Vertical kilometer

For the most part, this one seems to be a lot more runnable.

You run to start a VK up to the top of the ski resort on a ski run.

So there's like a pretty good buffed out trail.

And then you run all the way back down, but on a ski run that runs parallel.

So you go up a VK, down a VK, and then they kind of meander across the ski resort.

It looks like it's in the trees, so it's hard to tell if that section is a little bit rocky or not, because when I was watching the preview video, there were these kind of like longer sections that were double track and looked kind of flat.

So I would assume that that is actually a section that meanders across the ski resort, but I'm not totally sure.

Fairly cheap overall, um, and just beautiful.

But yeah, being a World Cup I knew that it were gonna be stacked, but that VK was really stacked and-

[laughs]

... um, I finished 52nd.

...

I kind of started right at the back.

There was 150 people doing the VK, so I started right at the back.

I was just trying to cool off as much as I can.

honestly like great compared to pits the downhill at pits just destroyed me so sears and all was like fantastic i mean there's only like 2 000 feet of descending the whole race so um yeah i felt like much better after sears and all um comparatively

How ridiculous is that double VK at the start? I've heard all conflicting things, but I'm just curious to get your firsthand account of it.

Did it live up to your expectations?

I mean, it's a long climb for sure, but I feel like I went into it with that expectation of, oh, this is an insane monster climb.

it wouldn't have shown just like the nuances of our sport.

Like it's definitely a skill and it takes, it's a lot different than what people think, especially on the ultra side.

But even as far as like the, you know, the strength that would be needed for something like a, you know, even like a broken arrow VK, which is in my opinion, other than like the first, I don't know, 400 feet of it.

It's, it's pretty runnable.

I did race it

in 2018, but did the VK in 28K.

Okay.

I think I got fourth in the 28K, which is still pretty dope.

There was

some stods out there.

Yeah, Phoebus beat me in the VK that year.

And I think he got second or third in the 28K.

But because of the nature of trail running being in hard-to-reach places, setting up doping control is super difficult.

For instance, like, I did a VK in Madeira-

Yeah

... and they were like, "We can't afford to set up a doping tent at, on a little knob of a mountain because, A, we don't, we can't afford 7,000 euros to set up this doping control, nor do we wanna hike a VK to set this tent up right at the finish line." Like [inhales]-

Yeah.

I mean, there's-

And the reason I say that is because he didn't have the series and all he wanted, but he has been racing a lot.

He's been racing a lot of VKs.

He's been throwing down, you know, like I said, just had a 30, 40 something if finish place, finish somewhere in that range at series and all.

I don't want to do him.

Petter's just too consistent to screw up, in my opinion.

I think he's a very solid athlete.

He's been running a lot of VKs.

Yeah, he didn't have a great series and all, but as long as he's not absolutely crushed...