Manuel Merillas Pre-2015 IAU Trail World Championships Interview

A video interview (with transcript) with Manuel Merillas before the 2015 IAU Trail World Championships.

By on May 29, 2015 | Comments

A supernova of mountain running, Manuel Merillas represents Team Spain at the 2015 IAU Trail World Championships. In the following interview, Manu describes his blow-up at the Transvulcania Ultramarathon three weeks ago, his second place at the Zegama Marathon two weeks ago, and his preparations ahead of this weekend’s race.

Read our in-depth men’s and women’s previews to see who else is racing. Follow our live race coverage on Saturday (and late Friday in the States)!

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

Manuel Merillas Pre-2015 IAU Trail World Championships Interview Transcript

iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Manuel Merillas before the 2015 IAU Trail World Championships. How are you?

Manuel Merillas: I’m really happy to be here and fine.

iRunFar: This is your third race in May. You ran Transvulcania, Zegama, and now this. Are you tired?

Merillas: I actually feel fine. I really find myself well when I do races, so every day I try to get a bit better and now I feel really good.

iRunFar: At Transvulcania, you went out hard and were close to the leaders and then you had troubles. What happened?

Merillas: I started pretty fast going from less to more and I got to the top of Transvulcania with four guys. Then we went down to Tazacorte, and I had heat stroke and I couldn’t feel pretty good. I ended up watching the finish line which was all curved…

iRunFar: The straight road was curved…

Merillas: With vomits and…

iRunFar: With vomiting, ohhhhh… Then I would have thought you would have been destroyed, but just one week later, you were second at Zegama. How did you recover so quickly?

Merillas: My recovery is, like, in every town in Spain there are sausages and all the products of Spain. Not even me or my trainer would have believed I could have done a great race. So I could take the spine out with this huge time with this great race, so I’m really happy about it.

iRunFar: What have you done between Zegama and now? Have you just rested or did you actually train?

Merillas: No, I really like to train. I’ve been doing a lot of hours training since Zegama. I find myself loving training. So now I wait for the race and try to do my best on Saturday.

iRunFar: Do you feel confident after such a great race at Zegama?

Merillas: I trust in myself, but I don’t know what’s going to happen on Saturday until the point I go fast, so I’ll try to do my best and enjoy it.

iRunFar: With this race, what does it feel like to compete for a team? You have such a great team here with Luis Alberto Hernando, Dani García, and all the other teammates.

Merillas: If someone told me when I started running that I was going to be on a team with these ‘beasts,’ I wouldn’t believe it. Everywhere you look around there are these beasts. I’ve struggled a lot to be here, so I feel very thankful for it.

iRunFar: Best of luck, and enjoy.

BONUS QUESTION

iRunFar: One bonus question: two weeks ago you finished a great second at Zegama, but your girlfriend [Azara García] won the women’s race. Were you doing all the cooking this past two weeks?

Merillas: No, we compensated pretty well after Zegama… Delivered the homeworks… but I had to pass the mop and clean the dishes because she was tired. Every day we help each other.

iRunFar: You had a good party, yes?

Merillas: Yes, we did serve it.

iRunFar: Good job.

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.