Stevie Kremer wins Skyrunning series title, again

“Ski season is in the close future which I’m excited for”

Stevie Kremer, community school teacher and member of the Salomon International trail running team, closed out the 2014 World Skyrunning season winning three of four races to earn her second World Skyrunning series title in a row.
The series includes five races starting in May. Each racecourse must be between 21 and 46 kilometers long, must reach above 2,000 meters and must be technical ascents and descents. In other words, there’s rarely a section of smooth, flat trail at any Skyrunning race. Rather, Skyrunning courses are notorious for going almost straight up and then almost straight down.
The series kicked off in May with the Zegama-Aizkorri in Spain. The famed Zegama is a 42-kilometer race with close to 5,500 meters of elevation gain (that’s 26 miles and 16,000 feet) and holds a special place in several trail runners’ lives for a number of reasons.
Kremer opened the series with a win in Zegama and after missing the second race of the series in July, returned to the scene on August 10 to win the Sierre-Zinal in Switzerland. Two weeks later, Kremer won the fourth stop on the five-race series, the Matterhorn Ultraks in Switzerland. It was that third win that sealed the series title for her.
“The Ultraks was the longest of all of them,” says Kremer. “It’s 46 kilometers with a lot of climbing.”
With the series title in hand, Kremer honored her commitment to the Salomon team and lined up on Saturday, October 11 for the final World Skyrunning series race of the season, the Limone Extreme SkyRace in Italy.
The 21-kilometer course in Limone puts the wood to the runners right off the start as they climb 2,000 meters straight up in the first eight kilometers of the race.
Kremer was in a battle up-front on the initial climb, trading off in the lead. The course then followed a seven-kilometer section of ups and downs before turning back down for good for a six-kilometer technical plunge back to the valley floor.
While Kremer was in the mix, she eventually gave the lead up for good and finished the day in second place.
“I was okay on the climb but I just didn’t have it in me,” says Kremer. “My legs lost the ability to push on the downhill.”
Kremer admits that she also may have been a bit distracted as she had another race looming on October 18.
“I gave it 100 percent but there was a small part of me that had the next week’s race in mind,” says Kremer.
That race was part of the UK Skyrunning and was in Ireland and, in the end, ended up being the toughest race of the season as runners were battered by the weather.
“It was brutal,” says Kremer. “There were 80 miles per hour winds at the top of the course and I didn’t know if I was going to finish the race. I fell so many times my legs looked like I got in a fight with a mountain lion.”
In the end Kremer did finish, and after trading off the lead with another woman, Kremer managed to pull away over the course of the race to win.
Looking back over the season Kremer’s personal highlight was winning the Sierre-Zinal. After finishing in second place the last two times, she won and her feet and name are now etched in stone.
“It’s true what they say—third times the charm,” says Kremer. “There’s so much history to the race and every winner gets their footprint set in the welcome center there.”
Kremer may or may not hang up the running shoes. One thing is for sure: She’s looking forward to winter.
“I may have more running but I’m not sure yet,” says Kremer. “I am so lucky to be able to travel, so if opportunities come up to experience new places and see new mountains, I’ll pretty much go anywhere. I have to figure out what works best with my work schedule. The school’s support has been so great. Ski season is in the close future, which I’m excited for.”