May 01

Tags

NAFARROA XTREM 2019: SERGIO TEJERO AND ALVARO RAMOS WON TOGETHER PLUS SILVIA TRIGEROS ON WOMEN. REPORT BY ABEL DE FRUTOS

Posted by on May 1, 2019 in nafarroa xtreme, trail running, trail running 2019, trail running spain, trail running spain 2019, Ultra Trail, ultra trails | 1 Comment

..

.

The Nafarroa Xtrem 2019 is over and Trailrunningspain.com has been there to enjoy this wonderful race. On Saturday we had the opportunity to enjoy three different courses in five modalities. NX68, NX33, NX33 in pairs, NX33+NX21, NX21 . 1,000 people in Zubiri, the town hosting the event.

Sergio Tejero and Álvaro Ramos (7h04) won both together the NX68 and Silvia Trigueros (8h48) won the women race. Our colleague Abel de Frutos run also the NX68 finishing in 12h20. Here you can enjoy the start of the race video.

 

__________________

.

NAFARROA XTREME 2019: RACE REPORT

 

From the beginning, Álvaro Ramos, Xabi Zarranz y Sergio Tejero were leading the race, it was a fight between the three of them, changing positions during those kilometers, but at 47km Xabi Zarranz was left behind and Álvaro Ramos and Sergio Tejero were able to continue together till the end, where they decided not to fight for the victory and get into the finish line both together to beat Raul Pérez Nestar’s record finishing in 7h04, Xabi would arrive just 11 minutes after finishing in 7h15. This was the third victory for Álvaro Ramos in NX68.

On women,  María Irigoyen was leading the race almost till the end, but Silvia Trigueros was able to get the leadership just 5kms before the end, followed by María Irigoyen who was not fading and continued fighting for the victory till the end. Finally Silvia Trigueros got the victory with a time of 8h48, with María Irigoyen just 44s after 8h49 and having the third position for Irene Guembe with 9h04.

Women Results

  1. Silvia Trigueros 8h48
  2. María Irigoyen 8h49
  3. Irene Guembe 9h04

Men Results

1. Álvaro Ramos and Sergio Tejero 7h04

3. Xabi Zarranz 7h15

 

 

NAFARROA XTREME 2019: The race by Abel de Frutos

 

The Nafarroa Xtreme 2019 is a stopover in the pathway. The goal this year is the UTMB by the end of August, 170km and D+10000, which I have started to train by the beginning of the year. Once I started to think about the route to that finish line I was thinking about which races could be optimal for my preparation. It is not very common in my side, but this time I have chosen to prepare the UTMB running different races, doing some training in my hometown (Segovia) but taking the advantage of running races in order to meet the long distance training.

Till now, I have run several races, going gradually like Media Maratón de Segovia (21k in asphalt), Madrid Tactika Trail Lozoyuela (25k,D+900), PatagoniaRun 42k in San Martín de los Andes, and now is the turn of NX68, which is in the middle of the first part of the season a hard races with a difficult course which will allow me to train what I am going to discover in the Alps during the UTMB 2019. After this race, I will test myself with 42k in Maxi-Race Annecy finishing up with the 102k Tenerife Blue Trail in June 9th.

After doing the 102k (the larger race I will do before UTMB) there will still almost two months to rest and continue training till August 31st.

 

The Race by Abel de Frutos: I heard a lot of NafarroaXtreme from last year event, from several people I hear that the mountains around Zubiri were very beautiful and spectacular and a friend of mine (Arthur, a great ultra marathoner) run the NX68 last year and he said it was one of the most beautiful races he had run, coming from him it could not a lie, so I decided I had to run it this year.

Arriving at Zubiri on Friday at 9pm, the delivery of the bags closed at 8:30pm, but since I had to pass close to the sport center I tried and check if I could get my bib-number. The volunteers were still there so there was not any problem and I could get my bib-number without problems and avoiding any queue. Then we went to Quinto Real Hotel were we had the room. Very nice hotel at Eugi. After unpacking all my stuff, we went to have some dinner, Eugi is a small town so there were not many places to eat, but we could find a restaurant with a good menu.

Coming to the hotel, preparing all the stuff for the race as start was at 7:30am. This time I will run with my Raidlight Reponsive Ultra shoes (same as PatagoniaRun), the SAXX 2in1 shorts (with its famous ball-park), a Ternua shirt and the new WEIS material what we got in Patagonia, the 100k series Simer II bag-pack, the weis belt and the 100k series Z-trail poles.

