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2026 Sierre Zinal Race Preview · Let's Talk Trail Running

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Let's Talk Trail Running.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Robert Prosser,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: and today we have a preview for one of the most exciting races in the trail season
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: in the world,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: if not the most exciting trail race and most densely competitive trail race in
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: the world, Sierras and all.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: 2026 edition is going to go off in August 8th, European time.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say 11.30 a.m. start time.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the show where we go into in-depth previews on who is running,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: what the races look like, and who you should consider picking.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sierra's and All is one of those few races where you get to pick 10 runners deep
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: on Fantasy Free Trail.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Fantasy Free Trail being the fantasy trail running game that we like to play
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: on this show, sponsored by the trail running media outlet Free Trail.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, we've got probably one of my favorite races.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think Zagama, personally, is probably my favorite race, like, spirit-wise, alignment-wise.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Sierra Zanala has got to be the most competitive race,
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: and we'll talk more about that a lot in the show,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: and we'll kind of go into some metrics, too.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: To use to justify why I think this is the most competitive race in the world.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: But this weekend,
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: we've got Sears and all and I'm coming to you guys live from Salzburg, Austria.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm currently in Austria, only mere days away from my wedding.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And my wedding is going to be the same day as Sears and all.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to get this podcast out to you guys in time to do something useful
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: with the information, but also in time to be able to enjoy my wedding weekend.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So in a hotel in Salzburg,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: just arrived with the family and things like that and spent the last couple of days
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: in Innsbruck.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been exciting.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Other housekeeping items,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: first couple of minutes of the podcast,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: always a little bit of housekeeping before you go to the Reese previews.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Other housekeeping items,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: last time we talked,
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was about to race Never Summer 100K in the Never Summer Mountain Range
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: about two hours west of Fort Collins in Colorado.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I did line up and race the race just a week and a half ago, give or take, the end of July.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, I had an experience that I've never had in my seven years of ultra running.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I had my first...
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: D and F. I did not finish the race.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was my 13th ultra, if I counted correctly.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the first ever time I didn't Across the finish line, actually.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I made it about halfway through the race.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And basically, yeah, I made it to 32 miles.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty much from the get go,
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: like for mile three, my legs just felt really, really dead, really heavy.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I had no pep in my step.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of just started the race feeling awful.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I've never,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: obviously,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: you always kind of have little voices in your head that say,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I could quit right here.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: But never have I actually like legitimately considered quitting a race.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I've done One longer race,
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: but I've also done races where they didn't go well,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: but I never really legitimately considered quitting.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And for some reason,
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: basically for mile three on,
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, I was,
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I felt terrible and I wasn't having a good day and I knew I could finish
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: the race and kind of slog it in and just walk it in for the back half.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I just really wasn't enjoying myself.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I raced for about six and a half hours.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the first crew date station, I had my buddy, Josh park.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: He came all the way out from Colorado Springs separately from me.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And was out there just to crew me.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I really appreciated that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I originally thought I was going to tell him at mile 19 that I was going to drop.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But basically when I saw him, I was like, dude, I can't do that to him.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: I told him I felt terrible.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: We got some ice on me, got me wet.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I decided to go out to the next crewed aid station at mile 32.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing changed in that 13 miles,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: but I figured I'd at least give it a chance to turn around and get better.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but basically, yeah,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: at the halfway point,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I dropped,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: went back out on course at the mile 51 aid station,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: cheer people on from the rest of the day,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: try to help out at the aid station a little bit,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: holding down some tents when they're getting blown around and things like that.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: But amazing race,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: amazing organization,
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: really, I really, really enjoyed my first race with Naught Runners.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: They put on world-class races.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome event and just wasn't my day out there.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I was disappointed,
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: but I knew that the reason that I do these races is because I really enjoy them
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: and I enjoy being a part of them.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was out there for five or six hours.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But anyways, that is my woe is me first enough.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: On the good side of things,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: it means I can do a little bit more training and adventuring in Austria.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've already done a little bit more running than I probably would have here.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then, yeah.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then as of yesterday, I'm officially laid off from my job.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of a long time coming.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm applying to pilot jobs,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: both applying for SkyWest and Horizon, which are commuters for Alaska.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then SkyWest is for American Delta United as well.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then also some corporate jobs and kind of looking at applying
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: to some corporate like private jet type jobs in the States.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that is where life is at.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's very exciting,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: very uncertain,
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: getting married in three days and then looking for a new job and all these changes
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: and all these things at once.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it's definitely a very hectic time, I guess, to say the least in my life.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's the latest since we last talked.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then we, like I said, we've got Sears and All today.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Sears and All is,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: once again,
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: probably the most competitive race because you can fit more people into
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: a sub-vulture race and also sub-vulture athletes run more frequently.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And also we fit pro triathletes and pro marathoners into this field.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So Sears and All has a lot of factors that are And I'm going to talk about five
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: or six different articles that I've linked in the show notes.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to talk about the ranges of times that we see for the race,
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: previous championships, and previous championships.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's really one of the most captivating races in the trail world,
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: bar none, even if it's not an ultra race.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second half,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to do our usual, we're going to go into the in-depth picks.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have quite as many notes on all the results,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm just going to kind of go off the dome about what I think about each of
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: the runners and I've kind of divided them more heavily into categories.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you're still going to get the in-depth preview and really what I think.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then last but not least,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you some picks and also picks that I would consider swapping in
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: or subbing in for my top 10 as well.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, articles or links that I've discussed in this podcast.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about two different Doug Meyer articles.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Doug Meyer is the founder of Run the Alps,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: a really awesome organization that does kind of like hut-to-hut hike
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: or running trips in the Italian Dolomites and like around Mont Blanc and
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: in different areas in Europe.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's originally from New Hampshire.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's written some really great books on UTMB and also on trail running in Switzerland.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And France, the Switzerland one I'm using for my honeymoon here in a little bit.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But anyways,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I got two of his articles linked,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: one for a True Runner Magazine article,
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: a True Runner Mag article that he did,
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in 2015, about Sears and all in the history of it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Another article I have linked is Doug Beyer,
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: his article for the 50th anniversary in 2023,
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: where he interviews a bunch of previous champs.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also have another outrun the ALPS article
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: with previous champion Chuck Schmeade, the first ever American to win it in 1977.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last two things I have linked are the free trail Instagram page,
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: the graphic on Sears and All that we're going to talk about a good bit today.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also have two different previews from I Run Far,
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: both the men's and the women's previews.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So first things first, we're going to talk about the history of Sears and all.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a race connecting the Swiss city of Sierra to the mountain village of Sinal and
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: the Nivea Valley.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: The race, uh,
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: also known as the race of five,
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: 4,000 peaks, cause there's five 4,000 meter peaks that you can see from it.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are in the 53rd edition of this year,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: if I can count correctly, cause it was founded in 1973 by Jean-Claude Pont.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: The five peaks that are mentioned in the race are Weishorn,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sinal Roethorn, Ober, Gobblehorn, Matterhorn, and Dent Blanche.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So like I said, Ceres and All's Mountain Race in the Valais Alps in Switzerland.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's 31 kilometers or approximately 19 miles,
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: and it has 2,200 meters of elevation of climbing,
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: which is about 7,200 feet of climbing,
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: but it's only got 1,000 So basically it's got two feet of climbing
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: for every one feet of descending.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because it goes from point to point from Sierra to Zonal.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it starts lower and hotter and kind of moves up higher.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you basically start off with a pretty steep, like 5,000 foot climb.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of roll and kind of do some great uphills.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then you do a very steep downhill at the end.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing that makes Sierra's and all so unique is that it does an amazing job
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: at supporting elite athletes from all over the world to come and race
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: by offering both housing and travel assistance,
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: which means once again that it frequently has some of
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: the most densely competitive fields in the world and is typically
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: the most competitive sub-ultra race in the world,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: if not the most competitive trail race in the world.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Last year,
