UTMB Instant Reactions & Analysis

welcome back to Trail gating day five Saturday I think Saturday night here at the 2024 UTMB presented by hoko my name is Dylan Bowman and we are here with the UTMB instant reaction show and I'm joined in Studio by very special guest Mr Topher Gaylord immediately to my right Topher how are you doing buddy what a week I'm doing awesome but I'm I'm feeling it now what a week you do this once a week 21 years in a row like my goodness we forget how amazing and exhausting it is when we come back keep getting better every year amazing we'll talk all about it next to you of course your lovely wife Kim Gaylord Kim how are you doing this evening we we are great we're on the uh UTMB High here yeah yes we are we're going to talk all about everything that evolved here over the last like 36 hours or whatever since the beginning of CCC on Friday morning we're currently recording at 7:30 p.m. local time here in shamon France we are expecting to see the back half of the women's top 10 finish while we're recording so we'll do some live updates at those as those progress before we get to it a big thank you to Hoka for making our coverage possible here all week go get yourself a pair of those tekan x3s at hoka.com that shoe brought home I think four podiums this weekend and the dude who helped to create it Mr vinant buard amazing secures a victory here at UTM we'll talk about that in a second but go to hoka.com make sure you pursue peruse their amazing lineup of Trail products Kim and to get us started you got we we're not going to do the Deep background we don't need to set any context but you guys have been here since the very beginning of UTMB there's nobody better to get an assessment as to how 2024 sets up against all previous years so maybe just Topline reactions from both of you as we close down another amazing addition I mean it the this is the week of the year for for trail running globally and in Europe I mean it's it's iconic it's just a reminder that trail running is a mainstream sport in Europe like this is not a tiery sport it's not a a knee sport it's a mainstream Sport and you feel it like 2,000 years of mountain culture comes to life during UTMB week and you have people in their homes coming out you know one of our favorites spots on the UTMB night on Friday night is not tram and we always gauge like the energy level of the community off of notredam and it was off the RoR last night I mean there were chainsaws flares horns I mean there there were a group of like teenagers that were probably Nordic ski Racers and Trail Runners that had set up the coolest sort of techno DJ Vibe tunnel that I've ever seen and they were just electrifying the runners so uh yeah it's been a great week and um I think the energy here is uh is as good as I've ever seen it in the the the people in the communities are as passionate about UTMB week as I've ever seen them Kim yeah and I just think the levels of the races here and the quality of the athletes you know the crescendo from the OCC to the CCC to the UTMB is just uh the fields are incredibly deep athlete teams are bringing huge lineups um what stands out to me I feel like the tri team uh brought AAR athletes uh that performed did well um and then of course Hoka does an incredible job here with brand activation and just uh getting behind an event I mean you just really feel the Hoka presence and then of course their athletes uh in performances and the results what an incredible weekend let's jump directly into it I've got seven topics for us to tick through here and we have to start in the obvious Place vinant buard shocks the world what an incredible story okay and this is something that we talked about this week in fact when I was chatting with Ludo in our pre-race interview I asked him hey say a few words about vitsa because cuz a few of us think of him as a dark horse and Ludo is like you know of course being humble but yeah I tried to train with vinant the last few weeks since hardre but he's too fast for me he's too fast for me he works at hoko but he's too fast for me and we ided him as a dark course we sort of blew up his spot a little bit and but you know still the fact is almost nobody knew who he is coming into the race and he and he won I mean in the third fastest time ever yeah one of the fastest times ever sub20 he's a product manager right a product manager at at Hoka and he beat the entire athlete roster at Hoka I mean it's it's incredible okay so Vincent buard is the senior manager of product engineering and business development at Hoka like I said that's a big job big job and he's been there since before Hoka was cool before Hoka was Hoka I think he's been there eight or 10 years so he's been integral to their success in creating the products that have been so successful at this race in particular but in trail running more generally and here he is shocking the world winning the race as an employee of Hoka I have a couple of things I want to share here this comes straight from the Hoka team who's also staying in the same place where we are yeah he's been at Hoka for eight years starting as an intern in 2016 he's a French native who resides in anasty now I met him actually in Portland when he was living there working out of the Decker's office it's a funny story too cuz I was running along Skyline Boulevard connecting two trails and all of a sudden a guy rides P me on a bicycle and of course I'm you know blasting a podcast in my ears he slows down and rides up next to me I'm like's this guy you know turn off my podcast he introduces himself turns out it's been up a yard then he wins Gorge waterfalls 100k 2022 the classic Gorge waterfalls to UTMB Championship but I think it should be said that he's one of these types of athletes who everybody who knows him is like this guy is very good he just doesn't really race very often but when he does he's on point and what a stage to be on point and shock the world I mean he had an incredible race I mean I guess it's a sign that hok's uh hok's product team and and uh their entire