Dear Jim Walmsley....please taper

Jim has a history of going out in the lead and fading. This is a common theme of fast and talented track runners that come into ultras. Starting in 2016 he was somehow able to improve by leaps and bounds.

Pre 2016:

2015 World Championships 100k on the roads (28th place)

Placed 3rd behind Rob Krar and Alex Nichols at Moab Red Hot 55km

Stage Coach 55km (4:04)

5th at Lake Sonoma 50 mile (after taking the lead) in 6:41 +

JFK in only 5:47-5:56 (wins but not stellar)

starting only in 2016:

6:00 at Lake Sonoma 50 ( a 40 minute improvement in 1 year)

5:21 at JFK50 ( a 35 minute improvement in 1 year)

Stage Coach 55km in 3:30 (34 minute improvement in 1 year)

On CR pace at Western States 100 until mile 92.

The rest is history. Hard training, high climbing numbers and no need to taper.

Must be something in the water up in Flag!

Nice comparison of times, Wildhog. JW's dramatic improvement is suspicious. If he does well at UTMB off of that non-taper, red flags gonna be flyin'.

Wildhog wrote:

Jim has a history of going out in the lead and fading. This is a common theme of fast and talented track runners that come into ultras. Starting in 2016 he was somehow able to improve by leaps and bounds.

Pre 2016:

2015 World Championships 100k on the roads (28th place)

Placed 3rd behind Rob Krar and Alex Nichols at Moab Red Hot 55km

Stage Coach 55km (4:04)

5th at Lake Sonoma 50 mile (after taking the lead) in 6:41 +

JFK in only 5:47-5:56 (wins but not stellar)

starting only in 2016:

6:00 at Lake Sonoma 50 ( a 40 minute improvement in 1 year)

5:21 at JFK50 ( a 35 minute improvement in 1 year)

Stage Coach 55km in 3:30 (34 minute improvement in 1 year)

On CR pace at Western States 100 until mile 92.

The rest is history. Hard training, high climbing numbers and no need to taper.

Must be something in the water up in Flag!

He's training more and getting more and more confident.

You are just ridiculous and boring,no matter under how many names you post the same old stories.

Damn dude..this is an intriguing list here. Walmsley over Killian, good lord idk, would be insane to say the least..Tollefson, Z Miller and Laney are all wild cards, they could be a few minutes apart if there is no serious bonk. Miller will push the limit before the other 2 if he's feeling strong. Bowman over Sage? I am biased, I've been a consistent viewer of his videos and respect the hell out of what he's done for the sport, but Bowman is well beyond Sage's 100 mile lack thereof success, so that's a factor. Bowman's 100 mile listing is damn impressive too. I've forgotten about Andrew Miller, dude is low key, would like to see him give a serious performance. I'll never count out Browning, one of my favorites and a 100 wizard. When does the race kick off Friday?

I agree with defending Jim Walmsley - I mean the dude is insanely talented and has proved himself with lots of great sub-100 performances.

But the WS100 course is well-marked and easy to follow, there is no "navigation" necessary and there are no sketchy turns. Only 1 runner missed the turn that day and it was Jim. Jim admits that it was his fault for not paying attention. I basically chalk it up to bad luck / inattention due to fatigue. So my point is - don't blame the race directors.

a race this stacked, none of the hard hitters is going to try to make an early breakaway. I think Walmsley is going to run this similarly to how he did at WS 2016, where he fiddled around with the pack early before opening it up. So I guess I think he might start stringing it out a little bit on the first decent, at around 15km, with Zach Miller going with and we get a Millers vs Hawks TNF type battle going. Killian lays off but will eventually give chase, and Tollefson + Sage go with him. Top 4 will eventually be Killian, Tollefson, Miller, Walmsley in that order; my guesses

I don't know the history of UTMB that well, but do guys fade to top 3-4 spots, or back in to them so to say? or do they typically completely blow up once out of contention?

Killian, Francois, and Xavier have won 7 of the last 9 editions of UTMB.

Wildhorse wrote:

Killian, Francois, and Xavier have won 7 of the last 9 editions of UTMB.

That's only because Wrong Way Walmsley wasn't there!!!

Hey Jim, some key words in French:

Gauche- left

Droite- right

"Je ne continuerai pas"- I will not continue

It might be more appropriate to start laying down the DNF excuses for Walmsley...

1. I was still drunk from night before

2. Well, I was too drunk, and started too fast

3. After I drank too much, I started too fast, and I forgot to fuel

4. Drinking, a fast start, lack of calories, and then... I realized I wasn't going to win.

DNF

It's a foot race not an orienteering race. Navigation shouldn't be required.

but going off course is REALLY common in ultrasi've even been in road 5ks where the course isn't marked and half the competitors go off course. it's being run by volunteers, so the margin for error is immensenice try

Goucher Needles wrote:

It's a foot race not an orienteering race. Navigation shouldn't be required.

With the bad weather forecasted for UMTB, I can't imagine that Jim makes it to mile 50.

Walmsley's dumb-ass lifestyle and lack of discipline earn him le-DNF at UTMB. Book it, Dano.

Contrary to my picks, bad weather would favor Killian and Zach Miller in my estimation.

Completely giving up because of a wrong turn 7 miles from the finish (and it took another 3-4 hrs to go 7 miles?), or because you start puking 2/3s into a race are not acceptable excuses to quit. He quit 2/3s into the 100K World Championship too. He has some sort of mental block to succeed in high stake races.

lol...majority of posts on thread are all from the same guy.

The stupidity here is rampant. It really is hard to believe some of you posters are that stupid. My guess is you are just spewing hate because you have nothing better to do.

Here is a little information you should probably know. First about 2016 Western States. Walmsley was told by a volunteer the turn was about 3 miles when in fact it was much closer. That is no excuse but he didn't start looking for the turn until too late. The 8 miles before the wrong turn(83-90 on his Strava), he ran 7:39, 8:07, 9:12, 8:32, 7:58, 7:02, 7:20, 8:34 for an 8:04 average. That is FASTER than course record pace. The distance to the next aid station was short so he didn't have much food or hydration with him. After he went off course, he had to go another 4 miles and got too low on nutrition. It wasn't like somebody could just give him more food or water as he would have been dq'ed.

As for his "sudden" rise to fame, just go back and look at his Strava. Pretty easy to see that when his training got serious, his times got much better. You aren't going to be one of the best ultra runners in the world running 3 times a week and doing some bike rides.

In the last two years he has set COURSE RECORDS at pretty much EVERY race he has done. Why wouldn't he think he could get the course record at Western State?

I've followed Walmsleys training and racing the last couple years and he is one of the SMARTEST runners out there. He doesn't over race, takes enough recovery after races and rarely has a bad race except for the 2 western states.

Instead of sitting around bashing him on a computer, maybe you should be studying his workouts (they are all posted on Strava) and see how he has taken his talent and become one of the best ultra runners in the world.

1. Killian (Tears the Americans to shreds in the second half)

2. Jim (Overtaken in the final 15 miles by Killian, course dependent)

3. Tim (Tries to stay on Jims wheel too long)

4. Zach (Starts too hard, blows up but comes back in a surge)

5. Francois (The usual paced Euro 100 miler)

6. Dave (tried and true Laney tries but cant quite break top 5 in this fast year)

7.Xavier

8. Miguel

9. Jason (Slow and steady for Schlarb)

10. Tofol

11. Gediminas

12. Jeff (probably will 20th+ more likely)

13. Sage (If its snowy its gonna be a DNF, stop staring at the moon dipshit)

14.Dylan (Same as Tim but just doesnt have the race knowledge)