A little shout-out to my older blogging pursuit, which entailed covering the then dynamic sport of trail and ultra running. If you look into my posts even here on this blog pre 2015, you should see evidence of said pursuit. Go back to 2011 and such and you’ll see remnants of the old partnership with old friend Tim when we stormed the interwebs with some pretty successful international trail coverage and commentary.

Sierre Zinal goes off in a few hours, at this point.

There are some big dogs throwing-down in this year’s version.

Six-time winner and seemingly perpetual Don of the sport Kilian Jornet looks to defend, but the boys have come to challenge this legend.

In short, American Jim Walmsley looks to come hard, coming-off his Western States 100 win, where he improved upon his own course record there. He’s a beast, runs big, mountainous trail, fast, and even has marathon/half marathon credentials that speak to his top-drawer speed in these kinds of venues.

But this is the Alps and Jornet’s legacy should carry him deep into the elevated carnage.

Max King, another American, whom I met actually at a race in Hawaii in 2008 (he won the race, I was top-ten in my age group :), who was third at Sierre Zinal last year has to have a fighter’s chance tomorrow.

My eyes are on the Italian alpine skier, Davide Magnini. He won this year’s Dolomyths Skyrace and Marathon du Mont Blanc. He’s a stud and look for him to make all kinds of noise.

Fellow alpine skier Remi Bonnet should be hanging around the leaders, as well.

There are others and I invite you to follow (look to Twitter) and other social media.

This is a classic race, perhaps the greatest mountain running spectacle.

By the way, how about that classic Fognini collapse today vs. Nadal and the continuation of Zverev’s mediocrity.

Thiem has stumbled upon this mud of mediocrity, as well. He had no chance today. Good luck in Cincinnati!

To the point, Khachanov vs Medvedev is the real deal. The Russians have been coming for some time. This should be a doozie. Who you got in that slug-fest? I like Daniil though Karen is simply murdering the ball and this could, obviously, go either way.

Let’s go!