BagaThe sun was rising behind the mountain range and the first athletes arrived at half past eight in the morning at the top of the Niu de l’Áliga refuge. One of the first women to arrive was Núria Picas, who at the age of 45 was returning to competition after almost four years away from racing. And what a way to come back, surrounded by hundreds of fans who were cheering him on as he saw his legs responding, grinding his teeth, picking up the gear. The runner from Manresa has managed to win the Salomon Ultra Trail Pirineu 100 km in a display of courage that has allowed her to prevail in this test for the fifth time. The last time he had done so was way back in 2014. Now, after almost four years in which he had come to think he would never be able to compete again, Picas has starred in a new twist in his long career, shining with own light in an edition of the Ultra Pirineu where she has been the main protagonist.
A year ago now, Picas took it for granted that he would not be able to participate in ultra-trail races again. Her left ankle, which had been broken in Montserrat when she was still unknown, had always bothered her. And finally he had said enough. During the last four years, Núria Picas has led a political life, started audiovisual projects and has been an active mother who did not stop playing sports to escape. But the door to a return to racing opened again just over 12 months ago. “A physiotherapist I met made me believe in my chances of reversing this situation. I had reached a point where it hurt me to walk behind my children or take the bike. I had to do something,” he recalls. In 2020, he underwent surgery, but it did not give results.
So in the summer of 2021 he started a new treatment to be able to recover without suffering sequelae. After working with this physical therapist who argued that he could compete again, he met Dr. Xavi Gasol, who thought the same. They were already two people with the same opinion. The third was Picas herself. “Dr. Gasol put me on platelet-rich plasma and the physical therapist planned progressive workloads for me. I started doing five kilometers, then six … then I could go more than an hour without much pain. I could see that I could to compete again, but a goal was needed. And that was the Salomon Ultra Pirineu.” Said and done. Now, to see if she was ready for a race of this level, she signed up almost secretly for two races, anonymously, buying a bib like so many hundreds of Catalans do. In the Canigó race she finished third and was immediately recognized. The second was the Marató del Montcalm, where she was discovered before she left: she had been given number 1 number. I didn’t post anything on the networks,” he recalls.
Núria Picas celebrating the triumph.
The first race went well. The second, no. When he finished, he was in so much pain that he needed help getting back to the hotel. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to do the Ultra Pyrenees, of more than a hundred kilometers. It was very painful, I cried in pain. But luckily they discovered that what had caused me was the intensity. And in an ultra, this intensity is not as high as in a marathon,” he says. That’s why, at the points along the route of this Ultra Pyrenees where his people were waiting for him, they reminded him that he needed to be sensible. “You’re doing well, Núria, you don’t have to push so hard,” they told her as they offered her ice to recharge her energy. But she couldn’t help but run faster, seeing as she overtook the women in front of her, taking the lead halfway through the course. And they haven’t caught him anymore. After more than 11 hours suffering and enjoying at the same time, Núria Picas has obtained the most special triumph. In the Ultra Pyrenees, at home. After a few years he couldn’t have imagined reviving those feelings.
Miguel Heras, eternal
Miguel Heras has won the Salomon Ultra Pyrenees and has thus become the athlete who has won the most times in this event. At the age of 47, Heras has overtaken Russia’s Dmitri Mityaev after a thrilling duel that has stretched throughout the 100 kilometers of the race. For a large part of the race, the athlete born on the shores of the Black Sea was in the lead, but Heras managed to overtake him in the last 10 kilometers and entered Bagà alone with a time of 10 hours, 38 minutes and 53 seconds, far from the test record, held by Kilian Jornet. Four minutes later the Russian entered, and in third position, the Catalan Pau Capell, with a time of 10 hours, 49 minutes and 39 seconds.
Heras, brother of the cyclist Roberto, finished excitedly. “To be able to win again here is exciting. It was hard, because Dmitri was going very fast, but I managed not to lose his pace and then I started to feel better. It’s always exciting to win such a special event,” he said .
The runner from Béjar (Castile and Leon) has thus won the Ultra Pyrenees a total of four times, and has added this triumph to those of 2010, 2011 and 2016. Mityaev, champion in 2019, finished embracing his opponents in a an image of brotherhood between three athletes who have faced very adverse weather conditions, since when climbing to the top of the Niu de l’Áliga there was snow and a temperature of 0 degrees, but at the end the thermometer was above 20 degrees. With 100 kilometers and 6,600 meters of positive gradient, the race has traveled through emblematic places of the Cadi-Moixeró Natural Park with athletes of 50 different nationalities.
Double for Kenya in the Marathon
In the 42 km marathon, the Kenyans have shone. If for years African athletes have dominated the marathons of a lifetime, now they also control them when they go uphill. Robert Pkemoi has won the men’s category with a time of 3 hours, 37 minutes and 1 second, and has achieved his first level triumph in Europe. And her compatriot Esther Chesang Kibet has done the same in the women’s category with a new record of the test, flattening the ground for the triumph of other athletes from her country in major European mountain races. Both, in fact, have benefited from Octavio Pérez’s Sky Runners project to bring Kenyan athletes to this type of competition in Europe, where they had not been until recently.
To get help, they have gone so far as to sell bracelets with the colors of the Kenyan flag, which they bought for a few cents in their country and sold for 20 euros in order to find the money needed to allow Pkemoi and Chesang to demonstrate their talent. In fact, on Friday afternoon the two athletes were still among the curious who were in Bagà, where they competed equipped by Salomon, a brand that wanted to join this initiative. Hours after selling bracelets, they shone in the Marathon with total dominance. Chesang Kibet recently won the famous Sierre-Zinal and showed what he is made of. In second place came the Catalan Núria Gil, and in third, the Swedish Emelie Forsberg, who was encouraged throughout the journey by her husband, a Kilian Jornet who for once experienced the Salomon Ultra Pirineu as a spectator, and not as an athlete
