American David Sinclair avenged a drop at this race last year by winning the 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon in course-record time. In this interview, David talks about how the race played out between the top men, how rain in the days leading up to the event made for fast conditions, and how he took risks to finally open a gap on the descent that he was able to hold until the finish.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon results article.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
David Sinclair Post-2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with David Sinclair. He’s the champion of the 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. Congratulations, David. How does that feel?
David Sinclair: Thank you. It’s, yeah, just an absolutely incredible day. I’m so stoked. The race just went way beyond expectations. Everything just clicked today, was perfect.
I had a really, really tough DNF in a storm last year with near hypothermia and it was my first ever DNF. I was like, “I’m going to hurt myself and have a medical condition,” so I made the tough call to drop out. And I was like, “This race is so cool. I want to come back on a year it’s not a storm and get to the finish line.” So right after DNFing, I was like, “I’m coming back next year,” and yeah, I made it.
iRunFar: You did more than made it. You did okay.
Sinclair: Yeah. The winter wasn’t great for training, but I’ve been trying to start building toward Western States 100, and I thought this would fit as a good little fitness test, and a really nice competitive field, and it just fit in the schedule.
So I made sure to come back. I had 10 days here before the race this year, so I got four good recon training runs on the course. Saw the majority of the key sections. I felt that was really helpful for understanding the race and being more prepared this year.
iRunFar: So, backing up to this race, you were at the Canyons 25k, what was that, about four weeks ago?
Sinclair: Just two weeks ago.
iRunFar: So did you come straight here from there?
Sinclair: Yeah, I had a day home in Vermont, and I repacked my bag and went to Boston and got an international flight.
iRunFar: So you tuned up for this with that?
Sinclair: Yeah, that was just a bonus. I went out and got a run or two on the Western States course.
iRunFar: Got it.
Sinclair: And there was this weird thing with UTMB, where I got second at CCC, and they say, “Well, if you want to come back to UTMB races next year, then you’ve got to have a stone.”
iRunFar: Go get a stone.
Sinclair: I didn’t know that. So, I’m doing Western States, but that’s a big if. You don’t get the stones if you don’t finish. So they’re like, “Maybe you should come do a short race.” I’m like, “Okay.” It was a nice excuse to go out to California and get a little short tune-up race.
iRunFar: And collect the requisite stone.
Sinclair: And I got my stone, so I signed up a couple days ago for CCC again.
iRunFar: Amazing. You said it was a bit of a tough winter for you. What happened or what went on?
Sinclair: Oh, well last year I was doing all this U.S. ski mountaineering stuff, and it was really fun, but I did 25, 30 ski races and then went right into running season, and it ended up being like, Transvulcania last year was tough, but then I rebounded, had a good running season, but with deciding to do Western States, that was the big goal. I was just burnt out after a long year, and I was like, “I should run more.”
So I decided not to do much ski racing, and then being in Vermont in the winter, and trying to train a little more for running, and some knee injuries again. Yeah, it wasn’t a great winter, but been moving in the right direction the last month and a half.
And yeah, I was not sure I was fit yet. I haven’t done any real intervals, just trying to do as much mileage as I can, trying to get ready for Western States. But after the Canyon 25k went quite surprisingly well off no taper or anything, I was like, “Okay, I can come here and see where the fitness is at.” And I really surprised myself today.
iRunFar: So let’s talk about today just a little bit. It looked like maybe you were pace setting for a good chunk of the day.
Sinclair: I remember I was trying to think about last year and how it was cold, so a lot of things went wrong. I think I wasn’t digesting, and it just felt really a little too hard all the time. So I was like, “I want to be a little more conservative at the start.”
And it was actually quite windy the first hour or so, so I just tucked in the pack, and was just trying to be as relaxed as possible. And then as soon as I started hitting the gradual downhills with the cool weather, and it rained a bunch the last couple of days, so normally those climbs are just this loose volcanic gravel, and the harder you push, the more you sink in it.
iRunFar: That’s why people were so fast.
Sinclair: It’s so slow. And it was perfect, just enough moisture to hold it together. It didn’t crumble underfoot. So it was just you were running so much faster for way less effort compared to normal.
