By Albert Jorquera, journalist specialized in trail / Photos © Jordi Saragossa / GTWS
SOURCE: MUNDO DEPORTIVO
Just a year ago Sara Alonso (Donostia, 1999) made her debut in the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) in the Olla de Nuria. She did it as a true unknown, as part of the Next Gen team of young promises of Salomon and with the illusion of measuring herself against the best in the world and entering the top-10 of the race. She finished in eleventh position. Since then, her progression has been unstoppable as reflected in the documentary ‘Go Sara’, which explains how after two podiums in the last races of the GTWS she had a really bad time in the final of The One Race El Hierro. Sara, however, ended up entering the final top-10 of the Golden and capturing the attention of the heads of Salomon International for its quality, but also for his sympathy and self-confidence. His 2022 started winning the Transgrancanaria Marathon, traveling with the Salomon International team to Cape Verde and since then has not stopped growing: victories in Calamorro Skyrace and the Spanish Trail Championship by Autonomous Federations of the RFEA and, even more resounding, podium in the best Zegama-Aizkorri in history. Her third place behind Nienke Brinkman just 37” behind Maude Mathys in a race broadcast on television to more than 400,000 people has just relaunched the figure of Sara Alonso whose progression seems to have no ceiling. A few days later we spoke with the 23 year old to know how she lived the previous days, how the race went and how she has managed so much pressure and praise.
– Albert Jorquera: Hi Sara, how is the madness of the last few days going?
– Sara Alonso: Very overwhelming, I had a lot of messages and calls. I answered a message to my sister two days after Zegama and she said “fuck Sara, how rude”. I replied that “I had stayed down and had not answered you”. Crazy.
– How had you prepared for Zegama?
– It is the race I have prepared for the most. Last year I had already done half of Zegama with Oihana (Kortazar). I think I must have gone 10-15 times. I came to do my internship in Donosti to be able to have the weekends here. Just after arriving from Cape Verde I went with Jan (Margarit) and Anthony (Felber); then again I was with Dani Castillo and we rode 4 days in Zegama. And then every weekend I went on my own and did the first half and cut back, about 27 kilometers; or the second half, which is longer and I did it less, eh? There you get about 3h30′.
– I have the feeling that you had it very well studied…
– When the dates were approaching, a couple of weeks before, I trained her to race times to Sancti Spiritu. I had Strava references from Sheila (Avilés) and some other runners who had done 4h40′. To Sancti Spiritu they arrived in 2h11′ and I got 2h12′ running at full speed. I knew I had to go at that pace the whole race and see if I could hold on. On race day I got to Sancti Spiritu in 2h02′ and I thought I was going too fast, that maybe I would pay for it in the second part, but… No way! No way! I was even stronger in the second half, in which I cut 2’30” to Maude and Nienke (Brinkman, the winner) only got 1’30”. I did very well in the second half and I arrived in one piece.
– What was your most optimistic forecast?
– At some point I thought that maybe the third place could be. I saw Maude and Nienke as unreachable, but I had competed with almost all the others in Transgrancanaria. The only ones I didn’t have under control were the Nordics like Ida Nilsson, Emelie Forsberg, Johanna Astrom and the African (Teresiah Omosa) who had 2h59′ in Sierre Zinal. I knew she was going to run an egg at the start and thought that at the crest she would get stuck. But well, she got stuck before. But Maite Maiora’s record, well… In the end, some very good people have passed through here: Ruth Croft, Laura Orgué, Azara, Oihana, Sheila… And I said, if they haven’t beaten it, it’s because it’s very difficult. But seeing the times I thought that maybe in 4h35′ I could run Zegama, in 4h30′ at the most. But less than that, no way. That’s what surprised me the most. When he reached the finish line he pointed at my watch for that, for having gone under 4h30′.
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– Did it bother you that you were given as a favorite to win?
– The first few times it makes you excited that people trust you, but man I got overwhelmed. Favorite? Let’s see, you are not very knowledgeable in the world of trailrunning! Nienke is a girl who has done 2h22′ in Marathon. And it’s not like she’s never run in the mountains. People say she’s a trail runner and no, she’s not. Last year in Skyruhne or El Hierro, which are quite technical, she had already done great races. And Maude Mathys is another world-class racer.
– At your age, making your debut in Zegama, there was a lot of pressure and you managed it well…
– Yes yes, since two weeks before I was doing interviews in many places. And in the end I hadn’t really done any marathons because Transgrancanaria is about 3h30′ and I don’t consider it a marathon. The distance scares you a little bit. In Skyruhne I also had a lot of people from home and it was a bit of pressure because I wanted to do well in front of my friends, but that’s also a motivation. The only one who took a bit of pressure off me was Biel (Ràfols) because in an interview he said “I think Sara can do well, but that’s all”. Some people said “fuck, how pessimistic Biel is”, but I knew he had done it to take pressure off me.
– It does give the impression that Maude and Nienke are above, but in just one year you have cut them a lot, haven’t you?
– In Olla de Nuria it will be a year since I made my debut in the Golden. Nobody knew me, I was 11th and I was so happy. Then, in Dolomites I was 8th and the last two times, podium. But in the German marathon (Chiemgau) Nienke gave me 28′ and in Zegama it was 10′. I was telling him “fuck, you only got 10 minutes on me! That’s great.