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: the men's field was the most densely competitive race of the year based off
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: of RCI 3, 5, 10, and 20.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the metric that FreeTrails Travis Longcar has developed
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: to measure density of race competition.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go on FreeTrail and you click Stats, it should be under Stats, and then Competition.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Analytics, Competition.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so basically it says RCI,
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Realized Competition Index, is the mean score of the top N number of finishers.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the different numbers that I listed.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Discounted by one standard deviation.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Rewarding fields that are both strong and tightly packed.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Darker shading indicates higher values.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Top 50 races shown.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So basically this is saying like, Hey, how hard was it to go top 10 in this race?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And for the men's,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: uh, races, all of 2025, Cirrus and all was by far the, was it by a good margin?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: The hardest you needed at nine 14 UTMB index on average to go 10th place.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Next, most competitive men's race was, uh, nine Oh eight with, with CCC.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then even going back as far as RCI or 20, uh,
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, no, sorry, 925 for RC at 10 and then 914 for CCC.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: But going as far back as RC at 20,
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: you need a 900 UTMB index just to get 20th place at this race.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Next most competitive race, CCC, 877.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Basically,
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: that means that Sears and All was densely packed,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: super competitive, super hard to get any spots in.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas on the women's side,
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sears and All was the third most competitive race when it comes to RCI 10.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just narrowly behind both OCC and CCC.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that means it was the most competitive sub-ultra race of the year by
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: a long margin, the next closest being Zagama.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it was the third most competitive field to get 10th place in.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the third most competitive also to get 20th place in.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So not quite the same story for the women's field.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: You could argue that both the shorter UTMB races, OCC, CCC, were the most competitive.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: But for the men's, hands down, Sierra's and All was the most competitive.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And for the women's, it was the most competitive sub-ultra of the year.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, uh, we talked about density and then other things to note in 2023,
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: over 5,000 people ran the race.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, like I mentioned,
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: we have the trail runner magazine, uh,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: article written by run the Alps founder,
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Doug Mayer, it,
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: the heart before the watch is something that the, uh,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: That the founder,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: JC Pont,
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: John Claude Pont,
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: would always say that, like,
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: people do Sears and Isle not only because it's a world-class competitive race,
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: but really because of the community and the atmosphere that it built around it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, they do an amazing job at recruiting both elites and average show.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: They have a tourist category for runners who predict that they'll finish the race
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: in more than four and a half hours.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So tourist runners start four and a half hours before the elites so they can be on
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: the course when the elites are catching up to them.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing from the articles that I'm talking about,
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: in the 50th anniversary edition for Run the Alps,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: where he interviews previous racers and also winners,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: he asks every athlete they interviews two questions.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Doug Meyer asks them,
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: during your time racing Sierras and all,
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: where would you place the race in the world of trail racing?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also asks them,
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: when you look back on your time at Sierras and all,
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: what are the feelings and emotions that came to mind?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: The one response of the previous winners and runners that I liked the most was
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: from Ricky Gates,
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: which shouldn't be surprising to any of you guys that know trail running.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ricky Gates being a really amazing adventurer,
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: trail runner, and basically just kind of like a wordsmith in a lot of ways.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so Ricky Gates...
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm pulling this up.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Ricky Gates said of Sierra's and all, he said...
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sierras and all is one of those races that you've never heard of it until you have.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then once you know about it, it holds a spot in your heart.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: The race coordinates the kings and queens of the trail running world.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: It brings together short and long distance runners,
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: roadies and trail files, climbers and speedsters.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Dedicated to self-preservation,
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: the race retells its own story year after year in the most beautiful manner
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: by celebrating previous battles in photo, video, and word.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it means so much.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was Ricky Gates that said that.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then it means so much to the town that winners of
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: the race even have their footprint pressed into the cement in the center of
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: the towns and all where the race ends.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then Another quote that I liked from the Tro in our magazine article
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: by Doug Meyer came out 10 plus years ago.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from Jean-Claude Pont when he's asked about why the race developed
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: so reliably year after year.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And JC Pont says,
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: the philosophy of the race is le corps avant le chrono, the heart before the watch.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's important at Sears and All is not your time.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's the pleasure of participating.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the end of the quote.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And volunteers are exalted in the race,
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: and the volunteers even race their own volunteer race later in September on
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: the same course.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Another quote about what makes series and all special
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: from New Zealand native Jonathan Wyatt,
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: who is also a winner in course record holder.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: He said,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: it's a long,
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: relentless climb,
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: then a fast,
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: undulating section to the high point,
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: followed by a flat-up,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: fast, mostly downhill section, and culminating in a steep descent.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's near the top of any list I would compile for my 15 years of mountain running.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, other things to know about Sierras and all,
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: so there are strong East African fields on both sides,
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: which is also part of what makes this race so competitive,
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: is that we get the best not only European trail runners,
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: US trail runners,
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: and even South American trail runners, and I would say Central American as well.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: You get deep East African fields from Kenya,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ethiopia,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: we've had Eritrean winters, um,
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, though,
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: even though I would say Africans really have been densely in the top 10,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: usually three to five on the men's side,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: and maybe two to four on the women's side for the past couple of years.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Curiously,
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: there's only been six years on the female side that an East African is one,
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: three of which came from Lucy Wambui Marugi.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then we had a winner last year with Caroline Kimetai,
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: who was going to be in this field and we'll talk about.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the year before that, we had Caroline Kipengino.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So on the men's side,
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: there's only been three East African winners with four wins total,
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: all from different countries.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we've had Philemon Kiriago from Kenya twice.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's going for a three-peat this year, not three in a row, though.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: We've had Petro Mamu win from Eritrea.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had Eticha Tesfaye from Ethiopia win before as well.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to talk more about Africans in the preview,
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: but that's just kind of like a little note, I guess, about winners.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then other notes is both from the free trial graphic,
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: but also just from some of my own research,
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: even before the very handy free trial graphic came out.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So most wins on the men's side of the race,
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: pretty obvious to anyone that follows throw winning is Killian Jornet.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's got 10.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Killian Jornet also still holds the course record in 225-34 from his 2024 race
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: where he won two seconds over Philemon, Kiriago.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then the most wins on the women's side, we've got a tie between two different females.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: One who's racing this year,
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: and that would be Maude Mathis,
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Swiss champion course record holder in Sierras and All at 2.49.20.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also have Anna Perciatova from Czech Republic or Czechia,
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: and she won four races in a row from 2006 to 2009.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Maude has the chance to become the winningest female of all time at Sierras
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: and All this year, and we'll talk more about that.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: If we're talking times in Sears and also finishing times,
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: what's it going to take to go top 10 on this course?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: On the men's side of the race,
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: usually I would say a sub 237 or 238 gets you a top 10 on the men's side,
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: unless it's a historically fast day.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then historically, usually a women's sub three hours and 10 minutes gets you a top 10.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: But last year was a really, really dense, really, really competitive race.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it took sub three hours and six minutes to secure top ten,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: so into the 305s,
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: which just shows how competitive women's trail racing is getting,
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: and then also just how good the field was last year.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want to start to touch on before we start going
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: into individual athletes, I want to talk about American side of things.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm from America,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: and so what are America's chances in winning or placing well in Sierras and all?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we've seen many great American runners come to Sierras and all, but only five have won.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: We've had Megan Lund win,
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Stevie Kramer win, Sophia Lockley, Pablo Vigil multiple times, and Chuck Schmid.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: The last American female winner was Sophia Lockley in 2023.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: However,
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: the last American male winner of Sears and All was Pablo Vigil way back in 1982
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: when he was pulling off his forepeat.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so talk about a dry spell for the US men.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a long, long time.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had some close calls with guys like Joe Gray
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: and Jim Walmsley throwing down some very, very fast times.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: But we have not.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Broken that spell in a long time.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, American men's chances.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'll talk more about it in the preview as well.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, the U.S. women have a better, decent chance at...
