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2025 Zegama GTWS Race Preview · Let's Talk Trail Running

0:01
hello and welcome back to let's talk trail running the show
0:05
where we talk about
0:06
upcoming trail races both ultra and sub-ultra give a preview of
0:10
the race and talk
0:11
about uh potential top finishers and picks uh in order to help
0:16
you make your
0:17
fantasy free trail predictions and also just uh out of the
0:20
excitement of the love
0:22
SPEAKER_01: of trail running
0:23
i'm your host robert prosser and in today's episode we're going
0:26
to do a preview for
0:26
the 2025 zagama as cory race but before we do that i'm gonna do
0:33
a little recap um
0:34
from last week's trail races we had two different races one in
0:38
the sky running
0:38
world series and one in the golden trail world series um and
0:43
those two races were
0:44
SPEAKER_01: mont serbion and italy for the sky running world series
0:48
And Noli,
0:50
well,
0:50
they call it Del Golfo del Isola in Noli,
0:53
Italy for the Golden Trail Series.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Just a quick little recap on those.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: We did a perception show last week.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: For me personally,
1:04
I did pretty bad with the Fantasy Free Trail Picks on the
1:06
Golden Trail side,
1:07
SPEAKER_01: but then pretty good on the Skyrunning side.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: With that being said, some interesting takeaways from last week's race.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: With regards to the Golden Trail side,
1:18
SPEAKER_01: looking at that top 10,
1:20
SPEAKER_01: we finally had Philemon Curiago get his breakout win.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: He's had a ton of second places in the past year.
1:26
And I don't believe he's had a win on the Golden Trail circuit
1:29
since 2023.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: So that was a really huge win for him.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: And congrats to him on getting the win for the race.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: Looking at the top 10, he narrowly edged out Elozine Elezawi.
1:42
who got second place and finally was on the losing end of the
1:47
strategic race.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: So Philemon,
1:49
SPEAKER_01: maybe a little bit better strategy,
1:50
SPEAKER_01: a little bit better positioning,
1:51
SPEAKER_01: and edged him out.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: I never saw any final times,
1:54
but it looked from the video like they were very close within
1:56
seconds of each other
1:57
SPEAKER_01: even.
1:57
And we're pushing all the way to the final straightaway,
2:01
and Philemon overtook him.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: And then on third place on the men's side, we had Paul Machoca.
2:06
So one of the Kenyans that I mentioned and really strongly
2:11
thought would do well.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: He did end up placing.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: I had him in my fourth place and he got third overall.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: Fourth place, Cesare Maestri, the Italian.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: No surprise there.
2:22
I think he's a very strong pick and he's looking in really good
2:24
shape for the season.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: Fifth place, Michael Salelo Saoli.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned him as a pretty strong contender.
2:31
um and he's had some really good results in some longer races
2:35
so i was curious if
2:36
he could do well and then sixth place richard omaya atua also
2:40
was up in the air i
2:42
kind of went with the wrong pick i went with kevin kabet and he
2:44
ended up not
2:44
finishing in the top 10 um but i wish i had picked one of those
2:48
two guys seventh
2:49
place swiss athlete from solomon dominic rolly eighth place
2:52
another swiss athlete
2:53
SPEAKER_01: but from brooks roberto de la renzi
2:55
SPEAKER_01: And then ninth place, Spanish athlete Jan Torreya.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: And 10th place, Pierre Galbordine from France in Brooks.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: I think it's the second 10th place finish in a row.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: And then on the women's side,
3:08
we saw Madalena Floria repeat the magic that kind of was her
3:12
breakout race in 2023
3:13
SPEAKER_01: at the final.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: And she also took the win.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: Just like she did in 2023 as well.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: So really good showing for her with a third,
3:22
SPEAKER_01: a second,
3:22
SPEAKER_01: and a first already in these first three races of the year.
3:25
Hopefully she takes some time to rest and recover until she
3:28
wants to race again.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: And then second place, Valeris Kiesing from Team Run Together on.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Third place, Valentin Ruto.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: And then fourth place, Rosa Lara Filu.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: Fifth place, Vivian Vonsi.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: Sixth place, Alice Gaghi.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: So two Italians going back to back.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: And then seventh place, Marie Neve from France.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Eighth place, Miriam Chepkuri, a new name on the circuit, Kenyan.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: And then ninth place, Sylvia Schwager, Slovakian athlete from Salomon.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: And tenth place, Swiss athlete Celine Aibe.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: So definitely some interesting results there.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: We had some notable drops in Joyce Najiru.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: And then some of my top five picks on the women's side,
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SPEAKER_01: I really got slaughtered and only had two picks that got points.
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SPEAKER_01: Araya, Liachi, and Noemi Lang.
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I don't know if they finished and just finished outside the top
4:21
10 or if they
4:22
SPEAKER_01: didn't even finish.
4:23
And then some really notable drops on the men's side with
4:25
regards to Remy Benet.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: So that was the third race of the Golden Trail series.
4:31
After the third race,
4:32
the points standings are in the top 10 right now for total
4:36
points.
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SPEAKER_01: And remember, this is contingent on them doing four races.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: So for a lot of these athletes, they've only done one or two races.
4:43
But where we stand right now in the top 10,
4:46
we've got Philemon in first,
4:47
Philemon Curiago.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: We've got Bogdan Damien in second,
4:51
SPEAKER_01: Patrick Kibbenjano in third,
4:52
SPEAKER_01: Joey Hadorn in fourth,
4:54
SPEAKER_01: Raya Unosuke Omi in fifth,
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SPEAKER_01: Cesare Maestri in sixth.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: Daniel Patterson, seventh.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Pierre Galborden, in eighth.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: Juho Yelenin, in ninth.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: And Theo Bourgeois, in tenth.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: On the women's side, we got Manalina Floreau leading.
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SPEAKER_01: In first, Takako Takamari, in second.
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SPEAKER_01: Sarah Alonzo, in third.
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SPEAKER_01: Marie Neve, in fourth.
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SPEAKER_01: Courtney Coppinger, in fifth.
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SPEAKER_01: Sarah Willahoyt, in sixth.
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SPEAKER_01: Alice Minetti, in seventh.
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SPEAKER_01: And then Caroline Kimotai, in eighth.
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SPEAKER_01: Joylene Chippegeno in ninth, and Filares Kieseng in ninth.
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So that's where we're standing with the Golden Trail Series
5:30
right now coming into
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SPEAKER_01: this race that we're about to preview,
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SPEAKER_01: Zagama 2025.
5:34
And then another quick recap with regards to the Skyrunning
5:38
World Series race.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: I won't go into as much depth,
5:41
SPEAKER_01: but on the top five on the men's side for Montzerbion,
5:43
SPEAKER_01: we had Gianluca Giano.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: And first, Alex Oberbacher in second.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: Manu Marias in third.
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SPEAKER_01: We're about to talk about him in today's preview.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Daniel Antonoli in fourth.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: And Matteo Bertoncini in fifth.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: On the women's side,
5:58
we had Lucille Germain take another Skyrunning win after
6:02
winning Skyrace to
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SPEAKER_01: Mathesene,
6:03
SPEAKER_01: if I'm not mistaken.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: And then second place, Denisa Dragomir.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Third place, Fabioli Conti.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about her as well today in the preview for Zagama.
6:13
SPEAKER_01: Fourth place, Lucija Kerkuk.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: And then fifth place, Martina Kumarlato.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's...
6:21
all that i really want to talk about last week's uh racing but
6:24
just wanted to fit
6:25
that in there and now on to the main topic for today which is
6:29
going to be zagama as
6:30
cory the sky race in the basque country of spain it's been
6:35
going on since 2002 it
6:37
is a true marathon distance with about 2736 meters of elevation
6:40
gain it says
6:45
SPEAKER_01: So for the US audience, it's around 11,000 feet and 26, 27 miles.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it's a race that's been going on since 2002.
6:52
It traditionally kicks off the sky running season and has been
6:56
a sky running
6:57
SPEAKER_01: championship many times.
7:00
And I don't think you could talk about this race without
7:02
talking about Killian Jornet.
7:04
I'm going to include some Killian trivia and some of the Gama
7:08
trivia in this podcast.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: I got really excited doing the podcast.
7:12
the research i did about two or three times as much research uh
7:15
time wise because
7:16
of the history of this race and just because i think it's a
7:18
really beautiful
7:19
awesome crazy event um so looking at some of i'm quoting
7:24
fantasy free trail here
7:26
and their article from last year the stars align at zagama um
7:29
founded in 2002 and
7:30
incorporated into the golden trail world series from the very
7:33
first year in 2018
7:34
zagama has long been the kickoff of the mountain running season
7:37
while zagama might
7:38
not be the opening race of golden trail world series this year
7:40
it is the fourth
7:41
SPEAKER_01: this year um
7:44
Basically,
7:44
it's still one of the crown jewels of the mountain running
7:46
world.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: After all, the famous saying goes, Zagama is Zagama.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: So Zagama is Zagama, which is basically the race's motto.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: And I think that kind of encapsulates what type of race Zagama is.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: It's known for having crazy crowds,
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SPEAKER_01: some of the loudest fans in the sport,
8:00
thousands and thousands of people kind of descending on some of
8:03
the high points of
8:04
SPEAKER_01: the course and a lot of the climbs of the course.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: And then it's also known for its crazy weather.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: It can be spitting rain, foggy, windy, raining.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: and just where you can't even see like 10 feet in front of your face.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: So Zagama is set in the Basque Country's high peaks,
8:18
SPEAKER_01: and the runner is lucky enough to get a bib.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: are in for an experience almost unlike anything else in trail running.
8:23
SPEAKER_01: This is also going back to the article.
8:25
Zagama is renowned for its thousands of enthusiastic fans with
8:28
an estimated 30,000
8:29
SPEAKER_01: attending each year and 10,000 alone on the race's biggest climb.
8:33
Friends have told me they can't hear for days after the race
8:35
due to the screaming
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SPEAKER_01: fans on the course.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Picture a fever scene at the Tour de France.
8:39
Dani Marino told us as she heads over for the first attempt in
8:42
the historic race.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: So once again, still quoting the article.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: So how significant is a race like Zagama on the Goldwell calendar?
8:49
SPEAKER_01: So last year was Kelly and Jernet's 12th race at the event.
8:53
And he has won 10 times and,
8:56
well,
8:56
now 11 times and still holds the course record at.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh,
8:59
SPEAKER_01: and then when asked one of the women's favorites of spares of the,
9:03
SPEAKER_01: uh,
9:03
SPEAKER_01: race,
9:04
SPEAKER_01: excuse me,
9:04
SPEAKER_01: Spanish runner,
9:05
SPEAKER_01: Sarah Alonzo,
9:05
SPEAKER_01: what it would mean to win.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: She says winning Zagam is the biggest one I can imagine.
