Ruth Croft went into the 2025 edition of Transvulcania as the reigning women’s champion and course record holder after a superb performance 12 months earlier.
She had followed that display with second place at UTMB and underlined her current good form with another win at the Tarawera 100k earlier this year, meaning she started the Spanish race as clear favourite.
The race may be ‘relatively’ short at 45.4 miles but it packs in a staggering 4,350 meters (14,270 feet) of climbing across an incredible array of landscapes.
And conditions in La Palma this time around were very different – and so was the experience for the Kiwi superstar as the weather in the Canary Islands – strong winds and heavy rain – would force her to withdraw around 30 miles in because of hypothermia.
France’s Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret would go on to notch an impressive victory and thankfully Croft was helped back to safety.
Emergency call to New Zealand
Writing about the experience on her Instagram feed, Croft explained: “Transvulcania in a nutshell.
“The race started off well, legs felt good and kilometers clocking.
“As we started getting to higher grounds and the weather got worse, things started to go downhill (figuratively). I always tell myself that things can turn around but this time it definitely didn’t.
“The good news is that the emergency phone, although the size of my thumb, works great… had I saved our adidas mom AKA @babs_scheithauer number in it, or even Martins or Rob’s.
“The only numbers I remember off the top of my head are my parents landline back in NZ and my mums cell phone number. So mum Croft got a call (thanks Martin for the assist from there).
“Very grateful for the organisation and in particular mountain rescue Toni & @mikelwiot for helping me in my hypothermic state, wrapping me up and lending me a jacket.”
‘A good reminder’
As Croft was heading back to warmth and full health, the emotions kicked in and she added: “Walking down the mountain wrapped in a survival blanket did initially feel like the trail equivalent of the Sunday morning walk of shame….
“Truth be told, it was short lived. A good reminder of surrendering and also my 2025 Transvulcania take away is a massive experience deposit in the bank, that I know will pay out solid dividends on a rainy day .
“And last but definitely not least – big congrats to these hard core ladies:
🥇 @anneliserousset 🥈 @ekaterinamityaeva & 🥉 @martiskka 👏”
