UTMB 2024: A Women’s Record & A Surprise Winner In The Men’s Race!

American ultrarunner Katie Schide has won the 2024 UTMB World Series Final in an incredible 22:09:31, a new fastest time on the 176km (109 mile) course. It’s her second triumph at UTMB, after winning in 2022. 

The pre-race favourite, Katie led from very early on and looked set to be the first woman to run under 22 hours, which is what she targeted ahead of the race. Even though she seemed to be struggling on the downhills in the final kilometres, she was still able to run a remarkable new fastest time, beating Courtney Dauwater’s time of 22:30:54 from 2021. 

Katie’s win is made even more impressive as she becomes only the fourth person in history, and third woman, to complete the epic Western States-UTMB double in the same year, after she won in California only nine weeks ago. 

Behind her was a great battle. Canada’s Marianne Hogan was in second for many hours, despite a fall early on Saturday morning in which she broke her finger, but Ruth Croft, who has won CCC and OCC, was always close behind, and gaining on her. 

New Zealander Ruth moved into second place on the final climb, and finished in second in 22:48:37. Marianne was third in 23:11:15. They are now among only five women to run UTMB under 24 hours. 

The UTMB World Series Final takes place in the last week of August with races of 57km, 101km and 176km. It’s arguably the world’s most famous ultramarathon. Read all about UTMB here. 

‘AN UNBELIEVABLE DAY’

In the men’s race, France’s Vincent Bouillard won UTMB at his first attempt, finishing in 19:54:23. 

It was a surprise win for the unsigned amateur runner who works full time as an engineer for HOKA, specifically focusing on the foams they use. He took the lead coming out of the Courmayeur aid station at 83km, and he stayed there all the way to the finish, winning by 28 minutes. 

Vincent has been at UTMB as a spectator, volunteer and crewing (for Jim Walmsley), and in his first time running it, he earnt himself $20,000 as the winner. He becomes the 12th man to win UTMB.

“Being on the start line was a dream,” he said after the race. “It was literally my wildest dream to think that I could win. That was the A+++ objective. It was an incredible day”

The depth of the UTMB field is so strong, and the course is so tough, that relative unknowns can have a brilliant day and beat the best. But this isn’t a chance win thanks to pre-race favourites dropping out.

Vincent trains with Jim Walmsley (and you have to be very good to be able to do that). He won the 100-mile Kodiak Ultra Marathon by UTMB and the Gorge Waterfalls 100k, both in 2023. And his run at UTMB was the third-fastest finish time in history – only Walmlsey and Kilian Jornet have run the course quicker. Sub-20 at UTMB isn’t luck, it’s a spectacular run.

France’s Baptiste Chassagne was second and Ecuador’s Joaquin Lopez was third – they were 10th and 11th respectively last year. 

49-year old Frenchman Ludovic Pommeret finished fifth, his fourth time in the top five, having broken the Hardrock 100 record earlier this year.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER RUNNERS?

There was carnage overnight in the men’s race.

The pre-race favourites dropped one by one and soon after sunrise many of the biggest names had stepped off the course.

Jim Walmsley, who won last year in the fastest ever time on the course and who was aiming for the Western States-UTMB double, stopped at Courmayeur. He’d been struggling with a knee issue which didn’t improve enough to allow him to finish (we spoke to Jim ahead of UTMB – read the piece here. It’s fittingly called “Failure Doesn’t Mean The End”). 

Britain’s Tom Evans was comfortably in the top three through halfway, but began to drop back through the field. He suffered stomach issues and was unable to eat and drink enough. “Fuelling became an issue through the night and you can’t run this race on empty,” confirmed a post on his Instagram page.

Other notable dropouts were: France’s Mathieu Blanchard, 2022’s runner up; Spain’s Pau Capell, winner in 2019; and Frenchman Germain Grangier (partner of Katie Schide), who was third in 2023, and was running in the top three for many hours, but dropped after Trient. 

Overall, there were more than 700 people who did not finish the race. This year’s warm conditions making it a very challenging year in the mountains. 

CCC & OCC CHAMPIONS

Earlier in the week, the two shorter UTMB World Series Final races took place. OCC, which is a 57km race, and CCC, which is 101km. Here are the top three in each race.

Men’s OCC
1st. Eli Hemming (USA) – 5:11:48. 
2nd. Francesco Puppi (Italy) – 5:14:46.
3rd. Antonio Martinez Perez (Spain) – 5:17:56.

Women’s OCC
1st. Miao Yao (China) – 5:54:03 
2nd. Judith Wyder (Switzerland) – 6:00:05.
3rd. Clementine Geoffray (France) – 6:02:10.

Men’s CCC 
1st. Hayden Hawks (USA) – 10:20:11
2nd. Peter Fraňo (SLV) – 10:27:17
3rd. Adam Peterman (USA) – 10:28:50

Women’s CCC
1st. Toni McCann (RSA) – 11:57:59
2nd. Martyna Mlynarczyk (POL) – 12:11:12
3rd. Rosanna Buchauer (GER) – 12:16:55

Men’s UTMB
1st. Vincent Bouillard (France) – 19:54:23
2nd. Baptiste Chassagne (France) – 20:22:45
3rd. Joaquin Lopez (Ecuador) – 20:26:26

Women’s UTMB
1st. Katie Schide (USA) – 22:09:31
2nd. Ruth Croft (New Zealand) – 22:48:37
3rd. Marianne Hogan (Canada) – 23:11:15  

THE WINNING SHOES

We’re running shoe geeks, so always want to see what the winners are wearing.

For the six winners, there were two for HOKA (both in development versions of the Tecton x 3), two for adidas, one for North Face and one for Salomon.

Overall on the podium runners were wearing: HOKA (5), adidas (3), Salomon (2), Nike (2), North Face (1), Asics (1), Kailas (1), Scarpa (1), Kiprun (1), Dynafit (1).

***

Did you follow this year’s races? Does it inspire you to want to run around Mont Blanc?

Lead image: Getty Images. Emmanuel Dunand