Cristina Santurino, the ultra-runner with steel knees, passes away at 36.

Cristina Santurino became an essential runner in the Sierra de Guadarrama, an environment she knew intimately through long training sessions, the recipe for ultradistance, a philosophy to which she dedicated her life. The void left by her passing this Tuesday, on her 36th birthday, in El Hierro, where she had lived for a few months, goes beyond her achievements in increasingly longer races —she was registered for a 100-kilometer race this very week— and has more to do with her spirit. She may not have had the polished technique of professionals, but she had the heart. She will be remembered for reaching the finish line with bloodied knees, as she didn’t hold back on descents and had the unfortunate habit of falling on her knees instead of using her hands. Battle scars for an unyielding woman.

It all started when Pedro Bianco, her coach, picked up the phone: “I want to prepare a mountain race.” Cristina had a bib for the TP 60 of Peñalara. He didn’t have much time, but he accepted. And he was right. His new protégé had no background in trail running, but she had run road marathons and her genetics were good. “Damn, she had a motor; she was a beast.” A very sporty childhood, with a lot of skiing, led her to triathlons. “From there, she dedicated herself to racing, started winning, became who she was, and brands began to seek her out.” She was sponsored by Hoka, which announced her passing.

Felipe Rodríguez, organizer of many races in the Sierra de Guadarrama as a member of the Real Sociedad Española de Alpinismo Peñalara, met her when she donned the bib in 2018 at the Tres Refugios, a classic 32-kilometer race with almost 2,000 meters of positive elevation gain. And she won. “It was a surprise for us; she was a total unknown.” From then on, she became a club member, and that year she was already second in the TP 60, the 60-kilometer race of the Gran Trail Peñalara, which she won in 2019 and 2020, the appetizers before topping it off in 2022 with her victory in the long distance, the 103 kilometers with 5,100 meters of positive elevation gain starting and finishing in Navacerrada. Perhaps the most special day. “For her, because it was where she trained; and for us, out of pride that she was from the club.”

That night, she survived what might have been the worst descent in her mountain, linking the summit of Maliciosa to the base of La Pedriza, more than a thousand meters of negative elevation gain starting with a steep incline of broken rock. “The memory I always have of her is seeing her with bleeding knees. Maybe technically she wasn’t great, but if you go fast, a stumble can take you down.” Felipe ran the Transgrancanaria marathon with Cristina in 2019 and assisted her in the Marató i Mitja Castelló-Penyagolosa. “She ran many races on the calendar. She was a fairly consistent and methodical girl. She might not have the qualities of a typical elite runner, but she put all her effort into being there at the front.” Bianco confirms the story about the descents. “She was the klutz! I don’t know why, she would trip and always go down on her knees instead of using her hands. She had knees of steel.”

Cristina went to bed on Monday to face Tuesday’s final long training before traveling to Andorra to compete on Saturday in a 105-kilometer ultra with almost 7,000 meters of positive elevation, one of the toughest courses around. On Tuesday, calls started coming in for her birthday, but there was no response. As the hours passed, fears about an accident in the mountains grew, until a neighbor found her body in bed in the early afternoon.

“She was happy there,” summarizes her coach, the architect of her sessions. The last one she uploaded to the Strava app was a marathon with over 2,000 meters of positive elevation gain on Sunday in El Hierro. Although Cristina was a nutritionist, she had another professional assisting her in this area. “The mountain was her passion; she lived for it.” Her last bib was at the Zegama-Aizkorri, the most important mountain marathon in the world, on May 25: she finished in 6h18m45s. Her surroundings define a healthy lifestyle down to the millimeter. Someone known to have no significant emotional lows and who was in a good place with her new life in El Hierro, excited to share it with family. “She was especially well.”

Many of her adventures took place in Chamonix, the epicenter of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. She ran the CCC three times, the 100-kilometer format, and was preparing to compete at the end of August in the 145-kilometer TDS, a journey aimed at someday donning the bib for the UTMB, the 171 kilometers that circle the roof of the Alps. “She had a beautiful calendar. She was strong and happy. It was a total shock,” summarizes Bianco, who defines her by her commitment. “Beyond being good, charismatic, fun, good people, good class, she was organized. She had everything very marked in her head and did it in detail. Perfect, she was like a little soldier. What a pity.”