ITW Jim Walmsley - "Oui je peux battre le record de l'UTMB"

Jim Wern States St hey I'm Jim Wamsley I'm a professional Ultra Trail runner for Hoka and I'm here in sh to do the UTMB again okay sir nice to meet you good to see you again thank let's get back to the western states uh your emotion seemed different at the finish line for your fourth Victory uh my first question would be if you had to just choose one word uh was it The Pinacle was it the culmination or was it just fun and cool to win was relief yeah relief is what I felt I think and explaining on that was uh it was the most back and forth I've ever had in western states and at points I I thought I was done and that Rod was going to pull away or just surprised to see myself on a pack of five at the bottom of Devil's Thumb I just was my first time going that late into races that close to everyone so it was a really cool experience and uh to end up with such good legs at the end to finish and pull away uh it was really great relief to hit the track and know that I pulled it off again and you were also with your friend Simon Goa Simon was with me about two months like before so uh he did some American trips during time but uh yeah it was really nice to have the training block with him because uh he brought just this new awe and experience on everything that made a lot of my old training grounds like feel young and fun again to me and I think that really brought like an energy to training this year that I'm really grateful for because uh it it just made training for Western States exciting and fun again and uh without that I think I would struggle more through the training block that's really interesting because we are talking about friendship and but we you were talking about rivalry and you were speaking about Rod was it necessary for you to have such a rival you know until almost the end of the race to maybe bring you back to reality because you could have been really confident at the beginning of at the start of the race yeah I mean at the end of the day that's what it took it took my best day and uh my two fastest times I've had someone just right on my heels the entire day uh 2019 was a similar experience with Jared uh but Jared and I never saw each other where this one was very much like oh no and Rod was so efficient on Aid stations that uh he was gaining so much time during that that um made it very interesting and uh yeah it it it took my best to pull away from him uh that day would you say that now or I don't know maybe for since 2 years 3 years I don't know that you're experiencing your finest Seasons your most wonderful seasons on an athletic but also on a mental point of view I think mentally as an athlete perhaps because I think I'm entering a stage where maybe I don't have like my fastest workouts or this or that but um mentally I've matured enough that uh I feel like I can win in many many more scenarios and now there's more of a art that I feel like I'm perfecting to end up on top at the finish line which it's a very big skill to figure out how to be first in a race that you line up in like to win once or a couple times is really good and it takes someone of huge skill to do that but to repeat it it's always like really rewarding that it feels like you're mastering something and so I think that's where just mentally how I'm handling harder longer Ultras has have just developed a lot more uh that way and therefore um I've been able to now run faster and win in different scenarios and in order to reach that State of Mind was it necessary to win the UTMB last year like you know opening a door eventually finally to happiness and fulfillment um I think on I have image of opening the door it's actually on the contrary I think it's the failures that have finally opened the door because it's taken like beating the Manpower self-will hope that I can I can do what I want on the course and giving up more that I need to react to where I feel good on the course and not just force my times and force my split so Western States was actually really cool and a bit UTMB last year too I know General time points of like time references at Big checkpoints but other than that um I'm getting more into a habit of not following Pace not following splits and then also uh competitors really bringing their best days and essentially now that's bringing out the best in me but not Ling on splits has really allowed me to focus more on my needs throughout the race one month so yeah one big month so you will be on the start line of your fifth UTMB fifth or six yeah I always 18 I'm always making mistakes 21 the stats 22 23 all right I've uh I've finished three times I've dropped out two times so I hope to not be 5050 uh so six UTMB do you feel stronger than ever or at the same level of confidence and I would say athletic strength or mastership because you more experienced but experience is not 100% the key of everything yeah I would say the sport keeps giving me new new training blocks and that um the scenario this year is very different than years past uh and my reaction after western states with my body has been different and it's taken more recovery and I've had more inflammation problems so uh I'm trying to always look at positives with it