Last updated: 05-Mar-18

By Elsa Trujillo

As many of you know, the last weekend in August 2015 is set for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) event that includes five different single-stage time-limited events around Chamonix. The star event is the UTMB itself, held over two days and covering 170 kilometres around Mont Blanc (4810m). UTMB hopefuls need to collect a series of points, won by finishing a selection of races around the globe. Many of these UTMB qualifying races are listed and featured on RunUltra.

For example, finishing the following UK qualifying races will give you a variety of points for 2016 registration: the Country to Capital (1) in January, the Ultra Thames Trot (1) in February, The Oner Ultra Run (3) and the Kielder Ultra Trail (2) in April, the Stour Valley Path Ultra (2) in August and the St Oswald's Ultra (4), the Ring O'Fire (4), the Cotswold Way Century (4) and the Cotswold Challenge Ultra (2) in September.

In Europe, UTMB races include the Ultra Trail Sierra del Bandolero (2) and Ultra Trail Muntanyes de la Costa Daurada (3) in Spain in March and the Madeira Island Ultra Trail (4) in Portugal and the 100 Miles of Istria (4) (Croatia) in April. In May, run the Penyagolosa Trails for a maximum of 3 points in Spain.

In the summer, you can run the Wibolt (4) (Germany) in June and the Gran Trail dei Monti Simbruini (3) (Italy), the Gran Trail Aneto-Posets (4) (Spain), the NUTS Pallas (3) (Finland) and the Swedish Alpine Ultra (2) in July.

For the autumn, try the Humani'Trail (2) in Switzerland and the Krali Marko Trails (2) in Macedonia in September or the Ultra Trail de la Serra Montsant (3) in October in Spain.

And further afield, in Australia, your choice of ultras includes The Track (4) and The Australia 100 (3) in May. In Malaysia you can get 3 points if you complete the G5N.

Have you run these races in the past? Why not leave a comment for your fellow runners and 2016 UTMB hopefuls? Just click on each race listing, log in or register as a member and write about your experience. 

For more information on UTMB enrolment conditions go here.

Each week we'll be highlighting some of our races that share key themes, for example the same type of terrain, format, season or region. 

Let us know if there's a specific type of ultra race you're most interested in. Don't forget that our search engine also let's you sort our races by many different criteria.

The Track (Australia) Photo credit: Canal Aventure