoying the ocean, or taking in the French cuisine, wine and lifestyle. However, Matt wasn’t going there for any of that. He was there for Nice Côte d’Azur Ultra 100km trail race, which is part of the Ultra-trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) World Series.
Training in the still wintery SA for a hot summer race in the south of France was not ideal, but Matt arrived in France feeling confident. “I went over early and stayed in a small village on the route, to recce what I would be running. Those trails were probably as technical as trails ever get within these UTMB races, and on the mountains that climbed to over 2000 metres on the ridgeline. If you weren’t running up, you were running down! Also, I hired a car to get to different parts of the race route, and driving on mountain passes on the wrong side of the road put me way outside my comfort zone, but I absolutely loved it.”