9:10
I suppose winning here would feel very similar to an American
9:12
runner winning at
9:13
SPEAKER_01: Western States or a French runner winning at UTMB.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: So, um,
9:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is from the Fantasy Free Trail article from last year.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: And then it was really fun because this race has so much history.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: I got to go through, you know, tons of years of historical finishes.
9:30
I run far articles on finishes and then also Skyrunning World
9:35
Series articles.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: I found the Ian Corliss website.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: He's a really good photographer in the ultra scene.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: One of his articles from 2015.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: And historically, this has been a Skyrunning Championship type of race.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: We're kicking off the Skyrunning year.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: And like I mentioned,
9:49
SPEAKER_01: it's inextricably linked to Killian Jornet,
9:53
SPEAKER_01: which also makes me really excited because he's one of the GOATs.
9:56
SPEAKER_01: And his story is really, really strongly present throughout here.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: So with that being said,
10:02
SPEAKER_01: I haven't checked the weather forecast,
10:03
SPEAKER_01: so I have no idea what it's going to be like.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: But I hope it's the nastier,
10:08
SPEAKER_01: the better,
10:09
SPEAKER_01: just for the excitement of the race and for the true Sagama spirit,
10:12
SPEAKER_01: shall we say.
10:14
uh so with that being said um that kind of goes a little bit
10:17
into the background of
10:18
zagama once again yeah bass country um crazy good scenery for
10:22
those of you that
10:23
haven't ever seen the race or watched it i really recommend if
10:26
you can find the
10:27
SPEAKER_01: live stream from last year um
10:29
i remember waking up one of my favorite memories from last year
10:32
was waking up and
10:33
watching zagama watching killian take his 11th win it wasn't as
10:36
nasty weather it
10:37
was kind of it had some rain but it wasn't as bad as some of
10:40
the weather years can
10:41
be but the scenery on the course is absolutely phenomenal and i
10:44
just remember
10:45
waking up and watching killian go through this beautiful green
10:47
lush course
10:49
on a way to another win just missing his course record by about
10:52
two minutes um and
10:53
then seeing second through fifth place battle went out they
10:56
came within 90 seconds
10:57
of each other some really really good racing um but it always
11:00
is a super deep race
11:02
SPEAKER_01: and it's crazy when i was doing my research for this just seeing you know
11:05
How long Killian's been racing this and how many great games
11:08
have come through the race Zagama.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: So with that being said,
11:12
I'm going to kind of go into a little bit of Zagama trivia
11:14
before I do the preview,
11:14
because I found out a lot of really cool things about Zagama
11:18
when doing research
11:19
SPEAKER_01: for this.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: So some Zagama trivia.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: First of all,
11:25
what year was the first time that Killian raced Zagama and how
11:29
old was he at his
11:31
SPEAKER_01: first win?
11:31
SPEAKER_01: So I'll give you a little bit of time to think about it.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: Killian, I believe, is 37 or 38 years old right now.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And he has been doing this for a long time.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to pause right there.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: But so Sagama, his first one was in 2007 at the age of 19.
11:49
And the year before that,
11:51
the legendary mountain runner Ricardo Mejia won it.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Ricardo Mejia being a sky running world champion.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: I think he's three times years in all.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: I'm wondering if I'm not mistaken.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: Just a legend in the ultra running scene.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: So pretty cool.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: And Killian did beat him that year as well.
12:09
And then the next question would be,
12:11
what was this first ever winning time?
12:13
So just for some context,
12:15
men's winners typically go in the high to mid 330s.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about how that course record has changed.
12:22
And then women's record is around 415,
12:25
but women's winners are typically around 430.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: The 416 was kind of an anomaly.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: So his first ever winning time was 3 hours 56 minutes and 59 seconds.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: So approximately 3.57.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: And then the next one,
12:41
SPEAKER_01: what I was curious to find about,
12:42
SPEAKER_01: you know,
12:43
SPEAKER_01: Killian has won 11 out of his 12 times.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious to see what his closest win.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: Give me just a second.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: There's some jets taking off.
13:00
SPEAKER_02: and disregard.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: We are good to go.
13:02
I was curious to see what his closest win was and then what his
13:08
biggest margin of victory was.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: So I,
13:11
and I apologize if I stop for any reason and just say that
13:15
there's some planes
13:15
SPEAKER_01: taking off,
13:16
SPEAKER_01: I'm on an active military base.
13:18
So just feel free to fast forward about 20 or 30 seconds and
13:21
it'll be over.
13:22
But sometimes it messes up the audio with the noise canceling
13:24
and whatnot.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: So his biggest margin of victory at Zagama came
13:31
In 2010,
13:34
he won by approximately 12 minutes,
13:37
about 11 minutes and 57 seconds.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: And then his closest one, I had a hard time finding this.
13:43
I used chat GPT to try to help me find it as well,
13:46
but I couldn't find the source information.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: It says that Killian won his first ever Zagama by six seconds,
13:51
SPEAKER_01: which is insanely close for a four-hour trail race.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: But I do know for a fact for sure that he has two victories.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: victories that are by 12 seconds, which is also insanely close.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: In the 2008 version of Zagama,
14:02
SPEAKER_01: which also served as the Skyrunning Euro Championships,
14:05
SPEAKER_01: he won by 12 seconds just in front of Raul Garcia-Cassan,
14:09
SPEAKER_01: I think who he also beat by six seconds if ChatGPT is right.
14:12
And then he also had a 12 second win in the 2013 edition to
14:16
another great Skyrunner
14:18
SPEAKER_01: and ultra racer,
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Luis Alberto Fernando.
14:21
So Killian has a ton of wins in this race,
14:24
but also a ton of close battles.
14:27
The next question I had as soon as I heard that he had won 11
14:30
of 12 races was,
14:31
SPEAKER_01: what was the one race he didn't win?
14:33
SPEAKER_01: What year was it?
14:34
SPEAKER_01: And then also, why did he not win it?
14:36
So I'll give you a little bit of time to think about that and
14:39
maybe get in a guess
14:40
SPEAKER_01: or give it a pause.
14:42
The one year that he did not win Zagama that he did line up to
14:45
race was in 2015.
14:48
And I found an I Run Far article that led me to wonder
14:52
basically why did he not win?
14:54
And then also who beat him on that given day or who actually
14:56
won the race on that given day?
14:58
so doing a little bit of research there i found the irons
15:00
article from 2015 uh it
15:02
appears killing had just returned to a trip from nepal so i
15:06
imagine he was doing
15:07
some of his everest expedition and it said that he had some
15:10
stomach issues
15:11
potentially from either food or something nepal related i don't
15:14
know if he got
15:15
SPEAKER_01: giardia or whatever
15:17
SPEAKER_01: But he has some stomach issues and he ended up finishing 22nd.
15:20
But the article also says that he reached the city limits of
15:23
Zagama within the top 10.
15:25
And then he stopped to shake hands with anyone who wanted to
15:28
meet him on his way to
15:29
SPEAKER_01: the finish line.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: That is so freaking awesome.
15:33
SPEAKER_01: So freaking Killian.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: Basically,
15:35
he knew he wasn't going to win and he decided to meet and greet
15:37
whoever wanted to
15:38
SPEAKER_01: meet him on the way to the finish for 2015.
15:43
And so that also led me to question,
15:45
well,
15:46
who the heck won the year that he lost?
15:49
SPEAKER_01: And this was a new name for me.
15:52
So you can take a little bit of time to guess or think who
15:54
might have won it in 2015.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: My guess would have been somebody like Manu Maria,
15:58
SPEAKER_01: so we're going to talk a lot about in this podcast.
16:00
But it was an Italian runner by the name of Tade Pivik,
16:04
P-I-V-K,
16:05
excuse me.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: I had never heard of him, so I did a little bit of research on him.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: Um,
16:10
SPEAKER_01: he,
16:11
SPEAKER_01: uh,
16:11
SPEAKER_01: is still winning some sky races,
16:13
SPEAKER_01: uh,
16:13
SPEAKER_01: as recently as last year against somebody like Andrea Rota,
16:16
SPEAKER_01: who's a really good sky runner in Italy.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: Um,
16:19
but it seems like this was really kind of one of his biggest
16:21
wins and a little bit
16:22
SPEAKER_01: more of an anomaly,
16:24
SPEAKER_01: um,
16:24
SPEAKER_01: winning in 2015.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: And he also got second place to run the rut,
16:28
SPEAKER_01: uh,
16:29
SPEAKER_01: run the rut 25K,
16:30
SPEAKER_01: which was on the sky running world series,
16:32
SPEAKER_01: uh,
16:32
SPEAKER_01: in 2020.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: or 20, no, 2015.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, this was by far his biggest result.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: So that was a fun little fact there.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: And then,
16:41
SPEAKER_01: uh,
16:43
SPEAKER_01: another question,
16:43
SPEAKER_01: what is killing the good journey's,
16:45
SPEAKER_01: uh,
16:45
SPEAKER_01: current first record is three 3640.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: I don't see anyone beating that this year,
16:50
SPEAKER_01: but I could see people going in the mid three forties.
16:52
Uh,
16:53
typically it's the fastest you will see people that are not
16:55
named Killian go.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: And then last year he also ran a 33807.
16:59
And then on the women's side of the race,
17:02
I also had some fun researching.
17:04
There's nobody that's been nearly as dominant as Killian on the
17:07
women's side.
17:07
But that led me to ask,
17:08
who is the most successful woman at Zagama in the course
17:11
history?
17:13
SPEAKER_01: And how many wins does she have?
17:14
And the answer to that question is the most successful woman in
17:18
course history at
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Zagama is a French woman by the name of Corinne Favre.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: And she won three years.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: She ran in 2005, 2007, and 2008.
17:29
There's two different women on the,
17:32
uh,
17:32
two different women who have each one at twice.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: And that's Oihana Cortazar.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about her today.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: And Emanuela Brizio, um, have each have two wins at the race.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: Other than that, there's no other repeat winners.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, but we could have a repeat winner on the women's side.
17:47
Um,
17:48
either Sylvia Nordsgar or Oihana Cortazar both have the chance
17:52
to repeat.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, um,
17:54
SPEAKER_01: And I think even Maite Maiora as well.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: I think she's racing this year.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: And then the last question I had was,
18:03
SPEAKER_01: was there a year that Killian and Emily Forsberg both won his partner?
18:08
SPEAKER_01: And basically,
18:09
SPEAKER_01: you know Killian's won a ton,
18:11
SPEAKER_01: so it's just a matter of if Emily has won it or not.
18:13
And there was a year,
18:13
2013,
18:13
where they both won the 2013 edition of Zagama.
