Here’s What to Know About the 2024 UTMB

Trail running’s Super Bowl, the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc , wrapped up this weekend in Chamonix, France. If you’re like me, you probably followed the 106-mile race around the Mont Blanc Massif via grainy photos and cryptic single-sentence updates that popped up on social media every few minutes.

Lucky for us, the editors at Outside Run were on the ground in France for the UTMB and the handful of shorter races in Chamonix that accompany it, and they have comprehensive coverage of all of the events. I spent Monday night reading the Run team’s race reports and analysis, and catching up on all of the twists and turns that occurred on the trail. If you’re searching for the most pressing storylines to discuss around the office watercooler, or with your post-work running club, here are three that are worthy of your attention.

A Shoe Designer Wins it All

During my time in the bicycle industry, I regularly met a familiar archetype when I visited companies that manufactured gear: the brilliant engineer who is also a world-class athlete. Every brand had its king or queen of the office lunch ride—the coworker that employees would claim could race the Tour de France if he or she ever quit and trained full-time.

Frenchman Vincent Bouillard, who is a product designer with shoe brand Hoka, just raised the bar for all of the talented men and women of this mold in the outdoor industry. The 31-year-old won the UTMB men’s race, completing the loop in 19 hours, 54 minutes, and 23 seconds. In doing so, he beat a lineup of impressive professional runners, including American Jim Walmsley, Brit Tom Evans, and Frenchmen Ludovic Pommel. And he won it in his first stab at UTMB.

Again, Bouillard is not a sponsored full-time runner. He’s a working stiff at Hoka’s offices in Annecy, France. In fact, last year he was part of the helper crew that assisted Walmsley in his victorious UTMB run. Bouillard hammered home the differences between himself and the full-time professionals when he spoke to media after the race.

“Having a contract to be a professional runner isn’t something I’ve ever really thought about, but why not?” Bouillard said. “I would always be open to the discussion, but I also enjoy the freedom of not having any contract and not having any pressure to do any type of competition or posting on social media, which I do not at all. So it’s also fun to enjoy that full freedom.”

I encourage you to read my colleague Brian Metzler’s profile of Bouillard, as he dives deep into the guy’s working-stiff bonafides, as well as the cool shoes he’s designed in recent years. Plus, Bouillard adopted an extremely smart strategy for UTMB, which paid off with the win.

We’re All Waiting for Dauwalter vs. Schide in 2025

If 2023 was the year of Courtney Dauwalter, then 2024 has belonged to Katie Schide.

Schide dominated the women’s UTMB, leading for the lion’s share of the race before finishing in 22 hours, 9 minutes, and 31 seconds. That time toppled the previous record by 21 minutes—it had been set by Dauwalter in 2021. It’s the first of Dauwalter’s five popping course records (Western States 100, Hardrock 100 in both directions, and Grand Raid Reunion) to be beaten.

Wait, who is Katie Schide, you ask? The 32-year-old American may not have the name recognition of Dauwalter outside of the hardcore trail running community, but she’s quietly approaching the same level of accolades. I suggest you read Doug Mayer’s recent profile of Schide. She’s a Massachusetts native who moved to a remote corner of the French Alps—no, not Chamonix!—to train for trail running’s biggest events.

And Schide, who is 32, beat the record the same year in which she won the Western States 100, becoming just the fourth person to win both in the same summer, alongside Dauwalter, Nikki Kimball, and Kilian Jornet. Exclusive company. It’s safe to say that trail running has another superstar in the making—and one who looks primed to compete with the sport’s best.

Dauwalter, who attended UTMB but did not race, gave Schide some major props on Instagram after the finish. “Got to be here to see this in person. INCREDIBLE! Congratulations Katie Schide. Thanks for raising the bar for all of us!” she wrote.

After Schide’s thrilling 2024 season, we can’t wait to see what happens when she lines up next to Dauwalter in 2025.

Miao Yao Triumphant Return

A runner from China has never won the UTMB race in Chamonix, but the country’s top athlete has one another one of the shorter events that goes on during the race weekend. Miao Yao, the 28-year-old trail runner from Ghizhou, won the 57-kilometer Orsieres-Champex-Lac-Chamonix (OCC) race.

The victory is an important return for Yao, who just a few years ago appeared on the trajectory to the top, before injuries and setbacks derailed her progress. Her return to the sport is chronicled in this 2023 film. I suggest you read this Runner’s World profile on her from 2018.

She grew up the youngest of six sisters on a farm. When she was 16, officials from China’s Ju Guo Ti Zhi sports system identified her as a talented athlete and sent her to a sports boarding school. “It was still better than making a living as a peasant in a village,” she told Runner’s World.

Yao was a talented runner—she clocked a 2:59 marathon—but she was too slow for the Olympic track or distance-running programs. It seemed like her career was over at the age of 20, but then she discovered trail running and found her niche. Since then, she’s had ups, downs, setbacks and success.

Yao won the 100-kilometer Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix (CCC) race in 2018, but then abruptly faded from the spotlight. Her step back was a real bummer for running fans, because Yao has one of the most unorthodox backstories on the trail running circuit.

Her story is familiar to anyone who has followed the plight of athletes in China’s state-managed sports system. Children who show prowess at running, hand-eye coordination, or strength are plucked from their families and set to train as full-time athletes. Those who succeed go to the Olympics—those who do not are left to fend for themselves, sometimes with substandard education and professional skills.