After ending in third place final 12 months, Spain’s Kilian Jornet traces up for the 2026 Western States 100 a decade and a half after he received the occasion in 2011. Within the following interview, Kilian talks about his lead-up to the race, a few of the components of the occasion which have modified and others which have stayed the identical, how he thinks the cooler climate on race day will affect the racing, and the significance of preserving public lands.
To be taught extra about who’s racing, take a look at our males’s and ladies’s previews earlier than following our stay race protection on race day.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to watch it.]
Kilian Jornet Pre-2026 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Kilian Jornet. It’s a pair days earlier than the 2026 Western States 100. Right here we discover ourselves once more at Western States, Kilian.
Jornet: Yeah, after an extended hole of 15 years, two years once more right here. I’m so excited. It’s such a pleasant place and such a great ambiance this week between Damaged Arrow [Skyrace] and Western.
iRunFar: You wrote in your social media again in February about how this race simply appears to attract you again in. Again in 2010 and 2011, you mentioned you had a good time right here and the warmth bought you somewhat bit. After which final 12 months within the remaining phases of the race, one thing kind of clicked for you and made you wish to come once more. Are you able to discuss that somewhat bit?
Jornet: Yeah. I knew I needed to come back again once I crossed the end line. Like, I actually like.
iRunFar: Did you?
Jornet: Yeah. As a result of once I race in 2010 and 2011, I didn’t really feel good through the race. It’s actually not who I’m as a runner. And I struggling on these flat trails and the warmth and it was like, “Oh, that’s exhausting. It’s not pleasant.” However final 12 months, with a bit extra particular preparation, I loved the race and I ended up feeling good. So it was like, “Oh, it’s enjoyable really to race it.” So yeah, right here I’m once more.
iRunFar: For me, it’s somewhat little bit of a parallel. You got here earlier, you had a troublesome 12 months after which a easier 12 months. You kind of solved the issues of that point. Do you concentrate on final 12 months and this 12 months is somewhat little bit of a parallel to that? Such as you got here final 12 months and also you’re like, “Okay, I figured some stuff out. Right here’s some extra to tweak”?
Jornet: Completely on that. However then I had so many struggles this 12 months with the harm. So I feel some issues that final 12 months I noticed that I might enhance a bit extra on the race techniques and preparation, I’ve been doing that on coaching. And I really feel extra assured than I used to be final 12 months on that. However then additionally the final month preparation, it hasn’t been best, nevertheless it’s how it’s. It’s not that … I at all times suppose you can’t be considering of like what if the harm didn’t occur, as a result of it occurred. So it’s simply to get the perfect to the beginning line.
And yeah, I’m assured of the coaching I’ve been doing and on the preparation on the warmth and on the working. So yeah, I feel each race is a battle prefer it, however yeah, I feel I really feel good with that. And likewise I feel it will likely be totally different race with a few of the youthful runners that was their first expertise final 12 months, like Hans [Troyer] and Jeff [Mogavero] or like [Francesco] Puppi and Thomas [Cardin] that in all probability this 12 months they’re much extra assured too. After which like a Jim [Walmsley] that has the expertise or a-
iRunFar: Hayden [Hawks].
Jornet: A Hayden. So it will likely be, I feel final 12 months the pack was very, very shut all of the race, however I feel this 12 months it will likely be even like deeper on that. So that enables for extra pushing too, but in addition in all probability that some folks go a bit too exhausting at some phases. So it will likely be very attention-grabbing, I feel, to observe the race.
iRunFar: Yeah. And also you’re as a lot a scholar of the game as the remainder of us. You realize precisely what’s on the beginning line with you. You additionally understand how we have now a really distinctive climate forecast that appears to be settling in. Have you ever mathed all of that out and actually considered what this males’s race goes to appear like?
