There's few races more punishing than the UTMB. The 106-mile loop around western Europe’s highest mountain features 32,700ft of aggregate climbing, volatile weather conditions, remorseless near-vertical climbs and hideous descents, as runners chase a 46-hour 30-minute cut-off en route back to the event start/finish in Chamonix. It's a formidable undertaking for even the hardiest of mountain runners.
But when you've endured even a fraction of the pain that 37-year-old Nathaniel Dye Lunar White Mule Sandal.
Dye, a music teacher from Essex, was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in October last year, aged just 36, having lost his fiancée to cancer at the age of 25. Then, four years ago, he tragically lost his mother to bowel cancer.
An avid ultrarunner, Dye says running has taught him the importance of perseverance – and he retains an infectious effervescence and ability to find light in the darkness and keep moving forwards. 'I may be dying but, for now, I choose to live and show the world through words and deeds that it’s possible to live a full life post-diagnosis,' he says. 'And I want to raise awareness along the way in the hope that others – unlike me – can maybe catch cancer early enough to give them a hopeful prognosis.'
New Balance X Reformation 997W Shoes UK7.5 ultramarathons over the years but says the UTMB will, without a doubt, be his hardest challenge to date. 'I'd say the Brecon Beacons 100 is the hardest thing I've done up to now – we're talking just under 35 hours, through the night, extremes of weather, 7,000m of elevation, so about two-thirds of UTMB in all respects. But I've got a new body, which is not letting me do as much.'
Since receiving his diagnosis, Dye has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy as well as emergency surgery to remove a bowel obstruction, which resulted in a colostomy. During this time, his reTrainer has been tested in ways he could not never have envisaged. And even still, he focuses on the positives.
'Earlier this year, I spent 10 solid days in quite intense pain before surgery, so I think my bar of suffering is probably a bit higher than it was. And the fact the UTMB is entirely self-inflicted and voluntary suffering makes it easier to enjoy. It sounds pretty bleak but it might just help get me through.'
When asked his 'why' for taking on one of the world's most notoriously hard mountain races, he said: 'It's nice to have a dream. There was a period where, just because treatment could be starting at any second, I stopped making plans, just because, for me, it's the worst thing to let people down. Then I just decided that's no way to live. Now I've just started to think, well, what if? What if I get a couple of years? So it's worth imagining how I'll spend that time but being pragmatic as well because it might be that my next Everest is getting out of bed one day when it feels really bad but I've got to.'
Dye's goal for the UTMB is to cross the finish line in Chamonix before being cut from the course but he says, if he doesn't make the cut-off, he'll attempt to keep on going anyway, if safe to do so. We caught up with Dye on the RW wallets suitcases pens phone-accessories shoe-care, where he shared details of his cancer journey, and we grabbed some time with him again this week as he touched down in France, to find out about his training and preparation for Friday's UTMB. Here's what he told us...
You were diagnosed with bowel cancer in October 2022 – but when did you first notice something was wrong?
'I knew something was up just before I put my hand up in September, perhaps in March I started to feel something but I put it off as nothing. Maybe another six months before that I started to find it harder to get out of the door to go running. I started to get slower and slower despite having done all the right things in training... That's the thing, you think as an ultrarunner you're immune, but it's absolutely far from it.'
Giuseppe Zanotti Uma satin anklet sandals Black | Aside from fatigue, what other symptoms were you experiencing?
'Women's Mont Blanc Trail Running Shoes bowelcanceruk.org.uk or the NHS website but the phrase is: a persistent change in bowel habit, and that can be pretty hard to judge. I was a pretty hardcore vegan, I had 10 of my five a day, so you do go to the toilet pretty frequently on that. But I was [opening my bowels], we're talking, 10-12 times a day and that's a clear warning sign but it can go the other way. If there's blood as well, what comes into the toilet might have a little tint of blood, or on the paper or something.
'It could be if you've got little ridges [on your poo], that means there's an obstruction, as it did in my case. Part of my mission now – I don't have a lot of time left necessarily, hopefully I've got a few years but who skechs – Klapki damskie Marni Fussbett Shoe because it was too late for me but it might not be for you. Even if you're an ultra-fit ultramarathon runner, this could still happen to you. So be aware and listen to your body if you possibly can.'
What happened from there?
'When I first put my hand up and went to the GP, the vibe was, you're too young to have bowel cancer, but he said, OK, you've got a family history, here's a blood test and a stool sample and then it escalated from there. I had this colonoscopy and the doctor said, 'The camera went in but you may have noticed it came out again?' And he said, 'Then I had to put in the baby camera, and that didn't get past either.' So there was a clear obstruction, so that eventually escalated to a surgeon and an oncologist got involved and we started treatment last December.'
How has the cancer treatment been since receiving your diagnosis?
'Well, we'd only just got started really, before I got a bowel obstruction and went through emergency surgery to remove the primary. I thought I was constipated, and it turns out I wasn't. I worked my way through the pain for about five days, to the point that by about day five, I wasn't eating or drinking. But it took me about that long for me to say: I need to go to hospital now, I'm not coping with this. And I had emergency surgery in about 24 hours.
