Fresh off a win at the 2025 CCC, Francesco Puppi arrives at the 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail as part of a strong Team Italy. In the following interview, Francesco talks about slowly increasing his race distances over the years, his win at CCC a few weeks ago and overall success thus far this year, the interplay between commercial running and world championships events, and finding energy from running through beautiful landscapes.
For more on who’s racing, check out our in-depth men’s and women’s previews and follow our live race coverage on Saturday.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Francesco Puppi Pre-2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Francesco Puppi. It’s a couple days before the 2025 Long Trail World Championships. We’re here in Jaca, Spain. Hi, Francesco.
Francesco Puppi: Hi, nice to see you.
iRunFar: It’s really good to see you, too. So it has been something like six years since we’ve been on camera with you here at iRunFar. 2019 Trail World Championships, I think.
Puppi: Yeah, I remember that time. I felt like making it to the iRunFar coverage was already an achievement in itself.
iRunFar: Well, you had a great achievement at that race. You were just shy of the podium, but top 10 in the Trail World Championships is always a great performance. Six years later, you’re back here at another World Championships. How does it feel? A lot of things have happened.
Puppi: Yeah, I’ve been competing in these World Mountain and Trail Running Championships for ten years now, so I feel like a veteran. And I like, yeah, there are a lot of athletes making their debut or like, watching the juniors, and it’s kind of nice to see them discovering this new environment and experience. And for me, obviously, every time is a little different, but I feel like I’m experienced enough not to feel too much pressure in these races and to really focus on what I know is good and just focus on myself and do my own thing in my race. So yeah, the sport has evolved dramatically over the past six years. Now that the Mountain and Trail Running Championships are combined, it feels like it’s a much more balanced and inclusive event. I think it’s going to be hard to repeat the experience, the championship that we had in Innsbruck, because that was a very well-organized event, but we’ll see. We’re excited. I think the field of athletes is as large as it could be, almost. So it’s shaping up to be a very exciting race, which that’s what we’re here for.
iRunFar: Watching you evolve as an athlete through the years, from the outside looking in, it looks like you were focused on shorter stuff. Like, going over 40k was a big day, or maybe like, I don’t know if risky is the right word, but it was something different for you. But then all of a sudden in 2024, longer races started creeping onto your results and your resume. Do you want to talk a little bit about that transition and your evolution? Because now it seems, looking back a year or so, it’s clear as day that you’re transitioning into longer distance trail running now.
Puppi: Sure. Yeah, I feel like I’m just at a point in my career where I’m experienced and mature enough that I can choose different experiences and opportunities, and there’s a wider spectrum. Well, I don’t know. Five or six years ago, I was not mature enough to really handle those kinds of long races that I’m now more familiar with. The first experience was in 2023 at Les Templiers, which is an 80k, 50-mile trail race, fairly runnable. The winning time is under seven hours, and it was great. I came second behind Jonathan Albon. And since then, I think with my coach, we decided to explore a little bit this side of the sport and lean to the longer distances. And yeah, like, why limit myself to what I’ve always done? Of course, I don’t think ego, like, specialization is great, and I love athletes who focus on one thing and become really good at whatever distance they decide to run, but I also love versatility. So yeah, I feel like in trail running, it’s this variety of experiences and races that we can line up to that makes the sport very exciting.
iRunFar: Does 2025 seem to you to be sort of an explosive year in your long-distance trail running as much as it seems from an outside perspective?
Puppi: I mean, from the outside, from a result perspective, for sure. I’ve never won as many races as this year. So in terms of results, it’s by far my best year. From my own perspective, it feels like a natural evolution of the person and the athlete I’ve always been.
iRunFar: Okay.
Puppi: And it’s just that I’m more mature and more experienced, and my mental health is way better than what it used to be even, you know, one year or a couple of years ago. There have been a lot of little things and boundary conditions that have changed, including switching from Nike to Hoka, for example, or just surrounding myself with supportive people. And I think also believing in myself a little more. And I don’t know, maybe I’ve also found my sweet spot with these long but not super long races.
iRunFar: Middle-distance ultras.
