Follow Kelsey and Adam at Ultra-Trail Snowdonia
Hi everyone,
It’s Adam again (Kelsey’s partner), writing to you from Llanberis, Wales where we’re about to begin another ultramarathon season. Our first race of the season is the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 100km and it starts tomorrow morning at 5am local time (12am ET, 1am AT, and 1:30am NT).
This race is unique for us because we’re both running the 100km! We’ve done the same 50km race a couple of times, but this is the first time that we’ve done a course of this length, elevation, and intensity together. We will start next to one another, but will likely separate pretty early on so that we can run our own races. We’re not sure how close we’ll be to one another throughout and when it comes to ultras, anything is possible!
We’d love for you to follow along. As unbelievable as it may seem, we really do get an extra boost from the energy that you send our way.
This race is reasonably easy to follow along with because there is live tracking available online. This link takes you to the 100km race page. You’ll find all sorts of ways to follow the race so click around and see what you like best.
Our recommendation is to follow our individual race pages by clicking the “follow” button next to our names. When you do that you’ll be building a list called “my runners” that you can view at any time. Here are the links to our race pages: Kelsey Hogan // Adam Fearnall
We have friends running in the 100 mile race, so give a follow to Anna Carlsson and Jonathan Van Geuns.
We’d also like to invite you to join/rejoin the Kelsey's Crew Telegram group using this link. Telegram is a messaging app similar to Whatsapp or Signal and is available on the Apple and Android App stores. This group gives people who are invested in following the race a way to talk to one another. It can be really helpful to watch a race with others because the live tracking can often be difficult to decipher! We won’t be moderating this group during the race, so please take care when interacting with each other.
We both accept that just about anything can happen in an ultra and yet we have also spent some time setting goals for this race. We wanted to share some of our goals with you so that you can imagine how we might be experiencing our race. One quick thing though, before you read them — don’t panic if we don’t seem to be hitting our goals. It’s all a process on the trail. We’ll be working with our emotions the whole way and will certainly enjoy the journey.
Kelsey goes into the race as the 12th ranked woman in the field based on her UTMB index (look around the website for info about what that means). Here are some of her goals, including “shoot for the moon” outcomes of a really great day:
Make the podium (the top three finishers in both the women’s and men’s races earn a place in a UTMB championship event later in the season in Chamonix, France), or top 10 women. Finish the race (in 16h, 20h, 24h, or by the cutoff).
Say hi to as many sheep as possible, take in the views, smile at every aid station, have a positive mindset throughout the race, and appreciate the volunteers.
I go into the race without a ranking because I’ve never finished a UTMB indexed race (see “DNF” from last year’s Quebec Mega Trail). Here are some of my goals:
Finish in the top 50, top 100, or top 50% (like who knows right?) Finish the race (in 18, 22, 24, or by the cutoff). Settle in for the long run, think often of Ralph (the last service puppy that we raised), work with my emotions, and share love.
Thank you all for your interest in our running. We are grateful for your support and will carry it with us on the trail. Lastly, if you’re interested, here’s a recent BBC article and video about the race.
Happy trails,
Adam and Kelsey
