Ultra-runner Lucy Bartholomew is known for a few things: being an up-and-coming young gun on the distance scene, her constant grin, and of course, “bein’ ‘Strayan”. (That’s ‘being Australian’, in case you couldn’t figure it out.) After this year’s UTMB weekend, she’ll be known for another thing: comebacks. After contemplating a voluntary DNF just 30kms into the 120km TDS race at UTMB weekend, Lucy found a spark and picked up 25 female places, finishing the last 7km at a blazing 4:00/km pace, and taking 5th place overall for women.  “I was having some tummy issues early one in the race – and I just couldn’t get anything down. Water, food, gels – the second I brought it up to my lips I felt nauseous, and anything I forced down was just coming back up,” she says. Not long after the six A.M. start, Bartholomew was forced to walk a 15km downhill – which, as any runner can tell you, is a poor place to be losing time. “I think the extra jolting of the downhill just upset my stomach even more,” she said.     It was a shame – Bartholomew had been in Chamonix training and doing reccy for four weeks prior to the race, and she was coming off an impressive finish in the Mont Blanc 80, taking an unexpected 2nd place. The TDS route – more remote, with fewer aid stations, and more vertical per kilometer than UTMB – was to her liking. So coming off the downhill, she was going slowly and just waiting for her support – in fact, her dad who was also in the race – to catch her. “He probably would have told me to stop,” she says. What kept her going? Knowing what was coming – she’d done a proper three-day reccy before the race, giving her a solid overview of the entire course. “I think that helped – knowing what was ahead, no surprises.” And now? “Now I’m kind of glad he never drove by – it was something I needed to get through myself – and I learned a lot about myself out there.”   Nine hours into the race, she managed to get a shot block down her throat, and it stuck. “I’ve never been hit so hard by the sugar in my life,” says Bartholomew. “I think it was because I was just so empty. It really gave me a jolt and let me get back in the race.” She started passing racers, eventually roaring into town at the afore-mentioned speed, passing her last female competitor just 400 yards before the finish line.   While Bartholomew was still ‘disappointed’, the rest of us can agree: it was impressive display of resilience for the young runner. Now that it’s over, what’s in the plans? Lucy is happy to be home – and of course – more running. “It feels like I never left Australia – pretty happy to get back to my routine.” Potential upcoming races include the Ultra Trail Ning Hai in China – she’s not sure if she’ll do the 50 or the 100 – and the Capetown 100 in South Africa.   Next year, she might venture on to American soil. “I’d love to do the Hard Rock,” she says, “but I know people who have waited to get in [via lottery] for eight years!” Definitely not on the list? The Barkley Marathons or anything like it – navigation is not her game. “If it’s not on my Suunto watch, I’m not running – I’m not tough enough for that!”   Images by Damien Rosso / Droz Photo

Any serious cyclist knows that the Tour de France isn’t necessarily the best bike race on the planet, just the most well-known. Those in the know would are that the Giro d’Italia – aka just ‘The Giro’ is harder, steeper, and in a more beautiful location. And guess what? 2017 is the event’s hundredth birthday. As such, it’s natural that Italian long-distance endurance cyclist Omar di Felice wants to take it on, in a unique way never done before, for his new project #ITALYUNLIMITED3500. He’ll do a variation of the route, starting and ending in Rome. He won’t follow the exact route (it changes every year). But what’s impressive? The race normally takes place over three weeks. He aims to do it in just 9 days, starting Wednesday, September 20th. Sleep? That will come mostly in 40-minute power naps, approximately every ten hours. 3500km with almost 60,000m of climbing. Here’s how he’ll do it, section by section. Part 1: Rome to Calexia Distance:1073.2km Vertical: 17346m Omar will start in classic style: at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. The climbs begin quick – he’ll have his first 1000m climb within the first 100k. Says Omar: "The biggest challenge in the south part of Italy will be road conditions: there won’t be flat parts but a continuous up and down and the asphalt isn’t so good. So the first 1000km will be very tough!” His first push will be his longest – he’ll try to go 30 hours before taking his first nap. Part 2: Sicily Distance: 380.8km Vertical: 6329m After getting on to Sicily, Omar will rack up 380km on the way to Palermo. With one big climb (and we do mean big – over 1800m!) it will be challenging. Part 3: Sardinia Distance: 283.6km Vertical: 3039m After Siciliy, Sardinia will be a breeze – 100km less distance and half the climbing. Part 4: The Alps and back to Rome Distance: 2075.5km Vertical: 31556m Now the battle begins – already exhausted of mind and body, Omar will take 2075km of rolling hills and high mountain passes – including one mega climb that will take him up nearly 3,000m, all the way from sea level. Highlights include many of the most famous parts of the Giro d’Italia. Just to put this all in perspective, let’s look at another record in cycling. RAAM (Race across America) record holder Christoph Strasser completed the approximately 4,800km course in seven days and fifteen hours. Faster than Omar intends to finish – but that longer course had only 36,500 height meters, compared to di Felice’s upcoming 58,270. While it’s tough to compare the two, there’s no question the steeper and more frequent climbs are a huge part of what makes this upcoming ride so difficult. Bad weather and lack of sleep are likely to be some of biggest factors, Omar has faced such challenges before – but this is another level. “This ride is simply “different”. A nonstop ride is toughest in terms of mental effort and because you can’t sleep too much. During the winter ride, instead, you have to consider a tough weather and slippery road conditions. But, at the end, I really love both the nonstop rides and the winter rides!” Where he stops every night will be up to his body. "It’s impossible to set a real plan because it will depends on my physical conditions and weather but, for sure, I predict to stop the first time after 30 hours of ride, then to have a 40 minutes powernap every 10 hours of ride,” says Omar. He’ll consume about 500kcal/hr, so fueling is going to be important! How will he do? We highly suggest following him on Instagram to get the highlights of his ride – no matter what happens when he starts pedaling, you have to admire him for even dreaming up such a ride. Good luck, Omar! All images © Luigi Sestili

It was Ryan's third attempt at the legendary race in California, but after getting blown off the line by upstart Jim Walmsley, Sandes’ persistent pace put him on track to grab first place. Now that he’s had eight weeks to recover, run a few more fun ones, and start thinking about next year, we caught up to learn what we could – though we highly recommend watching the video below to hear some of Ryan’s story in his own words. Sandes went faster by slowing down. (Image by Kelvin Trautman, Red Bull Content Pool)What was different this year? In some ways – Sandes went faster by slowing down. 2015 was rough – he contracted Glandular Fever, a viral infection known for lingering. He later realized that illness was part of the beginning stages of overtraining. As he began working back in 2016, there was something else: Ryan became Papa Ryan. You don’t need to be a family man yourself to know what kind of toll that takes on serious athletic training. In other words: it was hardly the perfect scenario to make a big push at one of the hardest races in the world. But long ago – back before he’d ever run his first Western States – South African running legend Bruce Fordyce sent Ryan a note, and addressed it: “To a future Western States champion”. Suffice it to say Ryan had a goal. How to approach it? “I did a little less training than before,” says Ryan. “More focused and more specific.” His Suunto Spartan Ultra was an important training partner – running trail, it’s tough to keep track of effort using just distance and time, so elevation gain and loss was one of the most important things he paid attention too. Going into the event, much of the pre-race hype was about upstart Jim Walmsley – who’s enjoyed a meteoric (and boastful) rise to ultra-running elite status. Jim thought he could set a course record in 2016 – and famously made a wrong turn at mile 92. He was back again in 2017. “Heading out on to the course, I asked Jim if he was still going to go for under 14,” says Ryan. “He said, ‘yeah baby!’ and took off. At that point I held back.” Sandes was at one point almost an hour behind Walmsley, ‘running his own race’ as he puts it. But as Sandes kept going through checkpoints, word began to trickle back: Walmsley was slowing down. “I respect him for trying it!” says Ryan. “It takes balls to even make an attempt like that.” A dream comes true. (Image by Corinna Halloran, Red Bull Content Pool)Then he got reports that Jim had even sat down early in the race. Then Ryan made up 17 minutes over just eight kilometers. At the next station he was right on his heels. Finally, he passed Walmsley, and held on for a win at Western States, the grand-daddy of all ultra-marathons. Since then he’s had some fun – he took part in the Burro Racing World Championships – and also entered a serious race, the CCC at UTMB weekend in Chamonix. Legs still tired, he finished, but in a disappointing-to-him 21st place – although to anyone in the know, finishing at all is pretty impressive. Up next: a project he doesn’t want to talk too much about – stating only that it’s high altitude and far away – and next year’s big goal: UTMB, a race that’s only been won once by a non-European (and that winner came from Nepal.) Can he win it? He’ll have to train smart again – “I think you really need to spend time in that environment, so you’re used to racing in that environment” – but in ultra-running, the human body itself proves anything is possible. In the meantime? Rest, rest and more rest – because rest works. Main image © Kelvin Trautman / Red Bull Content Pool Watch this video about Ryan's Western States 100 experience

