On The Up: Whanganui endurance runner James Bland set for 171km Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc

James Bland sets off on the 105km You Yangs trail run in Victoria, Australia.

The “Wimbledon” of trail running is next for one of New Zealand’s top endurance athletes, and he is in good form leading up to it.

Whanganui’s James Bland took first place in the 105km You Yangs Trail Run last weekend, to go with a gold in the WildBoar 50km race in June.

Both events were in Victoria, Australia.

In August, he will travel to France for the 171km Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), which has 10,000 metres of elevation and a field of 2800.

Bland said he completed it in 36 hours last year.

“That was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.

“I’m doing it again to compete in it, rather than just complete it.”

Last year’s UTMB winner Vincent Bouillard finished in 19 hours and 54 minutes.

The record is held by American James Walmsley, who ran a time of 19:37 in 2023.

“It’s the biggest race in the world, like competing at Wimbledon if you’re a tennis player,” Bland said.

“You run through France, Italy and Switzerland.

“If everything goes right, I’m aiming for sub-24 hours.”

New Zealand runner Scott Hawker finished third at the UTMB in 2019, with a time of 21:48.

In 2022, Bland completed the 100-mile (161km) Western States Endurance Run in California, United States, and won the South Island Ultramarathon.

He has finished the 165km Tarawera Ultramarathon four times.

Speaking to the Chronicle after the Western States event, he said he started running while working at Pak’nSave Whanganui, which sponsors the annual 3 Bridges Marathon.

James Bland is aiming to be only the third person to complete the 165km Tarawera ultramarathon five times.

“They give [Pak’nSave employees] free entry to support the cause, and all the 30-odd entrants were just doing the 5km and 10km.

“I just wanted to one-up everyone in the entire store, so I signed up for the half [marathon].”

Bland, now based in Melbourne, said he was not in a position to run fulltime and worked as a sales representative to pay the bills.

His “support crew and aid station” was partner Angela Worthy, who would fly with him to France.

“It’s not just finding the time to run, it’s the saunas, ice baths, stretching, cooking the right food and all the rehab that comes with running 200km a week,” Bland said.

“There’s so much in the background.

“If something goes wrong, you pay $100 a session for someone to massage your leg until it comes right.”

He said every race funnelled into Tarawera and du Mont-Blanc - “the big ones”.

“All my training at the moment is running hills every day.

“Basically, the [You Yangs] event at the weekend was to see how long I could hold on for.”

Results over the past few years had put him in or around the country’s top 10 trail runners, Bland said.

He said the sport was growing popular and that meant more competition.

“Even two years ago, if you were above average, you’d do pretty well - top five.

“Above average isn’t good enough any more.”

Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, which starts and finishes in Chamonix, begins on August 29.

Bland said he aimed to complete the Tarawera event again next year, meaning he would be one of only three people to run it five times.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.