330 Kilometers, 24,000 Meters of Climb: The Ledger of Two Vietnamese Finishers at Tor des Géants

Tor des Géants. 330 kilometers. 24,000 meters of cumulative elevation gain. Held in Italy's Aosta Valley from September 13-19, this race is described in the ultra-trail world as 'one of the hardest races.' The organizers' own arithmetic — this course demands the equivalent of climbing Everest three times. An average of 73 meters of climb per kilometer. The path winds over more than 20 passes above 2,000 meters. From the day's heat to the night's freezing cold — this thermal swing is another competitor altogether. Three Vietnamese runners went to this race. Two finished. Lưu Đức Toản — 137 hours 50 minutes across the finish line. Lê Thị Hằng — a name well known in Vietnam's trail-running community — 138 hours 40 minutes. The third Vietnamese entrant, based in France, could not finish — DNF. Started but couldn't finish within 150 hours. 150 hours — that is the cutoff time of Tor des Géants. Pass that limit and there is no finisher's status, only an unfinished story. Toản finished 12 hours 10 minutes before the cutoff — a safety cushion of 8.1 percent. Hằng — 11 hours 20 minutes early — 7.6 percent. This percentage may look like a sufficient margin. But in a 138-hour journey, 12 hours is very little. A wrong turn of an hour, one stomach rebellion, one major storm in the night — any of these could have snatched away the cushion. I counted the other half, and the number kept rewriting itself. Because on the page's headline this appears as a story of historic achievement — and inside the numbers, another chapter is written. That chapter also contains the winners' times. The men's winner — China's Jia Ju Zhao — 65 hours 55 minutes 22 seconds. The women's winner — Germany's Katharina Hartmuth — 67 hours 10 minutes 9 seconds. Toản's time is approximately 2.09 times the winner's. Hằng's is 2.07 times. In other words, the two Vietnamese runners moved at roughly half the winners' speed — 25.1 minutes per kilometer. Yet I keep returning to that 8 percent cushion. Because the arithmetic of 24,000 meters over 330 kilometers is as terrifying as the mental pressure of this race. Here, sleep is not mandatory. No fixed stages. Night and day — all one continuous current. Seven life bases, roughly one every 50 kilometers. There, food, water, basic medical care and a few hours of sleep. The rest of the time — the silence of the Alps, a vast canopy of stars overhead, and a body that becomes its own enemy after 100 kilometers. Across 138 hours of wakefulness, sleep and running in alternation — the person who finishes has not won with legs alone but with the mind. Lê Thị Hằng — VnExpress described her as 'well known in Vietnam's trail-running community.' Her portfolio is genuinely impressive: Prenn Trail 250 kilometers, Son La Ultra Trail 100 kilometers, VMM 100 kilometers. Toản's list equals it: a UTMB-family race — he said 100 kilometers; likely the CCC, which is approximately 101 kilometers — Mantra 116 kilometers, ULJU 100 kilometers, Mount Fuji 100 kilometers. The profiles of these two athletes paint one picture — they are 'distance accumulators,' not speed specialists. Going beyond 100 kilometers repeatedly — this DNA is the foundation of Tor des Géants. For Hằng, the most meaningful predictor was Prenn Trail 250 kilometers — because the lesson of how to manage body and mind after 100 kilometers is learned inside 250. At Tor des Géants, the real test begins after 100 kilometers. One comment from Toản deepens this report. Warned by locals, he himself said — the path runs along deep cliffs, with no safety ropes. In 2026, Chinese runner Yang Yuan lost his life in this race. After that incident, the race's safety architecture changed — mandatory equipment, GPS tracking, life bases. But the unroped cliff edges remain today. This is a permanent question for organizers — and a permanent warning for runners. From my years of observing endurance sports, I've seen — in ultra-trail, 'finishing' and 'winning' are two different species of achievement. Winners finish in about 66 hours. Runners who finish in 138 hours sit at the tail of the finisher list. Framing this result as 'close to Olympic medal' territory would be wrong. The source itself, to its credit, remains restrained — it included the winners' times, the cutoff, the completion rate and even the 2026 fatality. That is responsible journalism. But looking deeper, another structural truth emerges. Tor des Géants — not part of any World Athletics competitive pyramid. No world ranking points here, no Olympic qualification. Its status in the ITRA-affiliated trail world is 'iconic' — but this status is of reputation and experience, not structure. And in Vietnam, this discipline sits entirely outside state sports funding. The country's central sports apparatus invests in Olympic-track athletics, swimming, weightlifting, shooting. Ultra-trail runs on urban running clubs, personal pockets and community coaching. So Lê Thị Hằng and Lưu Đức Toản — these two runners paid for this 330 kilometers with their own money, their own time and their own planning. Airfare to Italy, entry fees, mandatory equipment — all from their own pockets. Post-finish, two to three weeks of rehabilitation — also entirely their responsibility. Any ultra-trail runner knows — a 138-hour race extracts a permanent debt from the body; recovery time comes at the cost of jobs, income and family life. This is the silent weakness of Vietnam's ultra-trail structure. Still, this story has lasting value. Vietnam's northwestern mountain districts — Sa Pa, Son La, Mộc Châu — are a fast-growing participatory market for trail running. This result is credible proof for that market — Vietnamese runners can finish the world's hardest trail race. Local race organizers will use this story — mapping the path from domestic 100 kilometers to Tor des Géants. Trail shoe and outdoor equipment brands will want to associate with these two runners. And most importantly — a written path now exists for the next generation: domestic 100 km → international 100 km → UTMB family → Tor des Géants. I follow women. So I look at Hằng's dimension with more care. Over 330 kilometers, she finished just 50 minutes behind her male compatriot. A female runner's pace of 25.2 minutes per kilometer — where merely finishing, let alone maintaining 138 hours of mental stability — is a strong signal that Vietnam's women's trail running is not just participating but developing deeply. The women's winner at Tor des Géants finished in 67 hours; Hằng in 138. The gap is vast. Yet a Vietnamese woman set foot on this race — that fact alone is a milestone for women's sport in the country. One factual caution is also needed. The source says 'both runners finished in excess of 138 hours' — but Toản's specific time is 137 hours 50 minutes, i.e., below 138. That aggregated phrasing is inconsistent; the individual times are more reliable. Toản's 'UTMB 100km' reference is also likely a mislabel — the main UTMB race is approximately 171 kilometers; he most likely meant the CCC (approximately 101 kilometers). These inconsistencies don't diminish his achievement, but verification is needed before future research and comparison. Now the question — where does Vietnam's trail running go next? About 60 percent of starters typically finish Tor des Géants. Vietnam's three entrants, two finishers — 67 percent — slightly above the field norm. The France-based runner, who likely had more familiarity with this terrain, still DNF'd. A lesson: in a 330-kilometer mountain race, local knowledge alone is not enough; complete preparation matters. And Jia Ju Zhao's victory alongside Yang Yuan's 2026 death in the same race shows China's long and deep engagement with this specific event. Vietnam now stands at the very beginning of that road. When the stadiums emptied, the longest lap was the one nobody timed. At Tor des Géants, of course, every segment is timed. But the lap of that unknown girl in Vietnam's remote mountain village — the one who still has no synthetic track or formal coaching — remains untimed. Hằng's 138 hours 40 minutes might open a door for that girl too. — Root: Women.