Run or Die (23 page)

Improvisation has been key to many of my successes. During my traverse across the Pyrenees, we had to find alternative routes to bypass bad weather or snow.

After the most intense eight days of my life, all my emotions erupted when I took a swim in the Mediterranean with my mother.

The tenuous light from a headlamp is my only company on the long night hours of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.

When you hit the tape at the finish line, you relive all the suffering and emotions experienced in a race, a feeling that erupts into a moment of unparalleled bliss.

Here with American ultrarunner Anton Krupicka.

On my ascent and descent of Kilimanjaro, I could feel the great mountain’s spirit in the air, the dust, the light, and the rocks.

Skiing enables you to enjoy the most fantastic, dizzying views, as seen here, on the Pierra Menta with Swiss ski mountaineer Florent Troilet.

Running through mountains enables you to dance with their contours, read their terrain, and fuse with their many forms–in this case, the Mer de Glace glacier.

Why do we run? This is a question often asked by people who don’t run. For me, there is not one simple answer, but I think about it often.

I try to transform downhill stretches into a flowing dance between my body and the terrain, taking steps that flow naturally, as if they were an extension of that terrain.

Once you have chosen your path, follow it confidently. Here, I run in one of the most spectacular places in the world, along the Tête aux Vents, during my first Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kilian Jornet is a world champion ultrarunner and ski mountaineer from Catalonia, Spain. Born in 1987, he was raised in the shadow of the Spanish Pyrenees. By age 5 he had completed the ascent of Aneto, the Pyrenees’ highest peak. Among his many accomplishments in trail and ultrarunning, he is the four-time champion of Europe’s Skyrunner World Series; three-time champion of the grueling Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc; and 2011 winner of the world’s oldest 100-mile race, the Western States Endurance Run in California’s Sierra Nevada. He has set speed records on mountains across the globe, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. He is currently at work on a long-term project combining ski alpinism and running, called
Summits of My Life,
which will include speed-record attempts on the world’s greatest peaks, including Mount Aconcagua, Denali, and Mount Everest.