organization is stacked with athletes I mean co-founder Nico Maru uh was a Podium finisher at UTMB and now you got a a senior product manager that AB I guess he's going to have to go uh work for sponsorship now or maybe maybe he'll get a a separate athlete deal I don't know but he had he had a incredibly like tactical in in very very very good race yeah he had it in in control the whole time I don't think I mention mention this but this is something Chris Hollis mentioned to me as it relates to the Tek franchise specifically he said there were 157 variations of the shoe that they prototyped and that vinant personally tested almost every single one of them so he truly was one of the critical pieces in bringing the product to life that he wore on his own feet that won UTMB last year that won Western States this year and he won again in it incredible unbelievable that's insane living the sport Tony can you pull up this amazing graphic for our audience here this was shared To Us by our friend Keith burn not sure how he found it but he shared it in our group chat today so for those who are just listening it's basically vinant Beard's out of office notification on his Hoka email address and what what does it say it says I am currently traveling with limited access to my emails please allow for additional delay in my responses for any urgent matter yada yada yada yada I mean it also just shows like it doesn't say I'm out of the office running the UTMB like he's obviously so modest like not showy at all yes it's just it's absolutely perfect also he has a private Instagram account with 263 followers on it I'm jumping on that posted on I love it and apparently I heard he's you know he's great friends with uh Jim and Jess right and uh and and sort of he and his partner and Jim and Jess are are just great yep yeah and uh I think I I can't wait I hope he can come into studio tomorrow because I really want to talk to him about their relationship because I know vinant attended Jim's wedding in Colorado and I know Jim after UTMB just last year attended uh Vince sansen Camila's wedding here in Europe they moved back to Anese this year they're back settled in France Camila actually works at Solomon now here in Ane but no longer is he under the radar he had he won the Kodiak 100 Miler last fall I went looked at the result there he won by two hours in his first 100 mile now wins UTMB in his second 100 mile silent Slayer makes you wonder what the hell's next for this guy you know it's a mystery he's going to maybe just want to be on the athlete team and run around the world it's kind of a conundrum isn't it yeah yeah good for him I mean he he really did execute incredibly well yeah yeah that's a huge result okay well let's move on from that so we can keep the show moving but again I'm hoping to get Vince on and studio tomorrow we can share a little bit more of his story get to know him a little bit better because I'm sure there's thousands of people around the world desperate to learn a bit more myself included moving on of course the second bullet point we got to hit in this instant reaction podcast Katie shot my God her second win here now course record you guys are very tight with Katie I'm sure I don't know if you've had a chance to catch up with her I'm sure you haven't but you were out and about you witnessed her performance you crewed her personally at western states where she had another stunning stunning run comments on Katie yeah I mean she's just incredible she's the ultimate in the sport right now just Allin super focused super into her training and I would say one thing um we actually haven't been in touch with her too much after Western States but one thing I noticed and I'm sure a lot of people noticed is how she sort of went dark after her Western States performance and you know she had registered for UTMB I think she even noted I bought the cancellation Insurance just in case not knowing but uh I think she had planned to try to do Western States UTMB but one step at a time and and with uh UTMB training after western states she didn't really put it out on straa she went a little bit quieter this time so I'm sure she put some serious vert in she had the leg speed and just I think she just has like shown to herself her confidence to perform and execute I mean look starting out fast out front all day having the confidence to just just know she can have a good day I think is a few things that stick out I mean what what really stuck out to me over the past two years at Western States and again today was Katie Katie's consumate a absolute consent Pro like every detail of her life is centered around being a professional Trail Runner and a professional athlete and an absolute winner a champion I mean if if you were to have if you were to go to an AI engine and say designate me a champion Trail Runner it would literally be Katie shy chat GPT please generate the new course record holder for UTMB and it would just literally be Katie shy I mean and she just she's so meticulous in how and so judicious with how she uses her time I mean I think about you know I think there was a pre-ra interview she had um when she was at bid uh pickup and they were asking her what she was doing this week and she just said I'm I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I have the energy to put into the race and not use a single bit of my energy uh that people are taking from me something like that I'm paraphrasing it but it's just a sign that like she's so in tune also with those minor little uh details that totally transform her her race experience she had Meredith uh teranova who is her nutrition coach which is she was in the cockpit at all of the aid stations and I think the other thing with with Katie at least from the outside looking in on this race is just like Kim said she has the like she knows her body and she knows what it can do physically but then she also has the confidence that can fuel it the right way and that onew punch has been successful for in you know every race I think in the last two years the thing