Katie Schide Breaks Courtney Dauwalter’s UTMB Course Record

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Katie Schide would by no means inform you this, however she is likely one of the biggest ultrarunners of all time.

That truth is indeniable after her course-record win on the Extremely Path du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) on Friday.

The 32-year-old American flew over the cobbled streets of Chamonix, France, with an ear-to-ear grin on her face to cross the road in 22 hours, 9 minutes, and 31 seconds—shattering none apart from Courtney Dauwalter’s 2021 course report by 21 minutes.

It’s the primary of Dauwalter’s seemingly untouchable course information, which embrace the Western States 100, the Hardrock 100 (in each instructions), and Grand Raid Reunion, to go down.

In case that isn’t sufficient: Schide grew to become simply the fourth particular person to win the Western States 100 and UTMB in the identical summer time, becoming a member of the unique membership with Nikki Kimball (2007), Kilian Jornet (2007), and Dauwalter (2023). And she or he’s simply the fifth girl and ninth runner general to win UTMB greater than as soon as.

Her outcomes communicate for themselves even when Schide received’t. Whereas Jim Walmsley introduced his intention to go after the historic Western States/UTMB double in April, Schide solely advised the world three weeks in the past that she would return to Chamonix on August 30 for an additional 106-mile lap across the Mont Blanc massif.

“It’s simply two extra years of coaching,” Schide, 32, mentioned about her meteoric rise via the game and this race, the place she’s now completed sixth, (2019), eighth (2021), and two firsts in 4 tries, together with taking second on the CCC 100K in 2018 and the OCC 50K in 2023.

However for what she lacks in public brashness, she makes up for in her fearless racing model.

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An Basically Wire-to-Wire Win

Many thought the ladies’s 2024 UTMB subject was the deepest in historical past. And but, regardless of Schide returning to defend her 2022 title after profitable Western States in June, she wasn’t thought of by many to be the clear favourite. Kiwi Ruth Croft and Blandine L’Hirondel of France—who’ve each received OCC and CCC—had targets on their backs with the possibility to change into the primary girl to win all three UTMB World Collection Finals titles.

China’s Lin Chen and Fu-Zhao Xiang, who took third at Western States this summer time, have been additionally within the combine, together with Canadian Marianne Hogan, who took second at UTMB behind Schide in 2022 regardless of tearing her psoas mid-race. The record of formidable girls goes on.

However Schide quietly held an audacious purpose for the final weekend in August: run the 106-mile race with greater than 32,000 ft of climbing in underneath 22 hours. And she or he put that plan into movement from the gun.

At first, that meant slowing herself down. She wrote down her first few focused splits to verify she didn’t exit too quick and hit them on the nostril.

“I believe on this race I simply went in additional assured in myself and I wasn’t shocked that I used to be quick, whereas in 2022 I used to be form of freaking out ’trigger I used to be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t actually imply to do this this time,’” Schide mentioned in regards to the first few hours of the race. “ I meant to do it and I used to be simply centered on making an attempt to not die too exhausting on the finish.”

Regardless of the new tempo, she was nowhere to be seen within the lead pack of ladies which included L’Hirondel, Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret of France, and Hogan as they tore via the primary city of Les Houches 7K into the race. However by the point the race reached Saint Gervais at 21K and 1:48 elapsed, Schide had a 4 and a half minute hole over L’Hirondel in second and sat in an astonishing twentieth general.

She wouldn’t run with one other girl throughout the race once more.

Ever the consummate skilled, Schide moved effectively but in an unhurried method via support stations, taking over a mix of liquid energy and gels from her vitamin sponsor By no means Second, white bread and butter sandwiches that she had made herself earlier than the race, in addition to some quesadillas from her crew. She modified her sweaty shirt as soon as evening fell, and layered and de-layered because the temperatures rose and fell with the elevation and the solar.

She reached Les Chapieux (51K) in 5:07 elapsed—greater than half-hour forward after all report tempo. That hole grew to 40 minutes by Arête du Mont-Favre (73K). Notably, she was additionally 22 minutes forward of her personal splits from 2022, when she light exhausting en path to the win.

Her lead over the course report and the remainder of the sphere continued to develop via the evening—together with via the crux from Courmayeur, Italy, to Champex-Lac, Switzerland, which features a burly 2,600-foot climb up over 4.5K to the Bertone Refuge after which one other kicker as much as the highpoint of the course, the Grand Col Ferret, earlier than a 4,500-foot descent over 23.8K.

Nighttime decimated the lads’s subject. By dawn, the ladies’s race had hardly modified.

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The Ladies’s Subject Ranges-Up

Schide marched up the two,450-foot climb of Grand Col Ferret (105K) within the second-fastest ascent behind Dauwalter in 2023. At that time, the one race was between Schide and the ghost of Dauwalter’s previous. Schide had a 51-minute lead.

Hogan, in the meantime, hoofed it up the climb a minute quicker in second, 28 minutes again. However on the unending descent, a persistent hamstring harm flared. She tripped and broke her finger shortly thereafter.

“I’ve been coping with some hamstring points since June, and I knew they could present up at the moment,” Hogan mentioned. “I fell and broke my finger, and it was form of excellent news as a result of it made me neglect about my hamstring for some time as a result of the finger was actually painful.”

Hogan solid forward. In the meantime after some lows over the primary 50K, Croft methodically labored her approach via the sphere to fifth behind Schide, Hogan, L’Hirondel in third, and Emily Hawgood (who’s from Zimbabwe however lives in Roseville, California) in fourth.

