Trail Running Diaries #2 (Week 35)
Weekly distance covered: 24.35 km
Time spent running: 2h23m
Number of runs: 4
Training this week
This was a significant week of running for me as it was the first week where I managed to do 4 runs without any Achilles pain. On Sunday, I went out to my local trail spot in Amsterdam and ran the trails I typically ran at before I got injured. It felt amazing to be out there in the sun cruising the trails. I am now 4 weeks out from my 22km race in the Lake District, called the 2 Valleys Ultra. My girlfriend and I will spend a week there hiking, eating, and doing other outdoor activities before my race on the final weekend of that trip. There will be more details on that event in an upcoming journal entry.
Shoe buying tip
If you are looking for a fantastic all-around training shoe that can do easy, long, and speed runs alike, then the Asics Novablast 3 is the shoe for you. As this is an older model, you can find it on sale at various online shoe stores. Check out the Asics outlet store for a discounted price of 105 euros. I grabbed a pair this week.
UTMB this week
I spent an ungodly amount of hours this week watching the various UTMB finals races (CCC, OCC, UTMB), taking place in Chamonix, France. This is the Super Bowl of trail running and perhaps the most prestigious race in the sport. It consists of 7 different races of varying lengths.
My girlfriend and I cheered for Francesco Puppi as he took 2nd place in the CCC men’s race, a Nike athlete that we have been following for a while. We have a special connection with this runner as my girlfriend managed his athlete contract at Nike, so that’s quite cool. Plus, he’s a great athlete and overall human being. The OCC men’s race was also action-packed with the American runner, Hayden Hawks winning the race.
In the main UTMB men’s race, the 176km long race with 9900m of elevation, three big favorites pulled out of the race on the first night (Tom Evans, Mathieu Blanchard, and Jim Walmsley). It is quite rare for three favorites to all DNF out of a race. This opened up the race for other hopefuls to make their mark. The Frenchman Vincent Bouillard, who is unsponsored and has a full-time job as a shoe engineer at Hoka, took the victory, being one of only 4 athletes to run the race in under 20 hours.
What this victory of this relatively unknown runner showed us is that you can still make it to the top as someone who works full-time and does trail running on the side. He mentioned in a post-race interview that this is the kind of life he prefers, as he also is not a fan of social media, and being a full-time professional trail runner requires you to be quite active on social media to build up a following. In this way, he avoids the pressure of the pro teams in terms of performance but also the need to post on social media. It will be interesting to see what brands reach out to him after this victory and how he decides to move forward.
Another incredible race performance came from Katie Schide, who broke the women’s record for UTMB, previously held by legendary runner, Courtney Dauwalter. Everyone is waiting in anticipation to see them race each other in the future. It is a battle I can’t wait to see.
I hope you enjoyed this article! Leave a comment and tell me about your training and upcoming races!