The alarm goes off at 5:30am, I have to get some breakfast (as it is early in the morning, the hotel has prepared a bug with a sandwich, an apple and a peach juice), I eat some of the food, dress myself and we go to the start line at Zubiri.

As I arrive late on Friday, they did not gave me the GPS for tracking, just to say that the organization lends a GPS tracking system, system that was working very well during the race, so family and friends could follow the runners during the whole event. There are not too many people, so it is a fast reception. The start line is on the sport center road so everything is closed enough to get everything with efficiency. At 7:25, everything is ready and the “dantzaris” dance the traditional “Aurresku”, and 5 minutes later the race starts. There I see Esther Guijo a friend from Segovia who will finish 1 hour ahead of me. Congrats!!

 

The limit race is 14 hours, I know this is a hard race, 68k and 4,000D+ with long climbing and due the recent rains the paths with lots of mud, so in my mind I think I can make it in about 12 hours, I am not very convinced as I run the 45k in PatagoniaRun a couple of weeks ago, but that is what I am gonna try. The race starts and I start slowly, I was said the basque runners are fast and they normally goes quite fast at the beginning, so I decide to go my way.

As soon as we get the paths, I realized that there will be lots of mud during the course, I have never a race with so much mud in the course like this.

Looking at the profile on the web, I thought the hardest part of the race was the first 16k while climbing to Adi summit which is the highest summit of the race, unfortunately I had not asked the people there or even Mayayo who knew better about the race. The fact is that I fell very well and I get Adi with no problems. The course is really great, there are a lot of mud, but the beech forest is beautiful to see, an electric green color that I have never seen.

A difficult downhil to Urkiaga, we arrive to the water station, today my stomach goes quite well, so I eat and drink with no problems, it is early in the race yet, but I fell very good. Then, we continue to Artesiaga, this part of the race is not so hard and I arrived to Artesiaga (28k) running with very very good feelings. There, in the water stations are lots of people supporting runners, I stop get some drink and food and I can see the climb to Saioa that scare me!! Mayayo tell us “do not worry, after the top you see, there is another one harder“. So step by step I start climbing it. The weather for me is wonderful, the temperature is about 12 degrees, there is a lot of humidity (which I do not like) but I can manage it till now.

 

 

The weather while climbing to Saioa is getting worst, too much fog and starts raining a bit, by now I am ok, so I do not need to take my jacket, after arriving Saioa top, a very hard downhill continues to start climbing again to Iturrondo, the two tops that Mayayo mentioned. Then we have a very large downhill, so I supposed we have run the hardest part of the race and now everything will be easier. Weather also gets better while getting down.

I can run a lot to reach Aritzu, the starting point for the NX21, meaning that from that water station, we will have just a half marathon to finish. I arrive there after 7h45, looking at the watch I think that my target (12h) is there, I can’t believe it will take more than 4 hours to finish as I feel very well. At Aritzu we have a complete water station with hot meal, my stomach goes well (strange after 47kms) so I feel very confident to reach the 11hXX.

 

About 7km of climbing from Ariztu, it takes to me about 1h15, I know there are long downhills so I still think I am on time, but I made a very big mistake, thinking that the last 21kms are going to be easy (I feel very well), I do not eat and drink the same as before, so during the downhill in which the temperature is higher with a lot of humidity made me a big dizzy. I quickly stop, eat a chocolate bar and get some drink and after some kilometers I recover more or less. When reaching Iragi, almost 500m of climbing in 3 kilometers I get the final blow, that climb is really hard and the last 5-4 kilometers are very hard to me, most of the NX21 is passing me and I can hardly run even the course going down.

At the end, I spend about 4h30 on doing the last 21kms having a final time of 12h20. Happy for the time (I expected something like that) but a bit disappointing as being in Aritzu I thought I could make it under 12 hours.

Many people supporting the runners when I arrived, very good organization at the end with a Paella, beer and goods for the finishers. And the surprise, while changing my clothes, a person comes to me and it is Maxi López, an Argentinian runner, winner of the 100 miles in PatagoniaRun in 2018 which I met in San Martin de los Andes, he was running the NX21 and will run the Transvulcania in a couple of weeks. Here we have an interview

 

 

One of the most beautiful races I run on my life, good organization, good course, spectacular landscapes and interesting modalities for the different courses. For sure a race I will come back next year.

 

____________________

.

NAFARROA XTREME: PICTURES  by Abel de Frutos

 

 

___________________________________________________

.

MORE ON SKIMO, TRAIL RUNNING AND MOUNTAIN GEAR

________________________________

Info by Abel de Frutos for Trailrunningspain