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By La Fouly (116K), Schide’s hole over the course report had prolonged to an hour and she or he confirmed no indicators of slowing. However because the solar crept increased into the bluebird sky, the climate did its greatest to thwart her progress. Temperatures soared into the higher 70s by noon. Schide and her crew have been ready. Utilizing selfmade ice cubes in addition to extras from fellow American Cody Lind’s crew, Schide employed her full warmth protocol she is aware of so properly from the previous two years at Western States, cooling herself down with water and ice.

In Trient, Switzerland, at 146K, Schide acquired the blow that her associate, Germain Granger, had dropped from the race after holding onto second place till that time. By Vallorcine, France,  (158K) the warmth began making her really feel light-headed and she or he fell barely off her unrelenting tempo. However the work had already been executed. She bumped into Chamonix with a 40-minute lead.

“It was exhausting on the finish. The final two hours have been very tough, you’ll be able to discuss to the digital camera runner!” Schide mentioned after the race, referring to the digital camera runner filming for the race livestream. “I actually needed to attempt to go underneath 22 hours and I simply went into it as if it was a time trial and I had the strongest girl there to assist me try this.”

Certain sufficient, a battle was brewing among the many robust girls behind. The machine that’s Croft blitzed up the ultimate climb with poles in hand to the La Flégère ski resort and surpassed a struggling Hogan and not using a struggle. She appeared to proceed to solely achieve momentum all the best way to the end and a second place  in her UTMB debut. She stopped the clock at 22:48:37.

“I felt simply actually robust, partly because of my coach Scott Johnston, and mentally fairly relaxed to be trustworthy, simply making an attempt to not take it too critically and simply needed to try to have as a lot enjoyable as you’ll be able to over 170 kilometers,” Croft mentioned. “I believe it’s barely psychotic, however for essentially the most half I did have various enjoyable.”

Hogan held on regardless of the ache in each her finger—which additionally impeded her capability to make use of her poles and seize meals and fluids—and in her hamstring to take third in 23:11:15.

“I had so a lot of my members of the family and so many members of the manufacturers that I symbolize which have change into household to me. And it was  actually particular for me to see so many family members out on the course,” Hogan mentioned. “That’s actually what saved me going and, and I’ll be ceaselessly be thankful for them to have spent rather less than 24 hours following me alongside the course at the moment.”

In a testomony to the up-leveling of the sphere, specifically the ladies’s subject, Schide, Croft, and Hogan are solely the third, fourth, and fifth girls’s performances underneath 24 hours, behind Dauwalter (2021) and Schide (2022).

Chen ran persistently all day to work her approach up from the again of the highest 10 to fourth (24:16:33) and L’Hirondel held on for fifth (24:35:54). Sabrina Stanley of Silverton, Colorado, completed seventh (25:32:10) to again up her eighth place from final 12 months and declare the glory of second American.

Discover the complete outcomes right here.

A Legend is Born

The Western States/UTMB double has thwarted scores of high runners for 20 years. Whereas Western States requires pace and a superhuman capability to face up to scorching warmth, UTMB, whereas largely runnable, is a real mountain race that calls for runners have the cardio and muscular capability to face up to limitless climbs and quad-crushing descents, together with a familiarity of shifting via ever-changing climate and terrain.

It’s an almost unattainable steadiness to strike. However for Schide, specializing in Western States for 2 years might have been precisely the stimulus she wanted to interrupt Daulwater’s historic time.

After ending runner-up to Dauwalter at Western States in 2023, Schide went all-in on nailing the new, quick California 100-miler this June. For the second 12 months in a row, she left her residence in Saint-Dalmas-le-Selvage, France, and after profitable the Canyons by UTMB 100K in April in course-record time, put in one other coaching block in Flagstaff, Arizona.

The deal with quick, runnable terrain and lengthy, scorching days within the Grand Canyon paid off. Schide received Western States within the second quickest time ever.

Whereas UTMB wasn’t her focus—she had registered by the deadline in January, however she purchased the race insurance coverage simply in case—she considered the emphasis on pace over the spring as a essential element to reducing her time on this mountain race. She recovered from Western  States rapidly, and most significantly, had the motivation to make her fourth lap round Mont Blanc.

“Reuniting with my working poles after a two-year hiatus has been a welcome change to the limitless runnable kms that outlined the final two springs,” Schide wrote on Instagram on August 26. “I’m really excited/curious/nervous to see the place I’m at, having ready particularly for this subsequent race in a a lot shorter timeframe than previous years, however with extra confidence about what I used to think about my greatest weak spot (the precise working).”

A childhood taking part in within the White Mountains of New Hampshire and later working there as a hut caretaker throughout faculty. A decade of racing on the paths. And a decade of constant exhausting work. The innate mountain instincts and abilities, the finesse of pace, and the real pleasure for racing on the paths. All of it appears to have conspired for Schide this summer time, elevating her to absolutely the highest stage of the game at a time it’s rising, professionalizing, and getting quicker at a quicker charge than ever earlier than.

“I actually needed to attempt to go underneath 22 hours and I simply went as if it was a time trial and I had the strongest girl there to assist me try this,” Schide mentioned.

She’s now received 9 out of 11 races since 2022, solely succumbing to Dauwalter at Western States in 2022 and Toni McCann, who received CCC yesterday, on the 2023 OCC.

Schide didn’t hit her A purpose. However she nonetheless landed in a galaxy that till this 12 months basically no one thought was doable: surpassing Dauwalter, who over the previous half a decade has confirmed she’s head-and-shoulders above everybody else.

Protected to say, Schide has joined—the truth is, at this specific race, surpassed—her ranks.

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