Official 2022 UTMB Discussion Thread

Lol. The PE is not being prevented or more easily treated if he went in sooner. We all appreciate your “I told you so” rant though. Have an orange slice and take a nap.

I've seen no evidence of that being the case.

So they run about 12:00 pace and you call it a "race"?

What's your pace when you run in the Alps?

Two things here

1 - The typical hike around MB is 10 days. Winner does it below 20 hours

2 - His pace is actually 6:XX/km

…with 10000m of elevation

This is what always makes me laugh when road runners "make fun of" trail runners or look down on them.

Is it damn tough to run really fast on roads? Yes. Is it damn tough to run really fast on trails? Yes.

If you can't figure out that it's way easier to run really fast on a flat paved road versus a hilly, technical trail, you're truly a moron.

You gotta remember that most road runners are not running races with any kind of even minimal ascent as compared to most trail races..and those that do absolutely run both are absolutely no making fun or looking down on trail runners.

I remember the first time I heard someone talk about the hills at Boston Marathon...and I had just come off a 50k with 8,000 feet of climbing (not to mention equal descent). I just kinda smiled and said "maybe you should incorporate some real hill training in the mountains..it will make any road race seem pancake flat".

The first 8.9k of the race gives a bit more information. It’s flat. I don’t know the percentage of the segment which is on roads however. His pace was 3:58/km. The record for this Strava segment is held by Walmsley at 3:52/km. Remember, he had 19.5 hours of running left after that segment. A lot of people on this board can’t even run this pace in a 5km road race.

But his greatest talent is navigating rocky and slippery paths quickly.

I don't know the exact breakdown either, but to the best of my recollection less than half of that first 8.9Km is on road - largely just leaving town on the city streets. Then it jumps on a wide path of sorts, which starts out smooth enough then isn't so much. Small ups/downs with occasional rocks/roots - it kinda caught me off guard since everyone always referred to it as fast road running, which it was not. Kind of nerve-wracking when you're in the middle of a herd of 2500+ runners and don't want to trip and mangle yourself out of the race right out of the gate. I'd guess drop 10-12 seconds off that per kilometer pace to compare it to straight road running. Or for us Americans - they were running comparatively ~6 min/miles for the first 5+ miles, then still had over 100 miles to go (the race is actually 171k/106.5m) with only 10,000m/33,000' of elevation gain. Total walk in the park - any LR keyboard warrior worth their QWERTY could put slackers like Kilian and Jim to shame. ;)

This x 1000. No hill in a road race is too steep to deal with after you've gone to the trails. You actually know how to adjust your pace too, so you don't blow up. And you are more efficient on the downs. Yeah I go slower when it's hilly, but I know how to manage a race better than all the roadies around me. It's hilarious to watch them blast up a hill with breakaway breathing rhythm. "see you soon" lol

I'm sure his/her pace is sub 6 min miles in the alps for such a comment.

Wow, stunningly insightful interview with UTMB M2 Mathieu for anyone with time/patience (re: very slow, methodical pace). Not only does he discuss his own race and strategy, he has keen insights about both Jim and Kilian. Amazingly, he only began trail running 5 years ago and is a huge Kilian fan, so when he caught Kilian after La Fouly and could sense Kilian was on the verge of dropping - instead of charging on by he slowed down to help him get moving again. And thusly, they worked together to pull Jim back before finally racing each other over the final stretch. Absolutely incredible patience and composure - Big Jim has a LOT more to worry about than just Kilian and Francois. Hate to say it but I'd probably take him 1000x over Jim at UTMB. Respect!

Thanks for the summary, that's a really interesting interaction they had. Kilian mentioned something about it as well. Looks like they conversed in french and decided they would go ahead and assassinate the american.

So he made himself lose by supporting Kilian. Good on him.

Jim killed himself

... in a figurative sense, of course. It's not that the Euros got him, he just pushed at the wrong time, it seems.

Not really. He found out at the same time as Killian that Jim had burned out so Killian realized first was in reach again since they would inevitably catch and drop Jim. Killian dropped Mathieu on the last up hill and held onto that gap just enough for the W

thanks Over the Hills and Far Away (and others) for making this a fantastic thread and an exciting accompaniment to what is always a fantastic race (especially so this year).

I thought the same at first, but remember they were still 55k from the finish at the catch point - a long way to go and no way to know how it would play out. The bigger picture being he had too much respect for his hero and inspiration to just leave him on the road for dead. Great sportsmanship.