Eszter Csillag, who is from Hungary but who lives in Hong Kong, is back at the 2024 UTMB following a fifth place in 2022 and a DNF last year. In the following interview, Eszter talks about how she’s treating this year differently from her 2023 race, how she’s recovering from her third place at the 2024 Western States 100 just nine weeks ago, and about her life outside of running as a mom and with a career in art curation.
For more on who’s racing, check out our in-depth women’s and men’s previews and follow our live race coverage starting Friday.
Eszter Csillag Pre-2024 UTMB Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Sarah Brady of iRunFar. I’m here just a few days before the 2024 UTMB with Eszter Csillag. How are you, Eszter?
Csillag: I’m good. Thanks for having me.
iRunFar: Great. It’s great to see you again. When did you get to Chamonix?
Csillag: I came here for the Hoka train camp, which was end of July.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: Since then, I have been here and also partially in Switzerland, so came back for the race actually just yesterday evening.
iRunFar: Okay, very good. I know you’re familiar with this route already. You’ve raced it in 2022. You were fifth, and you did some of it last year, but did you get out to recce it again?
Csillag: I did. I did two time, the recon.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: Yes, and also I have some of the memories.
iRunFar: I’m sure they’re ingrained. And so you placed third at Western States again for the second time. Well done, an amazing time this year. How has your recovery been from that the past few weeks?
Csillag: Thank you so much. Yes, that was a very nice day, and the recovery has been good. I have no injuries, and I restarted, I would say, jogging after four days, but real running or long runs, I didn’t really do till I didn’t get back here to Chamonix. The month of July, I was training, but it was just easing back into running to make sure that I’m well rested and there are no hidden injuries.
I think also mentally it was good to give some time to the family, yeah. I think seeing that I’m doing the two 100 milers within two months, it’s has been okay, good.
iRunFar: Then obviously, you took extra recovery time, but when you did kind of resume your training, have you changed it much from the flat fast training you do for Western States? Have you taken out your poles and tried to get in more climbing?
Csillag: Yes. That’s an interesting experience because after all that fast running, you get the poles and you get the hiking and everything slows down, and you think, “This is extremely slow, and it’s like what is happening?” But I also realized that probably last year I went with the same speed into the race rather than changing gears and adapting myself to what UTMB requires. Hopefully, I am aware of the changes of the terrain and ready to find my beat.
iRunFar: Okay, that sounds good because the opening section of UTMB is quite runnable, and I suppose you could mistakenly get into Western States mode in that first few kilometers.
Csillag: Yes, exactly.
iRunFar: Okay. Then, you had a really good result here the year before last in 2022 when you were still fairly new to big distances. I think it was your first hundred miler, isn’t it?
Csillag: Yes.
iRunFar: Yeah, and you placed fifth then.
Csillag: I remember you waiting for me at Vallorcine.
iRunFar: Yeah. You were just flying. But obviously, that was a brilliant run, but you’ve got so much more experience since that in the last few years and you’ve two more one hundred milers done. So is there anything that, because of what you’ve learned that you’ll do different this time?
Csillag: I do think that was my good UTMB. So it’s still something that even though it was the first a hundred miler race that I did, it’s still, it was a race that I went back in my mind and thought what I did well and how things went during that day, and for sure the other races that I did since then gave me more experience.
Sometimes I am not necessarily aware of how I am different compared to 2022, but I always hope that my fitness is better, that I am in better shape. And with the experience also, I am much more focused on other small details that I might didn’t think about that in 2022.
iRunFar: I suppose things like kit and nutrition and that you just have more honed.
Csillag: Yes, yes. And mandatory gear.
iRunFar: Okay. Yeah.
Csillag: Lighter.
iRunFar: Oh great. That’s important. And then when we first got to know you are on iRunFar a few years ago, it was 2021, and I think that was when a lot of the running world got to know you and then you had a lot more going on. You were working in the field of art curation as well, and you were doing a PhD. So just wondering now, do you still have all this as well or have you transitioned into full-time running?
