Lunedì 3 settembre 2012, a Courmayeur, al termine delle manifestazioni podistiche del The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® 2012avrà luogo una Conferenza internazionale sui temi del trail running con il patrocinio della Federazione Francese di Atletica. Il numero dei partecipanti alla conferenza è limitato - per motivi organizzativi - ad un massimo di 200: una parte dei posti ai rappresentanti ufficiali di alcune nazioni e delle Federazioni, i rimanenti verranno distribuiti tra organizzatori, atleti, rappresentanti della stampa (ma con l'avvertenza di prenotare in anticipo la propria partecipazione che sarà subordinata alla disponibilità dei posti).
Organisation. The Trailers du Mont-Blanc, in collaboration with The Courmayeur Trailers, a representative group of trail organisers (several different countries and challenges, federated or not, several equipment manufacturers), the FFA, the municipality of Courmayeur and the Aosta Valley Region and the Chamonix Mont Blanc Valley.
Date and location. Monday, September 3rd 2012 in Courmayeur (30 mins. from Chamonix, via the Mont-Blanc Tunnel).
Objective. To determine for the short, and the middle, term the converging policy trends between the various players in the field of trail running: organisers, federations, runners, brands, media... on an international scale
Who will be present? We would like to bring together as many organisers as possible from several countries (France - metropolitan and overseas, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, the USA, Japan, and Poland). We are also inviting other players from the trail running field (federations, brands, top-level athletes, the press)
However, due to the capacity of conference hall, kindly provided to us by the municipality of Courmayeur, and also in order to allowfruitful debates, the number of places is limited to 200. The distribution of the various delegations will be approximately as follow:
Federations, institutions & officials 30
Brands 25 (1)
The press 25
Organisers 120 (2)
Total 200
(1) each brand may be represented by 2 people, of whom one team athlete
(2) limited to 1 person per organisation, unless there are less than 120 organisations represented.
Broadcasting of the conference on the Internet. Within the framework of « WEB-TV » which will be set up during the The North face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®, this conference will be broadcast live and recorded on the internet.
Agenda
1. Definition of trail running (henceforth 'trail')
2. Values of 'trail'
3. Management of high level athletes
4. Relationships with National and International Federations
5. Setting up of an international classification
Presentation of the Agenda's proposed themes (linee programmatiche)
1) The first objective of this conference will be to validate an international definition of 'trail' by defining its most important characteristics and therefore making the distinction between 'trail' and other similar disciplines. A definition will be presented and discussed.
2) The second conference theme, in our eyes the most important, is to reaffirm the 'trail' values : fairness, respect, transparency, solidarity, sharing, whether in regard to oneself and one's health (prevention initiatives, commitment to anti-doping) or in regard to others (favourable relationships with competitors, volunteers, local population....); respect for nature and eco-responsibility. An ethical charter will be presented and discussed.
In addition, The Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc® wishes to explain its action taken in favour of the runner's health which it has led for a few years in collaboration with the association of Athletes For Transparency. This action was introduced at the end of 2007 at the request of top-level runners with, as its objectives, the preservation of the spirit and authenticity of the event, by guaranteeing as much as is possible that the races take place fairly and to allow the top athletes to set an example of an exemplary nature by committing to the most perfect transparency, while at the same time addressing all the runners.
3) In connection with this ethical charter which clearly states what we want to protect, there are doubtless things which have to evolve
In particular, the question of the top-level runners arises. We wish to keep, for a long time, the exemplary, simple and humble athletes (a quotation of Kilian Jornet's illustrates this well: "because winning is not ending in first position. It is not beating the others. Winning is overcoming oneself... ").
But it is also necessary to understand that their lives can be complicated and we must ask the question about a fair distribution of the 'trail' income the between organisers, athletes and brands. The question of invitations and premiums is thus posed, and guidelines will be proposed and discussed.
4) How can we concretely federate the organisers, to give coherence to all the races, in a united way? We would try to make an inventory of fixtures: among the represented countries, what are the relationships with their federations?
This question has already been answered in France with the creation of a working 'trail' group in 2006. But the present system is limited to members of TTN + 2 or 3 major organisations. What is the balance between co-optation and candidature via the TTN?
