“Failure Doesn’t Mean The End” | Jim Walmsley on Failing & Dominating

At mile 90 into his first 100 mile race, Jim Walmsley was an hour ahead of the second place runner. 

Weeks earlier, American ultrarunner Jim had announced his goal of breaking the course record at Western States Endurance Run, the world’s oldest 100 mile race, and the most iconic ultra trail run in America. 

It was a precocious, even arrogant, claim for 26-year-old Jim, who hadn’t run further than 100km before. With 10 miles to go he was 17 minutes inside the course record.

Then he disappeared.

He didn’t arrive at the aid station as expected. Minutes passed, then an hour, then Andrew Miller, who had been in second, came in ahead of Jim. By then word had gotten around that Jim had taken a wrong turn on Highway 49.

When Jim finally arrived at the aid station, in tears, he’d lost the race and the record, and it broke his spirit. He kicked a rock to the finish, where he placed 20th, more than three hours after the winner. “I’ll be back,” he said.

Jim has since won Western States four times, and lowered the course record twice, in doing so becoming one of the world’s greatest and best-known ultra runners. But every success has had to come from numerous failures.

“A MORE HUMBLING, IMPORTANT LESSON”

Jim was a cross country champion in high school in Arizona. He graduated from the Air Force Academy, but was discharged, moved to Flagstaff, struggled from depression and took up running as medication, working in a bike shop and running races to win prize money to help make rent. In January 2016, Jim broke the course record at the Bandera 100k, taking a golden ticket guaranteed entry into June’s Western States, where he called his shot – and missed.

He was back at Western States in 2017. 

“I was super fit, with a vengeance, and wanting to tear the race apart,” Jim said. The weather was mean that year. Tough snow and mud to run through in the high country, then 100-degree heat in the day. “I continued to push as hard as I could to maintain splits and the course just pulled me apart.” He struggled to eat and drink, and spent hours puking before stepping off the course and into the medical tent. 

After 2016’s bravado and the unlucky missed left turn – but with splits which hold up against his course record – Jim was prepared and ready to race, now signed by HOKA as a professional athlete, “so 2017 was even more me falling on my face than 2016,” he said. “It was a much more humbling, important lesson in not being able to force your agenda on a race course, and on nature, that way.”  

But he didn’t learn from that lesson and made the same mistake nine weeks later in Chamonix, where Jim was on the start line for his first attempt at UTMB.

If Western States is the classic American 100-miler, then UTMB is the quintessential European mountain 100-miler; a similar distance, but an entirely different challenge. 

“I was completely destroyed at the end of UTMB 2017,” he said. “I went from being in first with Francois [D’Haene] for the first 70 miles, to lying down on a bench in Champex-Lac for 30 minutes.” He rallied to finish in fifth place in his first mountain 100 miler. Objectively a great finish – unless you’re Jim and you expected to win.

“The places where you really grow are the ones that keep kicking you in the teeth,” Jim said in the fascinating documentary Walmsley.

“I felt so close to breaking through the distance because I had the disappointment at Western States in 2016 and 2017, and I just felt like I was knocking on the door of figuring out 100s, and it left me hungry to try again,” he said. 

His bullheaded approach of racing hard and chasing course record splits was the wrong way of looking at a 100 miler. He had to find a better balance in races, he had to relax at the start. “I had to realise I can’t force my way to will something to happen over 100 miles.” Giving up some of that obsession with splits meant he could think more about the smaller things that add up to big things over 100 miles, like nutrition, and hot spots or chafing, and just enjoying the run. 

If the pace drops when chasing records, your head can drop, too. By disregarding numbers, “it makes you more resilient mentally to handle the ups and downs on the race course and worry more about the journey of getting to the finish line,” rather than stubbornly clocking splits every few miles. It was a new mindset he needed to learn to eventually get his 100-mile breakthrough. 

Jim won Western States in 2018 and broke the course record. He ran even faster in 2019, winning in 14:09. “I was still resentful of my experiences there that I wanted more and more revenge,” he said. Jim won again in 2021 and 2024.

