World champion talks about training with Kilian Jornet, the secrets of Norway’s sporting success and why this week’s global event in Chiang Mai is ‘arguably f***ed up’
In 2018 we ran a feature with the headline: “Jon Albon – the greatest runner you’ve never heard of”. Chances are you will have heard of him now, though. After originally making a name for himself winning multiple world and European obstacle course racing titles and Skyrunning events, he took gold at the World Trail Running Championships in 2019 and victory at the prestigious CCC at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in 2021.
Following this week he could have more silverware in his bulging trophy cabinet as well. The inaugural World Mountain and Trail Running Championships takes place in Chaing Mai in Thailand and the 33-year-old is one of the contenders in the men’s 40km ‘short trail’ race.
Albon is based in Romsdalen in Norway where his training partners include mountain running icon Kilian Jornet. Born in Essex, though, Albon will be representing Britain at the championships in Thailand this week with his wife, Henriette Albon, running the women’s 80km ‘long trail’ race for Norway.
Albon won the world trail title in Portugal three years ago but is likely to face temperatures of over 30C and high humidity in Chaing Mai for his race on Saturday morning. The three-day event also features uphill-only and up-and-down mountain races but both the mountain and trail events use the same paths.
“There are continuous climbs which are a lot longer than expected,” says Albon. “It’s not really that ‘undulating’. It’s more a case of up for 1000m and down for 1000m and up for 1000m and so on.”
In one part of the course Albon says the runners are set to charge downhill more or less continuously for 10km before then going uphill. “Who can climb after effectively doing a PB 10km in the middle of the race?” he says. “That will be the ‘grenade’ in the race.”
On his preparations, he says tentatively: “I think they’ve gone all right but it’s tough being an autumn race. Everything has gone to plan but it just depends on whether I’ve managed to make that extra spark which you really need to perform well. But I’m never the most confident going into races.”
Jon Albon (The North Face)
Albon is speaking via video from his hotel room in Chiang Mai where he is relaxing ahead of his race. He appears to have a good balance of confidence, nerves and a…
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