that's remarkable to me is how Fearless she is and how she ran last night I saw Alexi Berg up at Notre Dame de Gorge the photographer and he was like it's crazy Katie was in front of gero coming into saner unbelievable like absolutely Fearless running with the best in the world world including her partner Jero who was a third place finisher in the men's race last year on like 19-hour Pace probably at that point and then at notam deor she was in like close to the men's top 10 at that point she obviously finished in 13th overall but you know of course you could view that strategy as Reckless and dangerous but she follows through and I have a couple cool things to point out here I was texting with Liam aid station Fireball just sort of we were we were like is this the first time anybody's broken a Courtney dwalter course record and we think that it is the first time ever that one of Courtney de Walter's times has been broken by somebody else it shows that Katie shy is in this category right and I obviously I should say actually we saw Courtney in champe Lock and there were a million fans coming up for selfies and somebody asked her oh she's under your record what do you think about it and I like cringed I was like oh my God and she responded of course perfectly like oh it's awesome I hope she smashes it right but I think you know we can be honest Courtney like occupies the center of gravity in the sport Katie is a phenomenal athlete but sometimes Courtney's Shadow might extend but I think you know Katie is absolutely in the categories with the Courtney and the Killians and the gyms like these are our heroes in the sport and Katie now I'll just read off So Courtney holds Western States diagonal deu Hard Rock in both directions Mount Fuji transr Canaria madira ultr Trail Cape Town Moab 240 Tahoe 200 and Bandera those are Courtney's course records Katie shy just took UTMB from the great Courtney de Walter one of the biggest h m in the world and she was within 15 minutes of Courtney's course record at at Western States this year so the only two races that she's actually you know race courses she's run on she hasn't had a chance to get after it at Hard Rock yet yeah but she's uh I I completely agree I mean I think Katie and Courtney are in in another level mhm um but given given the day you know they might be far closer than people think I think I think that's that's what's being revealed now and it's a decent margin to take 20 minutes off the time on a hard day too exactly yeah for sure and I think also with Katie like we're saying the confidence to go out hard to do those races and I'll tell you she makes it look easy though too she she looks effort W for her waiting for her to really f she she's a total metronome she probably you know if she looks back you know she she was she revealed at the end of the race you know she was hoping to go sub 22 uh and if she couldn't go sub 22 she wanted to break the record so her absolute A+ goal was sub 22 I think she ran 2210 Y and probably only because it it looked like she had a little bit of a hitch in her stride maybe on that final dissent I don't know whether she had a sort of a a knee inflammation or um but she I mean she nailed it I mean she nailed the day and you know all day long like you just see she's a metronome out there yeah so so inspiring so to close on Katie another fun thing going back to her UTMB win in 2022 where she raced off the front in similar style and then faded and then rallied we'll remember but she won the race on a non not perfect performance she still won the day beginning there her last 500 MERS a UTMB win in 2022 second place at Western States in 2023 we running at that point the second fastest time ever winning at Diagon deu last fall a win at Western States running the second fastest time ever under 16 hours of course in June and here a win and course record at U timi that is five sick 100 MERS in a row from Katie shine that is that is totally I mean I know it's not 100 mile but her Canyon's 100K performance was phenomenal too but that wasn't 100 miles I mean we'll talk about this likely tomorrow in terms of just like where're Trail Runner of the Year Stacks up right now nobody's competing with Katie shot at this point so let's move off it so so that we can keep the show moving we can just glance past this one my number three thing I wanted to talk about here was just wire to wire victories for all the women in the World Finals Mau Yao you could consider mostly wire to wire there's like a pack early and then she made her move on the first climb held it to the finish of course Tony mccan had a lead at the first aid station held it to the Finish Katie shy was in yeah again like had 20 minutes at Notre Gorge or 15 minutes in Notre Dale Gorge one ended up winning by 39 so I mean all three of those women buried themselves to execute I think that's the other thing like the the you know Tony I think this is longest race Tony's ever done right first 100K and she buried herself and you you saw it in with in all three races like they were absolutely destroyed at the end of end of the race uh and I mean certainly Tony you could see it in her final climb up to feser all all three of them you know the course identical that final climb so you can sort of measure each of them and uh and I think that's a sign that like the sport is progressing both on the men's side and on the women's side and to secure those victories you've got to go absolutely all out Bell to Bell uh wire to wire it's it's it's impressive it's also just like it's rare that the rabbit wins the race right and I don't know I just thought that was an interesting theme for all three of the World Finals that the women went basically went wire to wire a little bit different in the men's races but um fact is that you do have to be in the fight you do have to you know sort of take chances take risks in order to win at this level moving on speaking of taking risks insane attrition here this year as we talk about instant reactions from today just teeing this up real quick I was texting with