Overall the live coverage of this event is absurdly good, especially with all the footage from out in the trails. Better coverage than some major marathons.
But the commentators need to be given one rule: if there's an interview happening on camera, or someone on the ground talking about the current state of the race, please shut up. Talking over the finish line interviews of men's top 5 finishers to tell us about about the time gap between women's 4th and 5th place instead of just waiting 2 more minutes until the interview is over to fill in the viewers is insane.
This has the potential to be outrageously good coverage if the commentators just had a little awareness to know when to stop talking occasionally.
TOTALLY agree. At Courmeyer they had both English and French in-person interviewers and commentators, but the English broadcast kept trying to talk over them. I had to switch it to the French one so I could actually understand what the in-person interviewers were saying.
Agreed with the footage though - incredible drone shots and following shots even through crazy forested areas. Split screens with first and second, or male and female leaders. Meanwhile Boston coverage is wheelchairs for the first hour followed by CJ Albertson shots for the next half hour.
I woke up at about 5:00 this morning (U.S. East Coast time) and had the coverage on while I had coffee and stretched out before my run.
Luckily, I saw Killian’s big winning move (a surge out of one of the later aid stations) and thought how many times coverage of the World Marathon Majors races miss the big move.
I did some research on her and she had almost zero running background until she started trail running when in graduate school. She played Field Hockey in college.
I'm new to watching the event. And the coverage needs updating for noobs like me.
I want a countdown distance thing on the screen all the time showing lead man and lead female. (Distance to finishe line & an elapsed time) Scrolling time gaps for the top 5 as well.
I get that its a Swiss/French event so language will be different, but have commentators who can translate on the fly what the people are saying into English.
The drone footage behind the guys going downhill was good though. But I imagine some were getting motion sickness from it.
If theres a 20-30min highlight video in due course I'll probably watch it.
On a derail. The YouTuber Ben Parkes and his partner Sarah were there, but both dropped out relatively early. Both have done Ultras in the past I believe, so surprised they struggled on this one so early.
I'm new to watching the event. And the coverage needs updating for noobs like me.
I want a countdown distance thing on the screen all the time showing lead man and lead female. (Distance to finishe line & an elapsed time) Scrolling time gaps for the top 5 as well.
I get that its a Swiss/French event so language will be different, but have commentators who can translate on the fly what the people are saying into English.
The drone footage behind the guys going downhill was good though. But I imagine some were getting motion sickness from it.
If theres a 20-30min highlight video in due course I'll probably watch it.
On a derail. The YouTuber Ben Parkes and his partner Sarah were there, but both dropped out relatively early. Both have done Ultras in the past I believe, so surprised they struggled on this one so early.
You know there was a feed on YouTube with American commentators, right?
I've read it somewhere on LRC and I have to agree. Jim just seems to only have about 14 hours of running in his legs before he fades dramatically. In a flat/runnable 100 miler, that's enough - which is why he has put together great road performances, and runs at WS100. But when it comes to hard rock, or UTMB, he seems to just fade and do horribly after around that time mark.
If he really wants to win this thing, I think he needs more experience with longer ultras. Today he got some.
I also don't know if he's in a great spot mentally / socially as compared to when he was in Flagstaff and the Coconino cowboys were all good buds. Since Jim left/got pushed out of that group, I've noticed a change in his personality. If you watch his pre race interviews from irunfar for WS100 in the early years, the dude is happy, psyched, and clearly in the zone for the race. Since that era, now he seems like he is more calculated but passionless. Maybe this is what the new Jim is like.
I think he just really needs to run with the front, not be the front, and then try to make a move. Killian has lots of experience at this race was behind for much of the race and then still crushed everyone. If Jim would have run with Killian and not in front of him maybe he would have had more in the tank to be pulled to second or third, or, even have a shot out kicking Killian at the very end - though I don’t think anyone has the legs, fitness mentally and physically to out kick Killian in the last km after 19 hrs out mountain running. Jim has just got to accept this isn’t WS and he can just Zach Miller these things
On a derail. The YouTuber Ben Parkes and his partner Sarah were there, but both dropped out relatively early. Both have done Ultras in the past I believe, so surprised they struggled on this one so early.