Csillag: I have to submit the final version of my dissertation end of September. So after UTMB, I have to clean up the last things in the dissertation and submit it to the library. And I got into a postdoc. So that is what I will start after. And I do some advisory, but it’s really just a few hours and it’s very minimal. They are more pressuring projects at the moment.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: I can’t handle more because I also want to make sure that I have enough time with my daughters.
iRunFar: Of course. And do you find it actually helpful for your running to have other things and other projects on the side to switch your brain over to?
Csillag: Absolutely. I do love what I do, like the PhD and also the advisory. For me, it’s so important that I am intellectually challenged.
iRunFar: Of course.
Csillag: I just realized that I need to be challenged physically, but also intellectually, and it just keeps me grounded. And what I find that as long as I make sure that I am not stressed, instead I am recharging myself from having more on my plate, it’s a good thing.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: And I also think that sometimes with a lot of training, it’s so good that when I focus on something else, even though it’s maybe the PhD or maybe advisory, but still it’s totally not about running. So it’s a good, it’s almost like recovering because you’re not thinking about running.
iRunFar: That sounds good. And then are you still involved in the Pro Trial Runners Association?
Csillag: Yes.
iRunFar: You do some work for them, too, and is that a big time commitment to, how does that fit in?
Csillag: We have, so I’m co-leading with Kaytlyn Gerbin, the Women Equality Working Group, and we have an amazing group of women that we generate a lot of projects for our staff, which is really good. I have to say that during these two months or two and a half months, I was a bit more from the distance getting connected to all this because want to make sure that I want, when I do something, I can do it well.
But after September, there are already things that I have to deal with and I’m looking forward to that. But yeah, it’s a really, like what with PTRA and the Women Equality Working Group we are doing, I think it’s really important for the sport.
iRunFar: Yeah, for sure. You’re doing fantastic work and I loved your campaign at Western States with the T-shirts.
Csillag: So that’s grown up into something bigger and not related only to, how to say, to the elite or the live stream. And now it became a Women trail fund and there are T-shirts available at the village in English and also in French.
iRunFar: Oh, very good.
Csillag: And it’s a fund that aims to be really inclusive and global. So now we are working to put together a steering committee and it will fund projects that the committee decides and focus on.
iRunFar: That’s brilliant. That’s wonderful to be part of. Okay. And then just getting back to the task at hand, which is running around Mont Blanc, is there any part of the course that you’re particularly excited about or particularly dreading?
Csillag: I decided that this year I will break it down into the countries rather into the big eight stations.
iRunFar: That’s good.
Csillag: So from Chamonix, I will run to Col de la Seigne and then to Col Ferret and to the top of Trient and then back to Chamonix. So I think that makes it exciting.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Csillag: Crossing countries.
iRunFar: Yeah, okay.
Csillag: And I really love the Italian part, actually. I have to say that that’s really beautiful and nice. But in general, I think it’s a course that I like. I even like the part that is after Champex Lac, to be honest. But you just need to be in good shape.
iRunFar: Yeah. It can be soul-crushing if you’re not.
Csillag: Exactly.
iRunFar: And do you have plans for after, are you going to stay around here for a while?
Csillag: No, I’m going back to Hong Kong, so it’s time to go back. I left Hong Kong before Western States, so it’s time to go back. And also my daughter Emma is already back because she started school.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: I want to see her.
iRunFar: Yeah. I suppose your season is a little dictated by their season then with school.
Csillag: Yes, but because this year is the second year, so my husband took care of her, and I have here with me the younger one.
iRunFar: Okay, very good. That’s good. But you seem to be the queen of multitasking, so …
Csillag: No, just trying to focus always on the thing I do. So it can sound a lot, but yeah, it’s not, actually.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: When I do something, I do that thing.
iRunFar: Okay. One at a time. Well, I hope you have a fantastic run. I look forward to seeing you out there.
Csillag: Thank you. Thank you so much.
iRunFar: Thanks.
