Defending champion – and course record holder – Jim Walmsley has revealed why he was forced to miss this year’s Western States.
The ultrarunning legend looked to have underlined his position as clear favourite for the American classic – which takes place this weekend – with his performance at the Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB in Tuscany back in March.
In what was a battle between the last three winners of UTMB, trail running’s blue riband race, Walmsley ran away from Kilian Jornet and Vincent Bouillard.
Building back
The trio were all set to renew their rivalry over 100 miles in California but Walmsley’s bid for a fifth Western States title has been wrecked by a knee issue.
Speaking this week on the Singletrack Podcast from Olympic Valley, which is embedded below, Walmsley explained what had happened since his Tuscan success.
He said: “Basically that race knocked me back to a degree where I wasn’t able to get healthy enough to start putting weeks together.
“And when I finally got back to some volume, everything sort of unravelled for me pretty quickly.”
Asked how his knee is now, he replied: “It’s good. Early April, tried a cortisone shot but that didn’t really do anything I’d say.
“Then in May I got a PRP injection so I’m still building back from that.”
PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma, a type of regenerative medicine that uses a patient’s own blood to promote healing in damaged tissues.
“You have to stop completely for a while after that,” added Walmsley. “But I’d say I’m now finally in the area where I have to start stretching my elasticity and see how it reacts which will determine when that timeline of coming back will be.”
Future up in the air
That raises an obvious question as to whether a return to UTMB could be on the cards at the end of August.
He’ll be at Hardrock as a fan – and pacer – in early July and says he will then head to France by the middle of the month.
He explained: “We’ll be back in France by July 16th, just in time for the Tour de France coming through Arêches [where they have a house].
“That’s basically why we’re back for then so we’ll watch the peloton come through and then it’s about getting some feedback before I can really line something up.
“Whether it’s something like Sierre-Zinal, UTMB, the [Long Trail] World Champs or if you’ve got to keep pushing things back, I just don’t know what the timeline is like to return to the level I’d like to be to line up again.”
Sierre-Zinal is on August 9th and Walmsley has already secured a spot on the US team for at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc-Pirineos, Spain from 25-28 September.
