HANOVER — Lila Marchetti, an incoming Hanover High School freshman, will take on what Ryan Kerrigan, head coach of the U.S. Youth Skyrunning team, calls “the toughest thing you can do on two legs” when she competes at the Youth Skyrunning World Championships in Fonte Cerreto, Italy, this August.

Skyrunning, as described by Kerrigan, is a blend of trail running and mountaineering. The International Skyrunning Federation defines it as “running in the mountains above 2,000 meters altitude where the climbing difficulty does not exceed II° grade and the incline is over 30%.”

Kerrigan’s father, John Kerrigan, a former cross country, track and Nordic skiing coach at Harwood Union High School in Moretown, Vt., and an assistant coach for the U.S. Youth Skyrunning team, emphasized the sport’s niche appeal.

“It’s a very physically demanding sport. … There’s something special about running in the mountains,” he said.

Marchetti, 14, recently completed eighth grade at Richmond Middle School in Hanover. She previously trained in cross country skiing under Ryan Kerrigan.

“Lila is one of those athletes you love to work with because she has such a dedicated work ethic, and she’s so dynamic,” he said.

Though unfamiliar with skyrunning at first, Marchetti said she loved running in the mountains and had climbing experience. She signed up for the team in March after her former coach invited her to join.

“Skyrunning has a lot of scrambling and climbing, so it seems like a really fun thing to do,” she said.

To prepare for the championships, Marchetti has added more uphill training, such as hill sprints and mountain runs, to her regimen. She said the workouts are similar to those she does for Nordic skiing.

“I think I have a special mix because I competed in rock climbing competitions for a few years when I was younger,” she said. “With the skiing and all the training I’ve been doing, I’m really set up to have a great race.”

At the championships, Marchetti will compete in two events in the Youth A group, which includes 15- and 16-year-old athletes from around the world: the Vertical Kilometer and the SkyRace at Gran Sasso, a mountain cluster in the region.

The Vertical Kilometer, scheduled for Aug. 1, is 3.8 kilometers in length (approximately 2.36 miles) and features a 1,033-meter (about 3,389-foot) climb.

“It will go up directly underneath the gondola,” Ryan Kerrigan said. “If you think of Stowe Mountain Resort’s gradient — like that, but a little steeper — and they’ll go until they reach the top of the gondola station.”

The SkyRace, set for Aug. 3, covers 9.8 kilometers (about 6.09 miles) and includes an 850-meter (roughly 2,788-foot) climb.

“They’ll take the gondola up, start from the top station, run to the peak of a small mountain, and return to finish at the gondola,” Kerrigan said.

“In the Vertical Kilometer, it’s a test of straight uphill running, but in the SkyRace, there are more skills involved because you’re running downhill as fast as you can,” John Kerrigan added. “The finish line looks like a war zone — people with scrapes and bruises and so on.”

The Kerrigans first brought a group to the Youth Skyrunning World Championships in 2017 and have attended every year since, except 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s championships mark the ninth edition of the event and will feature athletes up to 23 years old, split into four age groups. Last year’s competition in Montenegro featured 28 countries. The U.S. finished ninth with 810 points — 952 behind gold medalist Spain.

As she continues to train, Marchetti said her focus is on preparation, not results.

“I’m not even really thinking about results,” she said. “All my goals are just process-oriented, and I’m really just excited to be part of it all. I think it’ll be really cool to see all these new places and be around kids who have similar goals.”

Michael Coughlin Jr. can be reached at mcoughlin@vnews.com.