18:20
What are some major themes of this year and why do I like this
18:22
race so much?
18:24
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I like most about this race,
18:25
SPEAKER_01: it's one of the longest,
18:27
SPEAKER_01: if not the longest race on the Golden Trail World Series circuit.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: It's not technically an ultra,
18:32
SPEAKER_01: it's right at that marathon distance,
18:33
SPEAKER_01: but it's a race that brings a lot of things into play.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: You can't just be the fastest and the fittest,
18:39
although that definitely goes into play and it definitely is
18:41
important for these
18:41
SPEAKER_01: athletes.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot more variables.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: And what variables are we talking about?
18:45
SPEAKER_01: One, it's longer.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: So you need to do better with nutrition.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: Two, it can be really technical and the weather can be really adverse.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: So it's really important that the runner is good on technical terrain,
18:57
SPEAKER_01: both muddy,
18:57
SPEAKER_01: sloppy,
18:58
SPEAKER_01: and rocky.
18:59
And it's also really important that the runner does a really
19:02
good job taking care of themselves.
19:03
So we've had years where it can be really hot and the hot is a
19:05
really humid type of
19:06
SPEAKER_01: heat that's hard to prepare for,
19:08
especially for a lot of these athletes with it being one of
19:10
their first races of
19:10
the year coming out of presumably what is a colder winter in
19:14
Europe or wherever
19:14
SPEAKER_01: they live.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: And then secondly,
19:18
SPEAKER_01: It can be really adverse in the windy, cold, and rainy.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: So basically,
19:21
if you're not doing a good job of taking care of yourself with
19:24
layering and with
19:25
SPEAKER_01: appropriate warmth,
19:27
SPEAKER_01: that can also play into nutrition as well.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: You get cold hands and you're not taking in nutrition.
19:31
And we'll see a lot of athletes DNF this race because it
19:35
typically is a longer race.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: And it takes a very special type of athlete to do really well.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: Somebody who's really good on mountainous terrain,
19:41
SPEAKER_01: who's really good on technical terrain,
19:42
SPEAKER_01: and is really smart when it comes to taking care of themselves.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: So some themes I've noted about today's,
19:49
SPEAKER_01: about this year's edition of 2025 Zagama,
19:52
SPEAKER_01: major themes on the men's side,
19:54
SPEAKER_01: no Killian,
19:55
SPEAKER_01: so it feels like the race is wide open.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: And then this is the return of Stian Angermund.
19:59
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to talk about him.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: He just got back from
20:03
SPEAKER_01: Being suspended for doping coming off of his OCC victory in 2023.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: He's basically been out of racing for 18 plus months.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: And this is going to be his first race back.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: So it'll be really interesting to see where he's at.
20:15
He's been one of the most dominant racers with wins at OCC and
20:19
Worlds back to back.
20:20
And just is really,
20:21
really good in this sky running type of short ultra type of
20:24
distance race.
20:26
SPEAKER_01: On the women's side of the race,
20:27
SPEAKER_01: big questions there for me are,
20:29
SPEAKER_01: can Yuta's leader extend her dominance to a new race?
20:31
SPEAKER_01: She's never raised the gamma.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: And then could we also have a repeat winner such as Oyana Cortazar,
20:37
SPEAKER_01: Silvia Northgar,
20:38
SPEAKER_01: or Maite Maiora?
20:40
SPEAKER_01: And then can a Basque person bring back the podium and get the win?
20:45
Because we haven't had a Spanish winner since Maite Maiora in
20:49
2017,
20:49
so it's been quite a while.
20:52
But we've got two really good contenders who have a strong
20:55
possibility of potentially winning.
20:57
SPEAKER_01: In my mind,
20:57
SPEAKER_01: Sarah Alonso being the strongest possibility,
20:59
SPEAKER_01: but Malinosa does have a higher finish than Sarah Alonso.
21:04
um those are kind of the big questions from this year um and
21:07
with that being said
21:09
so that is enough about the lead up to zagama let's actually
21:13
start talking about
21:13
who's racing zagama this year and what we want to look out for
21:18
so um i'm gonna
21:20
start on the women's side i actually think i really had a lot
21:22
of fun researching
21:23
the women's side of the race um but i think both sides are
21:27
equally exciting i would
21:28
SPEAKER_01: say it's
21:29
close to as deep as noli um it's probably a little bit deeper
21:33
in terms of absolute
21:35
um depth but the one thing we see about zagama is we don't see
21:38
a lot of we don't
21:40
see a lot of kenyan athletes race it quite frankly because how
21:42
technical it is how
21:43
long it is um and also we got another world mountain running uh
21:48
association wmra
21:49
race going on that i'm going to preview in the next podcast it
21:51
just came up on
21:52
fantasy pretrial that's trofeo nasego so more athletes are
21:55
probably racing that
21:57
SPEAKER_01: then are racing Zagama.
21:59
And then typically the only athlete,
22:01
we'll see Kenyans in the top 10 at Zagama.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: Robert Kamoy is somebody who comes to mind and consistently races it.
22:07
SPEAKER_01: He's gotten top 10 at each of the past two editions.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: I think he's around five or six in both of them.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: But for the most part,
22:12
it seems like the Kenyan athletes don't do great at Zagama
22:15
because of a lot of the
22:16
SPEAKER_01: factors I mentioned.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit longer, so nutrition is more important.
22:19
The factors play more of a,
22:22
excuse me,
22:23
the conditions of the race force play more of a factor.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: So technicality, sloppiness, and then also nutrition is more important.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: I just got redundant there.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: But then also self-care as well.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times these Kenyan athletes can be really good,
22:35
but they can kind of run so hard that they run themselves
22:38
either into overheating
22:39
SPEAKER_01: or maybe they're not losing layers properly.
22:41
They didn't grow up in the mountains and they're not used to
22:43
kind of more adverse
22:44
SPEAKER_01: weather conditions.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: So we're not seeing as many Kenyans this year.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: But with that being said,
22:49
SPEAKER_01: we're seeing a lot of really good racers,
22:50
and this is always a really deep field that attracts a really
22:53
special type of
22:53
SPEAKER_01: athlete.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: On the women's side,
22:55
SPEAKER_01: we've got some big names like Judith Weider,
22:58
SPEAKER_01: Mal Yao,
22:59
SPEAKER_01: Sylvia Nordsgar,
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Sarah Alonzo,
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Rosa Laura Filou,
23:02
SPEAKER_01: Therese LaBeouf,
23:04
SPEAKER_01: Marta Martinez,
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Anna Gibson,
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Malin Osa.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: and others.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: And then on the men's side, we'll talk about them in a little bit.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna preview the women's side first.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: And before I go into the previewing the women's side,
23:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna first read us the top 10 from last year.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: And then when I read these athletes out,
23:22
SPEAKER_01: keep it in mind,
23:23
I'm kind of reading them in order of who I think is most likely
23:26
to get points.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: On the women's side,
23:28
SPEAKER_01: and then on the men's side,
23:29
SPEAKER_01: I'll kind of divide it into two categories,
23:31
SPEAKER_01: which I'll talk about.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: But on the women's side of the race,
23:34
SPEAKER_01: first and foremost,
23:35
SPEAKER_01: last year's results,
23:36
SPEAKER_01: the first through 10th place.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Last year, the win went to Sylvia Nordskar from Norway.
23:41
Kind of a breakout,
23:42
huge result,
23:42
probably her biggest result of the year last year.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: And then second place, Malin Osa.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Third place, Marta Martinez.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Fourth place, Therese Leboeuf.
23:52
5th place,
23:53
Lide,
23:54
and I'm not even going to try to say her last name,
23:55
Urustrazu.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: She's a Basque athlete.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: 6th place, Eliza Desko.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: 7th place, Daniela Wemus.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: 8th place, Rosa Laura.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: 9th place, Ida Robzam.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: And 10th place, Caitlin Felder.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: So that was the top 10.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: This year, some athletes to look out for.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: The first one I want to talk about,
24:17
SPEAKER_01: and she is probably my favorite to win,
24:19
SPEAKER_01: but I might flip-flop.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: It's between her and Sarah Alonso.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: First one I'm going to talk about is Judith Weider, Swiss athlete.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: She runs for both Hoka and Red Bull.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: She is a perennial powerhouse on the Golden Trail circuit.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: She did win the 2019 edition of the Golden Trail series.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: And he is a five-time world mountain,
24:45
SPEAKER_01: excuse me,
24:46
SPEAKER_01: world orienteering champion and a six-time Euro orienteering champion.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: On top of her accolades,
24:54
SPEAKER_01: she won the Golden Trail series overall in 2019,
24:57
SPEAKER_01: had at least one kid,
24:58
SPEAKER_01: maybe two,
24:59
SPEAKER_01: and then came back just as strong,
25:00
SPEAKER_01: if not stronger.
25:01
She was second in the 2023 standings of the Golden Trail just
25:05
to Sophia Lockley.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: Narrowly got beat out really because of Madalena Floria winning.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: If not for that,
25:12
SPEAKER_01: she would have won the overall,
25:13
and it was just Madalena Floria's breakout race because she did
25:16
beat Sophia at the
25:17
SPEAKER_01: final.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: She has never run Zagama.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: That's the big question mark.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: But she does really good at long races of these types.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: She got a second at OCC last year, fourth at Headlands.
25:26
She was fourth and fifth at the final in Prologue for the
25:29
Golden Trail Series.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: And then she's already won Chianti Marathon this year.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: And then won the North Face Trans Grand Canary as well.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: She is really good at races of this type of length.
25:41
Similarly,
25:41
Marathon de Mont Blanc,
25:43
which is around a four and a half hour race.
25:45
She won it and set the course record last year in a really
25:48
awesome performance.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: This is a little bit more technical than that, in my opinion.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: But she is somebody who doesn't miss when she races often.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: So I'm really excited to see Judith race.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: I could see her racing fast.
26:00
I don't know if I could see her breaking the course record held
26:02
by Ninka Brinkman
26:03
SPEAKER_01: because that is an insane time.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: And Ninka is an insane marathon runner with insanely speedy legs.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: But I think I could see her finishing in the 420s.
26:12
Next one I want to talk about and who I think is also
26:14
potentially a favorite to win.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: I think I'd have these two females in the 1-2 spot if I had anyone.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: And I think they're both locks for the top five.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: Thera Alonzo.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: She is a Spanish runner for ASICS.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: And she's from this area, if I'm not mistaken.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: She's a basketball runner.
26:31
She has only raised Zagama once,
26:33
but her once was to a third place in 2022.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: She has the fastest time of anyone at this course in this field.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: She finished that race in 426.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Basically, every year except for that year, that time would have won.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: Let me double check before I say that.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
26:50
Every year except for that year,
26:51
that time would have been a winning time at Zagama.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: But because it was the same year that the course record holder,
26:59
SPEAKER_01: Ninka Brickman,
27:00
SPEAKER_01: ran,
27:01
SPEAKER_01: and then also Mod Mathis was just in front of her,
27:04
SPEAKER_01: it was not a wedding time.
