Jonas Buud Post-2012 IAU 100k World Championships Interview
April 23, 2012 by Meghan Hicks · 4 Comments
Jonas Buud placed second at the 2012 IAU 100k World Championships in 6:28:57. That time is a Swedish national record, the setting of which was his goal in this race. In the following interview he talks about that goal, his approach to this race, and where you’ll see him next.
Jonas Buud Post-2012 IAU 100 World Championships Interview Transcript
iRunFar: This is Meghan with iRunFar and I’m with today’s second place finisher, Jonas Buud of Sweden. Congratulations on your second place. We just spoke offline and Jonas told me it was a 13-minute personal best for him and a new country record for Sweden. He finished in 6:28:57. On the heels of this, your first competition of this calendar year, how are you feeling right now?
Jonas Buud: Great, very great. This was the perfect start for this season.
iRF: This bodes well for a good season, doesn’t it.
Buud: Hope so.
iRF: Did you go into this competition thinking this was going to be a big day, a big record for you? What was your mindset before the race?
Buud: The plan was to run in 6:41, that was the old Swedish record. That was the plan.
iRF: So your goal was to try to surpass that old record. [Buud: Yes.] Obviously you bested it by a lot today. At what point did you say to yourself, “Things are going really well…”
Buud: I think I felt almost immediately that this would be a perfect day for me. The plan was to run by myself and don’t run in the lead as I learned last year. The plan was to run on the watch and go by myself.
iRF: So run by your watch and follow your own time. Did you ever get ahead of your splits or was it a gradual process?
Buud: No, I was ahead from the beginning so I was going out fast, but it was the old time. The plan was to run a little bit under 4 minutes for each kilometer in the beginning and a little bit slower in the end. But I was running faster in the end, so that’s great.
iRF: So as I watched you throughout the day when you began the competition, during the first lap of this five-loop course, sort of in a conservative perhaps top-10 spot. Each time you went around you eased ahead, eased ahead, eased ahead. Was that a part of your plan?
Buud: Yes, a little bit. My fastest loop was the last one and my second fastest was the second to the last one. So I was running faster and faster and that’s great.
iRF: During that time, I guess in the last 40k, when you were slowly but surely speeding up, did you ever have any moments where you thought, “Oh, I’m pushing the redline here,” or were you in control?
Buud: I think I was in control the whole race. I was trying to slow down a little bit the whole time, so it was great.
iRF: So you came in about 5 minutes behind Giorgio?
Buud: Yes. I was almost 10 minutes off of him before the last loop, so I was catching up.
iRF: So what you’re saying is you needed another 20k today?
Buud: Yes.
iRF: As you were running that last 20k, did you kind of have a target on his back or were you just running for time?
Buud: No, they told me he was 10 minutes ahead of me so that’s impossible to catch Calcaterra on the last loop so I was running by myself.
iRF: So it was all inside your own brain. It must have been an interesting experience being out there on the roads of Seregno, Italy, kind of by yourself, running really fast. What did that feel like?
Buud: It was great. I was running by myself from almost 5k or something like that. So that’s a long, lonely day.
iRF: When you went to the difficult spaces of today, sort of like the “pain cave,” when it gets uncomfortable, what did you think about? [clarification of question] At some point today, something hurt…
Buud: No, nothing hurt today.
iRF: Ok, disregard that question. I kind of feel good standing next to this guy right now that I might pick up some good vibes through you. So what’s next for you on the calendar year 2012?
Buud: Comrades is the next big race.
iRF: That’s in about a month or so?
Buud: Yes, 5 weeks.
iRF: So is this a training run for that?
Buud: I hope so. I’m hoping for the podium this year. I was fourth last year at Comrades.
iRF: You’d like to finish one step ahead.
Buud: I hope so.
iRF: Well, if this race is any indication, I think this might be a big year for you, yeah?
Buud: Yes.
iRF: Well, congratulations again on your second place finish at the 2012 IAU 100k World Championships! America is a pretty big follower of you. Some Americans are obsessed with your very fast 100-mile finishing time. So maybe sometime you’ll come have a visit and race us in America?
Buud: We’ll see if I get any invitation.
iRF: Did you hear that, America? Accepting invitations to race with us.
Related articles:
- 2012 IAU 100k World Championships Press Conference Video coverage of the 2012 IAU 100k World Championships press conference....
- Mike Wardian and Meghan Arbogast Pre-2012 IAU 100k World Championships A video interview with Michael Wardian and Meghan Arbogast prior to the 2012 IAU 100k World Championships....
- 2012 IAU 100k World Championship Results Results from the 2012 IAU 100k World Championships....
Filed under Interviews and Profiles, Races, Video ·
Meghan Hicks is iRunFar.com's Senior Editor, a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, and a columnist at Marathon & Beyond. The converted road runner finished her first ultramarathon in 2006 and loves using running to visit the world's wildest places. For more information on Meghan and her adventures, please visit her personal website.
All posts by Meghan Hicks
Nice interview Meghan, too bad about the loud background noise though.
I warned Bryon during the coverage yesterday that Northern Swedes are somewhat tricky to get talking, but you did your best with Jonas ;)
Although technically Jonas is not a northern Swede since Mora (where he grew up and lives) is in the southern half of Sweden :-)
Perhaps not technically, but mentally ;) I live in Skåne, and have a hard time calling Dalarna “the south of Sweden”…
I also have two nephews born and raised in Mora, and they do provide a little helpful insight. But don’t get me wrong, “dalmasar” are cool dudes ;)
Thanks, Meghan. Another good interview to end some great coverage. And congrats to Jonas.