After a second-place finish at the event last year, Ekaterina Mityaeva (Neutral) returns to the 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon with five previous finishes to her name. In the following interview, Ekaterina talks about why she loves the race so much, a bit about her run last year, and how she’s changed up her training to come back even stronger this year.
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Ekaterina Mityaeva Pre-Transvulcania Ultramarathon Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Eszter Horanyi here with iRunFar. We are at the 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. I’m here with Ekaterina Mityaeva. How are you?
Ekaterina Mityaeva: Thank you, I’m fine. And I’m very happy to be back here at the Transvulcania.
iRunFar: This is your sixth time here, correct?
Mityaeva: Yes, correct.
iRunFar: And last year you were second.
Mityaeva: Yeah.
iRunFar: Fast, and you’ve probably run this course more times than any of the other elite women.
Mityaeva: Yes, because I really love this race. Our season starts from this race, and all years we come back here and run this race. For me, it’s such an interesting and beautiful race. And for the start of my season, it’s a perfect race. It’s not easy. Last year was such crazy weather. Every year when we start this race, we know it’s a hot race. [laughs] But last year was so cold without any view! A lot of clouds, rain, and the temperature was not so comfortable, because on top we had maybe one or two degrees. It was so cold. But of course, we ran, and we were so warm. And for us, it’s not some big problem. Very strong wind. And on the checkpoints when we stopped, we had cold bodies.
iRunFar: Were you used to running in that sort of weather?
Mityaeva: Yes. [laughs]
iRunFar: If you had a choice for this weekend, would you take that sort of weather or would you take blue sky?
Mityaeva: I prefer warm weather. [laughs] I really love to run races with hot weather. For me, it’s perfect.
iRunFar: Is that the main draw here, the heat?
Mityaeva: Yeah.
iRunFar: You first ran this race in 2017, which is nine years ago now. How have you seen it change?
Mityaeva: Change, for example, this island. Two or three years ago, the volcano started. And I think the island stayed more beautiful, because of the black sand and wonderful view. And there are a lot of people who cheer us on. For example, the race video guys take very interesting videos so you can watch the race trails live and follow everyone. It’s interesting. I think every year the top runners come here, and this race keeps getting more interesting.
iRunFar: Do you feel like it’s becoming more and more competitive every year?
Mityaeva: Yes.
iRunFar: Is that fun?
Mityaeva: Yes, of course. I really love it because I think our sport is more interesting and more friendly because we don’t have any aggression. And during the race, everyone just focuses on their own race. And it’s so interesting. For example, at the finish line, we show how we can push each other. We all enjoy it. For example, last year, Martina [Valmassoi], she won’t catch me. But I didn’t know. I thought, “Oh, maybe Ruth [Croft] will catch me.” But then I thought, “Oh no, it’s Martina!” Maybe I can run faster, faster. But of course, at the end of the race, we lost a lot of energy. And we are so tired because on the top, the weather is so cold. But near the sea, near the ocean, we had such hot weather. [laughs] And these different temperatures are so hard for us. But it’s amazing. I really enjoy this race and this wonderful organization because it’s a really nice race.
iRunFar: The follow-up question to that is: You’ve changed a lot in the past nine years. What was Kate of 2017 like compared to you standing here right now?
Mityaeva: Yes, we have changed. Before, when I started running, for example, I ran this race for the first time, for me it was so hard to run here, because the weather is so crazy. Before, I hadn’t run on an island. Usually, I run in France, in the Alps. But here the climate is so hard and difficult. Even when the weather is without sun, you feel boiled. And when I ran my first race at Transvulcania, I think I took for myself only maybe six gels. And I didn’t drink a lot of water. And I remember when I finished, I was like, boiled. And I took some medicine because I needed help, please. I lost a lot of electrolytes. It was so terrible. But now, every year I know what it is. I focus on my gels, nutrition, water. It’s very important. And salt. That’s really very important, because in this race it’s so hard for all. Some guys cannot finish and stop the race because they lost a lot of water and salt. It’s so hard. And every year, I focus more on my nutrition and electrolytes. And of course, my preparing for this race has changed. I focused on my speed, my nutrition during training here, and saving energy. And I see how every year I run a little bit faster and faster. [laughs]
iRunFar: That is true. I think you’re well over an hour faster now than you were the first time, at least last year.
Mityaeva: We will see.
iRunFar: Did you make any big changes to your training in this past year?
Mityaeva: Yes, in this year I focused on my speed and on more quality training. I didn’t have such big volume, but my speed is now the highest. And for example, I focused on my recovery, because it’s very important. Just training alone is not good. But if you focus on training, on recovery, on how you feel during the day, that’s more important. I did a lot of training for intervals. Some long runs, but not too long, with high speed. And I did more power training, because it’s really very important. Run or speed walking, we lose a lot of energy, and we need very high power. I focused on power training, and I can see when I started training power, how the weights I used for exercises have now reached their highest. It’s really nice, because I can see how these exercises help me run downhill. It’s very big progress.
iRunFar: Historically your strength has been on the technical downhill. Have you done anything to improve that even further, or is that sort of like, I’ve got that good, let’s focus on other stuff?
Mityaeva: For me it’s very important because before, I ran skyrunning. And of course, skyrunning is more technical and more crazy. Sometimes you see the trails and think, “Oh my god. But how can we run here?” And sometimes when we run trail running, we have these parts, but not too much, for example. And now I can see, for example, last year I had a problem with downhill. And now I find what I can do for running downhill more faster. And for me, big goal was I did exercise and with power training. Yeah. And it really helps me because now at home, I had technical parts, for example, downhill, and I can see now I can run more faster than, for example, last year.
iRunFar: So going into this weekend, do you think you’re going to run more of your own race or do you play off more of what everyone else is doing?
Mityaeva: I think for this race, I want to realize my shape, and focus more on my feeling, my body. And I don’t want to see, “Oh, these girls go more faster. Maybe I can run with her.” No, I don’t want to do this. And I want to focus just only on my race and focus to realize my shape. For me, it’s more important, and I want to do this, and of course enjoy this wonderful island.
iRunFar: You’re racing, but you’re also on this island.
Mityaeva: Yeah, yeah.
iRunFar: It’s pretty good. I was going to ask what constitutes a successful day for you, but I think it’s realizing your potential.
Mityaeva: Yeah, I hope.
iRunFar: Thank you so much, and we’ll see you out there, and best of luck.
Mityaeva: Thank you so much.