Jornet: I feel it will likely be quick for certain. Already final 12 months it was very quick on the early phases, after which it was scorching so all of us slowed down. So this 12 months I feel it will likely be identical, like a giant pack going very quick, and possibly a lot much less slowing down as a result of it appears to be like like … I wouldn’t say it’s chilly. It’s nonetheless scorching, however not as scorching as ordinary. So I feel it will likely be that. And yeah, in all probability as ordinary, the canyons will make some variations, however nonetheless like from Foresthill on, I imagine that it’s going to nonetheless … If Jim isn’t like one hour forward of everyone, I feel it would nonetheless be lots of battle between all of us.
iRunFar: You touched on it earlier than, however in my thoughts one of many key factors of the boys’s race this 12 months is the expertise and the intelligence. There’s three prior champions, 5 prior podium finishers, six of the ten quickest occasions in historical past, the quickest debuter. It’s simply lots of collective intelligence. There have been wild pushes for paces through the years, there have been actually like come from behind sort of issues, however because the pack will get smarter and extra clever, I simply surprise simply your ideas on that, on the evolution of technique and dealing collectively as a pack and that rising dynamic.
Jornet: Yeah. I feel we’ll see it increasingly more. We see on street marathons, and I feel it’s particularly right here in Western States, that it’s a race that it’s extra about resilience. When you examine it to some extra technical races the place the uphills and downhills play far more of a job, there you possibly can see folks going quicker at the start as a result of they’re stronger on uphills after which they know that no matter. However right here, because the race will not be actually in regards to the power on climbs and downhills however extra about holding the excessive tempo on a regular basis, we actually see this phenomenon of have a giant group after which afterward within the race to see who is actually capable of preserve the tempo. And I feel it will likely be increasingly more.
And this 12 months I feel it’s simply so particular as a result of it’s not many which have been dropping from like accidents or issues that usually it occurs, however this 12 months evidently everyone’s coming right here wholesome. In order that makes much more that I feel it will likely be like … I could be fully unsuitable, however I feel that it will likely be nonetheless a giant group after which simply everyone making an attempt to maintain collectively as a result of we all know that it will likely be on the final hours the one that’s extra tailored and extra resilient that can have a greater efficiency.
iRunFar: One of many issues that I’ve been eager about with Western States is that this race has such a great documentation of knowledge and we all know the historical past of each race. And typically I’m wondering if our data of the previous limits us somewhat bit. I take into consideration in 2024 when Jim Walmsley received, he needed to run away from Rod Farvard on the river and he ran a cut up that’s like seven or eight minutes quicker than anyone’s run for the ultimate 20 miles of the race. Whenever you simply let go of numbers and also you let go of kind of the luggage of historical past, I’m wondering typically might we understand extra potential at a race like this if we weren’t so data-based typically?
Jornet: Yeah, certain, particularly races like that, that it’s at all times the identical course and it’s type of at all times the identical trails and type of steady situations. So we actually know this knowledge. And I feel it’s good to have the change of generations, too, that’s bringing a contemporary air after which like folks is daring extra after which it push everyone. So I feel that’s how the game evolves, like that our era we dared to push tougher than the earlier era. That’s why occasions get quicker. And the era after was pushing tougher, and these new children are also pushing us tougher and they’re pushing exhausting. So it’s about understanding all the information and all of the data that we have now been seeing on the previous, and with that, making an attempt to not copy, however to do higher. In order that’s how we’re capable of go quicker 12 months after 12 months type of.
iRunFar: I feel one of many attention-grabbing issues about you and Western States was that you simply had been right here 15 years in the past after which there was a niche. After all you adopted it remotely, however then now two years in a row, you’re right here. So you might have this actually attention-grabbing perspective of seeing a cut-off date for Western States and now seeing one other cut-off date. What had been some issues whenever you had been right here final 12 months that you simply had been like, “Oh, properly that’s the identical, nothing’s modified there?” And the place you’ve been like, “Oh, that’s type of cool that Western is doing that now.”
Jornet: Yeah, I feel the ambiance is strictly the identical, like these vibes and the help stations, whenever you enter in Auburn, and the stadium right here, the beginning of the race. And the sensation on the course, it’s type of that’s very, very related. When you find yourself speaking with the volunteers, and that reminds precisely the identical atmosphere. What is modified, it’s far more folks within the course, particularly at Foresthill.
iRunFar: It’s like a metropolis, Auburn is true now.