27:05
So she has the fastest time ever on this course of the people
27:08
that are racing this year.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: And she's kind of got that home field advantage.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: She's from the area.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: She knows everyone's going to be rooting for her extra loud.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: And this would mean a lot to her to win it.
27:18
She did not race it last year because I think she was coming
27:20
off a niggle or some
27:21
SPEAKER_01: kind of injury.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then she also is coming off of really good results this year.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: She looks stupidly fit.
27:28
She's already won Kobe and then went either third or fourth in
27:32
the,
27:33
uh,
27:34
great wall race.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: She didn't race last year or last week rather.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: So she's appearing to be resting and ready for this race.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: And then, um,
27:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, her and Malinosa basically have home field advantage.
27:45
So I think she's got to be a favorite and she's looking really
27:48
good coming into this race.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: I could really see her winning and also she's already running the 420.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: So her and Judith, I think, will be up front in the pace.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: Next one I want to talk about is Malinosa.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: Spanish athlete, young Basque Solomon athlete.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: She also only has one race at Zagama, but she did a really great job.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: It was last year.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: She got second place in 435, just behind Sylvia Nordsgar.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: And all the same reasons that Sarah has a really strong chance to win,
28:12
SPEAKER_01: I think Malin does as well.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: But I think Sarah's more fit than Malin at this point in the year.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: I think Malin I could see for a really strong top five pick.
28:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I don't know.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: She already did DNS, uh, great wall.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not really sure what caused that.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: Um,
28:26
SPEAKER_01: so that's my only question mark around Malin,
28:28
SPEAKER_01: but I think if she's racing and towing the line,
28:31
SPEAKER_01: she's probably in really good shape and she's probably really strong.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: Next one I want to talk about.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: You can't come back, uh, to a race and, uh,
28:41
That you won last year and not be considered heavily as one of
28:44
the favorites.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: That's going to be Sylvia Nordsgar.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: She ran a masterful race last year.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: Kind of really surprised me.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: I think I had her in the back half,
28:50
SPEAKER_01: like around my top five in the back half,
28:52
SPEAKER_01: maybe fourth or fifth.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: I was really surprised that she won.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: She ran 429 in a really good year.
28:58
And she has the second fastest time of anyone that's lined up
29:01
behind only Sarah
29:02
SPEAKER_01: Alonso this year.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh,
29:04
she's already got a second in transparent area marathon this
29:07
year to a speedy Jen
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Lichter who knows that course really well.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: And then she's coming off last year.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: She got a second out to Caitlin Fielder, if I'm not mistaken.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: And then she won UTMB Nice 50K last year and had a DNF at PCC.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: She didn't race any more Golden Trail Series events after Zagama.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm not really sure why.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: It seems like she focused more on UTMB stuff,
29:27
SPEAKER_01: maybe because her primary sponsor is Hoka,
29:30
SPEAKER_01: and Hoka is the primary sponsor of the UTMB events.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: But I'm really curious to see what she does and what shape she's in.
29:35
If her Trans-Grant Canary Marathon is any indicator,
29:38
it seems like she's in pretty good shape.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: Next one I want to talk about is Therese LaBeouf.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: She is a Swiss athlete for sports.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: She is always kind of flirting around.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: Her and Daniela Lemus,
29:51
SPEAKER_01: in my opinion,
29:52
SPEAKER_01: are always kind of locks for that four through eight,
29:55
SPEAKER_01: like top five.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: or top 10 in the golden trail.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: They're really consistent racers.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, and she's no different.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: So she's an athlete for compress sport.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: She got fourth as a Gama last year.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: So that's a good, uh, always a good sign.
30:06
And ninth at Marathon de Mont Blanc,
30:08
14th at zeroes and all,
30:09
and 11th at OCC.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: She's always in the hunt for that five to 10.
30:13
Um,
30:13
and in the past three years of racing Zagama,
30:15
she's been really consistent.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: So she's got a fourth, a third and a seventh.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: And it seems like she really likes racing here a lot.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Um,
30:24
SPEAKER_01: Some other athletes, Marta Martinez, Spanish athlete, La Sportiva.
30:28
And for me,
30:30
she kind of first crept on the scene last year with her third
30:32
place at Zagama.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: I was not familiar.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: The year before that, she was eighth at Zagama.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: And this year, she's already looking in good shape.
30:38
She got a third at Sky Race Day Mathesine,
30:41
and then a win at Econte Lotto's Del Norte.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: Those are two Sky Running World Series races.
30:45
Very technical,
30:47
especially the Sky Race Day Mathesine,
30:49
and very fast as well.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: So that indicates that she's in really good fitness.
30:53
And she got second to Judith by five minutes at the
30:55
Trans-Garren Canary Half this year.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: I think that race ran around two hours.
30:58
So five minutes behind Judith is not a bad place to be,
31:01
especially with how great Judith is.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: Some other athletes to look out for, Rosa Lara Filu.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: So she is a Spanish runner for Compress Sport and Scarpa as well.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: She's coming off a fourth place last week at Noli.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: So could be a pro, could be a con, racing a week ago.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: But it was a shorter course.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see the total time that it took to race it,
31:20
SPEAKER_01: but I think it's around two and a half hours for the women.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: 220 was what...
31:24
SPEAKER_01: Madalena Florio won it in 2023.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: I think it was 218.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: So anyways,
31:31
SPEAKER_01: last year,
31:31
SPEAKER_01: Rosa Laura Fielu,
31:32
SPEAKER_01: she got third at Transcranian Canary Marathon,
31:34
SPEAKER_01: eighth at Kobe Trail,
31:35
SPEAKER_01: 10th at China Race,
31:36
SPEAKER_01: eighth at Zagama in her first and only try,
31:39
SPEAKER_01: and fifth at Marathon de Mont Blanc,
31:41
SPEAKER_01: ninth at OCC,
31:42
SPEAKER_01: and first at UTMB Mallorca.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: So she's good in these longer races.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: She's good at taking care of herself.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: She's good at pacing.
31:48
And she honestly,
31:48
eighth place for her first try at Zagama is a really,
31:50
really good result.
31:53
SPEAKER_01: Another athlete to talk about, Italian athlete Fabiola Conti.
31:56
She's an Italian runner coming off the third place at last
31:58
week's Montes Urbion Sky Run.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: So that gives me a little bit question.
32:02
It means she's really fit,
32:03
but it also gives me a little question that had a huge descent.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: And so that could be a little bit question mark.
32:09
And then she got sixth at World Short Course in 2022 and fifth
32:12
at Zagama in 2022.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: So she has that course familiarity.
32:16
Somebody who I got a really big question mark around and I
32:18
think could go either way.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: She could either be a top three or top five pick,
32:23
or she could be somebody that kind of blows up because she goes
32:26
out too hard,
32:26
SPEAKER_01: and we've seen it before.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: That is Chinese athlete Mao Yao, Salomon athlete.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Super good, super fast.
32:33
SPEAKER_01: Probably the fastest...
32:35
probably either the fastest or the second fastest marathon PR
32:38
in this field,
32:40
SPEAKER_01: along with Ikram Rarsarl,
32:41
SPEAKER_01: who we'll talk all about in a little bit.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: But Meow Yao, she's a high 220s marathoner.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: I think she's around 229 or 230.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: You know,
32:49
SPEAKER_01: she is,
32:51
SPEAKER_01: so like I said,
32:51
SPEAKER_01: she's very fast,
32:52
SPEAKER_01: but surprising,
32:53
SPEAKER_01: maybe not the fastest in the field,
32:54
SPEAKER_01: and we'll talk about that in a little bit.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: But I'm very curious to see how she does.
32:58
SPEAKER_01: She did race this in 2023, kind of showed up, went out hard and blew up.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: finished around five hours.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: She's not always the best technical runner, but she's always super fit.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: And we know she's good at longer races.
33:08
Like she is good at fueling,
33:09
but she just sometimes can pace and go out really,
33:12
really hard.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: I think we saw it in Marathon de Montblanc last year.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: And we saw it in Sagama when she did race it,
33:17
SPEAKER_01: but she did win OCC,
33:18
SPEAKER_01: which is a longer race than Sagama.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: for the female winners.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: And then she got fifth of great wall this year,
33:26
SPEAKER_01: also kind of came out pretty hard and then fell off the pace.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: So she definitely has the fitness to win,
33:30
SPEAKER_01: but I question if she'll have the patience or the technical abilities,
33:33
SPEAKER_01: especially if this race is kind of a sloppy,
33:36
SPEAKER_01: sloppy,
33:36
SPEAKER_01: grinded out weather type of festive year.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: Next female athlete to look out for, Anna Tarasova.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: I think she's a, I'm pretty sure she's a Nordic athlete and she is,
33:51
Russian,
33:52
but I think she lives in Spain potentially,
33:54
but Russian Norda athlete.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: She's already won Mount Fuji Kai 70K this year.
34:00
SPEAKER_01: And then UTM beat Tenerife 73K,
34:02
SPEAKER_01: which she beat Emily Hallgood,
34:03
SPEAKER_01: which is always a really good sign.
34:05
She did raise the Gama last year and got 12th and improved her
34:08
time by 30 minutes
34:09
SPEAKER_01: from the previous year.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: And then last year, she was just outside the OCC top 10 at 12th.
34:13
SPEAKER_01: And then she ran 448 the year she got 12th at Zagama.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: So she's been trending upward at Zagama.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: And it seems like she's very fit this year.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: But she does have two longer races in her legs and a lot of travel.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: So I'd be curious to see.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the back half of the top 10.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I see her in the top five, though.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Julia Font Gomez, Spanish Brooks trail runner.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: Has some really good results and is really consistent.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Has some really good results and is really consistent.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: She got second at the Skyrunning World Series Championships last year.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: And she has podiums at multiple Skyrunning World Series.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: She was eighth at Headlands last year.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: And she's very consistent, but...
35:00
SPEAKER_02: She's very consistent.
35:02
SPEAKER_02: Excuse me.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: I just got a call.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: She's a very consistent racer.
35:06
So podiums at Multiple Skyrunning and Skyrunning World Series
35:09
and 8th at Headlands.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: She's very consistent, but she hasn't raised Zagami yet.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: But she does really good on races around this distance.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: I think she's a really strong pick for the top 10.
35:16
SPEAKER_01: Also, Spanish trail runner.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: I feel like Spanish trail runners have advantage,
35:19
SPEAKER_01: whether they're basket or not at this race,
35:22
SPEAKER_01: just because they speak Spanish.