Even a week ago, I did my last long run at Los Canarios, and I was like, “Oh, this is so miserable,” going up because you run, and it was sunny and hot that day. And then you turn around, and it feels really nice coming back down with the loose gravel, but going up, it’s just so hard to run in.
And today it was perfect, and I think that could be half of why the times were so fast. And then just, yeah, a really competitive race, people pushing each other, and cool weather. I barely felt like I was sweating out there.
It was just like, a lot of people say this is a hot race, and it was chilly at the start. Before the sun rose, the wind picked up, and I was like, “Oh man, I should have brought a jacket.” But then it was just perfect on the ridge. The wind died down, and then we were running through clouds down to Tazacorte. It usually just gets hotter and hotter, but I was like, “I’m a little warm at the bottom,” but I just splashed water, and I was like, “Okay, I can get a couple more miles to the finish.”
iRunFar: Through maybe it was 30-ish k in, it looked like you had broken from the field and caught a little bit of a gap from the guys behind you. Was that intentional? Did that just happen naturally? What happened there?
Sinclair: I guess, I think it was Damien [Humbert] who was out front a good minute, and then I was running with Petter [Engdahl], and Nadir [Maguet], and then Ben [Dhiman] was with us. We were that pack running together, working together, just trying to be comfortable.
And then I was like, “Oh, I feel good when we started running downhill.” So Ben and I got a little bit ahead, and we pretty much, I think, had caught Damien at the El Pilar, and with Abel [Recknold], my team manager, they were the best. I just did the super quick, don’t-even-stop-running really exchange, and then I just kept rolling.
Then I was in the lead with Ben, and then as we started climbing, I think he was breathing a little bit harder, and I was like, “Okay, this is good.” And so as we started really climbing again, I got a little bit ahead, and I could see those two guys right behind me.
But then, eventually, I was like, “Oh, they’re getting further behind. I still feel so much better compared to this point last year.” I’m looking at the splits. We’d been five minutes under at El Pilar, and I was like, “I’m moving way better, so I could be under five hours or something at El Roque if nothing goes wrong.”
iRunFar: Right.
Sinclair: And I was like, “Oh man, I’m moving so, so well.” And I was, I couldn’t see anyone behind me. So I was like, “I might have this in the bag.” And then right before the Pico de la Cruz, I look back, and there’s Petter, and he’s just pop, pop, pop.
And he comes by me, and that was the low point for the race, and he was pushing the climbs. I was feeling the altitude. My stomach was …
iRunFar: This is around the high point of the course, right?
Sinclair: Near the high point.
iRunFar: Okay.
Sinclair: And he kept stretching these super little steep climbs, so then it goes down again and he’d have to call out, and some of the marathoners don’t hear you, so it slows him down, and that would allow me to catch back up.
And so he finally broke me and got five seconds ahead right at the high point. But then we started going downhill and I could catch back up. So I did another quick exchange, just took one flask, just had not even used the vest for the downhill.
And I was like, “Well, Petter seems really strong climbing. I don’t want to be running, having such a good day and then end up getting second of such a good run.” So I said-
iRunFar: With the climb to the finish at the very end, yeah.
Sinclair: Yeah, with the climb, I was like, “I’m just going to take some risk and just really go for it on this downhill, and hope the quads hold up, hope I don’t roll an ankle.”
And it clicked, and I couldn’t believe how well I just held up all the way down. And then I got down there, and I was like, “I don’t know how much of a gap I have.” So I got some last Coke at the Tazacorte aid station and that’s the only part I didn’t know where the course went. And you’re in this weird wash, and you’re hot for the first time, and you’re just really tired, and then it just kicks up, and you’re like, “Okay, I just got to keep moving because I don’t know how much of a gap I had.
iRunFar: Were you running scared or …
Sinclair: I was running a little scared, and then I was yelling, asking, “Anyone know how much of a gap I have?”
iRunFar: Anybody?
Sinclair: And finally, someone says, “Oh, you’ve got seven minutes.” And I was like, “Okay, I think I can do that.” And finally, you come out into Los Llanos, and you’re in town, and the climb stops, and it’s like, “Okay, I got this, and I can enjoy that last mile.”
