Emelie Forsberg closed out a tight battle in the Ultra Skyrunner Series with a win at the 2014 The Rut 50k and, therefore, a series win. In the following interview, Emelie talks about which parts of The Rut course she enjoyed the most, what she’ll race next, and why she’s excited for her upcoming skimo season.
[Click here if you can’t see the video above.]
Emelie Forsberg, 2014 The Rut 50k Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Emelie Forsberg after her win at the 2014 The Rut 50k. Congratulations, Emelie.
Emelie Forsberg: Thank you.
iRunFar: Did you find some motivation out there this weekend?
Forsberg: Yeah, yeah, kind of. My legs felt better than I thought because I was so tired the last two weeks as I told you before. Then when I came to the technical, I was just, Ohhhh, this is so nice! It was two technical ridges. I had really big motivation there. After that I was like, Ohhhh, now I just want to finish. But then at the last, Philipp Reiter came, so we were running together.
iRunFar: Oh, really. I saw you finished together, but you ran…
Forsberg: We ran the last 6k together maybe.
iRunFar: Nice, so you had a friend with you.
Forsberg: Yes.
iRunFar: Early, I was surprised to see you out in front alone.
Forsberg: Me, too! I just felt good. I thought that Ellie [Greenwood] was in front, but, actually, she was with Frosty. I was feeling so easy, so I thought I would try to catch Ellie. I thought that she was going to start fast to take some minutes on the flat. But, then, on the flat I felt good, and I felt good.
iRunFar: You felt good on the flat. Go with it. Nice.
Forsberg: Yeah.
iRunFar: You really just showed some people how it’s done on the technical part. Had you been on all of it before?
Forsberg: Only on Lone Peak, actually.
iRunFar: So were there some fun surprises up there?
Forsberg: Yeah, on the… what’s the name of the first ridge?
iRunFar: I’m not sure.
Forsberg: The first ridge was beautiful.
iRunFar: Was it Headwaters?
Forsberg: Yeah, Headwaters—wow. It was so fun, so beautiful.
iRunFar: Beautiful and fun.
Forsberg: Yeah.
iRunFar: So it was a fun race for you?
Forsberg: Yeah, it had very… everything—flat running, road running, nice trails, technical trails, and scrambling. So, it had something for everyone. I really enjoyed the technical trails and the ridges. The last part, it was hard for me.
iRunFar: You wish it was done earlier.
Forsberg: Yeah. I wish you could take short cuts. You went, like, one kilometer and you dropped 20 meters, and then one kilometer and then…
iRunFar: When you’re at that last aid station there is a lift straight down to the finish.
Forsberg: Yeah, why don’t we go there?
iRunFar: Mike? Mike?
Forsberg: No, maybe we can talk after.
iRunFar: With your win here today, you won the Ultra Skyrunner Series. It was exciting.
Forsberg: Yeah, I’m happy for that.
iRunFar: It was a very tight race coming into this. Whoever won from you or Anna [Frost] or Kasie [Enman] would win the series. So, two big wins today. Where do you go from here? What’s next on your schedule?
Forsberg: I will take four days of rest days.
iRunFar: Of that, two days will be travel?
Forsberg: Yeah. No, but then I will… I think I will have motivation to train again because this last three weeks I lost a bit of motivation, but I think after my rest I will find motivation again.
iRunFar: What races are you doing?
Forsberg: I’m going to do a 2,000 Vertical K in two weeks. Then I only have… I’m not sure if I’m going to do Limone and the vertical there, but I think so. Then, my ski season starts.
iRunFar: There’s a big smile when you say that.
Forsberg: Yeah, now I’m really looking forward to that.
iRunFar: As you’ve made your transition on the ski side, you’ve gone from a general, I’m sure you did some Nordic skiing…
Forsberg: Yeah.
iRunFar: But you really have gotten into ski-alpinisme or ski-mountaineering. Do you plan to do a lot of that this winter?
Forsberg: Yes, I think so, because now I live in France and it’s so easy to train and race. I think to compete against the best that’s going to make me better—like compete every weekend. Because when I lived in Norway, I couldn’t do that. It’s hard to progress.
iRunFar: You’re able to do that every weekend? It would be hard… you almost do in running. You race most weekends. But skiing, is it easy to…?
Forsberg: I think the recovery might be easier, but it’s really hard because often in every weekend it’s a vertical and then a two, two-and-a-half hour race. It’s really different than running because you need to push all the time. It’s really good training for me because I’m not good in hurting myself. But there, you just go up…
iRunFar: As hard as you can…
Forsberg: Yeah, and then the down, it’s a bit easier with the breath, but the legs are just burning. It’s a good sport.
iRunFar: That’s raises an interesting point. You didn’t do the Vertical K yesterday, but a lot of times at these Skyrunning events in particular, you end up running two races the same weekend. Is that hard to do?
Forsberg: Yeah, no, I like it, but it was just as I told you before, I felt just terrible. I have been feeling so tired. I was thinking, I can’t do it, but maybe I could have, but you never know.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your win here and on the Skyrunning Series as well.
Forsberg: Thank you.