Jornet: Yeah, it’s now. It’s a giant metropolis there.
iRunFar: It’s somewhat Chamonix-esque for a minute.
Jornet: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nicely, nonetheless like lots of work to do to go to Chamonix ranges, nevertheless it’s lots of people. And to have this TrailCon the week earlier than, you see far more motion. And likewise like how we race, I feel that modified loads, just like the crewing half. Earlier than it was actually such as you had been taking one gel possibly each hour. And like ice, typically you had been placing a little bit of ice, however now it’s just like the quantities of ice that we’re placing on to chill ourselves and the quantity of meals within the support stations, that has modified fully. It’s totally different. I feel earlier than it was far more such as you had been extra adventurous type of, and now it’s extra dialed on the efficiency aspect, on the cooling, the fueling, and the data of the terrain.
iRunFar: Zooming out from this race into the world that American path working operates in, you had been right here final summer time for over a month, touring by the American West. You might have a brand new hat to the brand new maybe motion that’s beginning now. Yeah, I’m very to see this hat, this motion, this concept, particularly after you having been within the American West and experiencing so deeply America’s public lands, after which realizing {that a} race like this and all of what we’re doing depends on that.
Jornet: Yeah, I feel that’s one thing that many occasions we take as a right. However we’re working right here and most of our runs are on some kind of public lands like nationwide forest or nationwide parks, wilderness areas, and we’re ready to try this as a result of it’s this type of preservation. Final 12 months once I did the States of Elevation undertaking, I might admire all these huge, wild areas that are distinctive. It’s not many locations on the earth that retains these ecosystems creating purely.
And that’s one thing that it’s necessary to protect as a result of if we do some extraction, some injury to these locations, it’s not rising again. The injury can be achieved. So these ecosystems, they protect hundreds of thousands of species of animals, crops, bacterias that we’d like them to outlive as a species as people. And I feel that even when it’s not an ideal system, like the general public land system, as a result of it relies on the administration and the actions that they’re achieved, however not less than it’s type of lots of safeguards that we put earlier than some injury could be achieved, whereas if it’s non-public, even when it’s like some … Let’s say it’s a philanthropy, that they wish to protect, you’re very near have a change of palms, like that the subsequent era is promoting these lands after which prefer it’s-
iRunFar: Something can occur.
Jornet: Something can occur. And I really feel someday like as imposter, like somebody from Europe speaking about that, however nature don’t find out about borders and species don’t find out about borders. We’re all, as people, we have to protect hotspots of biodiversity. We have to protect pure assets. And if we would like our children and the subsequent generations, and even once we disappear as a species, the species that can observe that they can get pleasure from what we’re capable of get pleasure from. I need my children to have the ability to go to nature to expertise that. And it’s one thing that it feels that it’s at risk.
iRunFar: I really feel like your perspective as an outsider, a European trying in, is definitely actually necessary as a result of my era of People and youthful, we had been simply born with this reward of 1 / 4 of our lands are wild, are public. We don’t know that it was totally different earlier than that and {that a} couple generations earlier than us actually labored to make the lands public and out there to all. And we additionally don’t essentially know that different nations aren’t like that.
Jornet: Yeah.
iRunFar: So I discover your perspective, like coming to America and reminding us, “What you might have right here is actually particular, nevertheless it’s not assured. It’s not like that in every single place.”
Jornet: Yeah, it’s not in every single place like that. And it’s a present that you’ve and it’s necessary to … I at all times imagine it’s not that we personal the land, it’s a mortgage that we have now for the subsequent era. So we have to preserve it that manner.
iRunFar: Yeah. Kilian Jornet, better of luck to you in your fourth Western States. Benefit from the run from Olympic Valley to Auburn.
Jornet: Thanks very a lot. Will likely be enjoyable on the market.
