She doesn’t have a big, international sponsor behind her, she isn’t named among the favourites in any of the race previews. Yet, Vietnam’s Hau Ha Thi is ready to surprise everyone.
Hau Ha Thi is having an amazing year so far. The Vietnamese ultra runner won the Ultra Trail Singapore 50k (1.000m+), she won the Kailas Tioman Ultra 50k (2.670m+) in Malaysia and she won the Amazean Jungle Thailand UTMB race 106k (5.827m+). In that race she even finished second overall. And in the Dalat Ultra Trail 118k (5.366m+) in Vietnam, which she won, she also finished second overall. If it’s up to her, there is more to come. “I haven’t been running for long. In the beginning I didn’t know how to train, I didn’t know what and when to eat during a race. I didn’t know anything. I had never even heard of Kilian Jornet or Courtney Dauwalter.”
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Understandable if you know that Hau Ha Thi had a completely different life. She was a working mother, living in Sa Pa in Vietnam. She had run when she was in school, but as wife and mother had focussed on her career. Up until she found herself back, ten years after her high school running, divorced, out of shape and overweight. She picked up her old running shoes and – with only two months of training under her belt – entered her first trail running race: the half marathon of the Vietnam Mountain Marathon , in her hometown. She came in first; overall.
It was the start of a journey to discover what she’s capable of as runner. “At this moment I think I’m at my best at races between 70 and 100 kilometres. But I really want to do a hundred miles. I’m working towards that with my coaches of Push and Smile. They help me to understand how I have to train.”
Before she makes the step to the hundred miles, she has another big goal: the CCC. Last year she just missed the podium, by 23 seconds. She was in third place, until the bridge over the road in Chamonix, but Helen Mino Faukner had a stronger finish. The big difference; Hau Ha Thi, as an unknown fast athlete, had to start in the second wave of elite runners. She wasn’t allowed up front. Faukner was.
2023 was her first trip to Europe: “I was shocked to see how fast everybody started and ran. But I understood that in Europe and the United States all runners are professionals. In Vietnam not. That makes a big difference.”
At the same time, Vietnam has prepared her for the European trails. Where the Americans have to get used to the technical tracks in the Alps, Hau Ha Thi finds them very easy. “The trails are dry, fast, compared with Vietnam.” Laughing: “For me, it almost feels like the organisation takes away all the stones and roots before a race. In Asia we always run through the mud. In Betong (Thailand; jk) it was a mud festival. I fell so hard on my butt, that it hurt. I never fell before in my life. But it was fun. I enjoyed that race.”
With her one metre and 53 centimetres Hau Ha Thi is a lightweight, which gives her an advantage uphill. Yet, Guim Valls, her coach, emphasises that she’s an amazing downhiller as well. She herself keeps her options open. “It’s going to be sunny, warm. Hot is good for me, but bad conditions would even be better. I like rain, I like mud. That makes the downhills harder.”
Half of August Hau Ha Thi, sponsored by the Vietnamese sports brand MUDE, flew to Europe. She trained in Barcelona, where her coaching staff is from. In Vietnam she lives in Sa Pa, in the North, at 1.500 metres altitude. Five hundred metres higher than Chamonix. The hills around Sa Pa go up as high as the mountains around Chamonix. So she feels acclimatised. The CCC course, she still remembers: “Last year was my first time here. I didn’t have time to explore. Now I know where I can push, where I can go hard, and where I have to hold back.”
Where that will lead to, she’s going to find out tomorrow. With Toni McCann, last year’s winner of the OCC, Heather Jackson, Rosanna Buchauer, Sylvia Nordskar, the winner of Zegama, Speedgoat winner Jazmine Lowther and Emkay Sullivan, the runner-up of the Hoka Canyons endurance runs 100k there are some strong runners at the start. Hau Ha Thi: “I don’t know them very well, because I race in Asia. But we made a plan for tomorrow. What that is, you will see…”
