WORDS BY LIKE THE WIND – PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED BY THE NORTH FACE
HAVING A DREAM IS GREAT. BUT PURSUING A DREAM IS AN ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT PROPOSITION. AFTER ALL, DREAMS ARE NOT ROBUST – THEY ARE EPHEMERAL, FRAGILE, EASY TO BREAK. NOT THAT PAU CAPELL – ELITE TRAIL RUNNER, FATHER, HUSBAND, MEMBER OF THE NORTH FACE TRAIL TEAM AND INSPIRATION TO THOUSANDS – IS GOING TO LET THAT STOP HIM FROM TRYING TO MAKE HIS DREAM COME TRUE.
Pau Capell is 33 years old and lives in Andorra, an independent principality nestled in the mountains of the Pyrenees between France and Spain. Capell started his trail running career at the Trail Menorca Costa Sud race in 2013. Since then, he has gone on to record many great results, including winning the Transgrancanaria 125km in 2020, being crowned the 2019 Ultra Trail World Tour Champion and winning the 100km first stage of Trail Menorca Camí de Cavalls. But when asked what his dream is – the challenge that he has not yet conquered – Capell does not hesitate: “Breaking 20 hours for the course of the UTMB.” We’ll come back to that.
After becoming a father for the first time at the beginning of this year, Capell has had an unusual start to the season. Mainly he has decided to stay more local for his races and projects. The first real race that Capell entered this year was the Trail Ultra Muntanyes Costa Daurada, a 42km race in the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, in the Catalonia region southwest of Barcelona. He won the race.
Capell’s second significant race of the year resulted in victory at the Trail Menorca Camí de Cavalls. Taking place on trails of the small Balearic Island in the Mediterranean Sea, this is a race with which Capell has history. “The reason I returned to this race,” he explains, “is that it was the first proper trail race I competed in. So I wanted to return many years later to see how I would do.”
When he was a child, Capell and his family spent their holidays on the island. So, when he first discovered trail running, he was drawn to it as a place with fond childhood memories. “I was very young and inexperienced,” says Capell. “But, honestly, soon after the start of the race I thought I was winning. Instead I was actually lost!”
Capell could not see any runners around him and therefore reasoned that he must be in the lead. However the sudden appearance of another entrant in the race running towards him, was confusing. Capell asked this other runner why he was “going the wrong way” and was told that both he and his new companion were on the wrong trail. Capell decided to follow the older – and presumably more experienced – runner back the way he had come until they re-found the trail they should have been on. Of course, now they were dead last.
“We ran together,” Capell recalls, “and as we approached the finish, we were in second and third places. I told the other guy that he should go ahead and take second place. After all, he had helped me find the way.” But just metres from the finish line, Capell’s new friend stopped abruptly and pushed Capell over the finish line. “After that great lesson,” says Capell, “I understood something about what an amazing sport ultra trail running is – and I knew it was for me.”
This year, after a few early season races, Capell’s next big challenge was attempting to set a fastest known time (FKT) on a trail called the Estripagecs, which climbs up and over six peaks in the mountainous Ordino region of Andorra. He saw this as an opportunity to test himself in advance of longer races coming up in the summer. So at 5am on 28 July, Capell set off from his house alone into the mountains. But the reason he chose this, of all the possible projects available to him, had a rather practical element. “I had lunch planned with my family that day,” he explains, “so I had to be back by 2pm. On the last peak, I knew I had to really push the pace in order to get back for this meal.” He set a new FKT for the route – 8h34m08s. And made it back for lunch.
Which brings us back to Capell’s dream – because, all throughout his training and racing, Capell is holding onto the vision he has of circumnavigating the Mont Blanc massif – following the route of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc race, in under 20 hours. Indeed, this project is so important that he says, “Maybe I will do it alone, maybe in a race, maybe with the assistance of some athletes who will help me push for the project of my life. But I’m sure that I will not stop running until I have broken 20 hours.”
So what are the qualities that an athlete needs to stick with a project where the outcome is this uncertain? According to The North Face team mate Fernanda Maciel, “Pau is a very focused and smart runner.” Maciel says that Capell is an athlete who runs with courage and at the same time is “humble” and an “inspiration”. Another teammate, Mike Foote, says that early in his relationship with Capell, “I considered him to be this intense athletic machine” with a phenomenal training ethic and formidable approach to racing.
But there is something else. Both of Capell’s fellow athletes at The North Face go out of their way to mention his personality. Fernanda says, “As a teammate he is always kind and funny.” And Mike agrees: “Once I got to know [Pau] a bit and saw him interact with fellow athletes and friends, [I saw that] he is really a kind and humble and curious person who cares a lot about other people.”
If an athlete has a dream – one that is hard to achieve and of which they simply won’t let go – they have to possess many different elements, all necessary to make it a reality. These certainly include physical strength, tenacity, resilience and the willingness to endure hard training and hard racing. And perhaps also humility, curiosity and humour. Which is perfect since Pau Capell has all those elements in abundance.
On that basis alone, Capell’s dream has a very good chance of coming true.