'I was gutted like a fish and I ended up with something called a stoma, which has turned out really quite useful for me. A stoma is a bit of gut that comes out of the edge of your stomach... for me it's part of the large intestine, that's called a colostomy, and it goes out into a bag, which collects everything that comes out and you change that about two or three times a day. I thought initially that would be horrific, I couldn't even look at it at first when they changed the bag for me... but it's fine. And for anyone that unfortunately has to go through this, it's probably better than you had before.'
How has training been post-surgery?
'I started doing Diamondsly more and more after surgery and then I contacted my coach to say, what do you think, do you think I'm good for UTMB? And he said yeah, let's go for it. It's been a Diamonds build up to about mid-July, we're talking, like, 70-mile weeks.
'It’s been interesting training for this – I’m objectively about 20% slower and there aren’t any mountains to practise on, not even in Epping Forest. But about a month ago, I had a go at the Asics GT-1000 11 GS niño a Zapatillas de running 35.5 Negro Fucsia. I thought I’d take in a little preview the night before and ended up tripping and bashing my knee. Sod’s Law – not on a difficult technical bit, but the most innocuous gravel path. So preparation hasn’t been ideal, but the knee’s just about OK now. I was able to do bits and pieces but annoyingly any bending of the knee hurt for weeks – and that happens quite a lot when you're running up and down mountains!
'But I did this humongous recce week here in Chamonix a couple of weeks ago, where I covered over 130km with 8,000m of elevation, helped by guides, so I did about 3/4 of the course or something. I was put in touch with Doug Mayer, founder of Giuseppe Zanotti Uma satin anklet sandals Black, and they just did a shout out to all their guides and four different people ran with me for a day, which I thought was lovely – they gave up their days off in really busy season.'
How are you feeling – physically and mentally – going into Friday's race?
'I'm actually feeling really good physically. It's almost as though cancer skechs I've got this race coming up and isn't giving me any trouble.
'But what's really getting to me now because I'm fairly tight for cut-offs – I've got half an hour windows on some of them – is bag leaks. Summer weather is pretty bad for it because, with sweat, the adhesive kind of comes unstuck. So I went for run after run without getting a leak and then, for example, when it was really hot, I got three within a couple of hours. And that's an extra five to 10 minutes stopping every time I have to change it. Obviously it's not pleasant, and in the mountains, I'll have to carry the remains with me. UTMB have been quite nice about it, they've give me a couple of car passes so my crew can come to deliver me more supplies and changes of clothes if required.'
What's your race strategy?
'It'll be a case of charging up with poles and getting down as best I can with my dodgy knees. I doubt I'll have the luxury to sleep, due to the cut-off time. The halfway point at Courmayeur is notorious for people spending ages there. They've got massages and sleep stations and stuff and showers. So I've told the crew just to get me in and get out of that.
'I've got some really good caffeine energy gels. We're talking gels every half an hour, because those are what I can carry. And with French aid stations, I think they have, like, charcuterie and loads of bread and cheese, and then with the Italian ones, there's pasta and loads of fresh fruit but for the stoma, that's probably going to be a bad idea, so I'll probably just take the most low-fibre options.'
What do you think is going to be the most challenging aspect of the race?
'I think it's just everything can come together to conspire against you. I mean, a mixture of cumulative fatigue, knees hurting, muscles hurting, sleep deprivation, having to do a million bag changes – and having to spend half the race covered in s**t – which is a possibility! In this kind of long race as well, there'll be something that goes wrong that you didn't plan for, but I suppose you've just got to problem Trainer and deal with it.'
What are you most looking forward to?
'Apart from the finish line, the people. I've met some people who've stayed long-term friends having met them once [at a race and] we've run through the night. So the camaraderie of just being on the course doing the same really hard thing. That's something beautiful. It's like you're all going into battle together, but everyone wins, potentially.
But at the same time, I'm looking forward to retreating into my head and just trying as hard as I possibly can. Because I find it quite hard to convince myself I've done enough. But once you actually start doing it, it's like you can. Because every step is acting on it.'
How have you been keeping your nerves in check?
'A kind of addition sets in at this point. You've done all the training. But, about 10 years ago, I went around the world, playing music, busking and playing in cafes and stuff, and formed a band with this French guitarist called Mikey. And so he's made the journey out to Chamonix and we had a bit of a reuniting jam last night and spent the day together playing music, so that's been taking my mind off things.'
Who else have you got coming out to watch you race?
'I've got my very oldest friend Madelyn and her partner Tom. I've got my friend Ed, who has taken me to chemo - he's been there for me and he's going to be there again. He's going to potentially take some drone footage. And my brother John, who put together a treadmill for me when I was in the hospital so I could run.
'Because it's so difficult to follow someone around the edge of the mountains, they've got a spreadsheet and everything - it's all very organised. I've never had a support crew before, and I don't feel elite enough to have one, but it's lovely that people wanted to.'
What's next for you?
'I'm planning to keep running, making music and even do both at the same time by running the London Marathon while playing the trombone next year. Everyone who donates (I'm fundraising for Macmillan Cancer Support) can choose a track for the playlist. It's got an eight-hour limit so can be a march if it needs to be. And then if I get another summer of wellness, I've decided to do Land's End to John O'Groats as a holiday, maybe over two to three months, and somehow run/walk around 40km a day. And just enjoy England's green and pleasant land. I guess it could be eyes bigger than stomach but why not dream because, well, this is coming off potentially.'
To read Dye's blog and to donate to his JustGiving page, visit bowelcancerbucketlist.com