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Potentially winning this year with Sophia Lockley,
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Tabor Hamming,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Anna Gibson,
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: or even Taylor Tuttle Racing,
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: whereas the men,
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: it seems like that streak is probably going to not be broken this year.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Other things to note,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: I made a note, talk about the type of runner it takes to do well at Sears and all.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So who does well at Sears and all?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Basically somebody who can run uphill, a very,
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: very good uphill runner because you start with that almost double VK,
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: like 5,000 feet of climbing.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then it kind of gets to this like rolling douche grade, not quite as steep.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not quite a steep type uphill.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like they said, we have the steep downhill at the end.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you need somebody who can climb very efficiently and then come straight out
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: and climb and do some pretty flat, fast running.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then somebody who is efficient at descending at the downhill.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would say it still favors people with a running economy and more uphill ability
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: than downhill ability.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're in a tight place late in the race
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: and you don't have good downhill legs,
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: we have seen people like last year,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Katie Scheid,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: she moved up,
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say three places and passed people like Mon Mathis, Laura Hottenrott.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And, uh,
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: maybe even one other in there, uh,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: to go all the way up to third place and got upgraded to second place, uh,
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: with the disqualification of the winner last year, um, Kevageno, Julian Kevageno.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, other notes,
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Killian kind of made- And I think Remy Benet would do it as well,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: where basically you do a VK and then get a little bit of rest and then do
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: a 10K time trial.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that sounds like a perfect workout for Sears and all.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: You have some really fast climbing and then basically get your heart rate down and
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: then try to run a very efficient 10K.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that kind of sounds like something that he probably did for Sears and all.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then last thing to note is that leg speed
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: and running economy are still very crucial on top of climbing efficiency,
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: which I think I've kind of made clear at this point.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, all right,
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: so without further ado,
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: let's go into the men's preview first, and then we'll do the women's preview.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do this a little bit different.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said,
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have notes on some of the men,
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm really just going to talk about kind of different categories
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: and how I see things playing out.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: So men's field storylines that I identified on the men's 2026 Sierras and All field.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we have 35 runners on the men's side with a 900 or higher UTMB index,
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: which is absolutely disgusting.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, 900 is like a world-class trail runner.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we have 35 athletes that have above a 900 UTMB index, which is a very, very elite level.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that,
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: once again,
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: just shows how hard it is to get a top 10 in this historic and iconic race.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Another storyline, obvious absence of Killian Jornet in the race.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: He originally announced his intent to race Sears and all this year.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Really four races, Zagama, Western States, Sears and all, and UTMB.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, it has not really gone to plan.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: He has raced Zagama and basically had his knee issues and then kind
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: of dropped back pretty far in the race and lost.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: With Western States, he started it, but then pulled out less than halfway through.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then Sears and all, he's had to pull out of.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: So wishing him the best,
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: wishing him a speedy recovery and really,
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: really hoping that he can figure out something to line up with the UTMB.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: But more importantly,
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: just hoping that he can figure out some long-term solution and be healthy
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: and doing what he loves.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another big...
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Another point that I didn't realize until I read the Iron Favre preview is that
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: the entire top 10 from last year is returning, which is kind of nuts.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's going to be a big consideration and we'll talk about who might
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: or might not be able to repeat that.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Another consideration and storyline I want to point out is the battle for
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: the top Swiss men's spot.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we got a lot of pride in And Switzerland racing at Sierras and all,
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: that's always been a point of contention.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Remy's wanted to win it for a long time.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, Remy's not going to be able to line up and race.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: But Switzerland does have the most wins in the history of the race per Travis's graphic.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: They have 14 women's wins,
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: so wins on the women's side and nine on the men's side for a total of 23.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: The next closest country is France,
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: who has 12 total wins at Ceres and all,
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: 11 on the women's side, one on the men's side.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then Spain also has 12 with 11 on the men's side and one on the women's side.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: the Swiss are proudly represented,
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: and that Swiss battle for the top men's spot is going to be between Adrian Griffith,
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Dominique Rowley, Roberto de Lorenze, and Joey Hadorn.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Another storyline on the men's side is Philemon is going for his third win,
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: and he's coming in fresh,
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: not having raced the Golden Trail World Series race last year,
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: or last week, excuse me.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Another storyline is how many Kenyans are going to be in the top 10.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think if you're picking fewer than Four, but probably five or six Kenyans in your top 10.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably doing it wrong.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: So something to keep in mind,
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: there's going to be a lot of Kenyans,
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: some of them whose names you've seen before,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: some of them whose names you've never seen before.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of them are going to end up in the top 10.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we probably will see at least five, maybe as many as six in the top 10.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Another storyline in the men's field is Petr Engdahl.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's his first series in all since his debut in 2019.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something to watch.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's had a really, really good season so far.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I really think he could make an impact in this field.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then other storylines on the men's side, two returning champions in the field.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Lamont Carriago, two-time winner in last year's race in 2023, I want to say.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also have Andrew Blanes-Rigue from Spain,
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: winner of the 2022 race when Mark Kangogo got disqualified for doping.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: So Andrew Blanes-Rigue,
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: really good Spanish runner,
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: elite track and field guy, steeplechaser turned really, really good trail runner.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he was also third place last year at Worlds in the short trail.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Other storylines, insane international depth.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: As always, we've got runners, elite runners from Mexico and Colombia and Argentina and all over.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think there was Algeria and Mongolia and just all kinds of crazy places.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then other storyline is how much can Elozine,
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Elozowie, improve on his very much improved Sears and All from last year.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: He got ninth place finish, which was by far his best time at Sears and All.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't...
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think Elzin has the chops to win this race, quite frankly.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I don't think he's a world-class runner.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely do think he is.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I think this race just doesn't suit some of the things that he's best at,
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: which include technical and fast downhills.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I just don't think it's kind of built for Elzin.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that he probably will end up in the top 10 again.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know that I see Elzin ever winning this race,
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: although I'd really love for him to prove me wrong.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's kind of the storylines I identified.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Favorites for the 2026 years and all, got to be Philemon Kiriago going for the three-beat.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think you got to have Patrick Kippen-Jano as a favorite.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would say Michael Salelo Saoli is also a favorite.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Dark Horses identified,
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to keep it,
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go below 900 U-team index,
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: but I think it's probably more like below 910 for the most part.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: But basically just people that have not finished top 10,
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: but I would not be surprised if they did finish top 10.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Brayen Rodriguez from Mexico,
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Tom Spencer from the UK, Joey Hadorn from Switzerland, and Alon Santamaria Blanco.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right,
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: so the first contingent I want to talk about or the first group I want to talk
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: about is the Kenyans.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: So who do we need to look out for?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm just going to list all of them first off,
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: and then we'll talk about them a little bit.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Philemon Kiriago,
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick Kippenjano,
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Richard Amaya Atuja,
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Salelo Saoli,
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Machoca, Afantis and Jerry, Kevin Kabat, Timothy Kabat, and Samuel Kippurutich.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: So first and foremost,
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Philemon Kiriago,
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: two-time winner of the Sierras and All,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: last year's trail world champion in the classic up-down distance,
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: looking to, like I said, not just 30 to victory.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's got to be the favorite.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's got two of the fastest times ever run on the course,
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: and he's only two seconds off the course record.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's looking prime form this season, including improving his uphill skills.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Got to be the favorite.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Very likely to the three-peat.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete to talk about is going to be Patrick Kippenjano.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Although historically,
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick has the edge over Philemon and beats him head-to-head more often than not,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: this is the one race that Patrick gets beat by Philemon at.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Patrick,
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: despite having amazing results at Philemon,
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sears and all,
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: it's just never felt like he has figured out the formula to win,
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: so he's got three second places and one third place,
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: but he just hasn't quite found that extra gear to beat Philemon.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's finished second of him twice, and he's also finished once behind Andre Blanes in 2022.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick doesn't seem to be quite as dominant this year as he has
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: in past Golden Trails World Series years,
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: although he still is very deadly and very likely to finish top five here coming off
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: a third place at last week's Pitts Alpine Glacier behind Elozine and Michael Salelo.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: So Patrick,
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: probably a lock for top five,
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: has the capabilities to win it, but I just don't think I see him winning it.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think I see him going somewhere in that three through five.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Richard Amaya Atuja, runner for the OnCloud RunTogether team.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: He has had a very dominant and impressive season at WMRA events
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: and sub-ultra distances with wins at Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival VK in
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: a top-10 field,
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: third at Trans-Valcania Marathon, just behind Phelomon in a course record time.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he also had a win at Vauban VK and second at Vauban UpDown, nearly behind the Fantas Njeru.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: The only red flagger concern for me was Richard Amaya Atuya is
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: that he very rarely races longer than an hour and a half,
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: and his twos years in All-Starts haven't been to his quality,
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: like his caliber of runner.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a DNF in last year's race after,
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think he came out hard in the first half of the lead back,
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: and then in 18th place in the 2024 edition.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely talented enough to go top 10,
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: but just hasn't had the success at longer races,
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: longer than an hour and a half,
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: which this race is going to be longer than an hour and a half.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete,
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Salelo Saoli,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: another runner for the Run Together group who is coming off of a second place finish
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: behind Elozine at Pete's Alpine Glacier and in front of Patrick Kippengeno.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, Michael did the same thing where he doubled back from Pete's Alpine and he...
