And just like that, January is over. At times it felt like it was going to be the longest month yet, but now here we are in the blink of an eye in our first week of February. While we love hard charging forward, we would be remiss if we didn’t take a moment to highlight something really cool that happened in our sport: HOKA One One’s Project Carbon X2.

On January 23, 2021 a small fleet of ultra runners and pacers set out to see if they could push their bodies beyond any known threshold to date. These runners set out to tackle a 100K course in Arizona with the sheer goal of setting records. We watched the nail biting event live and would encourage all athletes (especially ultra fans) to check out a recap or watch the full original broadcast online.
Every ultra starts with thorough planning; proper nutrition, the right gear, and running partners who can motivate you past your breaking point are all a must, but some things you can’t plan for. In the course of a 100K run you are bound to run into walls; unfortunately for Jim, he ran into both a mental wall and a literal wall…. like a fence. A bloodied Walmsley was only halfway through, but carried on to set a new American record, just 12 seconds shy of a new world records.

You can find the full set of Project Carbon X2 results on Athlinks, watch the full broadcast, and if you’ve already watched the broadcast you might be interested to hear exactly what was going through Jim’s mind as he ran and find out what kind of pizza he treats himself to before his big runs.