again aid station Fireball our good friend Liam Tran and he Consolidated the list for me so I'm just going to read the names and then we'll talk about the implications here these are the dnfs specifically at UTMB of people who came in designated as Elites based on their performance index on the men's side aurelian dad palaz matw Blanchard Christian Meyer Scotty Hawker Greg W kermer Jordy gamito Seb krog viig Ryan Sans tibo gravier Tim tosson Jim Walmsley Grant Barnett pal Capel Shan Shen Duo X Danny Jung Dimitri machave yunyang cou Matthew Clement Philip oser hoofer Ben demon Tom Evans Miguel arcenio Jeron gr Sergio perea Seb spal Jonas rusy Ian El manoli Sage kenned Tom Jolly rul batui get Minis grinius and Perry ARL ouch wow I mean honestly honestly it that is insane attrition but it was sort of a normal year believe I mean a normal year of attrition meaning you know this race is so stacked I mean they're probably they're probably 50 guys that could go top top 10 and 25 guys go top five and this is how the top five become top five top 10 become top 10 but this year was unusual yeah I mean it's a lot that is that a lot you guys this morning and looked at the tracker I was like most people were probably like who's Vince buard yeah yeah no you're right I mean there weren't there normally you get you know there's of maybe five guys on the GU side that you know are favorites one of them hangs in like none of them hung in I mean you know there was there was no one from the podium last year that was even that finished the race or start the race we have a term we call it drop itis I don't know how much of that was happening out there it's contagious you mean yes yeah like you know they start hearing oh so and so dropped and you know and and I don't know all the reasons I think there was a variety of stomach issues going out too hard uh blown legs you know it just shows I mean this race is just so hard and for people to execute it just shows you have to have strong mind strong stomach strong legs y absolutely so let me lead read the the women here and then I'll give you my hypothesis and we can move on so the women's list of dnfs in the elite category Anna Lee fua xang Amanda Basham Hillary Allen ragna debats Claire heslop AA Sophia Hegman helino fogner Eva Maria sperger Emily voden Fiona Port Ohana M seya Stephanie how Analise rousette Stuart and Fiona Pascal so unusual amounts of attrition I think the last time we saw something similar to this was I think it was 2018 the last time zavier won the race which was the colder Rainer year that was a year that Tim fell cut his leg got heled off the mountain my sense is that it was warmer or more humid than it felt I mean it felt warm but maybe warmer than it felt for the athletes to the point where it sent them all into a tail spin and the other thing that is probably obvious but is worth mentioning is just the fact that every single person is so fit that comes here everyone has the dream of the miracle day at UTMB there are few people a couple will mention in a second who come in with the idea of I just want to have a solid one put myself in contention take advantage of any mistakes of other athletes maybe land in the top 10 those those people were rewarded the people who came in thinking this might be my Miracle career changing moment in the sport it's just like when the conditions are a little off and you miscalculate your nutrition or your pacing you don't just fade at UTMB you implode you collapse you completely unravel and we saw that in both the men's and women's races but especially in the men's I felt last night yeah I mean I I I agree with you on the heat like the Heat and the humidity here is so unique and it wasn't you know by Western States stand was wasn't a hot day but the heat humidity is brutal I also think like there's this Dynamic at UTMB that's unlike any other Ultra in the world and that's the first 30k of UTMB like it's so easy even as an elite to get lost in the the chaos of in energy of the start the first three towns no Tron all of this external noise and stimulation that's detracting you from actually like what your race plan is and game plan is and then you've got athletes that are they're used to being in the top five or out front and it's like I'm 40th deep and I'm I'm getting my ass kicked right now and I'm 10K in what's going on I better speed up yeah better speed up and so even though my heart rate's at 200 right now so yeah I think that I think ahead of me yeah yeah like what the hell's going on and I think there's in all of that chaos the first 30k it's really easy to make mistakes and and a lot of these people probably did make mistakes whether it's a slight fueling or adjustment and and then I think you're right on with with the heat and yeah it was a it was a big attrition year for what was somewhat benign weather I mean it wasn't like point I think it was probably harder than it felt for us like it felt warm all week like when I the rare opportunity I had to go running I was sweating my face off yeah so it's when hot and humid for sure yeah I bet it was decent like pretty nice overnight but I bet those first 30k were pretty warm anyway it's really interesting because this is a a fun anecdote that Addie wanted to introduce in the conversation so this is an Addie bomb okay shout out Addie Thompson for this as an idea really interesting observation from her that the course record fell in the women's race vinant ran the third fastest time ever in the men's race I think on average the men's top 10 and the women's top 10 won't necessarily be much slower we'll ask Liam to Crunch those numbers for us eventually her point was it's strange to have both those phenomenon historically Fast Times and this massive attrition happening simultaneously in other words if it was Heat related you would expect to see at least those winning finishing times to likely be slower like a hote Western States for example yeah yeah I mean I I think it's also a testament to How deep the fields become like you can have that level of attrition and still have