Does anyone actually know what went wrong with Walmsley? Did he fall? Get injured? Gastro? Or just bonk? He seemed to be cruising to 120k or so and then it all went south pretty fast.
Does anyone actually know what went wrong with Walmsley? Did he fall? Get injured? Gastro? Or just bonk? He seemed to be cruising to 120k or so and then it all went south pretty fast.
Word on the street is his quads were obliterated and he just slowed down.
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.
Why was he pushed out?
Not pushed out at all. He still runs with us when he's back in Northern Arizona.
We're not all as committed as we once were to do the 130 mile weeks we once were, hence the band might been seen to have "split", but it's more that other priorities have taken over in the past two years. But, having Big Jim back in town, always gets us back together- it's good fun.
Please don't start rubbish Robert, you're better than this.
Not pushed out at all. He still runs with us when he's back in Northern Arizona.
We're not all as committed as we once were to do the 130 mile weeks we once were, hence the band might been seen to have "split", but it's more that other priorities have taken over in the past two years. But, having Big Jim back in town, always gets us back together- it's good fun.
Please don't start rubbish Robert, you're better than this.
Not pushed out at all. He still runs with us when he's back in Northern Arizona.
We're not all as committed as we once were to do the 130 mile weeks we once were, hence the band might been seen to have "split", but it's more that other priorities have taken over in the past two years. But, having Big Jim back in town, always gets us back together- it's good fun.
Please don't start rubbish Robert, you're better than this.
Too late, buddy.
Leave it to one of the website owners to crash a clean, positive discussion thread like a bull in a china shop. Classy!
Will be interesting to see what happened with Jim, clearly something went wrong. Of course managing those set backs and avoiding the worse ones is a critical part of a race this long. Walmsley seems untouchable up to 14-15 hours of running but those last few hours of UTMB have been crushing him.
Huge kudos to Jim; he really deserves a lot of respect. Even with this, he is still in the conversation as among the very ultrarunners in the world (look at his road 100k and his WS history, and 4th at UTMB is nothing to sneeze at). But even better, he has realized his biggest challenge is winning UTMB, and he has tackled that head on, rather than continuing to spank anyone who shows up at WS100. It would be way easier for him to hang out in Flagstaff, make that Hoka money, and say, "I'm just going to do my best and see what happens." Instead, he's fully invested myself, moved to a foreign country, and made public his intentions, at risk of failing to achieve what is clearly a very difficult goal. It's hard enough just to break the course record and/or win; you also have to deal with runners like Killian and Francois who might do it, too, and first.
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.
Great point. What I see as an huge obstacle for US runners is the fact that they have to be Pros. Almost nobody else (except Kilian) is that. Almost all have normal jobs with good health insurance they all run for fun. François D'Haene for example has a winery. Jim Walmsley doesn't have that, he is at the mercy of some soulless corporations.
In most developed countries you don´t need a health insurance. You pay that with your taxes.
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.
Does Ben Parkes ever actually finish a race that's longer than a half marathon?
I was subscribed to his channel for a long time but recently had to stop following him. There's a constant cycle of hyping up a race, training poorly, getting injured and then dropping out of the race in question.
Trans Gran Canaria 2019, Mozart 100 2019, Berlin Marathon 2019, Wrexham Elite Marathon 2021, London Marathon 2021, Manchester Marathon 2022, UTMB 2022. Sure there were more.
Seems like a lovely chap, but his running vlogs just aren't doing it for me as they always end in disappointment. Can anyone recommend a proper good running channel to follow apart from Sage?
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.
Does Ben Parkes ever actually finish a race that's longer than a half marathon?
I was subscribed to his channel for a long time but recently had to stop following him. There's a constant cycle of hyping up a race, training poorly, getting injured and then dropping out of the race in question.
Trans Gran Canaria 2019, Mozart 100 2019, Berlin Marathon 2019, Wrexham Elite Marathon 2021, London Marathon 2021, Manchester Marathon 2022, UTMB 2022. Sure there were more.
Seems like a lovely chap, but his running vlogs just aren't doing it for me as they always end in disappointment. Can anyone recommend a proper good running channel to follow apart from Sage?
I quite like his channel as I dont take the "hype" as him hyping up his performance in the races but the races itself. Anyway, an alternative is Ben is running (not the same Ben). British strong runner, 5K 14:57, 10K 30:56 HM 68:04 M 2:28.
Ben injured himself on a downhill, got a check-up with the meds tried to push on but apparently could barely walk. They were running together so that's why both of them DNF. His Strava says that it took him 20h to get back to charmonix. Hope he did not reinjure his already battered foot.
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.
Does Ben Parkes ever actually finish a race that's longer than a half marathon?
I was subscribed to his channel for a long time but recently had to stop following him. There's a constant cycle of hyping up a race, training poorly, getting injured and then dropping out of the race in question.
Trans Gran Canaria 2019, Mozart 100 2019, Berlin Marathon 2019, Wrexham Elite Marathon 2021, London Marathon 2021, Manchester Marathon 2022, UTMB 2022. Sure there were more.
Seems like a lovely chap, but his running vlogs just aren't doing it for me as they always end in disappointment. Can anyone recommend a proper good running channel to follow apart from Sage?
Ben Parkes content is 1000 x worse than Seth DeMoor... can't stand that guy.
Not as quick as some of the others (but getting seriously quicker now his upped volume/Norwegian style training) but genuinely nice guy, engaging, finishes all the races he starts and is into giving new ideas a go.
I can understand some of the discontent with DNFs but to jump in and defend the guy I think part of it is mental health related.
As someone else says he hypes the races, running, training and running community rather than his own performances. He's also keen to gives back to running community which I think he should be commended for.
Does Ben Parkes ever actually finish a race that's longer than a half marathon?
I was subscribed to his channel for a long time but recently had to stop following him. There's a constant cycle of hyping up a race, training poorly, getting injured and then dropping out of the race in question.
Trans Gran Canaria 2019, Mozart 100 2019, Berlin Marathon 2019, Wrexham Elite Marathon 2021, London Marathon 2021, Manchester Marathon 2022, UTMB 2022. Sure there were more.
Seems like a lovely chap, but his running vlogs just aren't doing it for me as they always end in disappointment. Can anyone recommend a proper good running channel to follow apart from Sage?
Ben Parkes content is 1000 x worse than Seth DeMoor... can't stand that guy.
NONSENSE!
He's not the messiah and hes not re-inventing the wheel with his content.
But Parkes is 1000 times more authentic! He's also clearly not a total narcissist! And has a business that he runs outside of his vlogging. Also not prone to giving out ridiculous "advice" like some!
Thanks for the update. I suspected that 1 of them was unable to continue and the other withdrew to be with them.
They are a couple after all, so it makes sense that you might want to support your other half. As opposed to making content about them pushing out ever more kids, whilst you hide in your car drinking coffee!
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