35:23
And Spanish trail running fans are really awesome,
35:24
especially if you're Spanish as well.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think she's somebody to look out for and is very fit.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: I can very easily see her at somewhere in the top five of this race.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: Next person to talk about is a previous winner of this race.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: One of the only two time winners of this race.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh,
35:38
SPEAKER_01: and somebody who,
35:39
SPEAKER_01: when I went through the results,
35:40
SPEAKER_01: I was really impressed at how long they had been racing for.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: Um,
35:43
SPEAKER_01: I did not realize that she had so much time,
35:45
SPEAKER_01: uh,
35:46
SPEAKER_01: in the sport and that is Oihana Kordazar for ultra,
35:50
SPEAKER_01: excuse me,
35:50
SPEAKER_01: her ITRA index and racing.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: go all the way back to 2011.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, and she actually won the race in Zagama in 2011 and 2012.
36:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh, she has raced this race a ton of times.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: She has a seventh place,
36:04
SPEAKER_01: an eighth place,
36:05
SPEAKER_01: a fifth place,
36:06
SPEAKER_01: and two third places in Zagama along with her two wins.
36:09
Uh,
36:09
so no shortage of experience,
36:11
very well,
36:12
uh,
36:12
well coursed in this race.
36:14
Um,
36:15
and she's in her early forties now,
36:16
but she's still running and running very well.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, so she's a bass grown-up for Solomon.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: She's never finished outside of the top 10 in Zagama over her
36:25
SPEAKER_01: 13 years of racing it and seven times.
36:27
And then she's super consistent in sky running world series and
36:29
golden trail,
36:30
SPEAKER_01: uh,
36:31
SPEAKER_01: golden trail races.
36:32
Uh,
36:32
her extra had over a hundred race results,
36:34
which is crazy and impressive.
36:36
Um,
36:37
already at this year,
36:37
she's gotten third at Contalados del Norte race.
36:40
And then she got third at the sky running world series final
36:42
this year and third at
36:43
SPEAKER_01: sky running world series,
36:45
SPEAKER_01: uh,
36:45
SPEAKER_01: MAGA race in Italy.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: Eight that you're a trail tramps 50 K. Um, so,
36:51
SPEAKER_01: With that being said, yeah, I'm really curious to see how she does.
36:53
I think I could definitely see her as high as fifth maybe in
36:58
this race,
36:58
fourth.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: But she's still running at a super high level.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: She's super fit this year.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: And she's a really smart racer.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: She's really good at these longer races as well.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: So I could easily see her as a very strong pick.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: I think it's 100% chance that she finishes.
37:10
And I think it's probably a very strong percent chance that she
37:14
finishes in the top 10.
37:17
And I could even see her as high as like fourth potentially,
37:19
maybe even third.
37:21
Next I want to talk about is somebody else who I'm excited to
37:23
talk about.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: It's the Zagama debut.
37:25
They probably,
37:26
from what I can tell,
37:27
have the fastest time in the marathon in this field.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm almost positive.
37:31
SPEAKER_01: That's Ikram Rarsala.
37:33
SPEAKER_01: She is a Spanish athlete.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: I think she runs for Kiprun, if I'm not mistaken.
37:39
um and i talked about her a little bit last week in the trans
37:42
volcania preview uh
37:43
her partner man well in quito who also co-coaches her he
37:47
finished top five um she's
37:49
a super yeah super fast so her her times uh her marathon time
37:54
228 crazy fast half
37:56
uh half marathon 111 but she also split 111 in her half for her
38:00
228 so i bet she
38:00
SPEAKER_01: could go even a little bit faster she's got a 32 49 in the 10k
38:04
Her results last year had some good results at longer races
38:08
that would indicate she
38:08
SPEAKER_01: might do it at Zagama.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: She got eighth at OCC, which is around the same length as Zagama.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: Tenth at Marathon de Mont Blanc, also around the same length.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: Second at Giro de Mont, also a long race.
38:19
And then she spent last fall and winter just doing road races
38:21
and getting really,
38:23
SPEAKER_01: really,
38:23
SPEAKER_01: really fast.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: All those PRs were from this past six months, more or less.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, she also got 12th at OCC in 2023.
38:30
The only thing I worry about with her is how well was she doing
38:32
this technical
38:33
SPEAKER_01: course,
38:33
SPEAKER_01: a sloppy Zagama course.
38:35
Um,
38:36
so I'm really excited and I think she could have a breakout
38:38
result at this race.
38:40
A few other athletes to look out for,
38:41
Ida Emily Robesam,
38:43
not too much to say about her.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: She's a Norwegian runner.
38:46
She just did get second to Judith Weider at Chianti Marathon by
38:49
eight minutes,
38:50
SPEAKER_01: and it's around a four-hour race.
38:52
So that's a good sign that you're pretty fit if you're that
38:54
close to Judith Weider.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: She got 14th at Marathon de Mont Blanc and 9th at Zagama last year.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: So she's already got top 10 and has the course familiarity.
39:01
couple other names to go over on a Gibson from the U S Brooks
39:04
trail runner.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: She's coming from,
39:06
SPEAKER_01: uh,
39:06
SPEAKER_01: the Tetons is where she grew up,
39:07
SPEAKER_01: ran at university of Washington,
39:09
SPEAKER_01: um,
39:10
SPEAKER_01: and a super fast.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: She probably has the fastest mile or 5k time in this field.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Um,
39:16
So I'm really curious to see how she does after having a really
39:19
good rookie year.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: I would consider last year her rookie year,
39:21
SPEAKER_01: but she did do some racing the year before on the Golden Trail Circuit.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: Last year, she had a third at Mammoth and a seventh at Headlands.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: So those are the two U.S.
39:30
SPEAKER_01: races.
39:30
SPEAKER_01: She had a sixth at Ziers in all, which is really awesome.
39:32
SPEAKER_01: I think it was her debut Ziers in all.
39:34
But she only got 13th at the final,
39:36
so just fell off a little bit at the end.
39:38
Her only race this year has been an uncontested race at Gorge
39:41
30K where she got the win.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: I think she could easily go top five,
39:44
SPEAKER_01: but this is the longest race she's done from what I can tell.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: Sears and all she did, and it was around three hours.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: So fueling will be really crucial,
39:52
SPEAKER_01: but I think she could do really well in this race,
39:54
SPEAKER_01: and I'm really excited to see how she does.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: Another athlete to talk about, Patricia Pineda Cornejo.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: She's already gotten a fifth at Spanish Skyrunner, typically.
40:03
She's got a fifth at Skyrace Dumathazine this year,
40:05
and she won the Calamara Skyrace already.
40:07
She raced Izagama in 2022 to a fourth place in a very good four
40:11
hours and 36-minute time.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: So she knows what it takes to do well.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: And that was the same year that the course record was set.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times, like I said, 436 would win this race.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: It would have got her second place last year.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: And that was the year that it was just an insanely fast field.
40:23
SPEAKER_01: So she is one of the fastest in this race to line up.
40:28
So I could see her going as high as like three,
40:30
four,
40:30
five,
40:32
three through six,
40:32
basically.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: A few others to talk about, not as much.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: Johanna Antilla, Finnish runner for Salomon.
40:38
She just got a golden ticket at Chianti by UTMB,
40:41
but she mostly races longer races.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: I don't suspect she'll be as much of a factor.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: I think she'd be more of the back at the top 10.
40:49
SPEAKER_01: Julie LaLong is a French athlete, fast at shorter stuff.
40:52
SPEAKER_01: She got a fifth at ETC last year,
40:54
SPEAKER_01: the shortest race by UTMB,
40:56
SPEAKER_01: and a ninth at Sierra's and all,
40:57
SPEAKER_01: which is a really good result,
40:59
SPEAKER_01: but haven't seen her race anything quite this long.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: My team, my or a previous winner.
41:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, and she has three other top tens, but she hasn't raced it since 2019.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: And that was to 11th place.
41:09
Um,
41:09
she's mostly been racing longer races,
41:10
so I don't think she'll be quite as much of a factor.
41:13
SPEAKER_01: And then last one, Sylvia Schwager.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: We saw her get ninth that last week's race in Noli,
41:17
SPEAKER_01: the Slovakian athletes,
41:18
SPEAKER_01: I think for Solomon,
41:20
SPEAKER_01: um,
41:21
SPEAKER_01: Don't have much to say about her, but just somebody to look out for.
41:24
So with that being said,
41:25
getting into my picks for the top five on the women's side.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: Right now, I'm going to go fifth to first place.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: So in fifth place, I have Marta Martinez in fifth place.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: And fourth place, I have Rosa Laura Filu or Rosa Maria Laura Filu.
41:43
SPEAKER_01: Third place, Sylvia Nordskar.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Second place, Sarah Alonso.
41:47
SPEAKER_01: And first place, Judith Weider.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: I am liable to swap Sarah Alonso with Judith Weider.
41:52
And I'm also strongly considering putting somebody such as
41:57
Oihana or Therese
41:59
SPEAKER_01: LaBeouf on the back half of my top five.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: And then...
42:06
SPEAKER_01: If Mao Yao finishes, I think she'll be in the top five.
42:09
SPEAKER_01: And then I think Sleever picks Ikram or Arsala and Anna Gibson.
42:11
Some of the really fast people could be in there,
42:13
as well as Patricia Pineda.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: So I'd be liable to put either... I don't know.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: It's a deep race this year.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: This is really tough.
42:21
But I could easily swap out Rosa and Marta for somebody like
42:26
Therese LaBeouf,
42:27
Oyhana,
42:27
or...
42:30
SPEAKER_01: even Patricia Pineda or, um, Julia fan Gomez.
42:34
SPEAKER_01: So there's some really good picks.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: I'll probably swap in spots for four through five,
42:38
but I think I'm pretty strong on my top three being something
42:40
like Judith,
42:42
SPEAKER_01: uh,
42:42
SPEAKER_01: Sarah and,
42:43
SPEAKER_01: uh,
42:44
SPEAKER_01: Sylvia Nordsgar.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: So, um, that is the women's preview.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: And now we're going to get into the men's side.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh, really excited for the men's side.
42:51
SPEAKER_01: Um,
42:52
Definitely,
42:53
it feels like a wide open race without having Killian in this
42:55
year's edition.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: So we'll talk about that.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: And then we've got some big names that haven't raised the gamma before.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: And yeah,
43:03
SPEAKER_01: so on the men's side of the race,
43:04
SPEAKER_01: like I said,
43:04
SPEAKER_01: the major themes are no Killian and the return is Dion.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: So last year's results from Zagama 1 through 10.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: First place with Kellyanne Jornet just off of his course record in .338.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: Second place, Elozina Lozowie in .346.
