Transvulcania 2013 - View from the Crew
Last weekend I was privileged enough to be at the Transvulcania La Palma race. I was lucky enough to be on the inside too, behind the scenes and supporting some of the elite athletes and to soak up the amazing atmosphere that this beautiful race produces…
This article is courtesy of the Salomon Trail Tour website:
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They say that behind a every great man, is a great woman. Reflecting on a yet another super-charged Transvulcania La Palma it should be added that behind every great individual trail running win, is a great team effort.
By now the media whirlwind around the 2013 event will have reached all 4 corners of the world with the news that this year’s race was a triumph for Kilian and Emelie. Their wins at Tranvulcania were both victories in the face of strong opposition.
Kilian and Emelie - early leaders in the SWS 2013
For Kilian it was a win which buried the hatchet on his 3rd place at the race in 2012. A similar pre-race situation ensued this year, whereby the Catalan athlete came off a ski mountaineering season and came into Transvulcania with a single hand-full of runs under his belt. The situation was the same for Emelie, spending much of her winter and early spring in her home base of Tromso, Norway, and bar her excursion to Gran Canaria earlier in the year – and the Salomon Advance Week in Moab – Emelie came to La Palma with only a week or so of running in her legs.
Kilian milks the La Palma welcome
This preparation seemed to work for them both, as first Kilian crossed the line for a new course record, breaking Dakota Jones’ best time from 2012 by around 3 mins, in 6:54, ahead of Luis A. Hernando and Sage Canaday. Emelie was shy of Anna Frost’s 2012 time by around 2 mins, winning in 8:13, some 3 mins up on Nuria Picas, with whom she had battled hard over the 83km hot kiliometres.
Emelie and Nuria embrace after their battle...
The race reports and images at Transvulcania have been numerous across the net, indeed the media stampede at the start and finish areas was a busy as any event in the global ultra-trail calendar, with photographers, TV camera crews, journalists, bloggers and fans all vying for their piece of history.
Emelie Forsberg
So, with this in mind, I thought I would bring a different perspective to what it is like to ‘crew’ for these guys, and act as a conduit for the media to get them what they want from a weekend which unless it is planned in fine detail, can all but pass you by in a blur!
My role as a community manager and brand ambassador for Salomon means that I get to travel to events like Transvulcania to process the media via our social channels, to aid the racers where needed on the course, to transport our photographer (in this instance the amazing Jordi Saragossa!) and to look after the UK media attending (Trail Running magazine).
From a dash across the island after a 6am start, through a scrum of cars and supporters, all trying to get to aid station X or view point Y, to support their runners or get that killer image, our day was based around supporting the Salomon runners of Kilian, Emelie, Cameron (Clayton), Francois (d’Heane), Philipp (Reiter) and Adam (Campbell). The additional staff of Arnaud Tortel, Joan Sola and all of the Salomon Spain team worked flawlessly in delivering gels, water and other nutrition on time to the team.
Myself and Jordi then made sure that we got the right images to give a flavor of the event at the start, aid stations (El Pilar in this instance), and those all-important finish line shots. We also made sure that Claire and Jon from the UK Trail Running magazine got what they wanted, as they journeyed with us throughout the day – even down to an exclusive 15 minutes with Emelie and Kilian in the hotel later, chatting about the race, their philosophies, techniques and other interesting insights!
The athlete’s day was long, and full of amazing effort. Likewise, the supporting cast’s day was equally long, if not longer, and strenuous in a different way. As the sun went down across the glorious Canary Islands vista last night it was just as satisfying to know we had added our own little piece to the jigsaw of the day.
I’d also like to emphasise that these races are a global family of racers, brands and cultures coming together. With smiles as big as the amazing horizons and as warm as the midday sun.
Women's contenders!
Just off the top of my head I could name check the USA, France, Germany, Spain, Catalunia, Sweden, Morocco, New Zealand, Brazil, UK, Italy, Canada as countries that were represented on the elite start line. Also, brands such as Buff, North Face, Montrail, Merrell, Adidas, Asics, la Sportiva, New Balance and Inov8 all come together.
But when all is said and done, both before and after the race, everyone shares the same philosophy, the same love of the sport of trail running, the same love of the mountains and the same mutual respect for each other and each others values in life.
