In this month’s column we bring you news from the Sky Running World Series, the Ultra Trail World Tour and latest UTWT standings, Thames Path 100, as well as a selection of news from the blogs.
Transvulcania
Since 2012 only three guys have broken seven hours for the Transvulcania course, Dakota Jones, Kilian Jornet and Luis Alberto Hernando. Hernando has an awesome record at Transvulcania, second to Jornet in 2013, and winner in 2014 and 2015. He was the red-hot favourite in this year’s edition and he didn’t disappoint. Hernando took his third successive win in just over seven hours. American Sage Canaday who led the race all the 
way to Roque de los Muchachos took a third place podium finish after Frenchmen Nicolas Martin reeled him on that long descent for second place.
Sweden’s Ida Nilsson surprised everyone with a terrific performance that demonstrated total dominance of the field, the tough course and hot conditions. Her lead grew as the race progressed, finishing seventeen minutes ahead of Anne-Lise Rousset of France. Ruth Croft completed the podium only two minutes behind.
Transvulcania
| Men | Time | |
| 1 | Luis Alberto Hernando | 07:04:44 |
| 2 | Nicolas Martin | 07:10:40 |
| 3 | Sage Canaday | 07:14:16 |
| Women | Time | |
| 1 | Ida Nilsson | 08:14:18 |
| 2 | Anne-Lise Rousset | 08:31:53 |
| 3 | Ruth Croft | 08:33:32 |
Marathon des Sables
Rachid El Morabity of Morocco celebrated the win after a dominating display of running in the 32nd edition of this classic multi day race across the Saharan sands of Morroco. The podium was an all Moroccan affair with compatriots Abdelkader El Mouaziz and Aziz El Akad taking second and third spots.
Russian Natalia Sedykh won four of the five stages and had an incredible forty five minutes lead over second place Nathalie Mauclair of France. Mauclair won the long stage on day four to cement her second place. Brazilian Fernanda Maciel demonstrated her tenacity over these demanding desert multi day races by finishing strongly in third place.
Marathon des Sables
| Men | Time | |
| 1 | Rachid El Morabity | 21:01:21 |
| 2 | Abdelkader El Mouaziz | 21:05:38 |
| 3 | Aziz El Akad | 22:07:30 |
| Women | Time | |
| 1 | Natalia Sedykh | 24:45:26 |
| 2 | Nathalie Mauclair | 25:30:55 |
| 3 | Fernanda Maciel | 27:58:43 |
Thames Path 100
The Thames Path 100 is the first race of the Centurion Running grand slam. With minimal elevation gain or loss and run on the tow path it is a fast course. Craig Holgate held the course record (15:11:15) from 2012 and proceeded to crush that time by over an hour and completely dominated the field. His winning time and course record is even more impressive given that he went off course and lost over an hour and a half. Sam Pullan and Mark Greyner completed the podium for the men.
Sam Amend in her first 100 miler ran an extremely impressive 16:00:09, was second overall, and had a margin of three hours over Norwegians Mari Mauland in second and Hilde Ackenhausen in third.
Thames Path 100
| Men | Time | |
| 1 | Craig Holgate | 14:09:54 |
| 2 | Sam Pullan | 17:01:15 |
| 3 | Mark Greyner | 17:11:54 |
| Women | Time | |
| 1 | Samantha Amend | 16:00:09 |
| 2 | Mari Mauland | 19:11:25 |
| 3 | Hilde Ackenhausen | 19:34:57 |
Yading Skyrun
The Skyrunner World Series opened the season with a first race in China. A 30km route reached altitudes of 4,664M and the finishing point was at a temple was at 4,000M. This is Sky Running following its ethos of ‘Less cloud. More Sky’.
The race was won by Nepalese Bhin Gurung in a fast time and a small cushion of less than two minutes ahead of Italian Tadei Pivk.
American Megan Kimmel certainly made her trip to China worthwhile with a solid win ahead of Chinese Wenrong Zhen by thirty six minutes and picking up a $3000 winners prize.