Two speeches, one by the President of the FFA, Bernard Ansalem, then another by André Giraud, vice-president in charge of events outside of stadiums or by Michel Huertas, president of the CNCHS, will explain how it works and will show, with regard to the evolutions planned for 2013 and 2014 how the FFA works at structuring 'trail' by being attuned to organisers and to the athletes
What is the IAU? Does it represent 'trail'? What value has the World championship which it organises? Etc.... In the absence of contact with the IAU, we have, at the moment, only questions, but preliminary discussions could bring some answers and allow the organisation of a possible intervention by a member of the IAU during the course of this Conference.
What work is realised by the IUTA in Italy? Paper given by the IUTA President, Gregorio Zucchinali.
Who represents the short 'trail' (less than 42km) in Italy and on the international stage? In the medium term, have we the capacity (human resources and financially) to include approximately 700 organisers and to proceed to elect those to make the representation official (group by type of race?)
5) We would like to propose that all organisations that make a commitment to validating the texts from this conference participate in a common world ranking which would, at the end of the season, indicate the best trail runners of the year and attribute each runner his position according to his performance level.
This ranking has been established by Didier Curdy, a trail runner passionate about statistics, who has been working on this project for several years. The original idea of this ranking consisted of comparing the performance realised by every runner in the best virtual world performance over an equivalent distance. To do it, Didier Curdy found all the best world performances in ultra, marathon and the races over several hundreds of kilometres.
This data, once positioned on a graph, was interconnected by a curve which allows the calculation, for every distance above 20 km, of the "virtual world record" over this distance. For each race, we calculate the effort by considering at the same time its distance, its positive and negative height gain, according to a scale carefully established over severalyears by comparing the races (by analyzing the performances at each race) of the widest possible sample of runners common to these races. It is then possible to attribute to each runner a number of points calculated in proportion to the time taken by the runner with regard to the "virtual world record" over the equivalent distance.
On the basis of this ranking, a working group will be set up to establish a precise regulation meeting the expectations of organisers (ranking by state, world ranking, ranking by 'trail' type....), with the objective that this ranking can be set up as from 2013.
Provisional conclusion. In short, we aim that each player in the field of 'trail' finds that which interests him:
- for the high-level runners: that it should favour their practice; have a more structured recognition of their performances; favour their mediatisation; guarantee as well as possible that 'trail' is and will stay a healthy sport
- for runners in the pack: to continue to benefit from a rich offer of races, where the competition allows for not having standardised races. To have guarantees of safety and respect for the regulations in force in the country concerned, stay in the contact with the top-level athletes; have brotherly, friendly exchanges with them; to be able to be situated in national world and rankings
- for the brands : to ensure the mobilisation of the public; to ensure the motivation and the growth of the number of followers; to create additional interest around this expanding and original sport which has strong values, with stories to tell, and champions to promote
- for event organisers : to ensure additional media exposure; to keep the runners motivated; to keep control over their future, to reach a balance of their representative ness (runners, organisers, brands) with public and federal authorities.
Each organiser will be free to sign up to this movement. Upon doing so they will make a commitment to respect and promote the rules of the game which are put into place, they will find a privileged space of exchange with 'trails' world wide and the federation's delegates and have access to a communal space for the communication and promotion of 'trail'.
If we fail to reach a wide consensus with all the players in the field, we can imagine that this conference is at least the expression of a very wide group of organisers; allowing the publication of a frame-work document concerning the future of 'trail', seen by organisations and in agreement with the federal world. This frame-work document can then be signed by other organisers not present in Courmayeur
Practical organisation
Transport. Buses will be put at the participant's disposition between Chamonix and Courmayeur.
Timetable
09:00-09:30: Welcome
10:00: start of the conference
12:30- 13:45: Lunch
14:00: Conference
16:00: Closure
16:15: 'Trail' drink!
Languages. The conference will be international; a translation system will be put into place. Three languages are planned in priority: French, Italian and English.
Cost. A contribution will be requested from each participant to cover the cost of translation, transport and the meal. According to the first estimation, this contribution is likely to be around 50 euros per person.
Prosegue il Madonie.Fest 2012, il Festival che, per quasi un mese, sta accendendo i riflettori sulle eccellenze del comprensorio delle Madonie. Il terzo week dall'inizio della manifestazione sarà dedicato a sport, cultura e musica. 
I runner - si sa - anche il compleanno vogliono festeggiarlo a modo loro e in modo sintono con la loro passione dominante.
in occasione della Stralivigno si terrà, sabato 28 luglio 2012 un convegno di Ultramaratona, secondo una consuetudine già avviata nel 2011. La partecipazione è gratuita e prevede l'assegnazione di 0.5 crediti.
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