– You have also been believing it more…
– At the beginning I thought “if I scratch the top-10 that’s good enough”, I was trying to sneak in among all these people. Now I go to the start with a different confidence, a different self-confidence. Now they fear me more, they say “this girl is going to do well”. But I still need to believe more in myself. In the final part of Zegama people told me that Maude was very close to me and I thought I would never catch her. Before, when she overtook me I thought: “it’s Maude Mathys, why am I going to follow her. She’s not worth it. People were telling me to go for her, to go for second place, and I thought “this is my place, this was my goal”. Then I got super close to Maude.
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– Was it the perfect race?
– The truth is that everything went perfect. I drank a lot, I never drink; I didn’t get hot, I was putting my head in the water buckets; the crowd was crazy on all sides; my family and friends were there; I didn’t fall once, I always fall; I didn’t sprain or strain anything. I don’t know, I didn’t have anything bad in the whole race, I had a great time. I have 800,000 videos and I’m super smiling in all of them. I finished very well, I say “fuck Sara, it seems that you have not even made an effort, you should have suffered a little more”. But no way, I had a great time.
– Is there a moment you remember in particular?
– In the caves of San Adrian I was overtaken by the Italian (Fabiola Conti) and I thought “yes man, you’re going to take my photo and video in Sacti Spiritu” and there I hit a sprint that is one of the few sections in Strava in which I beat Nienke. At the aid station I just saw my parents and my friends, I greeted them, I said “come on sprint! Then I was meeting everyone on the climb and greeting “ui Jordi (Saragossa), ui Maria (Fainé), ui Biel (Ràfols)…” . I greeted Biel and he did not greet me because he was with the camera. I told him “well, if I go third, leave the camera and greet me”. These are things that come to me like that.
– In the live images we could see that the people here knew you very well and encouraged you….
– Yes, I noticed a lot of affection from people. And above all, the documentary ‘Go Sara’, made a lot of…
– Yeah, in Salomon we published it just the week before and we put some pressure on you, didn’t we (laugh)?
– Yes, you could have published it a little bit earlier eeeehhh? (laughs). No, it was good because people who didn’t know me told me that I was very spontaneous or told me about my father’s comment, who said that I wouldn’t do very well in mountain races… You see, what a lynx (Rie).
– (Rie) What did you tell your father after the race?
– Damn, he was super nervous the days before. Then as I passed so smiling in Sancti Spiritu, he told me that he saw me so happy and happy that he thought I was going to do well. Then he went with a friend of mine to km 34 and my friend was super nervous, but my father was super calm. Then I called him from the finish line and said “aita, third!!! so good!!!!! Only 37 seconds behind Maude!!!”. He replied “What do you mean, only 37 seconds? Fuck me, I should have sprinted a bit more!
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– At the finish line you went a bit crazy… We saw you arrive with a bell that you took from someone in the audience, you threw a beer over it…
– Yes! I just took the bell from a friend of my father’s, hahaha. I hadn’t thought about it. Many times training the last descent or already in bed I had thought about how I would finish the race if I did well, the mythical epic sprints look great, but that way I can’t greet people! And the beer was because I was in Zegama and I was happy to have a party afterwards in Euskadi, not like in France where they give you a little wine. So I asked someone in the audience for it, he gave me permission and I drank it. Then incredible things happened to me, like someone wrote to me on Instagram before the race saying that if I came third he would give me a Basque cake. And someone showed up with a huge piece of cake, crazy. That was also a great gift.
– Did you receive many messages after the race, and were you particularly excited about any of them?
– Unbelievable, I have thousands of whatsapps and comments on the posts in my networks. The one that made me most excited is that Kilian wrote to me. That he put you “very big Sara”… I can now retire from trailrunning. Javi Sancho also wrote to me, that made me laugh. But above all that women runners write to you: Oihana, Sheila Avilés, Daniella Moreno, with whom I will compete later in the Mont Blanc Marathon… That’s nice.
– Have you noticed much of the impact of the television broadcast?
– It’s been incredible, in terms of impact it’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life. My Instagram is overflowing. Only in Euskadi, which was on EITB, it has been crazy. University professors, ESO teachers, who had seen me on TV… My mother has had customers from the previous store, Buen Pastor, come to bring her chocolates and congratulate her. Or my aitana (grandfather) himself. The trail was a sport of social networks, internet, and he had seen little on TV. Well, the other day he was watching it on Teledeporte, where they said it was one of the most important races in the world, and he was freaking out. When he saw me there and in all the newspapers, he said, “Well, my granddaughter is really good!
– I guess the challenge now is not to let success go to your head….
– My mother always says “Sara, if it goes to your head, don’t worry, I’ll bring you down to earth”. Yes, now there is a bit of pressure that I have done very well and I have to continue like this all season. Now I’m going to the Marathon du Mont Blanc, they’re going to put me among the favorites and I have to keep achieving results. Everyone is saying that I’m 23 years old, that I’m young, that I’m going to burn out… But well, little by little, assimilating things.
– Well, keep enjoying yourself and don’t lose that passion you have….
– Yes, I live it with intensity. I have a lot of fun in the interviews and I have a great time… I don’t know why they let me on the microphones or interview me, if I mess up a lot.