So I tried to wave to the crowd, and it’s cool how important this race is to the people of the island. I didn’t make it to the finish last year, so I didn’t know.
But especially on a nice day like that, there must have been 10,000 people out there cheering, and they all wanted high fives, and people were coming up after me asking for selfies like, “Oh, I feel like I’m not in such a niche sport for a second.”
iRunFar: Transvulcania royalty now.
Sinclair: Yeah, so it’s cool. They treat you right here. The island is a special place.
iRunFar: Because this course, with that 8,000-foot downhill, is pretty special, you can’t really train for a 8,000-foot singular descent unless you come here and train on the course. Had you done any specific downhill preparation to season the quads before you got here, or to what do you attribute that being your high point for the day, basically?
Sinclair: Yeah, I think it was unexpected. I know I’ve been running a decent amount of mileage. Just regular training runs in Vermont, you end up getting a good amount of vert no matter what you do.
And then I had a little bit of vert out in California before the Canyons 25k. I did another specific session at a ski area. So it’s a thousand feet of vert at a time, but you do it five times and it’s not as technical as this so, I think, I guess that worked well.
I actually did my hard training day right after I arrived, to go from just above Tazacorte and I went all up to Roque. I used the poles. I was like, “Oh man, this is brutal.”
And then you turn around, and I’m like running slow, being careful. I don’t want to roll an ankle, it’s just training, but my quads, I ran 20 minutes off what a good time would be in the race. I think it took me an hour and 40 minutes to do not even the whole descent.
And then I was like, “Oh, my quads hurt so bad the next day.” And I was like, “This is going to be impossible.” I knew it was a big descent, and then previewing it was almost a bad choice because it just made me more nervous and be like, “Oh, that thing’s so hard, it’s going to crush me.”
And then yeah, I think I owe a lot to Petter because I was nervous for the descent, and I was planning to be careful and just try to get down smooth, efficiently, but then competitive drive: I got to do what I got to do to try to win the race. So that brought my A-game out. So kudos to Petter for pushing me so hard.
iRunFar: That’s awesome. It really is how much you can raise the bar when you’ve got people pushing you or you’re working together to do it together.
Sinclair: Yeah. It’s cool when you can actually rise to the occasion because sometimes if that’s all you got, that’s all you got. But there were a lot of super strong guys today, and they were all fighting hard and, yeah, just awesome to have a special day and come out on top.
iRunFar: Yeah. To paraphrase you at the finish, you said something along the lines of, “Today was the best day of my life so far.”
Sinclair: I mean, I wouldn’t say the best day of my life …
iRunFar: No, okay.
Sinclair: … but a good, it was a good.
iRunFar: Sorry, best race. Best race.
Sinclair: I think I was right up there, especially to do it here to … Last year I had some really good races. I had some second places in the big races, and it’s like, “Oh, it feels really good,” but it makes you hungry, like, “Oh, I want to get a big win.”
So to come here, especially Americans coming over to Europe, it always feels special to do it in these hard Euro races, and say we’re not just smooth California carpet runners. So, yeah, this is right up there for one of the most special wins of my career.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your win of the 2026 Transvulcania, and we’ll be seeing you at States in not too long, huh?
Sinclair: Yeah, I just got to hope to recover now. I think I’m even more nervous for Western States because it’s my first 100 miler, and the field is just insane.
iRunFar: Insane.
Sinclair: Heat’s never been my strong suit, so I’m pretty nervous, but now I’m cautiously optimistic. Still haven’t totally decided about what the game plan is. I think I want to try to run smart there the first time, I’d like to get a respectable finish rather than go for the win and just …
iRunFar: Cook yourself.
Sinclair: … cook myself in flames. Yeah, we’ll see. I’m really excited. It’ll be a fun challenge. I have no idea what’s going to happen though.
iRunFar: It’s going to be quite a show, and you’re going to be part of it.
Sinclair: Yeah. It’s really an honor to be at the show. I know it’s tough because I turned down the Golden Ticket the first time, and I decided to do it, and now I’m like, “Oh man, what did I get myself into?” But it’s going to be fun, and I’m getting into decent shape, so I just got to stay healthy.
iRunFar: Okay. See you at States.
Sinclair: See you at States from La Palma.
