The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“There was mud halfway up my calf in some areas”
Stevie Kremer picked up right where she left off last year in the world of Skyrunning. Last year, Kremer won the overall Skyrunning World Series title. Last weekend she opened the 2014 season winning the Zegama-Aizkorri alpine marathon in Zegama, Spain on Sunday, May 25, the first stop of this years Skyrunning season.
According to the Skyrunning scene, Zegama is Zegama. The Zegama-Aizkorri alpine marathon is a classic and the race has a special place among runners and fans.
Skyrunning races are different from Ultramarathons in that they must be between 22 and 50 kilometers long and have at least 1,300 meters, or 4,200 feet, of vertical relief.
The Zegama-Aizkorri in Spain’s Basque Country has been a permanent feature on the Skyrunning World Series since 2004 and pushes the upper limits of the Skyrunning series parameters. For one, it is 42 kilometers long with 5,472 meters of vertical relief. That’s 26 miles with close to 18,000 vertical feet of relief to us Americans.
“It’s a staple in the skyrunning series since the beginning,” says Kremer. “The course screams skyrunning. It’s the most technical race in the series and the fans in Zegama are like I’ve never seen. They’re so loud they push you up the climbs.”
Kremer had two races under her belt heading into Zegama winning the 25-mile Collegiate Peaks race and then the 25-kilometer Sageburner. Meanwhile, she mixed in her full time job of teaching second graders at the Crested Butte Community School. While trips to Gunnison for the Sageburner and Buena Vista for the Collegiate Peaks are easy to pull off, Zegama is a bit different. Kremer packed up after teaching on Thursday to make an overnight flight, arrived at the race site Friday night at 10 p.m. and then toed the line Sunday morning.
“I always worry about that but that’s how I do it so I’m kind of used to it and it’s kind of what I’m comfortable with,” explains Kremer.
Then there’s the new added pressure of her status on the Skyrunning scene after winning the title last year.
“If you do one race well, expectations soar,” says Kremer.
Then, there’s the field of racers. Given the passion for the Zegama-Aizkorri and the fact that it’s the first of five races in the Skyrunning series, the event attracts the big hitters from around the world.
“A pretty strong wave of women run this race,” says Kremer.
Did I mention the course?
“Zegama, in my opinion, is the hardest course of all of them,” says Kremer.
Just to add to the mayhem, the race has a penchant for rain taking the most technical course on the series and throwing in some mud and slick rocky sections, and this year lived up to it’s meteorological reputation.
“When I woke up Sunday morning at 6 a.m. it was pouring rain,” says Kremer. “The clouds cleared a little at the start but it did rain. There was mud halfway up my calf in some areas.”
That said, Kremer was focused on one major goal at Zegama.
“I’m not being a sandbagger when I say I have a hard time on technical descents,” says Kremer. “One of my biggest goals was to push myself as far as I can on the descents.”
Kremer headed out with two other women to lead the way up the first climb falling behind on the descent but charging back in front on the first major climb of the course.
The lead pack then turned into two racers, Kremer and Kasie Enman, and the pattern continued for the next 32 kilometers. Kremer took the lead on the climbs, Enman took the lead on the descents.
It wasn’t until the climb to the 32-kilometer mark that Kremer took the lead for good as she stuck with her plan to push herself on the descents.
“There’s a not-so-technical descent where you could run and you could run hard,” explains Kremer. “In my head I figured Kasie would pass me and I was going to finish in second so I just pushed myself really hard to just be as close to first as possible.”
It wasn’t until she hit the streets of Zegama that she realized the win was hers.
“Two kilometers from the finish I realized, I think I won this race,” says Kremer. “Fans were just lined along the street. It was incredible.”
Kremer crossed the finish line with a time of 4:46:43, three minutes ahead of second place and three minutes faster than her time last year. She was also relatively still intact having survived 42-kilometers of slipping and sliding.
“I was definitely just sliding down in parts,” says Kremer. “I made it, it didn’t look pretty but I did it. No major carnage. I do have bruises, scrapes and scabs.”
Kremer was back in the classroom Tuesday morning and will close out the school year, look to get some late season skiing in and then head back to Europe at the end of June for the 2014 Skyrunning World Championships, the Mont Blanc Marathon. From there she plans on continuing with the Skyrunning World Series in Europe throughout the summer.