Puppi: Exactly, if it’s a thing. So yeah, I cannot point out a single factor that has made all the difference, of course, but …
iRunFar: The trajectory of everything in that direction.
Puppi: Yeah, exactly. It’s felt super rewarding, and I’m just super grateful for the experiences that I’ve had this year. And even in the past, I mean, even what are perceived as negative experiences, I think they’re still important in shaping your personality and teaching you about life and sport. So yeah, of course, there are positive and negative emotions associated with any experience. And I think acceptance is a good thing. Like, trying not to be judgmental toward how we feel and how a certain situation or certain people make us feel. And I think I’ve become just better at that. So I think the technical side has always been there. Like, with my coach, we’ve always made sure to do things gradually, and I feel like my training has been good for a long number of years. Maybe now it’s just that I’ve managed to stay injury-free for a longer time, which obviously is huge. But it’s maybe more like the emotional and mental side that have changed.
iRunFar: You’re in the middle of an interesting double experiment in that it was just four weeks before this race day that you raced and won CCC in quite a competitive field. How did you go into approaching this double and making the decision that, yeah, this is going to be an experiment of focus?
Puppi: Right. Yeah, I’m very excited by this challenge. I feel like it’s an interesting experiment. And we really tried to approach not just one race, but two races with just the same attention and focus on both of them. And we knew that with enough focus on recovery before and after CCC, the CCC race itself could be a huge stimulus for Worlds. So I think the recovery has been better than what I thought. And also, I didn’t finish completely smashed. Like, my first 100k experience at Canyons, I finished completely exhausted and broken. Like, that race was by far the most painful experience of my life. CCC was hard for sure, but not quite as painful. So maybe 10, 12 days after, I was back training consistently and putting in some good work. There’s only been a little setback in the last seven days. Just a little problem with my right glute, which I don’t think will prevent me from having a good race, but we’ll see. I haven’t run much over the past seven days, mostly cycling.
iRunFar: Hard taper.
Puppi: So yeah, I mean, I think going into the race with good feelings is not as important as in a short race, because you have more time to see how you feel and just like, start running the race.
iRunFar: 40k to survive and 40k to thrive.
Puppi: Right. So it’s, you still have to respect the distance because it’s going to be like a nine-hour race, I think, or close to that, which is a very long way. So yeah, we’ll see. But I don’t know what’s going to happen after, you know, five hours, but the only way to find out is to try.
iRunFar: To me, this course is fascinating, and it’s a topic of everybody’s conversation right now. It’s the most interesting World Championships course I’ve seen in a decade of being around these. You’ve recced it, I think.
Puppi: Yep.
iRunFar: What do you think of the course?
Puppi: For sure, it’s quite remote and wild and technical. It’s not my favorite type of terrain, but I really like the place and the mountains, which, you know, makes the challenge of the terrain feel like less of a challenge. So I’m excited for sure. And I think it’s good that I’m transitioning from a very runnable race like CCC, like pretty much non-technical …
iRunFar: To this great hiking competition that’s this one. [laughs]
Puppi: Yeah. To more like, tough mountain terrain. And I think it’s interesting how different communities around the world have a different idea of trail running. So like, here, it’s more like, it’s maybe closer to Skyrunning, and going off-trail, and bridges, and technical terrain. While UTMB is more like just the UTMB trails that we all know.
iRunFar: A bunch of vertical but good trail surfaces.
Puppi: Yeah, smooth surfaces and big trails. So I think even from a technical perspective, it’s good because the couple of long runs that I’ve done in between CCC and this race were more heavy on vert and technicality, but very slow and not many miles.
iRunFar: Do you get something out of the aesthetics and the visuals of the environment that you’re moving through? I’ve heard some people talk about, oh my gosh, this is one of the most beautiful courses I’ve been on.