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Which was a little bit of a shorter race because it was a weather-shortened course last year.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: But he did go fourth place at Pete's Alpine and then third place at Sierra's
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: and All, only behind Patrick and Philemon.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Last year was his Sierra's and All debut,
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: and he knocked out of the park with a two-hour and 29-minute finish.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there is every indication that he is just as fit this year.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I expect big things from Michael Salelo Ceoli.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: He, like I said,
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: got second last week at Pizza Alpine,
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: third at Golden Trail World Series,
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Ledger Sky Trentino, and he had a win at WMRA Beijing up-down race.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: He is also a versatile athlete who has won longer races,
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: such as Gilles DeMont,
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: which bodes well for a longer sub-ultra race,
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: which Sears and all is, compared to other WMRA events.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete is Paul Machocco,
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: one of the few runners who is not running for,
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: or one of the few cannons who is not for Run Together.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: I thought he had a normal like Killian's brand sponsorship for a bit,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: but I might have just misremembered that or made that up.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul Machocco is one of the,
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: he's a super tiny dude based off the photos, but he's definitely one of the fastest.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: He has two finishes at Sears and all to his name in 6th place and 5th place finish
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: with two very speedy times.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: He ran 232.36 and 233.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he hasn't missed a year yet.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: He seems like he's got it figured out from the jump.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then his season so far does not have any wins,
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: but he does have plenty of consistent results in deep fields.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: 2nd place at WMRA China Uphill,
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: 3rd place at the up-down WMRA portion of it,
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: and 6th at Golden Trail World Series Ledger Sky Tranchino,
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: and 5th at Vauban Next athlete is going to be at Fantas Njeru,
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: probably the least known or heard of Kenyan in the field that we've talked about
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: so far.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's one of the younger and up-and-coming guys on the Run Together team that raced
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: while at the Kenyan Trail Champs, I want to say if I remember correctly.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: So far this season, he's been very consistent in deep fields.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: He raced second place at both Innsbruck Alpine Festival VK and UpDown Race,
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: where he beat Philemon and Richard Amaya Atuya.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And more recently,
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: he raced the Volvo in UpDown Race and beat a deep field that included Richard Otuya,
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Brian Rodriguez, Paul Machoca, and Martin Nielsen.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, Infantus definitely seems like he's kind of on the up and up and could beat some
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: of those guys again here at Sierra's and all.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: He just recently raced Pete's Alpine to a ninth place finish,
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: so that may be a consideration because he's going to have two plus hours racing
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: in his legs just a week out from the race, and he doesn't race that long that often.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Other Kenyan athletes to look out for are going to be Kevin Kibet,
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy Kibet, and Samuel Kiprojic.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Samuel Kiprojic did have a win at the Canadian race that just happened on
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: the Gold Trail World Series circuit.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that was quite impressive.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then Timothy and Kevin Cabette.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: I always get them mixed up because Timothy Cabette has two Ts at the end of his name
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: and Kevin only has one.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: But, excuse me.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Kabat runs for Solomon and his results include a fifth place
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: at Marathon de Mont Blanc this year and then that's really the only racing
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: that he's done so he hasn't raced as much and he had a Sears and All DNF last year
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: which was his debut no excuse me not his debut Sears and All
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: because he went third place in 2023 so that's Kevin Kabat who runs
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: for I thought he ran for Solomon
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm not mistaken no that's Timothy Kabat excuse me.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Timothy Kabet,
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: who does run for Solomon,
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: got sixth place at Kabuk Megatrail, 49th at Sears and All last year.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that was his debut, Sears and All.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he's a little bit of a younger dude.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you'd be pretty safe picking either Kabet in the top 10.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then we already talked about Sam Walcott-Brotich.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so those are the canyons.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's who you got to look out for.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Tons of great resumes, tons of good picks.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to go wrong picking at least five or six canyons in your top ten.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Next contention to talk about is going to be the Swiss.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the Swiss athletes include Adrian Briffid,
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Dominic Rowley, Roberto de Lorenzi, and Joey Hadorn.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Starting off with Adrian,
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: he's the top returning,
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: one of those top 10 guys returning, and he's the top returning Swiss guy.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Got fourth place.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: He led out the race pretty hard.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if I remember correctly, he led through like 16, 17, 18K, somewhere in there.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's a Swiss triathlete turned trail runner.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: He did race Sears and All in 2024 and it wasn't really as memorable because he got
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: a 40th place finish.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: But last year he came out and he came out hot and everyone's like, who the heck is this guy?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he really stuck it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he didn't give up the lead till late.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he still only ended up losing by...
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: He ran 2.30, 2.06 in his second ever race.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he only lost by three and a half minutes.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, tight race.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Really strong, gutsy race.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And just kind of came out and led...
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say he was wearing A6 trail shoes... Or, excuse me, road shoes.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: He had one of the headbands that looks like a...
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: With the ice cubes and stuff that... What's his name?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: That...
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Marathoner, Kipchoge, or at the Olympics.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, and so since then, he's been doing more trail racing.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: His best race this year so far has been Marathon of Mont Blanc.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: He raced to a fourth place finish, so that bodes well.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also...
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: One, the Swiss, I want to say the Swiss vertical, but it doesn't look like he raced in Euros.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then he got 22nd on Zagama, which seems about right.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's not quite as good on the technical stuff,
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: but I definitely think Adrian's a really strong pick for top 10.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Probably will go top Swiss unless our next athlete,
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Dominique Rowley, has something to say about it.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dominique's been really, really impressive this year.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: He...
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Jess is coming off a not-so-great DNF at Iger Trail,
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: the 51K, and then he got 11th place at Marathon de Mont Blanc trail race.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: So even though Adrian beat him in the Marathon de Mont Blanc,
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: where Dominic got 11th and Adrian got 5th, Dominic looked in really amazing form.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: He raced Euro Championships,
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: and in the uphill he got 5th place,
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: and in the up-down he got 2nd place, so almost 2 medals in that front.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then I don't see any races before then.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: But last year, he raced probably his best years in all yet, seventh place, 234.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the year before that, he was 24th and 243.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: The year before that, he was 10th.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he definitely knows this race.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's run at one, two, three, four, five.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Six times, this will be his seventh time racing.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think he could take the edge.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do think he looks almost as good a form as Adrian.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a toss-up between which one of them two takes the cake.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete to talk about is going to be Roberto De Lorenzi.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think he could go as high as like 10 through 15.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: They might get points,
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: but we just haven't seen the same Roberto that we've seen in previous years.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that has me a little bit nervous.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last athlete I want to talk about is Joey Hadorn, who...
