Emelie Forsberg Pre-2017 Les Templiers Interview

A video interview (with transcript) with Emelie Forsberg before the 2017 Les Templiers.

By on October 20, 2017 | Comments

Emelie Forsberg returns to Les Templiers for the first time in five years. In the following interview, Emelie talks about why she’s had a lighter racing season, how she’s reevaluated her priorities, and why she’s back at Les Templiers.

Be sure to read our preview and follow our race-day live coverage.

Emelie Forsberg Pre-2017 Les Templiers Interview Transcript

iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Emelie Forsberg before the 2017 Les Templiers. How are you, Emelie?

Emelie Forsberg: Good, thank you.

iRunFar: You’ve had a very limited season this year.

Forsberg: Which season?

iRunFar: Running season—you’ve had four races?

Forsberg: Yeah.

iRunFar: Why is that? I know last year you had a short season but that was coming back from injury.

Forsberg: I kind of reevaluated what I wanted to do and why I do it. In the beginning of the summer, I didn’t know if I wanted to continue. I wanted to change a bit my contracts. I didn’t want to be known only as a trail runner because that’s not who I am. I just needed to make it clear for myself and then for my sponsors, so I took time to do that.

iRunFar: If you don’t mind sharing, what values did you really find that you wanted to focus on? Who is Emelie Forsberg?

Forsberg: I wanted the freedom to do ski mountaineering as much as I do running as much as I do alpinism. I’m not an alpinist, but I want to have the possibility to take time to do that. I know that’s super luxury to say, “I want to do this and this and this,” but then I said, “That’s what I want to do.” If I can’t do it with how I’m working with my sponsors now, maybe I should just change or go back to do something else. So I needed to clarify that for myself and see that I would be as happy to work with something else and do this in my spare time. I needed to figure things out.

iRunFar: In the end you decided to continue with sport as number one?

Forsberg: Yeah, exactly, but just a bit more…

iRunFar: On your own schedule? With your own priorities?

Forsberg: Yeah, with my own priorities in a way.

iRunFar: You went to the Himalayas in the spring and because of that you couldn’t run some races like Transvulcania

Forsberg: Yeah, and also I lost a bit of motivation. I took it slow because I wanted to come back from skiing to running really well not to injure the knee. It’s difficult switching from when I ski to when I run, and with the knee, I didn’t know how it was going to be. So I was really, really slow. I didn’t do as many miles per week as I did before. It was just a lot of things going on. I just needed more time than to do races every weekend.

iRunFar: Now you’re back. You had a decent race at OCC, and then you won Glen Coe. How was that?

Forsberg: OCC, I was happy. As I said, I haven’t been training as much as I did before, not as many miles at all. So, that was really hard. After five hours, I was just dead. It was such a fun feeling because in long races, I’ve always been stronger and stronger. It was a new experience there. I was really worried about Glen Coe because that’s eight hours, and it’s also technical.

iRunFar: It’s almost alpinism at times, yeah?

Forsberg: Yeah, it fits me. So that worked well.

iRunFar: Was it fun?

Forsberg: Yeah, I love those kind of races. OCC, I loved it, too, because it’s fast running. It’s fun to change.

iRunFar: You did enjoy it. There’s a part of you that still loves trail running.

Forsberg: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love trail running. I will always, always run. I love running. I just didn’t know if I wanted to do it as much.

iRunFar: Now you’re here. You were here five years ago—the beginning of “Emelie Forsberg, trail-ultramarathon runner.”

Forsberg: Yeah, it’s so fun. I remember nothing of the trail—a little bit, but it feels so long time ago and so many races ago.

iRunFar: It’s a pretty runnable course but with some steep ups and steep downs. Is that going to be a challenge? Have you been doing much on faster terrain?

Forsberg: The last two weeks I have been trying to run flat. It’s fun for two weeks. I can motivate myself for two weeks, but I’d rather go up than around. Like I said, I love to run a bit of everything.

iRunFar: What brings you here?

Forsberg: I wanted to do a race at the end of the season when I got my motivation back. I’m also curious… this will be may longest race since over two years ago because of the knee. I haven’t been running… I want to see how I am in this distance again.

iRunFar: Test yourself here and maybe again in a few weeks?

Forsberg: Yeah, I need to see if I need to take care of Kilian [Jornet]. Then I won’t go to The North Face.

iRunFar: He’s having a bit of surgery today.

Forsberg: Yeah.

iRunFar: You have some new arrivals at your house soon? Your sheep?

Forsberg: Yes, I’m super excited for that. I’ve been working with my arms putting in the poles. I just need to finish that. In Norway, you need to send things in and get it approved. I hope they approve it.

iRunFar: Approve your fence?

Forsberg: Yes, the fence, the shelter, the water, everything… so hopefully next year we have some wild sheep there.

iRunFar: Your farm grows.

Forsberg: Yeah!

iRunFar: Best of luck this weekend, Emelie. Enjoy.

Forsberg: Thank you.

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.