Episode 233 of Talk Ultra – YES we are back! With Speedgoat Karl co-hosting and an in-depth interview with Courtney Dauwalter.
It has been a long time, and we can only apologise. Life, family and extensive travel had an impact on available time and while it’s always possible to ‘find some time’ somewhere, the podcast had to be sidelined for the beginning of 2023.
Lanzarote Training Camp, Oman Desert Marathon, The Coastal Challenge, Black Canyon Ultra, a photoshoot for adidas and lastly Transgrancanaria, it was a hectic start to ’23!’
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Transgrancanaria, year-on-year, the race continues to grow and expand and in 2023, once again, a new level has been reached! For ’23,’ Instead of gathering all races in one weekend, this edition was extended to five days. Overall, more than 3,600 runners from more than 60 different nationalities took part in any of the eight races, the most important change for 2023 was to increase the number of race days to five. Shorter races, were moved to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning including the KV El Gigante, Starter, Promo, Youth, Family, a non-competitive kids race and the marathon.
The ‘Classic’ and ‘Marathon’ races were broadcast, worldwide, with more than 17 hours of live streaming. In total, 16 cameras offered full coverage during the two days of broadcasting with English and Spanish ‘live’ commentary. In addition, journalists, photographers and related media provided global exposure of one of ‘the’ key trail running events in the world.
Transgrancanaria is part of the Spartan Trail World Championship circuit and four races of the TGC week are awarded with ITRA points. As a result, this recognition translated into better prizes for the winners. The Spartan Trail World Championship has awarded $30,000 to the top three finishers of Transgrancanaria 2023.
From the short and sharp KV to the long and arduous Classic, Transgrancanaria has something for all. However, the pinnacle race of the week is the 128km ‘Classic’ with 7060m of vertical gain. All who toe the line to undertake the challenge are heroes, however, in 2023 a special mention must go to the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) Courtney Dauwalter who not only placed 7th overall on GC but ran under 15 hours to stop the clock in 14:40:39. Courtney, over the years, has slowly but surely ticked off victories in the worlds biggest ultras and in the process, along with course records, has set a new level in this crazy sport of ultra running. Now she has a Transgrancanaria course record to add to the list.
Canada’s Jasmine Lowther and Catalonia’s Claudia Tremps placed 2nd and 3rd, for perspective, they were almost 2-hours behind the trailblazing ‘Court!’ One has to ask the question, what is next for this amazing athlete.
In the men’s category, Andreu Simón was the fastest of all in 13:29:33 with an impressive run from the front, his victory never looked in question. A previous winner in Transgrancanari,, 2020 and 2021 in the Marathon distance.
George Foster and Azara García won the Advanced, while the Marathon went to Kenyan Robert Pkemoi, and Catalan Nuria Gil. Poland’s Bart Przedwojewski did a double win with Starter and KV El Gigante, while Switzerland’s Rea Iseli won Starter women’s category. Poland’s Katarzyna Solińska joined her countryman Przedwojewski as winner of the KV El Gigante.
France’s Enzo Rati and Italy’s Cecilia Basso Promo finished on top of the podium in the Promo category. In the Youth category, a French double win for Camille Cucherousset and Lili Perignon.
Episode 146 of Talk Ultra brings you an interview with the amazing Courtney Dauwalter who won Run Rabbit Run and then just weeks later won Moab 200 (238 miles) outright! We also speak with rising trail and mountain runner Katie Kaars. Speedgoat co-hosts!
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Patrick Reagan took the top slot over Zach Bitter and Brendan Davies placed 3rd, it was close under a super hot day – 13:01 (new CR and his debut 100) Zach ran 13:52 (he was previous course record holder) and 14:04 for Brendan. For the ladies’ Larisa Dannis made a comeback in 16:32, Dana Anderson ran 17:15 and Stacy Buckley 19:32.
The 100km even was won by Makai Clemons 8:32 and Caroline Boller (who has been on Talk Ultra) in 9:34.
DIAGONALE DES FOUS
Benoit Girondel ran 23:53 which is a very solid run on this tough course, Antoine Guillon 2nd and Guillaume Beauxis 3rd 24:26 and 25:09 respectively. Andrea Huser did it once again, this woman is the most prolific and consistent ultra runner in the world, I and nobody else knows how she does it. Quite incredible. Top slot in 26:34 which was way ahead of 2nd Emelie Lecomte and Marcelle Puy who ran 29:02 and 30:58. The UK’s Beth Pascall was 6th in 32:08.
Well, Walmsley did a Walmsley and dropped around 100km but there was other notable drops – Julien Chorier, Ludovic Pommeret and Xavier Thevenard didn’t start.
TEMPLIERS
Ruth Croft pulled off a huge victory ahead of Ida Nilsson and Emelie Forsberg, their times 7:27, 7:33 and 7:46. Fast! For the men, Sebastien Spehler, Nicolas Martin and Alex Nichols were crowned top-3 for the 76k race – 6:38, 6:43 and 6:49.
FULLY VK
A huge day for the VK with Philip Gotsch setting a new world record of 28:53 for the 1.9km 1000m course – ridiculous. Christel Dewalle won the ladies race in 35:10.
BIG BACKYARD ULTRA
Bonkers, bonkers, bonkers! Guillaume Calmettes was last man standing after 59-hours, 59-laps of the 4.16 mile loop. Harvey Lewis pushed it close but faltered in the latter stages. Total distance 245.44 miles!
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Interview with KATIE KAARS
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OTTER Trail Run South Africa
Christiaan Greyling and Meg Mackenzie both took top honours at South Africa’s iconic OTTER, their times 4:13 and 5:01
Moab 200 (we mentioned last show but another shout out!)
Courtney Dauwalter runs an incredible 57-hours and 52-minutes for an outright win for the 238-mile race, we caught up with her to hear all about it!
Please support Talk Ultra by becoming a Patron at www.patreon.com/talkultra and THANKS to all our Patrons who support us. Rand Haley and Simon Darmody get a mention on the show here for ‘Becoming 100k Runners’ with a high-tier Patronage.
IAN CORLESS 