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is coming off a sixth place at Pete's Alpine Glacier.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he's just outside the top five last week.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: But it's always tough to tell where he's at.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's an orienteer who spends a lot of his time orienteering in the summer.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't know where he's at last year,
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: but that's a good sign if he's sixth place at Pete's Alpine with a lot
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: the Canyon guys, just behind a lot of Canyon guys in Elzean.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then let's see.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm looking at the results.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: He did race Sears and All last year, 37th place.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then he has gone as high as sixth,
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: no, excuse me, seventh place in both the 2019 and the 2020 Sears and All.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: His fastest finish at Sears and All was 236 in his 2019 seventh place finish.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: So Joey does appear to be in good form.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: He has gone top 10 and knows what it takes to go top 10 in this field.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I would not be surprised.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would Give the edge to Dominic or Adrian as a top Swiss,
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: but I wouldn't be surprised to see Joey in that top 10 as well.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right, new category, the returning top 15 from last year in order to finish.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: So Martine Nielsen, Andre Blanis, and Alozine went 7, 8, and 9 last year.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Stack went 12th.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: Alex Garcia-Curillo went 14th.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Juho Lennon went 14th, if I'm not mistaken.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of those guys, who do we need to look out for?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: So Martin Nielsen,
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Swedish runner,
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: up-and-coming speedster,
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: really impressive on some sky races last year, and just a fast guy.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: He is coming off 7th place at the Vauban Mountain Trail up-down and 9th place at
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: the Vertical, which was very competitive, Sub-Ultra in France.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: He got 7th at the Half Marathon in Transvaulconia earlier this year and 5th place at the VK.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Which was behind Philemon, no excuse me, Richard Amaya, Tua's course record in 45 minutes.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Martine ran 48-46.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he ran a very, very impressive, excuse me, sixth place finish for him, 233-52.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: So Martine Nielsen, really, really impressive on that, Sierra Zanal.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then, did he run Worlds last year?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, he did not run Worlds.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think 50-50 shot.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think I might not have him in my top 10 for repeating,
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: but I wouldn't be surprised by any means.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Andre Blanis-Rigue, previous champion, ran to an 8th place finish last year.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit on the fence about him because it sounds like he did not have
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: a great Euros where he finished 54th in the up-down race.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Based off his Instagram,
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: it sounds like he's kind of getting over an injury or some unexplained fatigue
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: and illness.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says he's had some really good weeks of training, but other weeks have really been garbage.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: So not sure where Andre Blanc is at.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: But last year he did race to that eighth place finish in 2.35.19.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: And like we mentioned, he did finish as the winner in 2022 in 2.29.19.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: So he knows what it takes to win this course.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Elozine.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy to go so long with barely mentioning Elozine,
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: but this race has always alluded to him and something about it just doesn't play
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: to his advantage.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's the net uphill or not downhill or just too much slightly uphill running.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: He is obviously in prime form this year.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's got three Golden Trail World Series wins in four races,
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: and the only one he doesn't was Broken Arrow,
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: and he got second place by 10 seconds, I want to say.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: He is coming off of...
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, there's two races that he didn't win.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't win Broken Arrow or Quebec Mega Trail, which Samuel Kerr Brodage won.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm misquoting that.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was fourth place, 20, no, excuse me, 32 seconds behind the winner.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: So Elzeen had his best finish at,
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: like I said, Sears and All last year with that ninth place finish, and that was in
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Elzin's ceiling here is like five through eight.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to guess, I don't see Elzin going in the top five, quite frankly.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete,
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Stack,
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: top American returner,
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: ran to 12th place in his debut last year, looking to take off a lot of time.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: He looked really good to start the season with a third place at Zagama.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then he didn't have such a good race at Pete's Alpine Glacier last week.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: And before that, he was seventh at Quebec Megatrail.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a decent chance that Taylor Stack goes top 10.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I could see him as high as like sixth or seventh place.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he will improve.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: He ran 238.37 last year in his debut,
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: and I think he's in good form and will probably improve on that.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Spanish runner Alex Garcia Carrillo, who ran 214th place last year, 238.59.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this year,
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: 10th at Eurochamps in the up-down race,
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: 16th at Marathon de Mont Blanc,
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: and then 4th at Trans-Valcanian Marathon, and 3rd at Chianti Trail Marathon.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: So he's definitely fit.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's definitely fast.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I really see him as like a lock for top 10 or returning top 15.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with Juho Ilenen, the Finnish runner, who probably had the race of his life.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine that was probably his highest UDNBA index for this 15th place last year.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: All right,
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: another category,
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: previous top 15s from any years,
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sylvain Couchard,
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: the French record holder and Hoka athlete for the French record holder for
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: the fastest time,
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Patis, Davide Magnini, Christian Allen, and Robbie Simpson, and then the
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: Last category,
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: people who don't fit any of these categories but you need to look out for,
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Petter Engdahl,
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Brian Rodriguez,
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Camillo-Castillo,
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Alain Santamario-Blanco, Tom Spencer, and Piero Galvorden.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so Savon Kachard, like we mentioned, French athlete, Hoka, top French time ever.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's got multiple.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a fourth-place finish under his belt,
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: and he might have two fourth-place finishes under his belt.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pull him up.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Sylvain Gachard at Sierras and All.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: 2022, 12th place finish,
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: 238.22, 2023, 4th place finish, 234.22, 2024, another 232.45, 7th place finish.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he's got two races in the 232s.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then last year, I don't think he raced...
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think his name was on the start list, but he pulled out.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, Savon Kachar looking to return to some very good Sears in all glory.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: Would not be surprised to see him in the top 10 at all.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Patisse has finished,
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think, his highest 14th at Sears in all, but that was way back in 2011.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: He finished 11th, excuse me, in 2024, 22, 36, 56.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I would argue that was even better in 2024, and he's only a fitter guy.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: So far this year, he's got second place in the
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: European Off-Road Running Championships.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was like the 50K race behind Fred Trenchard.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a win in course record at La Barreta, 50K, second place at Zagama.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then win at Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival against some very good talent,
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: including Phil Moncurriago.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think Daniel Patisse is on a tear of a season.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's well-primed.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's going to go somewhere in this top 10.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he's definitely someone to look out for this race.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Davide Magnini.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Italian athlete.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Runs for New Balance.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Super speedster.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just had health issues.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, DNF for Marathon of Mont Blanc.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he hasn't really raced anything that I've seen.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's done a couple of local races in Italy.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: When is the last time that Davide Magnini ran Sierras Nall?
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that question is way back in 2021 he ran it.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he ran it to a 5th place finish in 2.34.38.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also ran it as the Sierras Nall Challenge in 2020 where he ran 2.36.05
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: for 4th place.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then he raced it in 2019 to a 10th place finish in 2.37.22.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: And 7th place finish in 2018 and 2-37-13.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: So where's David at?
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is he healthy towing the line?
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he has never missed at zeroes and all.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's never gone outside the top 10.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a big question mark for me.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, mulletman, American Christian Allen.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: He is looking to be the top American this year, ideally to win the thing.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's coming off the 10th place at Broken Arrow Sky Race.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: But more recently, he got seventh at Pete's Alpine Glacier just last week.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit nervous with him having just raced last week.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then so last year, he got 21st place in 242.05.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: Year before that, I think he was the top American in the 14th place in 237.47.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think his ceiling is probably...