As a professional adventurer, I constantly search far and wide for new challenges and new spots to explore. My happiness, my inspiration… essentially everything that fulfills me comes from nature. But looking at how I access these adventures, it’s clear: I am killing the world as it stimulates me. Not only was I well beyond the sustainable level, there was more that the test could not calculate. The heli-guiding, the snowmobile I used for access – these were not added to the thousands of kilometers driven in my F-350, or the multiple intercontinental flights. The truth was obvious: I needed to change my ways. Immediately I decided to try something suggested by my brother Graham at his TED talk. I became a weekday vegetarian and got my family to join me. (It is amazing to think how much of an impact the global meat industry has!) A simple but very effective change. But for me, with my globe-trotting adventures, I really needed to look into my travel. So I quit heli-ski guiding, sold my giant diesel truck, let my snowmobile rust and looked at different ways to get to the trailhead. We are constantly reading about electric vehicles being the future – but I was skeptical. EVs have historically had a limited range ­– which makes them ideal commuter vehicles for urbanites – but useless for someone where I live. Revelstoke is a small mountain town, deep in the Canadian mountains, 250–400km from major cities. With cold winters and deep snow there are many very valid reasons to be scared of converting to electric. The sacrifices I needed to make seem daunting ­– but perhaps they are not as big as they seem. So we had to test it out. My friend Chris Rubens and I went on an electric adventure. Our goal: live our normal adventurous lifestyle while being more sustainable getting from spot to spot. Chris and Greg on their electric volcano adventure. I rented a Nissan Leaf from Ecomoto in Vancouver – a commuter vehicle with 100 miles of range. Far from ideal – but if we could drive down the West coast of the USA, climb and ski a bunch of volcanoes and make it back, we could prove to ourselves that electric access is the future. So first, we met up and climbed and skied Mt Baker, then began our true road trip down south. An app called “Plug and Share” would guide us to all the level 3 chargers, which take around 40 minutes to fully charge the car. This trip was admittedly ideal, since the I-5 corridor that goes south down to Washington, Oregon and into California is littered with these chargers. It’s not to say we didn’t face challenges. The trailhead for Mt Rainier is quite far inland and well away from any Level 3 chargers. But our app showed us a Level 2 charger that someone had set up at their house for their Tesla. We arrived at the park boundary and started charging at Phil’s personal plug. The percentage slowly moved upwards. We had to hastily leave with barely 70% as the park’s gates were closing. Committed, we drove upwards. As we climbed up to the trailhead our % dropped and dropped. 40%...35% and then finally at 31% we made it. We parked and decided to deal with it when we returned. Greg charging down a sun-baked volcano. A great couple of days had us on the 14,400-foot summit and then skiing down a heavily crevassed, but super awesome run. Arriving back at the car we wondered if our first mistake was going to haunt us. Luckily the Leaf has a ‘B” mode which allows the car to slow itself using the engine, putting electricity back into the motor. So as we drove down 5500 feet we brought our charge back up to 50%. A few hours at Phil’s charger and we were off. Yeehaw! Maybe this is going to work! Mt Hood was our next objective – and there were Level 3 chargers right up to the trailhead. A great summit and silly ski had us driving south. Eventually the ease of charging had us pushing the battery percentage as low as we could go, extending each drive till the % disappeared and the ‘KMs left’ blinked out. We realized there was always extra battery left, and we pushed it many times. Never fully running out of gas – or rather, juice. Charging, charging... to make it to yet another mountain. We made it as far south as Mt Shasta in California, where there were less Level 3 chargers and we ended up charging up at RV campgrounds – Level 2 chargers that would take 3-5 hours to fully charge. A couple oddball Canadians, camped amongst the behemoth RVs. While we drove back north, hitting Mt Adams on the way we pondered our experiment. We ended up traveling almost 5000km, climbed and skied six volcanoes, went rock-climbing five times, had amazing adventures and camped in great places. Essentially: our normal lives, with one major difference. We used one liter of gas during the whole trip: for our cookstove. Not being able to move quickly between objectives made us more relaxed. Forced stops every few hours had us re-thinking our Type A personalities. To me electric vehicles are the future, especially since climate change would affect our jobs so badly. My lesson has been learned. Since returning from this trip I have bought an electric Chevrolet Bolt and have fully jumped into the electric vehicle movement. I have dreams of summiting 100 mountains and creating minimal emissions while doing so. It’s a challenge I am calling ‘electric adventures.’ I am 14 summits in, and I have run to some, climbed up others, and skied off those volcanoes. It is a great start and it feels so amazing to be part of the solution to our climate crisis. I will never be perfect – but I can search out ways to be better. All images © Chris Rubens Watch "Electric Adventures with Greg Hill and Chris Rubens"now Press play and follow along on an Electric Adventure

Tell us a bit about your dive history. I was a free diver and still am a free diver. I was lucky enough to meet the legendary Umberto Pelizzari, and not long after joined his entourage for trainings, travels and world records. I began to free dive professionally myself in the early 2000s, and my career took me to underwater all over the world. But in 2005 tragedy struck when my best friend died during a dive. What happened next? After that, I stepped back from competitive diving and began to work more as a trainer and safety diver. I continued my studies in the medical field, and then eventually I began to put my medical competence to use as a free diver. Tell us more. I work very specifically with breathing and breathing technique, with the goals of improving performance and reducing recovery times. Essentially, we’re helping athletes increase their oxygen supply, and teaching their muscles to work better without oxygen. We work specifically with the diaphragm to have more oxygen. Then next is to be master of your breath. To be more conscious about have more air. Mike Maric working with Trek Segafredo pro cycling team (©Trek-Segafredo) To be more conscious? That sounds like a mind game… Absolutely. Science shows us it’s not physical, but mental – apnea technique is really important, but we also know mental is really important! My students really learn how to improve the mental conditions and discover new limits inside of themselves! And now your work includes lots of people who don’t dive and don’t intend to. Everyone in the world can benefit from better breathing techniques! Over the last few years I’ve been working with many athletes from different disciplines – beginning with triathletes, but now including martial arts masters, fencers, and more. I’ve even helped an oncologist who uses the techniques with his cancer patients. How do you help a world champion in fencing? The first goal in fencing or karate is to relax before the performance – reduce the stress and lower the heartbeat. The second is to reduce the recovery time. In fencing, for instance, world Paolo Pizzo is going full-speed for 30 seconds, then rest. During that rest time he moves his shoulders, breathes in a specific way, and recovers very quickly. The first time he did that, a lot of people wondered what he was doing – but it works. How do you use your Suunto? The Spartan is an extremely important tool for me – I use it to see breath frequency and heart rate. Medically educated forensic scientist Mike Maric has taken what he’s learned from free diving and applied it to a multitude of other sports. How can you help amateur athletes? There are for sure some simple exercises to be conscious about your breathing. When I ask people ‘how do you breath?’ they don’t know! They know about shoes and running, they know about eating, they know about supplements! But they don’t know how they breath! We need to breath not with the chest, but with the diaphragm! But you need to practice continuously – the basics, about eight minutes each day. That’s enough time to improve over six weeks – although it’s different for each athlete. No yoga. Ha! I don’t do yoga. I back up medically sound advice with scientific evidence. Better breathing can improve your mental condition, increase performance, and decrease stress. That’s science! For more info on Mike Maric's work visit mikemaric.com

What exactly is it? Well that’s really up to you. For our friends, Kona Gravity team rider Graham Agassiz and Kona Canada’s Matt Stevens, that thing is fly fishing. So, they made a plan, packed up their bikes, and converged in Lytton, British Columbia to head to their own secret stash. Prepped with fishing and camping gear, Suunto Traverse Alpha, Matt’s fishing kayak, and Aggy’s dog Autumn, they headed straight for the goods.   Escape for a moment and watch the video    Learn more about Suunto Traverse Alpha, the GPS/Glonass watch with versatile outdoor functions for fishing and hunting     All images ©Kona Bikes