Despite wearing a smile at the start of the Ultra Marathon around Mont Blanc at the end of August, local athlete Ric Broad, finished the event in pain.

He made a courageous attempt to continue the gruelling race after twisting his ankle in Praz de Fort, but Ric had to make the hard decision to return to Champex Lac and withdraw from the race.

He said that the winners were ‘Prostate Cancer UK’ who thanks to all those people who have donated will extend their knowledge and support for people with Prostate Cancer. Ric still has a place to take part in the Great North Run on September 11th and will soon decide whether his ankle is fit enough for him to compete.

Ric started the marathon in good spirits, he said it was a reasonable temperature at 9am on the start line of the UTMB CCC, the race from Courmayeur in Italy to Champex Lac in Switzerland onto Chamonix in France 101km (62 miles) with over 20,000ft of accent. However Ric told the Ross Gazette that as soon as they started to climb the Tete de la Tronche they faced the first big challenge as the temperature started to climb above 30 degrees Celsius.

He said:?“I knew it was going to be tough getting to the top of this first climb as I looked around and observed a silent line of hundreds upon hundreds of trail runners working slowly in silence, sweating because of the heat and physical effort of gaining height.”

It was 3:30pm when he left Arnuva but with the support he had from family and the many people who had contributed to ‘Prostate Cancer UK’ he felt he was getting on quite well.

It was gradually getting dark as they passed through a small village called Praz de Fort and turning his right ankle, on a small 4cm high curb stone, he fell heavily on the road. He was immediately helped by a group of about six runners who asked if he was alright. They pulled him up from the ground and they carried on running, it wasn’t ok though and Ric ran on in pain uphill to the next fuel station at Champex Lac. After some soup and a small piece of banana he decided to bandage his ankle and get moving again.

Ric was recorded leaving Champex Lac, he worked his way around the top of the lake and started the next climb but stopped in his tracks as he realised that he might get to the top of the next mountain but running down would be out of the question.

He knew that it would be impossible to reach the next fuel station before the cut off time. It was a hard decision to return to Champex Lac and withdraw from the race but he told the Ross Gazette that he had given the event his best shot. If it had not been for his twisted ankle Ric thinks he would have got back into Chamonix in France some time the next morning having completed the CCC.