Bryon Powell of irunfar.com completed the race in 4:18 for fourteenth place as part of his Hardrock 100 training.
Yading Skyrun
| Men | Time | |
| 1 | Bhin Gurung (Nepal) | 03:08:30 |
| 2 | Tadei Pivk (Italy) | 03:10:18 |
| 3 | Marc Casal Mir (And) | 03:11:28 |
| Women | Time | |
| 1 | Megan Kimmel (USA | 03:20:39 |
| 2 | Wenrong Zhen (China) | 03:56:17 |
| 3 | Ragna Debats | 03:57:39 |
News from the blogs
Dakota Jones
DJ has been travelling to Europe and has taken the unusual option to cross the pond by cargo ship in an effort to be ecologically friendly. Read his article on iRunFar as he debates with himself and the reader with the realities of this chosen method and whether it is indeed saving the planet. http://www.irunfar.com/2016/05/dakota-on-the-dalian.html
During his trip to Ireland DJ hooked up with legends Scott Jurek & Rickey Gates before heading across to Wales and then the Lake District for Salomon Advanced week. Check out his athlete Facebook page for the updates.
Ellie Greenwood
In preparation for Comrades Ellie raced Chuckanut 50k for yet another win. then it was off to the UK and the Lake District for Salomon Advanced Week. The athletes generally have a great time taking the opportunity to train together but more importantly testing out new kit and giving feedback. The results of which go back into the end product that we see as the consumer. To round the week off many of the team tried out a fell race, The Coledale Horseshoe – check out the results The Coledale Horsehoe Results 2016 .
Watch out for Ellie as she takes on the Russian twins on the Comrades down run at the end of this month.
http://elliegreenwood.blogspot.co.uk/
Sage Canaday
Sage Canaday has a great You Tube channel V02max Productions and you will find a wealth of information as he chronicles the various stages of his training and racing. Towards the latter part of last year and early this year he was focussed on making the US Olympic Trials, narrowly missing qualification by 12 seconds. His times over four marathons were between 2:19:12 and 2:20:32, very consistent but as Sage opens up in his review he was perhaps overcautious and should stepped up his mileage from an average 80 miles a week to an average 120-130 miles a week. Its an interesting read and provides a useful process emphasizing the importance of having a good training diary and post event analysis to improve future training.
Jason Schlarb
Skiing the Hardrock 100 course has never been done before. Jason and friends took on the mighty course in a counterclockwise direction over four days and nights in March. Hear all about it on this podcast from the US Ultra Runner.
Sondre Amdahl
Fresh from Marathon des Sables Sondre Amdahl tells all about his experience of racing in probably the most iconic desert multi day stage race where he finished ninth overall. His report provides some great explanation of his approach to the race including gear and nutrition and mistakes he made. Great reading!
Meghan Arbogast
Meghan Arbogast is a 53 year old ultra runner and she live in Cool California. that is Cool! She is a mum, massage therapist and coach. How on earth she fits in high quality training into what looks like an incredibly busy schedule I’ve no idea but read her blog and you will out more. Recently running the Moab 55k in 5:21 – 4th female and 1st master.
https://runningmegleg.com/about/
UTWT standings after five races
| Men | Points | |
| 1 | Jordi Gamito | 447 |
| 2 | Gediminas Grinius | 402 |
| 3 | Cyril Cointre | 389 |
| Women | Points | |
| 1 | Caroline Chaverot | 405 |
| 2 | Andrea Huser | 360 |
| 3 | Silvia Trigueros Garrote | 333 |
The next event on the UTWT calendar is the Ultra Trail Australia on May 14th. The race is 100km with 4,200M of vertical ascent held in the magnificent Blue Mountain National Park in New South Wales, Australia. Update : The race was won by Pau Capell & Beth Cardelli
Up and coming races
Zegama – May 22nd
Grand Union Canal Race 145 miles– May 24th
Comrades 89 kms – May 29th
Ultra Madeira – June 4th
South Downs Way 100 – June 11th
ian campbell adventures 