these people that that execute on the day I and this is definitely a race where if you can perform on these big stages I mean this is a lot to to show up on that start line and execute I mean it'd be like the equivalent to other sports like World Championships the Olympics and it's just some people that can manage it all a little bit better and get to that start line ready and focused I mean there's a lot of distractions here and I like you're saying I think like the fitness is insanely High you you walk around this town and you're like everyone's just so insanely fit all right well incredible stuff and yeah shout out to everybody who didn't make it right it's heartbreaking for so many of these guys many of them are our friends and people who we were personally rooting for who put their entire life into this so and everybody's got their own reasons so no judgment at all um but hope everybody's doing okay and and yeah shout out to both those who made the Finish but those who didn't quite make it the whole women's top 10 is through here so let's just do a quick recap I'll go deeper on this stuff with Karen tomorrow so let's just go through the women's top 10 as our instant reactions I think it's worth mentioning here starting NE be behind Katie Ruth Croft awesome run from her like tactical felt like very intentional the way she approached it didn't chase Katie knowing that Katie was her number one rival and I wonder after she has time to think about it how she might think about it differently maybe trying to maintain a little bit closer contact because I I went back and looked at the splits she was 70 minutes back when I saw her at champe lock and she finished 39 minutes back at the end so she made up 31 minutes in the final 50k of course Katie knew she had a huge gap so who knows how that plays into her psychology and her strategy but interesting Ruth was making up time she finished in 2248 which I think is the fourth fastest time ever the third fastest time on the current course the current third fastest time I believe is Rory Boos from way back in 2013 so historically fast time from Ruth Croft also and a beautiful execution yeah I mean I I'd say Ruth executed a perfect race a perfect race and you know all day no one was really focused on Ruth all day everyone was focused on on Katie everyone was focused on marann Hogan on blondine like that was where all the focus was and we saw Ruth at in no TR Dom last night we were sort of surprised like too Ruth was like you know back in there and we're like how's how's it going she's like it's going great I'm like you know and I'm sort of thinking I said the same thing lower on the hill I was like yeah Ruth go she's like hey Debo I was like oh thank God cuz I've been looking at my watch for 15 minutes wondering where you were yeah and you're sort of like oh you know I was like uh do I give her the split cuz you know Katie is way out in front but she wasn't stressed at all and she just again like that's the perfect execution of how you'd want to race obviously she probably would have loved to have been one step further but you know to your point I think even if you look at your splits she closed that Gap even from Trion because from Triant it was also still about 70 minutes W so she really closed down I think I think I think uh Ruth probably had the strongest finish if we look at the splits between TR to the finish she had the she had the fastest splits uh but think about it she was still in third in chasing down marann I saw Ruth in valer scene and she was on a mission to Maryann was still in second so she was on she was still from Valor scene to the end was 12 minutes I think behind Maryann wow the finishing Gap then hang tight for me the finishing Gap was 23 so Maran must have really slowed down but that means that she made up 30 minutes on Maran but maranne a great race I mean she improved her yeah second Podium and also improved her time significantly o over an hour I don't know exactly what it is I'll look that up and we can we can talk about it tomorrow but yeah what a Podium and I mean yeah I mean that that's that's an incredible Podium and hly that so different from the men's Podium that's an really unsurprising Podium yeah you know in in if you really think about it you know do we have the top 10 have finished now the spread last year was 4 hours and 10 minutes first to 10th yep how are we doing this year this year it was 3 hours and 45 minutes okay I mean women constantly like making up better times in the top 10 yeah all right so let me just bang through the rest of the top 10 we can add any final comments and again we'll go deeper on this tomorrow so behind Marian Hogan who finished third it was Chen Lyn who redeems herself from the western states Dro finishing fourth in 2416 also a sick fast time then blandine leandel former world champion in fifth she ran 2435 Emily hog good brings home 6th 2458 Sabrina Stanley 2532 Claudia TRS 2539 in e8th Martina valoy 2542 in 9th and Lucy Bartholomew I think her second consecutive 10th Place finish yeah 25 55 so what an awesome top 10 I mean that's th those every one of those athletes are incredible I mean the one of the most noteworthy I think uh Lyn Chan um I mean she had to be carried off the course at Western States from blisters she was unable to walk so that's awesome redemp blend apparently passed out in Valor scene like literally passed out and um that was so these these these guyss were racing hard Emily hogood actually had a really like good execution rais his that was my Stone Cold lock for the weekend 100% Emily hogood finishes in the top 10 no doubt about it here's a good thing I just am looking at now in the top 10 for the women nine country is represented the only country that doubles is the US Katie shy and Sabrina Stanley so here let's go through it USA New Zealand Canada China France Zimbabwe Spain Italy Australia how funny is that is incredible UTMB okay let's move on to the men again we're going to go a little bit deeper on this stuff tomorrow again we already started with vinant I think