Puppi: For sure. Yeah, I mean, I feel like there are maybe two things that are very attractive for me about this race, and one is for sure the competition. Like, I love competing, and I love challenging myself with the best athletes. So that is maybe the number one thing. But also the interest comes from the beauty of the mountains and the environment and the trails. And yeah, it’s for sure very aesthetic, which is a dimension that feels like it’s a little bit lost in the pro running space when you’re very focused on competing and training and data and, you know, all of that. There is less space for the emotional side of the sport. But I think it’s important to keep it alive. And yeah, it’s for sure one of the very reasons why I do the sport.
iRunFar: Who knew? Well, I guess western Spain knew that the Pyrenees way out here in western Spain are gorgeous.
Puppi: Yeah.
iRunFar: Team Italy has been a perennial contender in both the World Mountain and Trail Championships. The Long Trail team this year is very strong. How are you feeling about Team Italy and the group of gentlemen you have to be working together with on Saturday?
Puppi: Oh yeah, I really respect my teammates, and I think each one of them has their own strengths, which we’ll see how they play out on Saturday. I’m very excited for Cristian Minoggio, who was like a revelation for the world after OCC.
iRunFar: Yeah, that was a show.
Puppi: So like, everyone was asking, “Who the hell is Cristian Minoggio?”
iRunFar: Googling him. Trying to translate Italian.
Puppi: But I’ve known him for a number of years. And yeah, he’s a crazy guy. He’s sort of a legend, very wild. He lives on a dam.
iRunFar: He lives on a dam?
Puppi: On a dam, yeah.
iRunFar: Like a dam on a riverway?
Puppi: Yeah, but up in the mountains at very high elevation and very, very remote.
iRunFar: Okay. Is he like a dam monitor?
Puppi: Yeah. Yeah, I think you can only hike to the dam or reach it with a helicopter.
iRunFar: Okay.
Puppi: So he’s just out there alone training and watching the dam, you know, which is kind of interesting. And then Andreas [Reiterer], of course, is very experienced. He’s coming from a second place in Innsbruck and then third place in Thailand on the Long Trail.
iRunFar: You should just do your own interview. You’re a great sports commentator, too.
Puppi: Yeah. And then we have Riccardo Montani and Gionata Cogliati who are maybe a little less experienced, but they’ve done well in sub-national races. So I think they can complete the team. And yeah, I mean, it’s me, Andreas, and Cristian who are maybe the …
iRunFar: Headliners.
Puppi: Headliners. But I hope we can go into the race not just for ourselves, but also as a shared experience as a team.
iRunFar: Last question for you. You do a fair number of commercial events, and here we are at a federated event. There’s a push-pull accordion-type dynamic between commercialization and federalization of the sport right now. Any commentary on that?
Puppi: Yeah, I feel like the brands are less obstructive compared to how the situation used to be a few years, even for Innsbruck or for Thailand, where they deliberately prevented some athletes from running for their country, for example, just because they were not wearing the right …
iRunFar: The right logo.
Puppi: Logo on the tank or something, which is pretty dumb. And I think even organizations like Golden Trail or UTMB have understood the importance of working with the federation in order to grow the sport, and set standards, and become more professional. For example, on the anti-doping side, which is obviously very important, and we’ve all seen what not taking care of it in the proper way means. It leads to pretty huge disasters. And I think it’s very important to foster trust in anti-doping institutions. So I think at various levels, there have been positive steps forward. Also representing the PTRA (Professional Trail Runners Association), we are part of a working group that includes different federations like ITRA, WMRA, World Athletics, and tries to involve other race organizers like UTMB primarily and brands to really grow the sport to the next level, which at this stage feels like it’s not a next level on the commercial side, which is already quite advanced, but it’s more on the organization and legislation side, maybe. So yeah, it’s been good, and I feel like there is more willingness to work together, to sit down at a table and discuss, and not just have every organization focus on their own thing. So it’s been pretty good.
iRunFar: Cool. Francesco Puppi, best of luck to you.
Puppi: Thank you.
iRunFar: At the 2025 Long Trail World Championships on Saturday.
Puppi: Yeah.
iRunFar: Have a good run in the Pyrenees.
Puppi: Thank you.
