After finishing third at the 2012 Speedgoat 50k, Anton Krupicka finished second this year, coming within 90 seconds of Sage Canaday after being down by nine minutes with 10 miles to go. In the following interview, Anton talks about how his race went, TNF UTMB, and which mountain range he’s hitting this week.
[Click here if you can’t see the video above.]
Anton Krupicka post-2013 Speedgoat 50k Interview Transcript
[Editor’s Note: Thanks as always to Kristin Zosel for her hard work in transcribing all of our video content!]
iRunFar: This is Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Anton Krupicka after the 2013 Speedgoat 50k. Anton, you finished second today. How does it feel?
Anton Krupicka: Good. Yeah, I feel like I had a good run. I’ve been feeling good all month, so I didn’t have any reason to think I wouldn’t feel good today. I didn’t have any bad patches really, so it worked out well.
iRF: Last year you went out, not conservatively, but you were back a little ways, and you made up a lot of ground on Max [King] last year. Was that your plan again this year, to be conservative?
Krupicka: Well, it’s funny because I don’t intend to let a huge gap build, but I just can’t run that fast. I don’t know, what did Sage have like four or five minutes up at the summit? We ran to the top a couple minutes faster than we did last year. I felt way better and just sort of like within myself than last year. I was still trying to run hard to the top. I kind of have what seems sort of like I have one gear. I’ll run the first climb that fast, but then there will be some climb later where I’m going the same pace still later on in the race.
iRF: From the four-, six-, eight-hour days running in the mountains.
Krupicka: Something. That or I don’t taper enough or something. I don’t have that pop or something like that.
iRF: You were hanging out with Max on the first climb, and you guys hung together through the first 20 miles more or less, right? Did you ever have a gap on each other?
Krupicka: Yeah, but it was only… probably the biggest gap I had on Max or Max had on me was 50 yards. There were times when I’d think maybe I’d dropped him, and a minute later there would be Max again. I think he probably thought the same thing about me, but I could always see him. We came into Larry’s Hole there at 22 miles…
iRF: 21…
Krupicka: 21—whatever it is—essentially together, but then it gets quite steep after that and I’m just stronger on the steep grades than Max is. Anytime it was flat or gradual, Max obviously felt better than I did. I felt better on the steep stuff.
iRF: Once again, you had a race on the final five-mile ascent. Last year you were chasing Max down. This year you were chasing Sage down for the win. You were four minutes plus at the top.
Krupicka: I think they told us at Larry’s Hole that Sage had nine minutes on us, and that’s with 10 miles to go. Last year, I remember I’d made up nine minutes on Kilian [Jornet] in those last 10 miles. I was just like, Shoot, maybe it can happen. So I just pushed really hard, and I was making up ground for sure. I think it was four minutes at the top of the last descent. I just went for it. It didn’t quite happen, but I don’t know, five hours is kind of a short race. I feel pretty good to have gotten close to Sage at least; obviously I’d like to win. But it would have been interesting if like with 400 meters left I pulled even with him or something… who would have… I was running so hard to try to catch up to him.
iRF: Not comparing you to Sage, but do you feel like you had a good race for yourself?
Krupicka: Yeah, I don’t feel like I had a great day, but I definitely didn’t have a bad day.
iRF: Fitness?
Krupicka: I feel good about it right now. Maybe it’s as good as it has been; it’s hard to say. I haven’t done any real test-piece runs for me. I’ve been doing a lot of new runs in Colorado. But both Sage and I ran quite a bit faster than those guys did last year. It was a cooler day which was nice. Obviously Sage was being pushed and I was trying to catch him, so that leads to faster times.
iRF: You guys both went under the course record of Kilian’s and Ricky [Gates]’s times.
Krupicka: Yeah, five or six minutes. Yeah, I feel good about that.
iRF: You’ve got a month or five weeks… five or six weeks until UTMB?
Krupicka: Something like that… a month.
iRF: Do you have any big training plans between now and then or are you going to be pretty mellow?
Krupicka: I’m heading over to France on August 11. The plan will be to get around the mountain in three days to see the whole course and then hopefully get up Mont Blanc a couple of times and maybe the Matterhorn. I don’t know. We’ll see. You know, you get to the Alps… that’s why we’re going over three weeks early.
iRF: You can get a little of that desire or that urge to have fun.
Krupicka: Yeah, I’ll have fun so that I can actually taper that last week. I’m going to be ready to race. It’s going to be… you know, I’ve raced in Europe before so I know it’s quite the scene over there, but I’m excited about it. It’s UTMB. Hopefully the weather is good and we can run the whole course. Yeah, should be cool.
iRF: Congrats on a great race today and good luck at UTMB.
Krupicka: Thanks a lot, Bryon.
Bonus Question
iRF: One quick bonus question for you, Tony. People love the mountain stuff you do and are inspired by you and by the peaks and all that. Where are you headed now?
Krupicka: Right now I’m getting in the truck and going to Jackson, Wyoming, and go to the Tetons until Wednesday night when I’ll be back in Salt Lake for [the Outdoor Retailers show].
iRF: Are you checking out anything in particular?
Krupicka: In the Tetons—just bits and pieces of the Grand Traverse. There are some funky, technical bits on that that I’d be more comfortable having a partner and a rope, but I’d like to get a fair amount of it and at least check it out to the easy 5th class stuff—not the hard 5th class stuff. And I’ll get up and down the Grand Teton a couple times in the process.
iRF: Cool. Have fun up there.
Krupicka: Thanks a lot.