43:17
SPEAKER_01: Third place, Bart Pradziewski.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: Fourth place, Luca Delpero.
43:21
SPEAKER_01: Fifth place, Manu Marias.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: And second through fifth were within 90 seconds of each other.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: So it was really tight at the finish.
43:27
SPEAKER_01: Sixth place, Robert Kamoy.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: Seventh place, Marcin Kubitschka.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: Eighth place, Alain Santamaria Blanco.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: Ninth place, Loic Roland.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: And tenth place, Leonard Matryka.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, so, um, yeah.
43:42
SPEAKER_01: And these,
43:43
SPEAKER_01: with the first half,
43:44
SPEAKER_01: so these first couple of athletes I'm going to talk about,
43:47
SPEAKER_01: I think they have the chance and skills to win it.
43:49
And those names are going to be Luca D'Opero,
43:53
Tomas Cardin,
43:54
Andre Blanes-Rigue,
43:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Manu Marius, Stian Angermund, uh, Nadir Mugwe and Elozine Elozali.
44:02
SPEAKER_01: And then the rest of the athletes I'm going to talk about,
44:03
I think they have the chance to go through like three through
44:05
three through 10 or
44:07
SPEAKER_01: four through,
44:07
SPEAKER_01: uh,
44:08
SPEAKER_01: 10,
44:08
SPEAKER_01: but I don't think there's much competing for the win.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: So with that being said,
44:13
SPEAKER_01: first and foremost,
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Elozine,
44:15
SPEAKER_01: I think he's probably the favorite to win this year,
44:17
SPEAKER_01: if I had to guess.
44:19
But I don't think he's the clear favorite because I think
44:21
there's a lot of
44:21
SPEAKER_01: variables that it's going to be hard to predict.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: So for Elozine, he has the fastest time.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: Let me think.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he has the fastest time.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Let me double check that before I go quoting it.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: I think he's got the second fastest time in the field.
44:38
I think Manu Marias has the fastest time at 342 when he took
44:41
his win for this year's racers.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: So Eladine's got the second fastest time in a low 342 time.
44:49
He has back-to-back second place finishes at this race just to
44:52
Manu winning the
44:53
race in 2023 and to Killian last year running just off course
44:57
record pace.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: And we know that Elozine is also in a whole other level of fitness.
45:03
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not from last year.
45:04
He's probably similar to last year,
45:05
but probably even more than he was in 2023.
45:09
SPEAKER_01: So with that being said,
45:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
45:10
SPEAKER_01: he's coming off of a second place,
45:11
SPEAKER_01: a very narrow second place at Noli last week.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: So he appears to be in very, very good shape.
45:16
And I think he probably has the fastest 10K time here of anyone
45:19
other than maybe Andrew Blanes.
45:21
I think he ran like a sub,
45:23
Elozine ran a sub 29 to start up this year in a Swiss race.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, we know he's a really strategic racer.
45:29
SPEAKER_01: We know he's on this next level.
45:31
SPEAKER_01: I think Elozine is probably a favorite,
45:33
but I think he's a lock for the top three just because he knows
45:36
his race so well.
45:36
SPEAKER_01: He's a really consistent runner at it,
45:38
SPEAKER_01: and he's got one of the fastest times and some of the best leg speed.
45:42
SPEAKER_01: Next one I want to talk about,
45:42
SPEAKER_01: uh,
45:43
SPEAKER_01: is somebody who I think is just waiting for that breakout race.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: And I think this could be it.
45:47
SPEAKER_01: Um,
45:48
SPEAKER_01: but I also think he's insanely fast,
45:49
SPEAKER_01: insanely talented,
45:50
SPEAKER_01: and he doesn't really race a lot of golden trail stuff,
45:53
SPEAKER_01: but he has the potential to win a ton of golden trail stuff.
45:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, but he seems to be more do sky running and kind of do his own thing.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: And that's Nadir Muguet or Muguet, Italian athlete.
46:01
SPEAKER_01: He's a La Sportiva guy.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: And I,
46:03
SPEAKER_01: I really think he is,
46:05
SPEAKER_01: he has the ability to win this race,
46:06
SPEAKER_01: but I just hesitate because sometimes he has DNFs at big races.
46:10
SPEAKER_01: Um,
46:11
SPEAKER_01: But when he's on, he's really on.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: So some of his big results,
46:15
SPEAKER_01: he did do a tune up at Mount Zerbion last year or last weekend,
46:18
SPEAKER_01: but he did the 25K,
46:20
SPEAKER_01: which was shorter than the Sky Race.
46:21
SPEAKER_01: He ran an insane time, like a 520 gap.
46:24
SPEAKER_01: So 520 grade adjusted pace minute per mile.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: So it's making me look, making me think he's real fit like a fiddle.
46:32
Biggest results to date include a second at Marathon to Mont
46:34
Blanc in 2019 to Davide Magnini.
46:37
SPEAKER_01: He's got wins of tons of sky races,
46:38
SPEAKER_01: including Ring of Steel,
46:40
SPEAKER_01: when I think it was a Golden Trail event back in 2019.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: His only race at Zagama in 2022 was the eighth place,
46:45
SPEAKER_01: so he does have experience here and knows what it takes.
46:49
SPEAKER_01: And then he also finished just behind John Albin at Nice 50K last year.
46:53
SPEAKER_01: He won MAGA Sky Marathon and won Sky Race in Matazine last year.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: So I'm really curious to see how he could do.
46:59
SPEAKER_01: I think he's kind of like a winner bus type of guy.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: I could see him D nothing there's race,
47:03
SPEAKER_01: but I think if he finishes,
47:03
SPEAKER_01: there's no way he's outside of the top five,
47:06
SPEAKER_01: possibly the top three and potentially even taking a win.
47:09
SPEAKER_01: Um,
47:11
SPEAKER_01: So that's another one who I think has a possibility to win.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: Next one I want to talk about is Stian Angermund.
47:17
SPEAKER_01: So big deal with him.
47:18
Norwegian athlete,
47:19
topless sport,
47:20
ASIC runner at the time,
47:22
and then basically goes and wins OCC.
47:24
A couple months later,
47:25
they tell him that he's as positive for a banned substance.
47:28
SPEAKER_01: That's like a diuretic that might potentially mask other stuff.
47:32
um he appeals it goes through this whole process anyways long
47:35
story short he hasn't
47:35
raced since then um he had a really really awesome podcast on
47:38
fantasy or excuse me
47:39
on free trail um really kind of a heart rendering podcast that
47:43
makes you want to
47:43
cry about basically just like how this ruined his life and
47:46
there wasn't really like
47:48
i say substantial evidence but they couldn't there's a lot of
47:51
steps that felt like
47:52
SPEAKER_01: they were less than ideal in the process so
47:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm a Steon fan.
47:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm really excited to see him return.
47:58
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea what kind of shape he's in.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: That makes him one of the biggest wild cards of this race.
48:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, but he is a legend in the sport.
48:04
SPEAKER_01: He's a multiple time world champion in 2022 and 2023 OCC champion.
48:08
SPEAKER_01: He's got tons of top five, the golden trail series races.
48:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, and he has won this race before, so he could be a repeat winner.
48:16
SPEAKER_01: Him and Amanda Marius have both won this race before.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, um,
48:19
SPEAKER_01: So he did win Zagama in 2017.
48:21
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a year that Killian raced it, but he did run a 345.
48:24
SPEAKER_01: And he was just in front of Marco de Gasperi,
48:26
SPEAKER_01: a legend in the trail running scene,
48:28
SPEAKER_01: ultra running scene,
48:28
SPEAKER_01: and Mark Lowenstein,
48:30
SPEAKER_01: also another legend.
48:31
SPEAKER_01: He also got second in 2018 to a very young Remy Benet.
48:36
SPEAKER_01: and a fourth in 2019, one of the years that Killian won it.
48:39
SPEAKER_01: So he's got plenty of results.
48:41
SPEAKER_01: He's never raced out of the top five of this race.
48:43
SPEAKER_01: And he also knows kind of what it takes pacing and running wise.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: The only question mark I have with him is I have no idea.
48:49
SPEAKER_01: I have no race results to go off of.
48:50
So I really,
48:52
I know he has the fitness or like he has the type of racer he
48:56
is.
48:56
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna,
48:57
SPEAKER_01: if he finishes in my opinion,
48:58
SPEAKER_01: be in the top five,
48:59
SPEAKER_01: but I just don't know where he's at,
49:01
SPEAKER_01: you know,
49:01
SPEAKER_01: coming off a year and a half of no racing.
49:02
SPEAKER_01: So that's a big wild card in that case.
49:05
Next thing I want to talk about,
49:06
he's one of my favorite trail racers probably of all time.
49:09
SPEAKER_01: I love everything about his ethos.
49:11
SPEAKER_01: He's really just a true mountain athlete through and through.
49:14
He runs all the time in Spain with his really cute dogs are,
49:18
and that is Manu Marias.
49:19
SPEAKER_01: He's won this race.
49:21
SPEAKER_01: In my opinion,
49:22
SPEAKER_01: you know,
49:22
SPEAKER_01: death,
49:22
SPEAKER_01: taxes,
49:23
and Manu getting a top five at Zagama are pretty much
49:26
guaranteed things in life.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: He's raced this time race.
49:30
SPEAKER_01: Let me double check.
49:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh...
49:35
SPEAKER_01: Let me see.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: So the only time he's raced outside of the top seven, excuse me.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
49:41
the only time he's raced this race outside of the top seven was
49:43
the first time he
49:43
SPEAKER_01: raced it in 2013.
49:45
SPEAKER_01: But with that being said, 2014, seventh place.
49:47
SPEAKER_01: 2015, second place.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: 2016, fourth place.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: 2019, seventh place.
49:49
SPEAKER_01: 2022, third.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: And 2023, he finally won it.
49:52
SPEAKER_01: 2024, he got fifth.
49:52
SPEAKER_01: So that's one...
50:00
SPEAKER_00: two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight races.
50:05
SPEAKER_01: So this will be his ninth time racing it.
50:08
Um,
50:08
and his fifth last year was in a very tight pack second through
50:11
fifth and 90 seconds.
50:12
SPEAKER_01: And he just came out on the back half of that.
50:14
SPEAKER_01: So,
50:15
Um,
50:15
yeah,
50:16
he's one of my favorite all time to the technical races he
50:18
runs.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: He's got insane downhill abilities.
50:20
SPEAKER_01: He makes his own bamboo poles.
50:22
He's kind of just like a mountain bum through and through,
50:24
but he's really,
50:24
really fast.
50:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just really love the vibes.
50:27
So coming off of this year of racing,
50:28
he just raced last week at Mont Zerbion.
50:31
It was a two hour and 18 minute race,
50:32
but I had a huge descent at the end.