I've read it somewhere on LRC and I have to agree. Jim just seems to only have about 14 hours of running in his legs before he fades dramatically. In a flat/runnable 100 miler, that's enough - which is why he has put together great road performances, and runs at WS100. But when it comes to hard rock, or UTMB, he seems to just fade and do horribly after around that time mark.
If he really wants to win this thing, I think he needs more experience with longer ultras. Today he got some.
I also don't know if he's in a great spot mentally / socially as compared to when he was in Flagstaff and the Coconino cowboys were all good buds. Since Jim left/got pushed out of that group, I've noticed a change in his personality. If you watch his pre race interviews from irunfar for WS100 in the early years, the dude is happy, psyched, and clearly in the zone for the race. Since that era, now he seems like he is more calculated but passionless. Maybe this is what the new Jim is like.
It's been said in discussions in previous years and warrants mention again - his natural bouncy stride has served him well on certain types of races/courses. However, it just doesn't seem optimal for long rugged courses like UTMB, Hardrock, and various others. In contrast, while Kilian's natural shuffling type stride looks downright lazy at times, it's super efficient on this type of course. The results speak for themselves.
I've read it somewhere on LRC and I have to agree. Jim just seems to only have about 14 hours of running in his legs before he fades dramatically. In a flat/runnable 100 miler, that's enough - which is why he has put together great road performances, and runs at WS100. But when it comes to hard rock, or UTMB, he seems to just fade and do horribly after around that time mark.
If he really wants to win this thing, I think he needs more experience with longer ultras. Today he got some.
I also don't know if he's in a great spot mentally / socially as compared to when he was in Flagstaff and the Coconino cowboys were all good buds. Since Jim left/got pushed out of that group, I've noticed a change in his personality. If you watch his pre race interviews from irunfar for WS100 in the early years, the dude is happy, psyched, and clearly in the zone for the race. Since that era, now he seems like he is more calculated but passionless. Maybe this is what the new Jim is like.
The guy spent way too much time 'dominating' WS and a bunch of other flat non-relevant US races, he should've pivoted to Hardrock years ago and likely would've had a much better base for UTMB. Fortunately he probably still has time.
I mean FFS Kilian just dominated Hardrock a month ago and had COVID last week. Walmsley spent months training for UTMB and entered with fresh legs, and still came in 80+ minutes behind Kilian. As long as Kilian is running Walmsley has almost zero chance of being an ultra GOAT.
Regarding his personality, I think some of it is stress. He did an interview earlier this year where he said that contract renewal is incredibly stressful, even for runners of his caliber. His got renewed, and I think there's just a ton of pressure for him to perform. I doubt he has much if any social media income (compared to guys like Canaday) and he doesn't exactly have an influencer-like personality (no offense). So he's gotta rely on his performances to keep his sponsors happy.
When you're 25 and living with 4 roommates in a dumpy apartment, it's hard to feel stressed. As he's getting into his mid 30s, issues like career longevity, retirement savings, kids, health insurance etc. are a much bigger deal.
I'm sure he's pretty f*cking unhappy about his UTMB performance this year.
I've read it somewhere on LRC and I have to agree. Jim just seems to only have about 14 hours of running in his legs before he fades dramatically. In a flat/runnable 100 miler, that's enough - which is why he has put together great road performances, and runs at WS100. But when it comes to hard rock, or UTMB, he seems to just fade and do horribly after around that time mark.
If he really wants to win this thing, I think he needs more experience with longer ultras. Today he got some.
I also don't know if he's in a great spot mentally / socially as compared to when he was in Flagstaff and the Coconino cowboys were all good buds. Since Jim left/got pushed out of that group, I've noticed a change in his personality. If you watch his pre race interviews from irunfar for WS100 in the early years, the dude is happy, psyched, and clearly in the zone for the race. Since that era, now he seems like he is more calculated but passionless. Maybe this is what the new Jim is like.
Yes indeed. It's somewhere around 17 hours. Anton Krupicka had the same problem. They never figured out how to take care of themselves in longer races, eat enough and have the right clothes at the right time. The longer the ultra the more complex it gets. And then there is the mental aspect of things. Jim is really bad at that.
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