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in that maybe nine through 12 range, Christian Allen.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: All right, last guys.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: Robbie Simpson, always a threat here.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not quite the Robbie Simpson we've seen in the past,
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: but he has four second places in the series in all, if I'm not mistaken.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: So always somebody to look out for, knows how to run the race.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: People that I'm pretty excited to watch,
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: really excited to watch race,
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: and I think have a really,
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: really good chance of going top 10,
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Pettering Dahl, Brian Rodriguez, and Jonathan Camillo Castillo.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: Petter Engdahl is just on a tear this season.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: He is looking in prime form.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of set up his season with that Boston early season, which didn't go great for him.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: He ran like a .222 and had hella blisters
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: and basically probably didn't do anything near what he thought he was going to do
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: at Boston.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it's honestly really set up his season amazingly.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's gone Transvalcania,
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: second place in what would have been a course record time,
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: just behind David C. Clare's course record.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: Raced double races at European Champs.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Got second at the vertical and third at the up-down,
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: which is nuts for somebody with his versatility.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then he just most recently won Monteroza-Balzerbeg,
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: the 50K, and he won by like, he ran at 4.19.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And second place was William Befele, who is no joke, 421.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then third place was Luca De Pera, almost 14 minutes back.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then Manu Maria is fifth place.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he won in a really deep field in a really dominant fashion.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that is Petter Engdahl.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's only raced Sears in all once, and that was way back in 2019.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when he did race it, he got 18th in 240, 41.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I think we're seeing a much better and much more mature Petter.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think Petter Engdahl is poised to go top 10 here.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Brian Rodriguez, Mexican athlete, first game across from a Raider after Worlds last year.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's been hitting more of the more common circuit.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: He got fourth place at the 23K at Broken Arrow,
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: and I think he was also fifth place at the VK, if I'm not mistaken.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Quebec Mega Trail, he ran into a 10th place finish for that Golden Trail World Series.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then he did just do the Volbin vertical,
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: where he got second, and the up-down, where he got fourth place at.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Brian Rodriguez has not raced years and all yet.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he's raced a lot of these guys and beat a lot of these guys that are racing
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: at Sears and all.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll be curious to see how he does in his debut.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last one I want to talk about, Jonathan Camillo Castillo.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jonathan is a Colombian, and he has raced some very good times at Sears and all.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: He got eighth place in 2024 and 2.32.45.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also raced it in 2023 to 17th place, 2.41.27.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: So Jonathan Camillo Castillo would not be surprised to be out there at all.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Elaine Santamario Blanco also has raced just outside the top 15
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: when we're seeing a fitter version of him.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I wouldn't be surprised to see Elaine in the top 10.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a lot, a lot of talking about the men's field.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go into picks.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Usual caveats, I'm going to change these a bunch of times.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's all for funsies.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll also give you some other people that I think could or would go top 10.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tenth place, I'm going to go Taylor Stack, American, top American in my picks.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think he improves on his time and place from last year.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Ninth place, I'm going to go Petter Engdahl.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: I might move him up his highs like sixth, maybe, maybe even fifth.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: But Petter's on a heck of a season.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's in prime form.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that has me hesitant is he hasn't races since 2019.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I think Petter is a much more mature Petter than when he got 18th place or whatever in 2019.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: Eighth place,
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go Sambal Kiprotic won the Golden Trail,
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: the Canadian one that I'm blanking on because it's a newer race,
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: and didn't have a good day at Sears and all last year, but is coming for redemption.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, I'm going to go Dominique Rowley.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's not going to be my top Swiss guy.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's repeating seventh place.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: I might need to move him because maybe I got him stuck there just
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: because he got there last year.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: But seventh place, I'll go Dominique Rowley.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth place,
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to go Daniel Pattis, Italian, on a tear this season, really great shape.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: Would it be a surprise to see him as high as even third or fourth,
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: potentially, if he has a hell of a race?
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I think pretty safely somewhere in that five through eight,
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Pattis is going to be up there.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth place, I'm going to go Adrian Griffith, not too far off his finish last year.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to have a Kenyan sweep in the top four.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go Paul Machoca, fourth place.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Salelo Saoli,
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: even though I'm tempted to go second place, I'm going to go third place right now.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: Second place, Patrick, first place, Philemon.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: So not a ton of change.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're still seeing, honestly, that has like the top five, I guess, looks more or less the same.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I probably need to change that up a little bit from last year.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Pattis is a newcomer.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: Samuel didn't finish.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: Dominique was in the top 10.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I basically have one, two, three new top 10 finishers and seven returning top 10 finishers.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, excuse me, four new top ten managers.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor wasn't top ten.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see how I change that up.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: Guys that I don't have in my top ten that I would not be surprised to see at all
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: that I might swap in,
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have to go with Martine Nielsen,
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: Joey Hadorn,
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew Blanis-Rigue if he's healthy,
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: Elezine Elezowie I still think is a really good pick for top ten.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sylvain Couchard would not surprise me.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then Brian Rodriguez or Jonathan Camillo Castillo.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my men's top 10.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about the women.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: All right, women's top 10.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: We got 29 females with a 750 or higher UTMB index.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: In the field, another storyline battle for the top Swiss women.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Maude Mathis versus Judith Weider versus Araya Liachi versus Therese LaBeouf.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's going to be deep for the top Swiss women, just like for the men.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've got three returning champions in the field.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maude Mathis, Caroline Kimetai, and Sophia Lockley.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: We've got seven of last year's top 10 returning champions.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: The only athletes that are missing from last year from the top ten are Katie Scheid,
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: Susanna Sapunki, and Naomi Lang, who just raced last week.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then another storyline.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: Another storyline is going to be Gerda Stein is racing the Comrades course record
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: and multiple-time winner of Comrades, and she's also a South African legend.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's going to be interesting to see her toe the line.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then can Madalena Floria finally put together the race that she is capable
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: of having here after being on a tear so far this season?
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's got three Golden Trail World Series races under her belt, two wins, and a second place.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Madalena seems to be in prime form.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: Next storyline is, what version of Queen Maud Mathis do we see at the course?
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a course that she knows super well and that she also holds the course record too.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like we mentioned earlier, 249.20 if I'm not mistaken.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: 249.20, that is correct.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, other female storylines.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so following up the mod,
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: so mod had a bounce back year last year after a couple years injury.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she bounced back last year with a third place finish at Sierras and all
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: and really kind of raced her first really world class mod type race in a hot minute.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then other female storylines,
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: where is previous champion and American hopeful Sophia Lockley at this year's series
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: and all?
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is being her first trail race of the year.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: So where is she at?
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: How is she going to do?
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is she taking it super seriously?
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is this her A goal for the year?
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is it just something that she decided to jump into?
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then could this be the year that we see our first ever Chinese race winner
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: with Meow Yao lining up?
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have never had a Chinese race winner on either side.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm double checking Travis's stats graphic,
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm 95% sure we've never had a Chinese race winner ever.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then...
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so could Meow Yow break that streak?
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then other questions,
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: how does Ninka Brinkman fair,
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: lining up at her first series and all since 2023,
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: and really putting together her first trail season,
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: her first full trail season since then as well?
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then last storyline,
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: or one of the last storylines,
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: who is the top American between Anna Gibson,
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sophia Lockley, Tabor Hemming, and even Taylor Tuttle?
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then how high will the top American finish?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then last storyline identified is Sarah Alonzo running only her second series
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: in all ever and first one since way back in 2022 at the start
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: of her trail running rise.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: So what could Sarah Alonzo do here?
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: Dark Horses identified.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: So not too much in the way here,
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: but people that I think that could go top 10 that are kind of way down on the list.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah Carter from the US, she was just outside the top 10 last year.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maria Fuentes in Spain is having a heck of a season and putting together a really good race.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then Takako Nakamura is definitely not an underdog,
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: but she's somebody that's pretty far down the list
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: that I think could also go top 10.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so categories that I made.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the first one.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: First category I have is competing for the win.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got five people that I think legitimately have a shot at the win.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Caroline Kimetai, Kenyon.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: She raced a second place finish and then Joyling Chippenjano got DQ'd
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: so she got upgraded to the win.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: We first saw Caroline kind of come on the scene in
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: the Golden Trail World Series Great Wall Race last year and just kind of blew
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: the field away.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we kind of had a heads up for her because she did win
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: the Kenyon Trail Running Championships in the winter that year, last year.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so Yes, first start to come on the scene, great wall race.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then she won Rastonica 50K.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't do as good as Pete's Alpine Glacier in the cold, rainy, sloppy weather.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: She got seventh place.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then won Sears and All in 255, 31 last year.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: So far this year, she's still on form.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: She got...
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: A win at Ledger Sky Trantino, the Golden Trail World Series race.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then she got a third at Quebec Mega Trail behind Maddalena Floria.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think she's still the favorite.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's her race to lose.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that I still have her having a little bit of an edge over Maddalena Floria.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_00: So other people in the competing for the one category,
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maddalena Floria, who has raced Sierra Zanel,
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: So she hasn't quite totally solved this race.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: Third place finish in 2024 is very impressive.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: Interestingly,
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: a little bit of a slower time,
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: 3.04.29, compared to last year, 3.04.29 would not have got her third place finish.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Madeline Floria definitely competing for the win.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: Romanian on a tear,
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: probably leading the Golden Shore World Series in points,
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: unless she hasn't raced enough races.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete is going to be Sara Alonso.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sara's kind of in that Petra and Gal category where she hasn't raced this race in a
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: while,
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: not as long as Petra has taken off,
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_00: but she hasn't raced Sears in all since 2022, if my stats are right.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, 2022.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: Two, she raced it.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: She got eighth place in 3.08.12.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that was still a younger,
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: much less experienced Sarah,
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_00: who still had good results under her belt,
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't think she was quite the caliber of athlete that she is now.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: And now that she's coming back and racing series and all, I'm really, excited to see.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think her and Mao Yao,
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably the most excited to kind of see go head-to-head again and also just...