and that the recovery like in years past I I know I've done too much and I've I felt too good in between the two races and then after winning Western States I'd hit this low point in UTMB where I just didn't have the resources and freshness to push through and persevere and it's the years where I've the last two years I've focused only on UTMB and I've been more fresh to be in a better position to take on those challenges but um this year I'm back to a different scenario changing things with the fatigue of Western States and being beat up from that so uh yeah we'll see I I'm open-minded I'm optimistic and yeah I hope but at the same time uh it's far from my deal that's not giving me confidence that I had last year which I think is a good position to be in yeah I I think being being a little scared is a good thing so you're still a little bit scared and I think because I've had many low moments out there and even last year was not perfect I had low moments and I still know the low moments will happen and kind of how you react how you can handle it how you can change it or is it a low moment that you're not going to pass this time that's a fear too because dropping there's not many positives to take from a drop you kind of need to forget about it and move on and I don't want that so I want to come in in a place that I'm confident that I can persevere through the adventure and the challenge and the whole Buckle but uh yeah it I think it's never granted like taken for granted that you can make it all the way back to Shaman like there's so many strong favorites that don't and uh the years that I have made it back to sh each one I feel fortunate to be one of the ones that did or I guess 2017 was really interesting it was my first try and it seemed like all the favorite it was such a great addition because all the favorites were really competing well and uh it's truly a classic in UTMB I think yeah I remember the the poster of the of the start linean and everybody it was like a a movie it was the first time a lot of people lining up together yeah it was like silver stalon and JZ and stum and uh well and and I think uh let me see seven so out of the top six unfortunately I think only one hasn't won UTMB yet so but last dra you discovered one thing discovered so it's a private joke it was how to walk with the sticks and I remember this sound you make it was tick tick tick tick tick tick in your words mean to work with the sticks do you feel you still got your own devil which would be be to forget about slowing down and walking and just saying okay I carry back the sticks and I just want to run and let's go and after oh I'm burn I think the process of trying to improve here at UTMB and improve myself to handle UTMB better has just it's made me much more open-minded that has been so good for me as a development as an ultra TR athlete and I guess some if I get to go back to a race like diagonal deu which I think is more difficult um we'll see how much I've improved because uh I yeah hopefully my comfort zone is now within handling UTMB um and I can continue that my Benchmark has now progressed forward but uh yeah then we'll see about doing more challenging races or further races to see while can I still grow in that aspect because I think growing in the true side of ultra is maybe where I'm not the most strong so um the the running side of it comes more natural and something that is something I obviously look forward to and I very much like leaning into that strength but at the same time knowing some of my vulnerabilities with longer colder harder conditions um I really really like challenges and I think that's the only reason why I'm able to find successes with it because uh I'm not as good as many of the competitors I'm not from the mountains like them so uh things don't come as natural but at least I'm stubborn and uh I tend to learn after a few tries yeah but you have never been such a mountain man that now because now you can say that you're a mountainer you live in buo and uh you spend the B foron has uh been a really rewarding experience and something that I'm really grateful that Jess and I did together and uh yeah it it's just the experience has added so many skills of life and then just perspective of Life patient slow the mountains do what the mountains want and uh you're kind of at the mercy of it and also your mindset in good weather bad weather Good Times bad times uh it's your perspective of how you shift it to make the most out of what they give you that's also interesting because you spoke about the way and the possibility of growing up like as a people like as a person in Ultra Trail and on the other side it's it's congruent with the what you learned by living in the mountain in France because it also learned you a lot of things so it was lud who showed us his ass Fair PG Mery um looking back what would you point out as your worst and hardest moments precise maybe anecdotes in your career but moments that you still remind and use as lessons or safe guards uh one of the lowest moments I think is uh experiencing extreme heat stroke in 2017 at Western States um I was completely done uh couldn't control my temperature of my body anymore I'd go from uh way too hot to shivering to way