UPS & DOWNS

After Jim’s first Western States win in 2018, he was back on the start line of UTMB – but he didn’t make it to the finish line. It was another kick in the teeth. 

He didn’t run in 2019 and there were no races in 2020, but he returned to France in 2021, just weeks after winning his third Western States, for this third attempt at the Western States-UTMB double. Again he failed to run all the way back to Chamonix, and notched another DNF.

After his dominance in California, and his struggles in Chamonix, Jim made a big decision at the end of 2021: to move from his home in Flagstaff, Arizona, to the Alps in France. He had to learn to become an alpine mountain runner.

WESTERN STATES vs UTMB

The world’s two most famous 100-mile races are vastly different runs. 

Western States begins in the dark, just before sunrise, sometimes in sub-zero temperatures. There’s often snow on the first climb, and by early afternoon the course could hit 100-degrees. The elites run in the American way: handheld bottles, belts, bucket hats, ice bandanas, shirts off. It has 5,000m of elevation gain, and 7,000m of descent, and it’s a fast race, where the elites run almost all of it – Jim’s quickest time at Western States is five hours faster than the UTMB course record. 

UTMB begins two hours before sunset, and almost half the race happens in the dark. Weather could change by the hour, from torrential rain to baking heat. It’s a race with poles, a pack and a head torch, a long mandatory kit list requiring efficient gear management, and hikes of 20% gradient or more, so hiking and moving over technical trails is as important as running. It has 10,000m of elevation gain, with brutal sustained climbs taking more than an hour, and it’s actually more like 107 miles. 

To win both Western States and UTMB shows mastery over the distance and dominance of an all-round trail runner. To win both in the same year is one of trail running’s fabled achievements, and something only three people have ever done before: Kilian Jornet, Nikki Kimball and Courtney Dauwalter.

Jim has yet to finish both races in the same year. 

“I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE”

Jim skipped Western States in 2022 to focus on the mountains. He had to adapt to the Alpine terrain, and had to become a more complete runner. He finished fourth at that year’s UTMB after front-running for most of the race, a gritty result after a tough night and day in the mountains, but it was yet another kick in the teeth.

“We’ll give them hell next year,” he said.

He remained in France, using that experience to help embed himself in the mountains, to learn from them and be shaped by them. 

“I’ve been here before,” said Jim in the Walmsley film. It’s the idea that he’s failed on these trails, and other ones, and he’s been kicked in the teeth, but he’s always come back smiling – eventually. 

While Jim’s achievements may seem beyond comprehension to most runners (just running 100 miles is bonkers, but to do it in 14 hours is unreal!), his determination and dedication to achieve something is relatable to all of us.

Jim skipped Western States again in 2023, and did the work around Mont Blanc. He won UTMB at his fifth attempt, setting a new fastest time of 19:37. He was the first American man to win UTMB. 

READY FOR THE DOUBLE

In 2024 Jim won his fourth Western States, and he’s back on the start line at UTMB.

“In years when I’ve chosen to just do one I feel like I’m missing out on the other one,” he said. “It’s kind of greedy to do both, but I really like that challenge and so far it’s still proving to be really difficult,” he said. 

“It’s pretty fun to try things that don’t come naturally the first time. It makes the whole process even more rewarding,” said Jim. “As I’ve gotten older in the sport, I’ve become more and more obsessed with the process because I know that it could take several steps.”

“I’ve always been good at long term goals so I think I have good patience and knowing that failure doesn’t mean the end,” Jim said. “It’s also romantic to hope that it will work out someday, and I’ve been lucky enough that it’s happened in two of the biggest races, so it’s been pretty cool.”

Will 2024 be the year that Jim Walmsley achieves the Western States and UTMB double? 

“I look at it personally as my two biggest emphasises in trail running, and to pull both off would be insane.”

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Images from HOKA. Jim runs in a version of the HOKA Tecton x 3. See our review of the shoe here.