On Saturday the world’s best trail runners congregated in Tuscany, Italy, for the Trail World Championships. The U.S. men\u2019s team earned bronze while the women\u2019s team ended up in 6th place.<\/p>\n
The results on both sides were an improvement over\u00a0last year, when neither the men\u2019s team nor the women\u2019s team finished in the top 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I found out we got a bronze medal I was just jumping with joy,\u201d said Mendoza, who finished in 9th pace, the U.S.A.’s top finisher. \u201cTeams like Spain, France and Italy […] work [together] and that’s what I wanted to bring to our team. A sense of camaraderie and [a sense] that we are not running for ourselves now but for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An Experienced Team<\/strong><\/p>\n The Trail World\u00a0Championships is organized by the International Association of Ultrarunning under the umbrella of the International Association of Athletics Foundation (IAAF). The event became an official world championship\u2014and US Track and Field provided funding for athletes to attend\u2014just three years ago.<\/p>\n Yet both the men’s and the women’s teams were well stocked with experience from other world-championship events. Female competitors Ladia Albertson-Junkans, Anita Ortiz, Megan Roche and Caitlin Smith have all represented the U.S. at World Mountain Running Championships in the past. Corrine Malcom was on last year’s Trail World\u00a0Championships team\u2014she was the only U.S. woman to finish that year. Keely Henninger, 25, of Portland, Oregon was a first-time member of Team U.S.A.<\/p>\n On the men\u2019s side, Mario Mendoza, Andy Wacker and Tyler Sigl have been on past Trail World\u00a0Championships teams (Wacker is the only U.S. trail runner to have medaled in three separate world-championship events), while both David Roche and Hayden Hawks have represented U.S. at World Mountain Running Championships. Cody Reed had never been in a world championship.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Race Day<\/strong><\/p>\n The race took the athletes 48.7 kilometers through the National Park of Foreste Casentinesi passing ancient abandoned buildings, old forests and a monastery that Wacker said was \u201creminiscent of a scene from Robin Hood.\u201d<\/p>\n Mendoza explains that after a disappointing 14th-place finish last year, the men’s team decided to hone in on a more detailed group strategy. Mendoza started out conservatively to make sure the team had a runner moving in from behind, while Hawks, Reed and Wacker surged ahead in the lead pack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way European races are, you have to be ready to hurt the whole time,\u201d says Mendoza, who had been averaging 100-mile weeks leading into the race, with a focus on vertical gain and some shorter races. \u201cI was ready to suffer this year.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan to hang back while his younger teammates made an early surge \u201cworked out really well,\u201d says Mendoza. \u201cEach time I passed one of our guys I encouraged him\u00a0and told him\u00a0he needed to stay strong because we would need him\u00a0to get on the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n Roughly halfway through the race, however, Hawks and Wacker began to falter. Around 25K, Wacker suffered severe leg cramps, which persisted for the rest of the race. \u201cWith team aspirations in mind, I kept walking, pushing and running when possible to get to the finish,\u201d he says. \u201cI accomplished my main goal, which was to help team U.S.A medal.\u201d He ultimately finished 20th<\/sup> overall.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, around mile 20, Hawks began to feel the effects of limited recovery from Spain\u2019s Transvulcania Ultramarathon, which he raced in late April.<\/p>\n \u201cI was able to learn how to battle against the mental demons that try to tear you down,\u201d says Hawks, who ultimately finished 81st<\/sup>. \u201cMost of the issues came from a combination\u00a0of fatigue and not enough recovery from previous races. I am grateful I learned the lessons I did and will make adjustments in my training and racing.\u201d<\/p>\n At around the 27K mark, while Wacker and Hawks were beginning to struggle, Mendoza pulled into the top 15\u00a0and pushed onward, catching up with and ultimately passing Reed.<\/p>\n Mendoza encouraged Reed as he went by, and asked him if he needed anything. \u201cI [decided I] would keep moving up, because the higher I could place it would help the entire team,\u201d says\u00a0Mendoza. (Team results are based on the accumulative times of each team\u2019s top-three competitors). Mendoza ended up finishing 9th place, with Reed just behind, in 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n At the back of the pack, things were going poorly for Roche, who ultimately finished in 6:38 after suffering from debilitating leg cramps. Tyler Sigl did not finish due to extreme asthma triggered by a plant on the course. Even so, Mendoza, Wacker and Reed’s times were strong enough to secure\u00a0a bronze medal.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the women all suffered through tough races. Albertson-Junkans endured projectile vomiting to finish in 13th<\/sup> place, in 5:27\u2014the first U.S. woman to cross the finish.<\/p>\n A half hour later, Ortiz crossed the line in 43rd place, followed closely by Malcolm, in\u00a044th. Smith, Roche and Henninger were all beset by various shades of cramping and bonking, and ultimately finished in 48th, 72nd and 75th, respectively. Albertson-Junkans, Ortiz and Malcolm’s times were enough to earn a 6th-<\/sup>place overall finish.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Tricky Trails<\/strong><\/p>\n Though all men’s team members were proud of their bronze-medal achievement, they remarked on the unexpectedly technical trails and long, steep ascents. The general consensus is that the course was more difficult than advertised.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely more technical and steeper than what they had told us,\u201d says Mendoza. \u201cThe course was supposed to only have 7,500 feet of climbing and it was 10,500. It was also supposed to be \u2018fast,\u2019 but the second half of the course was pretty technical. I heard after the race they had to alter the course [at the last minute], which definitely affects the U.S.A. squad, which isn’t used to that much climbing and technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I should be near the front, and also planned on a slightly easier and significantly faster race,\u201d says\u00a0Wacker.<\/p>\n As technical and steep as it was, though, Mendoza noted that the course was \u201cbeautiful. The atmosphere was just amazing, with people encouraging you to keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n Reed concurs. \u201cOne of the things I love about ultras is: because you are running so far and covering so much ground, you can see a lot of different things,\u201d he says. \u201cAs I was running, I was wishing that I was on a normal run so that I could stop at some of the ancient and abandoned buildings […] or talk to the monk I saw watching the runners pass by […] or swim in the turquoise water of the reservoir we ran around.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Coming Next<\/strong><\/p>\n In July, another group of the country’s top trail runners will be heading back to Italy for the World Mountain Running Championship. This event will be hosted by the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA)\u2014different from the International Association of Ultrarunning, which hosted last weekend\u2019s event.<\/p>\n The men’s U.S. Mountain Running Team will be headed by nine-time veteran Joe Gray, who is the reigning World Mountain Running Champion\u2014the first-ever U.S. runner to win individual gold. Wacker will be joining Team U.S.A. for his second world-championship event of the year, alongisde Brett Hales, 30, of Layton, Utah, and Patrick Smyth, 30, of Salt Lake City, Utah.<\/p>\n On the women’s side, the U.S. will be represented by return competitors Addie Bracy, Allie McLaughin and Kaci Enman, with first-time competitor Caitlin Patterson.<\/p>\n