let's I'm going to bang through some of these there's there's really there's three things I want to talk about quickly on the men and then we'll go deeper tomorrow the things I wanted to talk about so first behind vinant was Baptist chesang who this is second year in a row finishing the top 10 behind him was Wen Lopez from Ecuador and I believe I'm correct in saying this is the first ever Podium finish by a Latin American athlete at UTMB so shout out to wen Lopez who finished in 20 hours 26 minutes also very very fast behind Wen was Han nurger who finished in 2031 behind him was Ludovic pom his fourth top five finish at 49 years old five weeks after breaking the course record at Hard Rock and 20 years after his first start at UTMB he's he's got to be one of the greatest stories of the race my favorite athlete of all time what are some of the amazing stats first of all he broke away out of the start so he was first at mile one he was what 79 top of C Deva and he ends up here in Fifth Fifth Fifth his fourth top five at UTMB if he's not every ultra run ining a victory we have to remind everybody if he's not every Ultra runner's inspiration I don't know who is I mean he's the epitome of longevity we love him right okay so here's a good thing too in his four four finishes at UTMB this was his fastest at 49 including the year he won no way he ran more than an hour faster than the year he won today that is incredible here's another one he was 49th Place at the topical devoa 18th Place in Cormier fifth place at the Finish wow so one of those athletes like I said who came into it obviously he had the glow and satisfaction of hard rock like and he as we did our pre-race interview I was like can you win this race man like if you run 21 hours at Hard Rock you can run 19 hours at UTMB and he was like Oh no just take it easy run my Pace just have a good day and look what happens when you just do that right you run through the entire field at 49 years old and you get your fourth top five finish unreal yeah I mean that's incredible I think there was one year where he also was top up of civo in 50 any he done it multiple times he was 40th or 50th at Le Shaw the year he won really Le shap even more impressive yeah and so I I mean from my perspective that's perfect execution that's a sign that like he didn't let any of that first 30 or 50k for the competition get into his head and that's what makes him a master class you know Jedi uh and yeah he executed perfectly I mean he's defin definely an inspiration anyone that's you know we were talking to Nick handle who you know is one of our top Americans in OC and he's just going man how can I look at this Sport and not be fired up when a 49-year-old is just slaying top 10 the way Ludo is it's it's so awesome and he's such a fun guy too it's like just appreciate his Spirit the way he holds himself and like going through Aid stations you can tell just people love him at compe lock there was a parade behind him people holding big cardboard cutouts of his head with like flags from his sponsors playing the drums and stuff it's just like Trail culture at its finest so shout out to Ludo on just another master class in sixth place we'll just glance over him arur joyu buan he was our early race leader I think this might be his third year in a row in the top 10 I'll double check on that and confirm tomorrow but he ran 2112 uh really solid day especially being hot off the front held on solid sixth place sort of faded a bit he probably will go back to the drawing board on Race execution but he's close like he's the type athlete who could we could see on a future Podium the person I wanted to spend a minute on is Cody ly in seventh place who we mentioned already but like I just said with lud I'm going to give the same uh placings at the same locations to illustrate his race execution Cody Lynn was 63rd at the top of C devoa 30th in Cormier 7th at the Finish Line I mean perfect execution I think you know Cody Ruth and Ludo are just the model examples of running a perfectly executed race and you might say hey they didn't win like the the only other perfectly executed race was yeah you know Katie and that's just fearlessness confidence courage and execution but you know very few people can do that but Cody's execution it was awesome we saw Cody On The Climb we climbed up out of Tron on that steep climb uh up and over to Valor and we saw Cody right as he had moved into ninth he was at the he was in 12th at the bottom uh of that climb and he was in ninth at the top and it's like you're going to be a top 10 western state or a top 10 UTMB finisher and he was so fired up he was glowing he was I said to him at the finish I said you know there's not many people who can say they've been top 10 at both western states in utmi like an elite group of people exactly and he put it together like what a great example for others to follow you know Cody just you know Heart of Gold loves the sport multi-generationally well probably someone who wanted to be in it but knew like I'm not going to go out hard but I I want to test myself but I'm not going to put my nose in it it was very reminiscent of the year he finished fourth at western states where he was sort of the surprise of the day just kind of tactical methodical waited for other people to make mistakes minimize his own and look where you end up great lesson so rounding out the men's top 10 in eighth was Manuel and GTO bio from Spain ninth was gutier Bonar from France 10th was yanuk nol so doing the same thing to round us out on the men here six Frenchmen in the top 10 Again wow I mean you know it's funny we on the live broadcast uh you know Scott jerk was talking about UTMB is a global event but in its core it's French event we're on you know we're in France the race starts in France ends in France all the races that start in other countries and in France like it's a French race and so this is like home turf for the French and um you know unlike the women which were nine nationalities on top 10 uh yeah six six Frenchmen in the top 10 is impressive and