too hot to shivering throwing up every time I stood up um and that was maybe the first real lesson of uh that I'm not able to just force my will upon natural conditions all the time and I think Western States can be more forgiving if it's a little cooler but uh on a hot year uh you need to respect that um low moments at UTMB I mean I think I learned most from my failures so uh let me see what's been the lowest moment at UTMB and you keep that in mind yeah I think uh yeah it adds a little bit of the fear to respect the task you're trying to accomplish which for me a more conservative approach is good and I think sometimes I have this ambitious ignorance that is beautiful but at the same time Fai like doomful for me um in that it leads and I even tell young Runners that come in from more of a running track background I always say like well speed is a weapon but it's also uh a curse and that it in Ultra it leads you down dead ends that you need to if if this is the way you're going to race you need to be strong enough to go down the dead end turn around and get back on course and keep going but um if you're not ready to do that then the dead end will be the end of the race today and you'll you'll have to try again to find your way around the maze but if you keep trying full speed more than likely you're going to find another dead end and you might have to go down a long dead end before you do it and uh yeah it's kind of like going full gas through a maze um you need to be more patients and at intersections kind of assess the situation and what's going to be the most positive direction to move uh and yeah a good example this year at Western States like I was having hot spot issues I think my foot was probably picked up debris on the floor before I put my socks on in the morning is kind of what I'm thinking uh because I'm I have so much experience in the shoe and socks I was wearing that it's a bit strange but most days I don't run that far so some it might be coming that I have some dirt on my foot but I don't notice it during a 10 20K run but uh when you go 160k it will expose that but I had the the confidence the experience to stop at certain points assess and know I need to change my sock I need to change my shoes and to continue to take care of those problems I I think it ended up being a net positive that got me to Auburn in a really good uh position and then that kept me in the race so uh that's a really cool story in that race that I had the confidence to stop and change my shoes not this young rush to go full speed again and to uh make mistakes that eventually could be faithful for uh an ultra race so that was a cool like looking back on that race was I'm proud that I stopped and took care of what I needed to take care of um because everyone else in the race was so dialed on Aid stations they were all so quick and it's like oh I haven't been back to Western States since a few years and the stations have gone a lot faster than when I was racing three years ago so it's pretty crazy um there was no problem with your pair of shoes with your brand I I don't know uh I mean they're prototypes so sometimes something could have a little defect but I I don't know exactly what I just know it was a bit odd and my foot started to get hot which could have become a big problem so instead I took more time to make it a little problem and then eventually it became no problem so uh wisdom I think it was the the right call yeah that wisd um probably the lowest moment or the funniest moment at UTMB 2 is I think 2021 it's going up I caught Francois after Cormier I think he made a little wrong turn or something because I caught him pretty quick but then at the top I I was running behind him and then he'd hike away and then I'd run to catch up he'd hike away I didn't have polls that year I decided not Z pulls and fr of all was just bearing me on the way up and uh by the top he had pulled away and I was still in second place not far behind and I knew I was so done like mentally I I had won Western States I wasn't ready to go back to this Energy felt too fatigue and uh I started to go through my mandatory gear and put everything on I called Jess like are you in cor my a I want to come back down she's like I left I I'm not coming to pick you up she's like make it to lauli and and we'll see if you still want to drop but in 2019 no 2018 I went over Lai and it was like so long I was only walking I knew I was dead and then it took another hour to convince my crew to like let me drop at uh champe lock and like they want the best for me and stuff and to encourage me when I'm having low moments but I knew this one was not going to turn around and uh so she said keep going keep going and then uh I'm like all right I I put on all my clothes I was walking Courtney de Walter comes running by she's like come on with me I'm like there's no possible way and every guy here is like the last thing we want is Courtney coming by and come on with me I'm like it's a lot harder than that you're moving pretty good and um I got to our newo and then finally uh I found someone to take me all the way back to Shaman I was like yes sign me up no problem um and so I took a ride back to Shimon and that was my day uh I I didn't want to