Rory Bosio, Post-2012 TNF UTMB Interview

A video interview with Rory Bosio following her fourth place finish at the 2012 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB).

By on September 5, 2012 | Comments

This past weekend, Rory Bosio (The North Face) continued her amazingly consistent string of top ultramarathon performances with a fourth-place finish at The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. She tells us all about it (and what song was playing in her head) in the following interview.

[Click here if you can’t see the video above.]

Rory Bosio Post-2012 TNF UTMB Interview Transcript

iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Rory Bosio after the 2012 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.

Rory Bosio: Or a version of it.

iRF: Something slightly resembling…

Bosio: Yeah, yeah. It was the only version I know, so… my first time.

iRF: That’s right. Walk us through how you found out about the changes.

Bosio: I didn’t find out until we had our main athlete meeting at [noon] that day. They were like, “Oh, the course has changed.” And I was like, “Okay.” I was a little bummed at first because I really wanted to go all the way around, but I don’t envy the position of the race directors. This thing seems like such a massive thing, they probably agonized over the decision and had to think of the safety of all the runners. So I think it made sense what they did, and I totally understand why they did it. We probably wouldn’t have been able to see many views anyway. So it made it a different kind of thing.

iRF: Yeah, a night race.

Bosio: A night race—I’ve never done a night race.

iRF: New experience—seeing the sunrise. You’ve never seen the sunrise during a race.

Bosio: No, I’ve never seen the sunrise [during a race]. Then finish and be able to go and have your croissants and coffee right after the finish at breakfast, so it was a little different.

iRF: Yeah, this is not American racing.

Bosio: No, not American racing, no.

iRF: How did your race go? You had to change from the mindset of 104 really rugged miles to…

Bosio: Well, the start of the race is like running with the bulls. It’s like … I like how within 20 meters of the start they have a hairpin turn to the right.

iRF: Don’t be on the outside.

Bosio: Yeah, right? The race started off way too fast for my liking. So I kind of tried to hang back and then hooked up with Krissy [Moehl] and got to run some miles with her which was really fun. Then I just kind of steadily made my way up the first climb and then got passed by a ton of people on the downhill. Yeah, those guys, man, they fly. They can just fly down that hill. It was really steep.

iRF: I wouldn’t call it technical, but it’s one of those… maybe the most difficult portion of the course that I’ve run.

Bosio: I think so, too. The downhills were so steep and it was really muddy.

iRF: It’s like a ski slope.

Bosio: Yeah, and you can’t really see. Yeah, so that was kind of hard. I hit a rough patch hiking up to La Balme and wasn’t feeling very good, and got passed by a ton of women. There goes another one. There goes another one. Then once we got towards the top and it was in the snow, I was kinda, “Oh, I like this.” From then on, I felt pretty good.

iRF: Was there any point in the race where you really started pushing it?

Bosio: Yes. I think at about 73k where that aid station was, the 2nd to last one…

iRF: Les Houches—before you cross the bridge back over the river?

Bosio: Yeah, that was it. We had that climb on pavement for awhile out of that. I was feeling pretty good there and I knew, okay, 30k/18 miles—I can go for it now. I just steadily kept the pace up.

iRF: During that, did you get any updates on where you were in the women’s field?

Bosio: I had no idea the whole night. I had told Ashley [Arnold], my main crew person, I said, “I don’t need to know. I don’t care. Just keep the vibe positive.” So I didn’t know what kind of position I was in until about 4k from the finish. Some guy, I think it was the Vibram guy, was holding up the 4. Oh, it must have been 2k to go. I was like, “I thought I only had 2k to go, not 4k!” He was trying to tell me, “Oh, you’re the 4th woman.” I was thinking he meant we had 4k to go, even though it’s not a big deal between 4k and 2k, but at that point it is.

iRF: It’s doubling the distance to go.

Bosio: You’re like, “Wait a minute. I’m supposed to be done in 10 minutes not 20 minutes,” making all the difference. So I didn’t know until then.

iRF: You could tell you were moving up.

Bosio: I could tell because I had passed two women and then nobody passed me in terms of men and women for the last 20k, so I felt pretty good.

iRF: That’s a solid finish.

Bosio: Yeah, I was happy with it. It was fun.

iRF: So you didn’t get to go around Mont Blanc this time.

Bosio: Nope. Not this time.

iRF: Do you think that you’re…

Bosio: Oh, I’m coming back for sure. I loved it. I loved the whole race experience—the spectators, the little kids who put their hand out and you slap their hands, saying “bonjour” to everybody.

iRF: Just wait until you get to go to Italy and what they’re saying; then you get to go back to Switzerland.

Bosio: Yeah, this was like a nice little taste of racing over in Europe. I loved it. I loved all of it. I’ll be back. If they’ll have me, I’ll be back.

iRF: When you get back to the States, will you be running The North Face Endurance Challenge?

Bosio: Oh, definitely.

iRF: Is that your next big focus?

Bosio: Well, I haven’t signed up for any other races except for that one in December, because I was thinking I was going to be so wrecked from this one that I didn’t want to race. But I might do something in October because this wasn’t as devastating as I thought it was going to be physically.

iRF: Or mentally.

Bosio: Or mentally. So I’ll probably do some little race or something.

iRF: Congratulations on your 4th place.

Bosio: Yeah! It was fun!

iRF: You rocked!

Bosio: Thanks! Hi Mom!

* * * * *

iRF: If you had a dance party in your head right now, what would you listen to?

Bosio: I was already listening in my head during the awards ceremony to “Shoop” by Salt n Pepa. [Sings] They didn’t play that last night at the discotheque despite my requesting it.

iRF: You would have danced to that.

Bosio: Oh yeah!

Bryon Powell

Bryon Powell is the Founding Editor of iRunFar. He’s been writing about trail running, ultrarunning, and running gear for more than 15 years. Aside from iRunFar, he’s authored the books Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and Where the Road Ends: A Guide to Trail Running, been a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, written for publications including Outside, Sierra, and Running Times, and coached ultrarunners of all abilities. Based in Silverton, Colorado, Bryon is an avid trail runner and ultrarunner who competes in events from the Hardrock 100 Mile just out his front door to races long and short around the world, that is, when he’s not fly fishing or tending to his garden.