you know we talk about it I think one of the hardest things still for Americans and Jim proved it last year by living in France uh to win the race as the first American male uh it's hard to train in other parts of the world and come up here and and execute for all the reasons you were just talking about the heat the humidity the uniqueness and steepness of the climbs and the descents you know it's it's a totally different game yeah so it's reminiscent of I think it was 2021 when Francois won the race when the top five male finishers were French so anyway the other countries represented of course Ecuador that's an awesome one to see up there Germany with Hana sger the US with Cody Lynn and Spain with Manuel agito so anyway we'll go deeper on those results tomorrow um let's just touch on CCC for a second and then move on because we took yesterday off from doing shows and I'm sure you know everybody's just loving UTMB to to the point where maybe they've already forgotten about some of the astonishing things that happened at CCC yesterday starting with the two Champions quickly Hayden just an absolute Master Class using no polls chatty Kathy confident all day super happy smiley yeah and uh I just wanted to put it in context with this season because we'll remember he came back from surgery one in spectacular fashion of Black Canyon finished third at Western States but ran 1424 and now he and he did a little tuneup race in between in Austria 50k in Austria which he won and now bringing home another huge victory at CCC he's an early front runner for trail Runner of the year I mean Hayden Hawks is the absolute consumate competitor he loves to race he loves to compete he loves it when he's on a start line with the other best runners in the world and you know with Hayden like he squeezes every bit out of his body in mind to deliver and then if you talk to Hayden he's just the nicest guy MH like he's just such a he's just such a nice guy he's just such a I don't want to say humble cuz he's totally confident uh not necessarily humble but in a great way a we were talking about this Ryan and I were talking about this about like you know cuz he we posted a clip of him being like I know I'm one of the best in the world if not the best and but he says it in such a way to where you're like I love you man like like that doesn't piss me off for some reason it is and I love it you know he's all in on the sport the lifestyle he travels around trains in different areas he always has great other ultra running friends wherever he travels and trains we all love following the Bromance of him and Danny Jones racing traveling training who finished fourth fourth at CCC um but of course you know Hayden he came over here he trained you know he's committed you know he comes with his family it's it's awesome he's just so freaking good when he's onest just and after his knee injury last year I and I'm not sure I'm going to have the quote correct uh but you're going to mention Adam Peterman was third and in Hayden's Finish Line interview he says we're back like referring to him and Adam with both of their injuries from last year or no it was even better it's we're back baby we're back baby baby so like him and Adam having injuries I mean we know this sport is hard it's tough and if you have an injury and you know to get yourself back and to be on a Podium at a UTMB race here at CCC is amazing so cool so in between Hayden and Adam Peter when was this young kid Peter frano from Slovakia and as I understand it Hayden and Peter are actually buddies and they've done some training together also Hayden's coming in for a post-ra interview tomorrow so we'll talk more about that with him before we talk about the women really quick let's just close the loop on the men we're not going to go through the full top 10 maybe we'll do that more tomorrow the golden tickets you know this is an important thing that sometimes gets overshadowed or lost in the hype of West of UTMB but CCC is a Golden Ticket race a super golden ticket Race So we had uh six golden tickets proposed to athletes will determine which all have been accepted I'll check back on you may remember exactly what Craig said I know Adam Peterman came here three on the side three on the women's side right and so we know that on the men's side because Hayden because Hayden and Danny Jones are in it'll actually roll to fifth it's second third and fifth it will be offered and if one of those three doesn't take it it will roll to sixth we know Peterman was fired up he actually came here to earn his golden ticket and I love the fact that he earned it here it's the very first golden ticket of the of the you know the the series The Cycle he can rest easy now and go straight into Western States mode and he can come away from this race with massive confidence cuz he he he had a great race out there it's so good for him and it's a scary proposition and Hayden Hawks was in here the other day and he made it clear I'm going back to Western State next year so now Hayden Dan Jones and Adam Peterman are all heads down to Western States 10 months from now so maybe tomorrow we'll do our way too early predictions for both Western States and UTMB moving to the women real quick Tony mccan becomes one of the few people who has victories at two of the World Finals after her victory at OC last year she goes wire to wire the Great South African who lives here in France finishing Under 12 hours 11 57 in her 100K debut she was proposed a golden ticket she accepted on the spot though is going to be thinking about it um so they've got some time to make that determination but was presented with a golden ticket at the awards ceremony and then Kim it sounds like you have some color out on Martina Milik who finished second polish athlete who I had never heard of before we weren't that familiar and we sort of dug around a little bit first of all we learned she's a was a was a ballerina so she does have a beautiful running was a frisbee golf player or whatever Ultimate Frisbee player and you know I when I looked um she was