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: The way they race,
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: the style and intensity with which they race is really,
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_00: really impressive and always gets me really excited to see them tow any line
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: that they decide to, which makes me curious.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to check on their head-to-head.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: Five
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: million, seven...
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Meow Yao and Sarah Alonso actually are tied up four wins apiece head-to-head.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this will be a tiebreaker.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, Meow took the edge at OCC.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah took the edge at Zagama.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then Sarah took the edge at the Great Wall Golden Trail World Series race.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_00: that's definitely a head-to-head matchup that I'm really,
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: really excited to see is between Sarah Alonso and Meow Yao.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then so, yeah, routing out the competing for the win.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah Alonzo and Mao Yao, I both have competing for the win.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said,
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: One of the fiercest racers,
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: having an amazing season,
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_00: could be the first Chinese woman or person in general to win Sears and Al,
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: which should be a huge addition to her already illustrious career.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: Last person I have competing for the win,
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: honestly,
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was kind of up in the air between Maud and Judith,
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: but I think if we're talking Sears and Al,
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: we got to talk Maud,
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_00: and if Maud is in Her form that she has been in before and can be in,
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_00: then I got to say Maud is competing for the win.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_00: She's a course record holder, four-time winner, knows this course like the back of her hand.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: She's a world-class climber,
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: and she is already coming off of some decent results this year,
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: including racing the WMRA Beijing race,
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: where she won the uphill and got third in the up-down.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then she just won Verbier Marathon,
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think by like a huge margin,
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: albeit it wasn't the most densely competitive race,
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_00: but she beat Lucie Germain by almost 30 minutes there.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nearly 30 minutes.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I think she set a course record as well.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we need to watch out for Queen Maud.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so next category, Battle for the Top Swiss Female.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maud is going to be included in that.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think Maud is probably going to take the cake,
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: but she is going to have some really, really deep competition.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: So she's going to have Araya Liachi, a young Swiss runner for Brooks.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really impressive season last year where she...
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, let's go to her results.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_00: last year, 2025,
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_00: she won Swiss National Championships over,
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say both Maude and Judith, but at least Judith she beat.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then she got fourth place at Sears and All in three hours and 20 seconds.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the year before that.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_00: In 2024, she got eighth place at Sears and All in 310.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the year before that, she got 14th and 313.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: So she's gone 14th place in 313 and 23.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: To eighth place in 310.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: To fourth place in three hours.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_00: So really, really impressive progression.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: She followed that up with a third place at Worlds up-down race.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then this year so far, she's won the Marathon of Montblanc, the 23K.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: So like the half marathon of Montblanc.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: Raya is super fast, super fit, always targets this race.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think that she's going to get Maud a real run for her money and is not going
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_00: to finish too far behind her, just like last year where she was just off of Maud.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete,
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: another Swiss legend,
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: Judith Weter,
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hoka runner,
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_00: world-class orienteer turned trail runner,
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: and just one of the most easy to cheer for people in the trail running game.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Judith is coming off of a win at the Euro Championships,
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: the Long Trail,
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_00: or just like the 50K that they do,
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_00: and in sixth place at Sagama so far this year,
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: and then second place at Chianti Ultra Trail, the Ultra.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, Judith has not raced Sears and All since 2024, where she DNF'd.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then before that,
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_00: she hasn't finished it since 2021,
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: where she got 10th place in three hours and eight minutes.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: In 2019, she got second place in 254.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the same year that Mod Math has set the course record.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_00: So she was helping to push her to the course record.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think Judith's pretty likely to go top 10.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's just a really good Swiss field.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you need to have at least two of these three Swiss women in your top 10.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_00: Last Swiss woman we're talking about is Therese LaBeouf.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: She did not race Sears and All last year.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: She is coming off of a fifth place at the Europe Championships,
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: the 50K race, and 11th place at Zagama this year.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last time that she raced Sears and All was in 2024 to a 14th place finish.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: And 2023 to a 16th place finish.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then 2022 to another 16th place finish.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then 2021 to a 13th place finish.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: 2019 to a 12th place finish.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_00: 2018, 14th.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: And 2017, 11th.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: So she's never been able to crack the top 10,
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_00: but she has very consistently been in that 10 through 15 range.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's her Therese LaBeouf.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, next category of female runners.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: How many Americans go top 10 on the female side and who finishes the highest?
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_00: Main athletes that I'm looking at are Sophia Lockley,
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: Faber Hemming,
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_00: Anna Gibson,
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Tuttle,
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_00: and then we even have Alexa Aragon Racing and Sarah Carter and Sydney Peterson.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: So there are also additional names to look out for.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right,
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: so on the American side,
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sophia Lockley,
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: we already mentioned her a little bit,
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: but world-class Nordic skier for University of Utah,
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: Golden Trail World Series staple,
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_00: and even champion back in 2023, I want to say, the year that she won Sears and all.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: Would go head-to-head with Judith Weider all the time and duke it out.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then has not raced at all this year.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_00: So really, really not sure what to expect from her.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_00: The last time that she raced at Sears and all, I want to say she got 7th.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, she got 7th in 2024 and 309.36.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: So she's actually probably a pretty safe bet for top 10.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't really tend to miss here.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a race that plays to her really, really good climbing ability.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last time that we saw her race was last year at OCC,
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_00: where she DNFed, unfortunately.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then before that, she got ninth at Marathon of Mont Blanc.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sophia Lockley, big question mark, not sure what to say.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: Tabor Hemming,
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: honestly,
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_00: pre-Broken Arrow,
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would have had Anna Gibson probably as the top American in this field.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Tabor Hemming really, really impressed me with her, what was it, third...
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_00: 3rd place at the Ascent and 3rd place at the VK as well.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_00: 3rd place at the Ascent and then 3rd place at the 23K is what I'm going to say.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_00: So dual 3rd places and some really, really competitive fields.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like she's not over racing finally this year.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_00: She's also going to win at Rothrock 25K and Deseret's 10K.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think Tabor has a really,
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: really good shot at going top 10 and I wouldn't be surprised
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_00: if she actually beats out Ana and Sophia for the top American.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete to talk about,
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_00: Anna Gibson,
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_00: American Brooks runner from Jackson Hole,
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: Wyoming, one of our best sub-ultra athletes in the U.S., but also in the world.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_00: She was the third-place finisher for the World's VK last year in World Championships.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_00: So far this year, she hasn't raced as much.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_00: She only raced the Ascent and the 23K at the VK.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_00: In the 23K at the Broken Arrow,
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_00: she won the ascent, which was super impressive and not surprising at all.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_00: And she got sixth at the 23K as well.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_00: So Anna did race years and all last year.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_00: She ran to an eighth place finish in 305.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_00: Year before that,
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: she also raced years and all and raced to a sixth place finish in a slower time.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: So she seems to have Sears and all figured out.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's done very well in it, and I think she's a very, very safe pick for top 10.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_00: Last athlete to talk about and potential upsetter of those top Americans is going
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: to be Taylor Peavy.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_00: Formerly Taylor Tuttle, and that's what her name is listed under.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_00: She got fifth place at Santa Fe Scramble this year.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: Second place at Gorge Waterfall is just behind Lauren Gregory in a win at Big Alta 28K.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_00: It will be her debut, Sears and all, and it will be the deepest race she has ever raced.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's going to be a huge factor.
