LOL - found the troll who didn't watch the race^^^. In fact there were Kenyans in the race, including the Kenyan female who won this year's Sierre-Zinal. She dropped, as did several others, and those who actually finished were dropped hard. The race course is extremely rugged with a significant amount of "off-trail, just follow the flags" type running across tundra, steep rocky climbs/descents, and the like. In other words, ankle-breaker terrain that favors mountain running talent over traditional running talent.
Indeed Jim Walmsley is billed as one of the marquis guys in the Long Trail event on Saturday, and while I certainly hope he crushes it, I won't at all be surprised if he gets crushed and/or DNFs. It's just not his kind of course.
I think Walmsley is going to win it.
Hats off to Jim - I didn't see that coming! That 2-year stint living in the Alps really paid off.
That Katie crushed it too was icing on the cake, albeit perhaps more predictable.
Can someone give a quick rundown of pacing/strategy for trail/mountain running? I see all the runners have GPS watches, but I doubt it’s that accurate out on some of these courses. Is it just “hold a pace you don’t think no one else can” or are there very course dependent factors you need to take into account?
"Pacing strategy" for trail/mountain racing is nothing at all like cc/road/track - there's basically no such thing as monitoring your watch to maintain pace per mile/km splits. Monitoring your heart rate (via watch) is a viable strategy, especially for the longer ultras, but ultimately, the terrain itself tends to dictate your strategy. Everyone has their strengths/weaknesses - some excel on climbs, others descents; some excel on technical terrain, others on smooth, etc... it's almost impossible to be the best at everything. And so you play your cards and your competitors play theirs.
Interestingly, in the post-race interview with iRF Jim mentioned that in the first half of the race where the terrain was somewhat more technical, his strategy was to crest the top of the climbs first so that he could be in front on the descents in order to "block" the two French runners from getting away from him on the technical descents, as he could tell they were better at it. While it kind of sounds somewhat unsporting in a way, it's also a quite common strategy in mountain biking, for example. I've just never heard a mountain runner blatantly admit that, especially in regards to an ultra race. The three of them pulled away from the rest of the field during the first half, then Jim pulled away from them when the terrain became more runnable in the second. Masterful performance.
yea, it's pretty common in trail especially when running on single track where there is not a lot (if any) room to pass.
Agreed in shorter trail races where every second, every meter counts. But not so much in ultras, at least in my experience. In fact watching the broadcast Jim gave up the lead multiple times over for various reasons - going off course a few meters (easy to do on the flagged but no trail sections), dropping a gel or flask, putting away poles, and etc... He would quickly regain himself and get back in line of course, and frankly it looked like it would be better just to track along behind and let them do the navigating until things opened up again. But of course who am I - just a hack watching the broadcast. He's World Champion. 🤷