Learning to Put the Puzzle Together — Martina Valmassoi
WORDS → Francesca Robasto
DATE → 2026-09-09
Preparation, energy management, and instinct: the Amazfit athlete’s approach to UTMB.
In Chamonix, in the days leading up to UTMB, anticipation hangs in the air. But for Martina Valmassoi, the race isn’t just the big late-August appointment, nor is it a matter of chasing times. Above all, it’s an exercise in balance: arriving prepared, knowing your strengths, and especially knowing when not to push.
Martina arrived in Chamonix with a few hours of travel behind her and a week of rest already in the bank. In the days before the start, there are no special rituals: a light run, eating and drinking well, trying to sleep, and staying as calm as possible. “I don’t do anything particular,” she said two days before the race. An approach that already says a lot about how she tackles a race of one hundred kilometers and beyond: prepare what you can prepare, then accept everything else. To arrive in Chamonix in this condition, though, the work was anything but simple. After an injury that had stopped her the previous season, Martina began dedicating much more attention to strength. Not so much as a complement to training, but as a true part of her preparation. “Maybe I’ve never done so much. I used to go to the gym, but without really having a clear idea of what I was doing,” she recalls. The result was inconsistent training that was often not very functional. Since June of last year, however, she’s been working with a strength coach, following a structured program and going to the gym twice a week, up to three times in the winter months.
It’s work that requires patience. Martina trains with significant loads and, in her case, with an approach that focuses heavily on the neurological aspect. The results didn’t arrive in three weeks, as certain miracle programs promise. Far from it. “Those selling you the three-week course… I mean, where are you going in three weeks? In three weeks you’re just sore, basically.” Today, after more than a year, her perception has changed. The gym has become a part of training she wouldn’t give up anymore: not only to prevent new problems, but also to improve endurance and performance. It’s a fairly concrete example of how, in ultratrail, preparation isn’t made only of kilometers and elevation gain. Sometimes it also means working on what you don’t see. And then comes the moment to put it all together. Martina knows she’s more prepared than two years ago, but that doesn’t mean automatically expecting a better result. “I know I’m in good shape, I know I’ve done everything I could to be here in form. And like me, there are many other people who are in shape and who’ve done the same journey.”
UTMB, after all, isn’t a race that lets itself be predicted all the way through. You can arrive ready, have a plan, know the course, and have studied the split times. Then one day different from expected changes everything. “Even on the best day there’s always something that goes wrong and there’s always something to fix.” This is perhaps the most interesting part of her approach: not trying to eliminate the unexpected, but learning to manage it. Pacing follows the same philosophy. Martina starts with a time chart built by putting together her own previous performances, those of other athletes, and training benchmarks. The times serve mainly to orient herself and are shared with the team assisting her at aid stations. But they’re not a cage. If, for example, a section expected in three hours and fifteen minutes comes in at two hours and fifty, that data isn’t necessarily good news. It can be a signal that she’s going too hard. During the race, the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra watch serves more as a monitoring tool than an obsession. Heart rate, which in training can be an important reference, in the race gives way to a more instinctive reading of the situation: at the start, emotion can make it spike, and it wouldn’t make sense to stress over a few numbers out of place. Time, instead, helps understand when to eat, how the splits are going, and especially whether the overall plan is still holding up.
Because Martina’s plan is fairly clear: don’t waste energy where she knows she struggles more. The first part of UTMB, very runnable, isn’t the one that best suits her characteristics. Chasing athletes capable of running hard right there would be a mistake. “It would be suicide to try to follow certain athletes who definitely have an easier time pushing hard on the first part.” The bet, then, is different: stay calm in the first forty kilometers and wait for the race to change. Further on, when the course gets harder and night arrives, different characteristics can emerge. That’s where Martina feels she can close the gap and make a difference. And it’s curious that it’s precisely the night, and not the grand spectacle of Chamonix, one of the aspects she loves most about UTMB. The cheering, the crowd, the start, and all the “fanfare” have their charm, but they’re not what attracts her most. The moment she seeks is the one of contrast: leaving the chaos and finding herself, shortly after, immersed in darkness.
“I really love the contrast between the first part of the race and then entering the night.” After Notre-Dame de la Gorge come hours of darkness and solitude, in the most remote sections of the course, where runners become almost the only points of reference. It’s a dimension that for Martina has something special about it. The first big crossing, the descent, and then the entry into Italy are among the moments that move her most. On the Col de la Seigne, above Courmayeur, there’s also that image that stays with you: turning around and seeing the long trail of headlamps in the night. A seemingly small detail, but one capable of telling better than many words what it really means to run a race like UTMB.
And in the end there’s also a very concrete detail, almost counterintuitive, that captures her philosophy well. To tackle one of the most important races in the world, she doesn’t necessarily look for the most extreme shoe or the latest prototype. She prefers a familiar, comfortable, and reliable model: the Salomon Ultra Glide 4. The reason is simple. On such a long race, for Martina comfort comes before pure performance. A bit of extra weight isn’t a problem if it means going farther without pain. “I prefer to be a bit more comfortable, maybe have a shoe that’s a little heavier and not super cutting-edge, but at least that one will get me through.” It’s a phrase that could apply to the rest of her approach to ultratrail as well. No miracle recipe, just prepare, know your body, have a plan, and then be flexible enough to change it when the mountain presents the bill.
Because, in the end, running a UTMB is exactly this: putting together a puzzle knowing that, sooner or later, some piece won’t go where you expected. And learning to figure out, step by step, how to put it back in its place.