50:34
That's the only thing that makes me a little bit nervous,
50:35
but he's used to big volume.
50:36
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not too worried about it.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, he got third place.
50:39
SPEAKER_01: He went from eighth place to third place on the descent.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: Cause that's how good of a descender he is.
50:43
SPEAKER_01: And he's super good at these technical type of races.
50:45
So that's the only thing that has me a little bit nervous is he
50:48
did race last week.
50:50
And he might have a little bit of fatigue in the legs,
50:53
but I think he's a lock to the top five.
50:55
SPEAKER_01: There's never a comma where I don't pick him in the top five.
50:58
SPEAKER_01: And I just love the way he races.
50:59
SPEAKER_01: And his dog will be there at the finish line to greet him.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: If you ever go follow him on social media, his dog gives him a huge hug.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: It's this cute shepherd type dog, black and white.
51:09
SPEAKER_01: And it's so stoked to see him at the finish of every race.
51:12
SPEAKER_01: So Mando Marias, lock for your top five.
51:16
SPEAKER_01: Don't sleep on him.
51:18
SPEAKER_01: Next one,
51:18
I do have a sleeper alert for who is somebody who you've
51:23
possibly never heard of,
51:25
SPEAKER_01: but could very well win this race and surprise everybody.
51:28
SPEAKER_01: And that is Andrew Blanes-Rigue.
51:31
SPEAKER_01: I think the Spanish audience probably knows him,
51:33
SPEAKER_01: and he's a little bit better known in the Spanish community.
51:35
SPEAKER_01: But I think for us Westerners, I'm from the United States.
51:38
SPEAKER_01: Most of these listeners are from the United States.
51:40
SPEAKER_01: Somebody you might have never heard of.
51:42
SPEAKER_01: And I had never heard of him until...
51:44
SPEAKER_01: He got a second place at the,
51:45
SPEAKER_01: or excuse me,
51:46
SPEAKER_01: Sierra's and all in 2023,
51:47
SPEAKER_01: the one year that Killian did it,
51:49
SPEAKER_01: and that got upgraded to a first place because the,
51:52
SPEAKER_01: the guy who won it initially,
51:53
SPEAKER_01: Mark Angogo got popped for PEDs,
51:56
though he is a 2023 winner of Sierra's and all kind of came out
52:00
of nowhere,
52:00
SPEAKER_01: seemingly in my opinion.
52:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, and he won it the year that Killian had COVID and got fourth place.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: Um,
52:06
and really kind of got a third place because the guy edged him
52:08
at the line,
52:09
SPEAKER_01: um,
52:09
SPEAKER_01: when he was kind of in the shoot,
52:11
SPEAKER_01: but,
52:11
SPEAKER_01: um,
52:12
SPEAKER_01: He is somebody who's gone after a steeplechase Olympic berth in Spain.
52:17
SPEAKER_01: And he's got some insane PBs.
52:18
SPEAKER_01: He had an 826 in the steeplechase 3000, which is a really fast time.
52:24
SPEAKER_01: And then he just ran a 209 at Valencia Marathon last year.
52:27
SPEAKER_01: So he's got to have, in my opinion, the fastest marathon PR in the field.
52:31
SPEAKER_01: Actually, hands down, I don't know anyone that runs that fast.
52:33
SPEAKER_01: And he also ran a 102.40 in the half as well.
52:37
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't raced a ton on the trails, but he did just race...
52:40
the national trail championship for Spain and won it over
52:43
Yantara by about two minutes.
52:45
SPEAKER_01: And that was about a two hour and 17 minute, uh, race.
52:48
And then his time at zeros and all was sub two 30,
52:50
which is legendarily fast.
52:52
SPEAKER_01: And this race is a little, very long for him and very technical.
52:56
SPEAKER_01: So I'm a little bit worried about that.
52:57
Um,
52:57
but I think if he comes in and preparing well and,
53:00
uh,
53:01
gets some good,
53:02
uh,
53:03
not experienced to get some good feedback from other people
53:06
that have raced it.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: I could see him having a really big win here.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'm confident enough to put him in my top five.
53:12
SPEAKER_01: I think he's their winner or bust type of guy.
53:14
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's really tough to get Zagama right on the first try.
53:18
But I think he is somebody who easily has the fitness and
53:21
capability to win it.
53:22
SPEAKER_01: Next one I want to talk about,
53:23
somebody who is probably the best athlete that nobody talks
53:27
about in the West.
53:29
And this got mentioned last year on the Trail Runner of the
53:32
Year final ranking,
53:34
SPEAKER_01: somebody who didn't get in the top 10.
53:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
53:37
SPEAKER_01: he wasn't in the top 10,
53:38
but very well deserved to be and really is probably super well
53:41
known in the French
53:42
SPEAKER_01: community and the Euro community,
53:44
SPEAKER_01: but is really kind of unknown to us Westerners or like our U.S.
53:48
SPEAKER_01: trail fans because he hasn't raced anything in the U.S.,
53:50
SPEAKER_01: and that is Tomas Cardin or Tomal Cardin.
53:53
from france he's a french athlete for kip run and he is riding
53:57
one hell of a hot
53:58
streak one hell of a winning streak um he hasn't lost since
54:01
like april of last year
54:02
and that was in the french trail champs and even then he went
54:05
on and won the euro
54:06
trail champs so who cares um but basically a year and a half of
54:09
nothing but wins
54:09
for this guy uh he is probably the second most slept on runner
54:13
only behind andre
54:14
blanes and somebody who could very well win this thing so um
54:19
last year he uh first
54:20
SPEAKER_01: place at the 50k euro trail champs against some really good runners
54:23
SPEAKER_01: first place at St.
54:24
SPEAKER_01: Leon, 50-miler, first place at Tom Plié.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: And with that being said,
54:29
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
54:29
SPEAKER_01: he hasn't lost in a long time,
54:30
SPEAKER_01: and he races really competitive races.
54:32
SPEAKER_01: He ran and won UTMB Vontu 50K this year,
54:37
SPEAKER_01: about a month ago,
54:38
SPEAKER_01: in 338,
54:40
SPEAKER_01: which seems like a perfect tune-up for this race.
54:42
SPEAKER_01: And I'm really excited to see what he can do.
54:44
SPEAKER_01: I think
54:45
he's in the only thing that has me nervous is he hasn't raised
54:47
the gamma before and
54:48
i really think it's a huge advantage to have experience at this
54:51
race i don't feel
54:52
like a lot of people come out and win it the first time they
54:54
they race it in my
54:55
opinion um so that's the only question mark i have around him
54:59
but i think he is a
55:00
SPEAKER_01: really strong pick in a lock for a top five um
55:04
SPEAKER_01: And the last one I want to mention for the capability,
55:06
SPEAKER_01: in my opinion,
55:08
SPEAKER_01: the potential to win this race is going to be Luca Delpero.
55:11
SPEAKER_01: He's somebody who I think would be more in the next category,
55:15
SPEAKER_01: but he really seems to have leveled up this year.
55:17
SPEAKER_01: He did get a fourth last year at Zagama.
55:20
SPEAKER_01: He mostly races Skyrunning World Series,
55:23
SPEAKER_01: but has been hopping over to Golden Trail Series more recently.
55:27
SPEAKER_01: And...
55:30
SPEAKER_01: in my opinion,
55:31
it seems like he's leveled up because last year he couldn't
55:33
beat Roberto Di Lorenzi
55:34
SPEAKER_01: to save his life.
55:35
But this year he's already got two wins over him in Sky Races
55:39
and two wins in Sky Races.
55:40
SPEAKER_01: So he won
55:42
uh acantilados del norte and calamaro both of those over
55:44
roberto de lorenzi and he
55:46
did get beat by de lorenzi at saris de mathesine um in the
55:49
downhill and then luco
55:52
de perra also just won the transvalconia marathon against uh
55:55
some speedy runners
55:56
last week um so yeah he uh 13th at zagama in 2023 fourth at
56:02
zagama last year so and
56:04
he was in that tight pack of two through five runners who were
56:07
within 90 seconds of
56:08
SPEAKER_01: each other
56:09
SPEAKER_01: I really think Luca Delpero is leveled up.
56:11
SPEAKER_01: And I think he's a really strong pick for somebody.
56:14
SPEAKER_01: I think the win would be a little bit of a stretch,
56:16
SPEAKER_01: but I think he's really strong in that three through five.
56:20
SPEAKER_01: So I might be going on a little bit of a lane,
56:22
but I think he's kind of leveled up to a new level that he
56:24
wasn't at last year.
56:25
SPEAKER_01: And he really did run this race really well last year as well.
56:28
SPEAKER_01: So second half competing for places, but not for the win.
56:31
SPEAKER_01: Roberto Di Lorenzi,
56:34
I really love this guy and I really think he has the fitness to
56:38
win the race,
56:38
SPEAKER_01: but it's just he hasn't won a big event yet.
56:40
SPEAKER_01: He's been in that three through five or two through five.
56:43
SPEAKER_01: He wins a lot of sky races,
56:44
SPEAKER_01: but he hasn't had that breakout like golden trail series one yet,
56:47
SPEAKER_01: but he's perennially like in that three through five range.
56:51
SPEAKER_01: So, Swiss trail runner for books.
56:54
SPEAKER_01: He just raced last week at NOLA and got eighth place.
56:57
He's already got three second places in Sky Running World
56:59
Series events this year,
57:00
SPEAKER_01: two of which were to Luca del Toro,
57:02
SPEAKER_01: and then the other one was in Sky Racing Matusine.
57:05
SPEAKER_01: And then he raced Zagama once in 2022 to a 29th place.
57:10
SPEAKER_01: But that was a different Roberto de Lorenzi.
57:12
That wasn't like the level of fitness that we've seen from
57:14
Roberto in the last two years.
57:17
SPEAKER_01: So he does have experience on this race.
57:20
And it just kind of depends on if he's targeting this as one of
57:23
his primary races.
57:24
Because he races so much that sometimes he just kind of races
57:27
into fitness.
57:28
And last year,
57:28
his primary races were Sears and All and Marathon de Mont
57:31
Blanc.
57:31
SPEAKER_01: And he got a third at Sears and All.
57:34
and a fifth at marathon amal block no third at marathon amal
57:36
block and fifth at
57:37
seniors and all so um i think he's a really strong pick for
57:41
your top five i don't
57:42
think he'll be there's any chance he's outside and um and yeah
57:46
just somebody who's
57:47
always up there next one i want to talk about also another
57:49
runner i'm a really big
57:50
fan of also formerly ran for scarpa like manu maria's and that
57:53
is antonio martinez
57:55
SPEAKER_01: perez he is a spanish runner for asics um
57:59
SPEAKER_01: And he's super consistent.