go over gr ker and do the long descent down uh I just it was a rough rough day but it was a a thing that was a turning point in the race I knew I wanted to stop uh we say half-assing uh my commitment towards UTMB and that was the mindset change of like I want to move to France I want to go all in I want to go to the mountains and um I don't know before I think we visited France before the race but we had been to Arash and seeing the mountains and done some like I think we went over and had tea with Francois and uh yeah you you can feel it's a special place so um yeah there was more I would say in the race of like I need to go somewhere that's going to make me improve on this goal and and give me a chance to perform the way I want to perform here and I need to stop doing western states there was a it was quitting in that race but also committing to a longer term goal to dedicate more to it that I wasn't going to let UTMB just beat the heck out of me again wow perfect answer so precise uh two last questions um you feel you can improve on your record or the utm's record that's your yeah I think there's room for improvement um I know I had a low patch that I mean I had a 15 minute swing with Zach I think Zach was really strong and really consistent and actually has better like consistency through start to finish in his race um we were pretty similar splits I think uh like I know we hit Cormier in similar times as I've always hit Cormier uh with Killian with Francois and stuff it's a pretty fast pace but it's like all day Pace that you can conserve so you could be more aggressive but it's more risky but then I know I was like almost five minutes up on Zack and then he got up to 10 minutes uh on me so I think there's still a goal of avoiding low patches as much and and smoothing out the race a little more or perhaps it's op just too optimistic and I know how like I need to know that low patches will come for me and that I need to just reduce my losses but yeah I think there's 15 free minutes if I can maintain a steady pace through there so uh there's that um I I think I finished really well last year so I don't think there's time to be one there um so either start more aggressively don't have low patches and then try to just uh match the the final 50k splits I think that's that's what it's going to be so it was a pretty good run last year yeah but you don't have to leave with you know stuck on the last year image it's a new UTMB yeah it's really nice that this year that this race is annual because uh it's amazing how fast this race comes back around and I'm really happy that like we get to try to do this every year it's pretty sweet so we also see saw the Christoph bones dog so it's really moving around the last question maybe the most important a double question um did your project of a cafe burrito improved and if you had to create a special UTMB recipe of burrito what would be the main and the most important ingredients okay so simply answered uh we have not progress towards our Cafe burrito in the bueron bueron burritos copyrighted uh yeah trademarks right here but um yeah I mean we're still trying to find out a longer term solution to uh rent and ares hopefully uh so we'll see we're we're working on that as a first stream and stuff but uh we'll still continue to split our time I think it's just it's perfect sounding perfect yeah but we really like coffee and we need a coffee place and people need to talk about snow conditions together in the morning it's really important snow safety for the community to have something like that which they used to have with Cafe DPO but um yeah it hasn't been open in a while so that would be pretty cool um and yeah that speci yeah the idea is growing we're still working on the recipes I guess yeah because we we're still we need to figure out where to get our spices from but I don't think spicy burritos will sell too well in the Bon like in no way uh so we have time for the spicy uh spicy peppers but um then the second Parts was the ingredients of a special UTMB recipe for burito I mean the most important ingredient is the rice but uh probably the trickiest to get here is the tortilla so Ian I think I've just discovered I need to learn how to make my own tortillas then we can open a burrito shop but I need to make my own tortillas from scratch and get a press and stuff uh so this is not the cheese this is not the buff oh we there's good cheese here yeah cheese is easy here the rice we we can practice more but I think it's possible and then uh but truly the tortillas are not the same here so we we need to improve the tortillas okay that special edition UTMB it's a big tortilla okay and there will be maybe saage French sausage inside maybe it's a and I are vegetarian so we don't do meat but maybe a bow for a cheese in the burrito would be quite nice okay we have our own addition that way CU usually it's a Mexican cheddar cheese blend but we'll keep orange cheese out of it I think wow thanks for the privilege I wanted to wish you a spicy summer thank you spicy life but you know as life can be I mean only spicy surprises I appreciate it thank you so much I never seen him again but I did a couple shows with his friends Lumberjack Brown clown so and with the