a top finisher in the world championships last year so I think um you know performs well on these big stages if I have it correct yeah I'll look it up and we'll go a little bit deeper on her tomorrow and it sounds like she's thinking about her Western States I think I think some of these athletes to your point didn't didn't realize that uh this like top three earn them a golden ticket and so when presented with the ticket uh they were they were shocked with both excitement and um needed a little bit of time to digest it and I think you know all of the athletes that are you know it would be amazing if Tony wants to stretch it out and see what she can do at 100 miles she'd be an amazing additional Western State Martina would be an amazing Edition westate she she did have a really really great day out there executing it one point I sort of thought cuz Tony was in difficulty I didn't feel like Tony made it look easy all day and and and it felt like Martina was had one up on her a few times but Tony grounded out and and and held her off but they'd both be great uh in in uh in western states and then who was third it was Ros bu German who was also really solid all day exactly yeah quickly Tony mccan man she's on the on the cusp of being the next Generations Katie shy Corney dewal and everybody loves her she's coming in for a postra interview tomorrow great too so shout out to Tony before we close down I just wanted to give a shout out to Heather Jackson really surprised me fifth place that's amazing think about that finishing on the Podium of an Iron Man World Championship finishing in the final Sprint pack at Unbound gravel 200 mile finishing in the top 10 at Western States finishing fifth at CCC like there is no more versatile endurance athlete in the world than it's just kind a mountain course yeah exactly and I think you know she'll say like you know the technical trails are probably what's more of a challenge for her her and this isn't all super easy so she's actually she's worked on it and you got to give it to her I agree I love it she's really surprising to me she was 20th at OCC last year she's got a great attitude I what would be an interesting stat maybe you'll have this for tomorrow is how many of the men's and women's top 10 from Western States came and ran either OC CCC or UTMB in executed top 10 uh and I think it's a pretty large percentage there's only a few Esther chog was 13th in UTMB I think where she was tracking at 13th but you had Katie you had Emily hogood on the UTMB side you had Hayden and Danny Jones on the CCC side you had Heather Jackson on the CCC side and then on the other other side you'd have like Rod favard Caleb Olson finishing outside top 10 but still having solid days I'm sure uh you know dropped I'm sure there's we'll do a deep there's a few that would be an interesting stat just to to tie together like how how hard is that double and you know I think maybe the reveal is there isn't there isn't a correlation like some people executed big time and some just didn't but I mean you know Hayden executed big time and um on John Ray had a good one yeah John Ray and Katie Katie executed well Danny Jones I mean for in that field is he executed big time yeah so that' be interesting to to thanks for the promp to I'm going to write that down for tomorrow's show what a freaking week any other closing instant reactions for our audience before we shut it down for the night I well I know you mentioned it earlier um uh I also saw Courtney out there and she really was fantastic with the fans doing photos she was so genuine like with people and all so it was I mean it was great to see her out supporting the race supporting athletes and um yeah I thought that was that was pretty cool too really is yeah tell if any closing comments I mean it's just cool it's the biggest week of the year I mean I sort of make the analogy that UTMB week is like wrapping up the Torrance Burning Man and the largest industry trade show in the world into one week one f fesal week and I need to go home and get some serious sleep after this week because it was it was so much fun it's just so great to actually you know spend time with the community spend time building relationships getting uh out of social media or when you're posting on social media it's you know it's positive it's it's unifying and it's refreshing you know I mean when you share Trail time you share meals with people you share conversations in the streets um yeah it's bonding it's cool and it just makes the world a little bit smaller for all of us and gives you renewed hope in humanity so so good what a great closing thought Ryan reminded me that next year it might be practical for me to sign up for CCC so breaking news I need all everybody in our audience to hold my lazy accountable for the next 12 months Hannah get the training program going could you please start breaking down the uh the training towards CCC it makes sense because we don't do a show on Friday so we can get all the shows in early in the week that's your these guys go out and keep the world entertained with content from the races while I'm out there finally enjoying a little run and uh and then we come back and we do our instant reaction shows and we I love this idea what do you guys think and you already have your stones are already in and I already have finishes at the at three of the classics TDS o UTMB so I need that CCC finished quadfecta there you go and then I'll turn transition my focus to Etc and MCC off PT P all right all right guys well thank you so much for coming in what a great conversation and what a great way to just process these last few amazing days to our audience make sure you subscribe subbe to the Channel please it would make us very happy and grateful if you would do so tomorrow we'll be back with our final wrapup show anything that we missed from race week what an awesome week it's been big thanks to Hoka for helping us bring this energy to everybody's living room wherever you're following along for Kim Gaylord toer Gaylord I'm Debo we'll see you tomorrow