Official 2022 UTMB Discussion Thread

S/Lab Genesis. Just dropped.

Apart from the fact that Kilian smoked Jim at Sierre Zinal which is the fastest most runnable mountain trail race out there.

Walmsley, Walmsley, Walmsley.

I'm sure he will put it all together eventually. But I'd like to highlight two runners on the men's side from this year.

Mathieu Blanchard - Guy has only been running ultras since 2017. This year he ran the UTMB in under 20 hours, and dominated everyone except Kílian. I suspect he may be a factor in future UTMB races.

Zach Miller has been out of it for a while due to injury and surgery. He's also another one in a line of American male runners that has maybe had one or two decent performances on the longest course, but also catastrophes.

2016 - 6th place - went out hard and faded.
2017 - 9th place - went out hard and faded.
2018 - DNF after trying to outrace Xavier Thevenard and failing.
2019 - DNF

2022 felt like the year Zach Miller didn't try to "win" the race early, or constantly lead the pack like Jim. He was more consistent, stayed behind or with the lead group, and then he hung onto Thom Evans for as long as he could. It paid off with his best finish UTMB so far, and his best time so far.*

*Should be noted that UTMB 2022 had almost perfect weather conditions.

Killian has quite a few "gears" in his repertoire. Shuffle when needed for 100milers and sprintesque for races like Zegama or Sierre-Zinal. Definitely, he shouldn't be associated with merely an efficient shuffle. Holding BOTH many fastest and longest CR's makes him a GOAT - plus incredibly long career. How many his best rivals have retired years ago...

I think this is a good idea. I may catch major flack for this - but Walmsley giving something like Barkley a shot might not be the craziest thing in the world. He'd get a ton of publicity and a sh*tton of social media content to diversify his revenue streams. It'd be a huge dose of vert, and I think would do wonders for his mental fortitude (badly lacking IMO) and ability to simply give a massive effort for long stretches of time. It'd also get him a solid 60 hours of gear/nutrition practice.

The mental aspect can't be understated. And it's not that Jim craters IMO - it's that he is too fired up to win and is impatient. I suspect even when he thinks he is holding back, he should go slower. It's hard to get experience at these distances except by doing them. You can do a 10 hour mountain run and never experience the fatigue of the back half of the race, and think you're going slow enough. I wanna say he should have gotten the lesson by now, but I think he keeps trying to double down on the intensity (he wants to will himself to the win rather than running his individual best race and seeing where it gets him).

^^^This.

You could even hear it in his finish line interview as well. He kept referring to his strategy, how he tried to make the winning move off Ferret, etc, etc... all about what he tried to do to beat Kilian. That's the thought pattern that works in shorter races but gets you in trouble in the long rugged ones. You absolutely never hear Kilian talk this way, he only talks about enjoying the running and finding his groove. If his groove isn't good enough to win (it usually is obviously, but not always), well then so be it. 100 miles is a long long way, no need to rush things.

As a former (ancient) D1 guy myself, I know all about the hyper-competitive attitude and was shocked how laid back everyone was when I ran my first ultra. And then was shocked again when so many of those laid back types dusted me - in large part because they were just out there to have fun and get their groove on.

^^^ This. The best training for 100s and beyond is simply doing more 100-mile races.

Doing a 20-mile run for a road marathon is pretty much going to get you 95% of the experience of the marathon itself. If your nutrition and shoe choice works for 20-22 miles, it'll probably work for 26 miles.

When I was kinda serious about doing 100s, my peak week would look something like Rest-10-15-10-Rest-30-20 with lots of vert.

I never came close to feeling the pain that begins at mile 70 during training. Even if your shoe choice and nutrition gets you through a 30-20 mile weekend double, there's little guarantee it'll work 60 miles into a race until you actually test it out. The only way to fine-tune these types of things is simply to race more 100s.

I think Jim doing a very long runnable ultra like Cocodona would serve him well.

Jim's problem is that he wants to win too much. He doesn't have any patience and is not confident in his own abilities at all.

Kilian delivered a master piece today. He was just happy with the 2nd position, kicked back and enjoyed the show. After the last aid station he dropped the hammer before they even got to the last big climb and he was gone. He made like 3-4 minutes in 20 minutes. At the end he had a comfortable 10 minute lead which he could led slide at the end. This was fun to watch.

I don't think so. He wouldn't finish. He can barely finish a 100 mile which takes a little longer. Jim would be much better to race 100k road races but he missed his best chance today when they had the 100k WC in Germany.

Talking about generalities. Europeans are more patient, yet still very competitive. They run more relaxed, mentally sharp but not tense, more in a meditative way, and keep the best for the end. It works pretty good in 100 milers.

She spent a lot of time hiking and running the trails of the White Mountains in NH as a trail guide/hike maintenance staff, if I recall correctly. She has a substantial amount of experience with technical terrain because of that upbringing. White Mountains terrain is probably very good training for the Alps. She owns the White Mountains hut traverse FKT as of 2019.

Yup.
Jim thinks too much about racing too early in a 100 miler. You have to get to mile 70 first before the racing starts. Kilian was laid back all day long until around mile 89 when he dropped the hammer.

I'm kinda curious how Kilian would do at WS nowadays. Any chance he can beat Walmsley's CR?

Yes, I think so. He has a faster gear for WS too. Besides, on the mental side, Walmsley would feel an immense pressure about racing Killian, and Killian, as it's been proved, he's much stronger in a mental game than Jim.

Kilian would not beat Jim at WS. Jim is too fast for that.

But it's not necessarily the distance as much as the verticality. What makes one 100-mile race a lot longer (in time) than another is the amount of verticality. WS is the easiest of the western US courses and it is a downhill course. Walmsley needs to do more races with long climbs and descents, not just run longer.

For an example, compare the vertical profiles of WS with UTMB and Hardrock. UTMB and Hardrock have very similar profiles, although Hardrock is at a much higher elevation. There are other 100-milers in the US, like Wasatch, that are much more vertical that he could do instead of WS. Also, at WS the main weather issue is usually the heat but at most other mountain courses cold is more of a factor. So I don't think just doing really long flatter runs would help as much as doing more races with in the mountains with a lot of verticality. The drawback is that he may sacrifice some of his speed on shorter flat courses.

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Walmsley knows how to rub WS100. No one has even been close to him each year he nails it. So I highly doubt Kilian would be able to hold on.

You forget Killian fast races apparently. Plus, the mental game is crucial. And KJ has an immense experience running all kind of trail races for years.