By Paul Snyder
September 4, 2024
Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc – the crown jewel of the global trail and ultra world – was held over the weekend, and boy was it fun. The “short” race (57km with 11,000+ ft of climbing) was won by American Eli Hemming in 5:11:48 and Miao Yao of China in 5:54:03. In the CCC event (101km, about 20,000 feet of climbing) Hayden Hawks, an American, took home top honors in 10:20:11, along with South Africa’s Toni McCann who broke the tape in Chamonix, France, in 11:57:59.
One name that may have popped out to marathon fans: Suguru Osako, the Japanese 2:05:29 man and Nike Union Athletic Club member, came back from a 13th place finish at last month’s Olympic marathon to place 52nd overall in the less competitive but still wildly hilly MCC 39k event.
And in the big kahuna, the eponymous UTMB (176km, somewhere in the ballpark of 30,000 feet of climbing), American Katie Schide secured her second event victory, and knocked 21 minutes off of Courtney Dauwalter’s course record in the process, finishing in 22:09:31. Breaking a Courtney Dauwalter record is seriously a big deal: it’s the first time one of the long-long distance runner’s course records has fallen in a major competition. Schide has had a busy summer, having already won Western States.
It takes a lot to upstage a performance like Schide’s, but men’s winner Frenchman Vincent Boulliard, may have done just that by virtue of what he is not: a professional ultra runner. Boulliard pays the bills thanks to Hoka, but not in the same way a Hoka-sponsored athlete like Hayden Hawks does. Boulliard is an employee with a normal desk job. Per his LinkedIn, his title is “Senior Manager of Product Engineering - Innovation.”
His win was a shock, but Boulliard is no slouch. He’s got a background on the track and has taken to ultras quite well, having won a couple of decently competitive races in the U.S. He lives and trains in Annecy, only about an hour from the UTMB finish line in Chamonix, so he gets to train on the sort of terrain he traversed on race day – a huge advantage on a course as technically challenging as this one. And things shook out in his favor on race day: Boulliard had a near-perfect outing, while pre-race headliners like Jim Walmsley dropped out.
It’s the sort of result every amateur runner dreams about, and we can only imagine this performance will inspire dozens of our readers to sign up for an ultra they’re now irrationally confident they can dominate, only to drop out at 20 miles. At least when Vincent logs into work on Monday, his coworkers in the footwear space will have actually heard of the race he won!
Paul Snyder
Meme-disparager, avid jogger, MS Paint artist, friend of Scott Olberding, Citius Mag staff writer based in Flagstaff. Supplying baseless opinions, lukewarm takes, and vaguely running-related content. Once witnessed televison's Michael Rapaport cut a line of 30 people to get a slice of pizza at John's on Bleeker at 4am. You can follow Paul on Twitter at @DanielDingus.