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Taylor Tuttle would not be surprised to see in the top 15.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, next category, returning top 15 runners from last year.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_00: Laura Hottenrott from Germany.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_00: Super speedy marathoner from Germany,
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_00: coming off of a second place at the European Champs Uphill
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_00: Championship this summer.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then she just recently won the Davos Xtrails 23K.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_00: And she also had third at Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival VK,
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_00: but didn't finish the sub-vulture race.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: At Worlds, she was ninth in the uphill, so she's one of the best uphill runners in the world.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_00: No doubt, she's also a multiple-line runner of the Young Frau Marathon.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, like I said, Sierra's in All, fifth place, three hours and 30 seconds flat.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was her debut, Sierra's in All.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to be surprised at all to see her go top 10 again this year.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Valentin Rudo.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Kenyan athlete coming off of 9th place at the 23K Broken Arrow this year,
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_00: and she got 18th at Zagama.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_00: She did race here as an all last year to an 11th place finish in 3.09,
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: and that was her debut series and all.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So would not be surprised to see her in the top 10.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hasn't raced a ton this year.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think I like some of the other Kenyan females more than her,
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_00: but I think she will do quite well.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Spanish athlete for Brooks, Yulia Font Gomez.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: She did race to 13th place finish here last year.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So far this year,
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_00: she's got a second at Transvolcany Marathon,
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: fifth at Chianti by UTMB Trail Marathon, which is very competitive.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's about it.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, 13th place in 313 for Sierras and all.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that was her debut series and all, from what I can tell.
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So looking to improve on it, looking to get further in the top 10.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Kenyon Filaris Gieseng.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Filaris is a on-run-together athlete.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_00: She has not raced a lot this year, so that's a little bit of a red flag.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_00: She got a DNF at the Transvault County VK.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_00: She got 12th at Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival and 4th at the Vertical.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then last year when she raced Sears and All, she got 14th place.
• 1:11:59
  SPEAKER_00: She has finished as high as third place at Sears and All,
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_00: excuse me, second place at Sears and All with a 258 in 2022.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that is something to keep in mind.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_00: She has run very good races here in the past.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right, next category of females returning top 15 from any year.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Ninka Brinkman and Alice Gaggi.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Ninka, Dutch athlete for...
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm trying to...
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I spelled her name wrong.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Dutch athlete for Nike ACG.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_00: She is making a return to trail running this year.
• 1:12:38
  SPEAKER_00: She's got a tenth at the Euro Off-Trail Championships.
• 1:12:41
  SPEAKER_00: She got a win at the...
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_00: VK for Zagama, and then she most recently got a fifth place at Broken Arrow Sky Race.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_00: The last time she raced Sears and All was in 2021,
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: where she got a second place finish in a very speedy 248.58,
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_00: but I think it was a shortened course that year.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, excuse me, no, and she raced it in 2023 to a sixth place finish in 305.48.
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think Ninka is going to go top 10 this year, quite frankly.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think she's going to win them.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Nick is probably looking at like a four through eight range maybe.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I see her in the top three.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Alice Scaggi.
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So Alice, Italian runner for Brooks.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_00: We see her at some of the WMRA and also Golden Shore World Series races.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So far this year,
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_00: she's raced a win at Dolomiti Marathon,
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_00: but she got dual eighth places at the World Cup Beijing,
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_00: both vertical and the up-down at the beginning of the season.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, she finished 18th place, but she has finished as high as...
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_00: 5th place in 2023, Sears and All.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_00: 15th place in 2022, 2021, 9th place.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so 5th place is her highest finish at Sears and All.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely somebody to look out for.
• 1:14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Alice Gadgie.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then best of the rest.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I include on that list Fabiola Conti.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_00: From my understanding, it's going to be Fabiola's So she's definitely a threat.
• 1:14:25
  SPEAKER_00: She has never run Sears and all, from what I can tell.
• 1:14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even though she's done well at other sub-ultra stuff like Zagama.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it'll be Fabio Conti's debuts here as an all.
• 1:14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, talk about Hannah Grober for Germany.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_00: She's coming off 11th place at Pete's Alpine.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_00: She was the European champion for the up-down race, and she was seventh in the VK.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_00: She's coming off some very good sub-ultra stuff.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_00: The only caution I have with her is this is a pretty long race for her.
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the only thing,
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_00: and it's definitely the most competitive race that she's ever run as well.
• 1:15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Marina Bay, Nike ACG athlete, French athlete.
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Most recent result was Quebec Mega Trail,
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_00: where she got a very impressive second place,
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_00: and she was 10th at the Broken Arrow, 23K.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So she's done two Golden Trail World Series events.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_00: This will be her third, excuse me.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_00: She has not raced at Sierra's and All before, so this is going to be her debut.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think she could go somewhere in that 10 through 15 range.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_00: All right, other athletes worth looking out for.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Camilla Magliano from Italy.
• 1:16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Vivian Bonzi, also from Italy.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah Carter, just outside the top 20 last year from the U.S., runner for Colorado State.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Takako Nakamura from Japan and sponsored by Nike ACG.
• 1:16:25
  SPEAKER_00: She...
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Has raised Sears and all before,
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_00: and I want to say she was somewhere 16th place, so just outside the top 15 in 2024.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_00: She ran 3-19-41, and that was her debut as Gamma.
• 1:16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So could crack in the top 15 somewhere in the points category.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then,
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_00: like we mentioned earlier,
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maria Fuentes, athlete for Calas Fuga, coming off of a good season so far this year.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_00: She got eighth at the Eurochamps up-down race,
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_00: second at Hoka Valderan, the 50K, no, excuse me, the 32K.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then she was 14th at Worlds last year.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she also got 4th at Pete's Alpine Glacier last year.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think she just raced it this year and went top 10 as well.
• 1:17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say 7th place if I remember correctly.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then last but not least, Gerda Stein.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what to expect, but she is the multiple-time winner at Comrade.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_00: She has very good foot speed.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that she has raced at Sierra's Nall before.
• 1:17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm checking her YouTube video.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I don't see anything.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that is the women's field.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Top 10 picks for the women's field.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_00: All the same caveats.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely going to change them.
• 1:17:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll give you people to change in.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all for funsies.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So 10th place.
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I'm definitely going to swap these up a good bit.
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what I have right now, three days out.
• 1:17:59
  SPEAKER_00: 10th place, I'm going to go Ninka Brinkman.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_00: 9th place, I'm going to go Anna Gibson.
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_00: 8th place, Laura Hottenrott.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, Araya Liachi.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Not gonna go top Swiss woman.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth place, Mon Mathis.
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth place, Ruth Katanga.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth place, Meow Ya.
• 1:18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Third place, Sarah Alonzo.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then second place, Madalena Florio.
• 1:18:29
  SPEAKER_00: First place, Caroline Kimotai.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very, very liable to swap in
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Judith Weir, because she's such a consistent racer, and it feels heinous to leave her out.
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think she will end up in the top 10,
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_00: because she just doesn't miss if she's toning the line.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also liable to swap in Taper Hemming.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly,
• 1:18:49
  SPEAKER_00: she's having an amazing season,
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_00: and I would not be surprised to see her go top 10 at all.
• 1:18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then... Hannah Grober.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's her debut.
• 1:19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't...
• 1:19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be surprised if she goes top 15.
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Therese LaBeouf seems like a lock for 10 through 15,
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_00: so she could be a safe pick to get some points.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then those are kind of the big ones.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sophia Lockley, honestly, I would not be surprised to go top 10 as well.
• 1:19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just hesitate to pick her without her having any races under her belt this season.
• 1:19:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's really tough for me to gauge where people are at if they haven't raced.
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that is my 2026 Sierras and All preview for this year.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Looking ahead on the calendar, we have got Trofeo, Kima, and then the big UTMB.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Trophy Akima, amazing race.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely am going to try to do a preview for that.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think I should be able to get it back.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be getting back from my wedding about six days before that race.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll be looking to get it out.
• 1:19:59
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, I hope this was informative.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it taught you some stuff about one of my favorite trail races in the world,
• 1:20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sears and all.
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope it helps you make your picks.
• 1:20:08
  SPEAKER_00: The next time I talk to you guys, I'm going to be a married man.
• 1:20:11
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for listening and thanks for supporting.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk here soon.