58:00
I think I accidentally said Amanda Marias runs for ASICS,
58:02
but he runs for New Balance now.
58:04
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, Antonio Martinez Perez, Spanish showrunner for ASICS.
58:08
Super consistent runner who almost always finishes some of the
58:11
most competitive
58:12
SPEAKER_01: races in the top 10,
58:13
SPEAKER_01: including the OCC.
58:14
SPEAKER_01: He's got three years in the top three in a row.
58:17
SPEAKER_01: It's high as second place.
58:19
SPEAKER_01: But his only race at Zagama wasn't his best.
58:21
SPEAKER_01: He got 13th in 2022.
58:23
SPEAKER_01: But I'm confident that he'll come back and do better at this edition.
58:27
SPEAKER_01: And then I don't quite think he has the hit factor for the win.
58:30
He's somebody like Roberto de Lorenzi who we'll often see in
58:33
that three through six
58:34
SPEAKER_01: range,
58:34
SPEAKER_01: but he doesn't quite win a lot of these really,
58:37
SPEAKER_01: really big events.
58:38
SPEAKER_01: So I could see him heavily in the top five.
58:40
SPEAKER_01: I think he'll race a lot better than he did last time.
58:42
SPEAKER_01: I could see him going as high as third place.
58:44
SPEAKER_01: And I think he's a really, really solid pick who never DNFs really.
58:48
But I don't see him winning the race,
58:52
but I do strongly recommend picking him.
58:54
SPEAKER_01: And I think he'll do a very good job.
58:56
More athletes,
58:57
we've got two Italian guys coming up,
58:59
Lorenzo Bellatrami and Daniel Pattis.
59:02
SPEAKER_01: Lorenzo Bellatrami is an Italian scarper runner,
59:04
SPEAKER_01: mostly does Skyrunning World Series races,
59:06
SPEAKER_01: and kind of similar to Luca Delpero was a year or two ago.
59:09
He's gotten third at Contalados del Norte this year and a
59:12
fourth at the Skyrunning
59:13
SPEAKER_01: World Series last year,
59:14
SPEAKER_01: but he's kind of a bit up and down with results,
59:17
SPEAKER_01: so I'm not sure about him.
59:20
SPEAKER_01: And then Daniel Pattis is a really consistent Italian runner for Brooks.
59:23
SPEAKER_01: He's already got two top 10s.
59:25
SPEAKER_01: in the Golden Trail Series.
59:26
SPEAKER_01: And he pretty much is a lock.
59:27
SPEAKER_01: He's kind of like Roberto de Lorenzi,
59:29
SPEAKER_01: where if they line up at a Golden Trail Series event,
59:31
SPEAKER_01: they're going to be in the top 10,
59:32
SPEAKER_01: usually in that three through eight.
59:34
This year,
59:34
he's got a seventh at the Great Wall race and a sixth place at
59:37
Kobe.
59:39
SPEAKER_01: And he raced Agama once in 2023 to a 15th place,
59:42
but he wasn't quite as fit as he is now and has been in the
59:45
past year and a half.
59:47
So I think he's a super safe pick and will for sure go top 10,
59:49
maybe as high as fifth place.
59:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
59:52
SPEAKER_01: I think him,
59:53
SPEAKER_01: him,
59:53
Daniel Padas and Antonio Martinez Perez are really strong picks
59:56
along with Virginia
59:57
SPEAKER_01: Lorenzi,
59:58
SPEAKER_01: but just not in that contention for the win.
1:00:00
Some other names to look out for,
1:00:01
Loic Robert,
1:00:02
a French runner for Kiprun.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_01: He got ninth as a Gama last year,
1:00:05
but he's not as consistent and kind of fell off towards the end
1:00:07
of the year.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_01: Marcin Kubicka, Polish guys we see do pretty well at this race.
1:00:11
He got 13th at Marathon de Mont Blanc last year and a 7th place
1:00:14
at Zagama.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_01: He could be a sleeper pick for the back half of the top 10,
1:00:18
SPEAKER_01: but he's not consistently in the top 10 at Golden Trail events.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_01: So it could be a little bit of a gamble.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_01: He also raced Zagama in 2023 to a 12th place and 30th place in 2022.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_01: So he's gotten better and faster every year he's done it.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_01: And I think he's somebody who could easily be in that top 10.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: Next one, Alon Santamaria Blanco, Spanish runner for...
1:00:37
formerly for brooks i think um 10th place at golden trail
1:00:40
series final last year
1:00:41
kind of an up down racer he just won a sky running world series
1:00:43
event a couple
1:00:44
weeks ago that wasn't as deep competition wise he did get six
1:00:47
at golden trail world
1:00:48
series china last year and an eighth at zagama um and then had
1:00:51
a mediocre summer
1:00:52
before the final he raced zagama uh in 2022 and 2023 as well so
1:00:57
he has plenty of
1:00:58
SPEAKER_01: experience um
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: Last couple of names, Bogdan Damian.
1:01:02
So he got 30 golden trail Kobe this year and seems to have a
1:01:05
new level of fitness.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_01: He's a very good descender.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_01: And then he got second at UTMB Mallorca 50K last year,
1:01:10
SPEAKER_01: 17th at Zagama last year and 11th in 2023.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_01: So he might sneak in the top 10.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_01: It seems like he's more fit than he has been in past years.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_01: Leonard Matrica,
1:01:19
SPEAKER_01: Romanian athlete,
1:01:20
third place at UTMB Mallorca 50K just behind Bogdan Damian and
1:01:24
11th at Maradona
1:01:24
SPEAKER_01: Mont Blanc and a 10th at Zagama last year.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_01: Um,
1:01:28
SPEAKER_01: in the year before,
1:01:29
SPEAKER_01: so back to about 10 places,
1:01:30
SPEAKER_01: I don't see him going much higher than 8th through 10th place.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_01: Another Polish athlete, Rafał Matuszczyk.
1:01:37
SPEAKER_01: Undefeated in Polish races and Polish guys seem to do well in Zagama,
1:01:41
SPEAKER_01: hence Marcin and Bart in the past couple of years.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_01: He got fifth at Euro Trail Champs 50K last year,
1:01:46
SPEAKER_01: and he might sneak in the back half of the top 10.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_01: Last one to look out for,
1:01:49
SPEAKER_01: Nico Molina,
1:01:50
SPEAKER_01: third place at Calamara Sky Race,
1:01:52
SPEAKER_01: and ninth place at Encantelados del Norte.
1:01:55
So this race seems a bit long for him to do well,
1:01:59
but I'm curious,
1:02:00
and so we'll see.
1:02:01
This has been one of my longest recaps,
1:02:04
so let me get you into my top five picks.
1:02:07
SPEAKER_01: Top five picks for men's going fifth through first place.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_01: Fifth place, I got Mando Marias.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_01: I might even sneak him up as high as third place.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_01: Mando Marias, death taxes, and Mando Marias getting top.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_00: One second, sorry.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_00: Let's take it off.
1:02:56
and that back my apologies it is just super loud and it messes
1:03:00
with the noise
1:03:00
canceling in the headphones and i don't know it just drowns out
1:03:04
my speaking so um
1:03:05
and they are super loud they like shake the whole freaking
1:03:08
place it's crazy so uh
1:03:09
fifth place i got manu maria's death taxes and manu maria is
1:03:12
getting top five at
1:03:13
zagama fourth place i got luca del perro i think he's on a new
1:03:16
level this year and
1:03:17
i think he's already beat manu in a couple races he beat
1:03:19
roberto in a couple of
1:03:20
SPEAKER_01: races
1:03:21
SPEAKER_01: I think he's going to have a really good result.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_01: I guess he got fourth last year.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_01: I could see him even going as second or third.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_01: He's going to have the potential to win.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of going out on a limb there.
1:03:29
SPEAKER_01: But fourth place, Luca Delpero.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_01: Third place, I got Nadir McGuay.
1:03:33
SPEAKER_01: Really, if he finishes, I think he's in the top three.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_01: But I'm iffy.
1:03:37
I could see him DNFing and going out too hard or having some
1:03:40
stomach issues.
1:03:40
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
1:03:41
I could see myself replacing Nadir with somebody like Antonio
1:03:45
Martinez Perez or
1:03:47
SPEAKER_01: Berto de Lorenzi in that top five.
1:03:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_01: And then second place, Tomas Cardin.
1:03:54
SPEAKER_01: I think he's on a hell of a winning streak,
1:03:56
SPEAKER_01: but my only question mark around him,
1:03:57
SPEAKER_01: we know he's fit.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_01: He's a super smart racer.
1:04:00
SPEAKER_01: He's really good at these longer racers,
1:04:02
SPEAKER_01: but I think it's tough to race a Gamaliel the first year.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_01: So that's my only question mark with him.
1:04:06
And then first place,
1:04:07
I got Elzin Elzawi after back-to-back second places.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_01: And he's got the second fastest time in this field behind Mando Marias.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_01: I've got him coming back and taking the win.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_01: Big question marks around seeing Angermund and really curious to see.
1:04:19
SPEAKER_01: I could easily see him in this top five.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_01: I just don't know where he's at.
1:04:22
SPEAKER_01: And then,
1:04:24
SPEAKER_01: yeah,
1:04:24
SPEAKER_01: like I said,
1:04:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm liable to swap in Antonio Martinez-Perez,
1:04:27
SPEAKER_01: Roberto de Lorenzi,
1:04:28
or Daniel Patterson in my top five as some really perennial top
1:04:32
10 point getters in
1:04:33
SPEAKER_01: fantasy free trail.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_01: So this has been one of my longest podcasts.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_01: That wraps up my Zagama preview.
1:04:38
SPEAKER_01: I hope you learned a little bit about Zagama.
1:04:40
SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed it.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_01: And I hope you watch this race on live stream or the recap.
1:04:45
It is one of the prettiest courses and one of the coolest races
1:04:47
in my opinion.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_01: Go back and watch Zagama recaps from previous years.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_01: Learn about Zagama.
1:04:52
SPEAKER_01: It's just a gorgeous race.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_01: And it really is kind of the spirit of
1:04:55
trail running and what makes trail running awesome and what
1:04:58
makes trail running in
1:04:59
SPEAKER_01: Spain awesome in my opinion.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_01: So that has been today's Zagama recap.
1:05:03
Just released that they're going to do the Trophya Nasego
1:05:09
vertical and full race.
1:05:10
So I'm going to try to get out a recap or excuse me,
1:05:12
a preview on that real quick.
1:05:14
SPEAKER_01: But I hope you enjoyed today.
1:05:15
SPEAKER_01: Let me know your thoughts.
1:05:16
SPEAKER_01: Let me know your comments.
1:05:17
SPEAKER_01: Let me know your picks.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_01: And I look forward to talking to you guys here.