Swedish ultra-trail athlete, Mimmi Kotka, quickly made a name for herself on the trail running circuit in 2016 when she won the CCC by UTMB (101K, 6100M elevation) by almost half an hour – only a year after entering her first ultra-trail race. Since then, Mimmi has won many of Europe’s most gruelling races, including the TDS by UTMB (121K, 7250M elevation) where she smashed the course record by 46 minutes.

A self-described ‘wild outdoor kid’, Mimmi developed a deep love of the outdoors and wilderness from a young age and hails from a family of foodies and foragers. A qualified nutritionist, she’s also a co-founder of Moonvalley, an organic sports nutrition brand which she founded with fellow trail running legends, Emilie Forsberg and Ida Nilsson.

In this Q&A, Mimmi, who is a Polar ambassador, chats about Moonvalley, ultra-trail nutrition, and her diagnosis of RED-s (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) last year.

© www.inov-8.com/ James Appleton

Rewind to 2009 and Sabrina Pace-Humphreys was looking for a way to get fit after her fourth child. Despite hating the idea of running, she gave it a go anyway, running for a minute then walking for a minute. Eleven years later, the British 42-year old mum of four and grandma of two is a Marathon des Sables finisher and has just completed her first 102-mile run on the Cotswold Way!

Sabrina is also co-founder of Black Trail Runners which was launched in July to create a safe, open community for black trail runners and campaign for greater access, skills and representation within trail running. We dive into this further in the Q&A below, where Sabrina also recalls her experience and preparation for the multi-day desert ultra, the Marathon des Sables (MdS), and her recent, epic Cotswold Way 100-miler (extreme nausea included).

Dutch trail runner Ragna Debats was on flying form in 2017, taking podium spots on vertical running events and scooping the title of 2017 Skyrace Extreme Series Champion. This year looks to be similarly successful, with Ragna winning the 236km multi-day The Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica (setting a new course record in the process). Thankfully the race season isn’t in full swing yet and she’s managed to squeeze some time in this month to answer my questions!

Ahead of the Trail World Championship in May, I quizzed the Merrell ambassador (and mum to 3-year-old daughter, Ona) on how she prepares for ultra distance trail events. Spoiler: it’s not the long runs you might imagine.

Photo Credit: Damiano Levati for Red Bull

A new addition to the 2017 race calendar, the Vertical Kilometer™ World Circuit hopes to capitalise on the growing popularity of uphill, vertical racing with the introduction of a competitive series.

A spin-off of the popular Skyrunner World Series, the VK World Circuit includes 16 vertical kilometre races around Europe (plus one in the US), raced as a series. The idea: gain points for your position in each race and compete for the overall series win. A mix of new courses and classic race routes, the race length actually varies from 1km to a max of 5km.

For us mere mortals, however, it’s not about racing but the simple (!) goal of reaching the summit to enjoy a nauseous mix of elation and total exhaustion.