What we learned about the 2024 UTMB race

By Henry Howard

The 2024 UTMB race brought a mix of confirmations of top runners’ performances and its share of surprising finishes, in the first installment after its controversial moves that roiled the trail and ultra running community in North America.

For the most part, those feelings had been washed away by time and the pure joy of watching the athletes excel at the sport’s championship of sorts. I did find myself glued to following the races via livestream and social media.

As the dust settles, injuries begin to heal and thoughts focus on what’s next, here are 10 takeaways from the 2024 UTMB race series.

1.  Double double: As I stated in my 2024 UTMB race preview, “Katie Schide appears to be the one to beat.” Schide not only won the race in 22:09:31 but set the women’s course record by 21 minutes — the first to ever break a course record set by Courtney Dauwalter. In fact, Schide’s  Western States-UTMB double is almost exactly four minutes faster than Dauwalter’s from last year. Of course, Dauwalter also ran and won Hardrock during that time period so it’s not precisely an apples to apples comparison. These two athletes are clearly the tops in women’s ultra running right now and I can’t wait until they are both on the same start line again.

2.  Unsponsored no more?: Vincent Bouillard, an unsponsored Frenchman who works in research and development for Hoka, won the men’s 2024 UTMB in 19:54:23, only the fifth runner to finish in under 20 hours. It was the most surprising victory at a major 100-miler in quite some time. But Bouillard does have previous victories at the Kodiak 100 mile and Gorge Waterfall 100K, both in 2023. As unlikely as this victory was, it is likely there will not be a UTMB men’s repeat champion in 2025.

3.  Ageless wonder: Perhaps the next most impressive finish was by Ludovic Pommeret, a 49-year-old who finished fifth overall, just a month after setting the course record at the Hardrock 100. The achievement was impressive for a masters athlete, especially considering he worked moved up from 47th at 40K to 10th place by the 100K mark, before finishing fifth.

4. A day of drops: There were numerous notable Did Not Finishes (DNF) in the men’s UTMB. I would have bet money that the trio of returning UTMB champion Jim Walmsley, 2022 UTMB runner-up Mathieu Blanchard and 2023 Western States runner-up Tom Evans would have been the podium finishers. Instead, they were all among the many notable DNFs.

5.  Yep, she’s back: Marianne Hogan returned with a strong performance after healing from injury. Hogan, who was runner-up in 2022, ran in second place much of the day before finishing third in the women’s race.

6. Well healed: The men’s CCC proved it was just as interesting as the UTMB 100-miler with Hayden Hawks getting his second win at the distance. Former Western States champ Adam Peterman took third place, a strong signal that the previously injured pair of elites are back in prime form. It appears both will be heading back to Western States, where Hayden finished third earlier this year and Peterman won during his breakout season before his long battle with injury.

7. Bound for glory: Heather Jackson placed fifth at CCC, moving up to the 100K distance after finishing 20th at the 50K OCC last year. Jackson, who took seventh at Western States and fifth at the Unbound gravel cycling race earlier this summer, is hands down the best multisport endurance athlete in the world today. She will be an easy pick for the Ultra Runner of the Year top 10 list.

8.  More top 10s: There were other elites who finished in the top 10 at Western States and various UTMB races. Daniel Jones took fourth place at Western and also fourth at CCC, while Emily Hawgood finished fourth at Western and sixth at the UTMB 100-miler.

9.  A first time: Eli Hemming became the first American to win OCC, a 50K championship race which featured 1,800 runners from 90 different countries this year. On the women’s side Miao Yao of China won after the early leaders included Americans Dani Moreno, who placed sixth, and Tabor Hemming, who dropped.

10. Media leader: In terms of media, Dylan Bowman’s Freetrail podcast has established itself as the go-to podcast source for analysis and instant results-driven content after major races. It’s been an impressive trajectory for Freetrail which was launched just a few years ago. While iRunFar and other sources publish results and race recaps quickly in written form, the depth and timeliness of the Freetrail content is unqiue in the podcast space.