An American living in France, Katie Schide not only won the 2024 UTMB but also set a new course record in the process. In this interview, she talks about how she approached the race, having the confidence to run her planned splits, and how she feels about winning both the Western States 100 and UTMB in one season.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2024 UTMB results article.
Katie Schide, 2024 UTMB Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Katie Schide. It’s the day after the 2024 UTMB and you’re the champion again. Congratulations, Katie. Good morning.
Schide: Thank you. Yeah, it’s nice to be awake and walking around.
iRunFar: How does it feel? You’re the champion of this race for the second time.
Schide: It’s a bit surreal, to be honest. It’s a race I always dreamed of winning a few years ago, and then to finally be able to put together a good day in 2022 was more than I could have asked for. And then to be able to come back and have another great run at it was… kind of still sinking in I guess.
iRunFar: You have the feelings in your legs, but maybe not your mind yet.
Schide: Yeah, I think there’s been a lot to do since finishing, so not much time to soak it in yet.
iRunFar: It is a blessing and a curse of winning the largest 100 miler out there is that there are people like us who want to talk to you for a long time the next day. Right?
Schide: Yeah. This isn’t too long. It’s okay.
iRunFar: I want to start with something you said at the finish line yesterday that hit me. You said that in 2022 you were nervous about going out fast. You didn’t know if you’d be able to stick it. But this year you had a different sense of confidence in your ability to run. Will you tell us a little more about that?
Schide: Yeah, there was a lot going on just before the start in 2022 where I had to move houses because we had a COVID case in our house and there was just a lot going on emotionally and also logistically, and I kind of got to the start line just sort of like, all right. Honestly, I was kind of convinced I had COVID. I had done COVID tests, but I still didn’t believe them and thought for sure.
iRunFar: It was going to happen in Champex-Lac or in Les Chapieux or something.
Schide: Yeah. It did for my partner. So I wasn’t far off, but so I kind of just was like, okay, let’s just go for it, and sort of just this mindset of like, well, I don’t really care. It’s probably not going to work anyway. And then when I was running quite fast, everyone was sort of concerned for me. I could feel that feeling from other people.
iRunFar: She’s going too fast possibly.
Schide: Yea,h because my previous two UTMBs had not been that fast, and I guess I hadn’t shown a performance at that level before, so I think people are a bit like, oh, maybe you should be a little bit more conservative. Even if they were cheering, I could still feel it.
iRunFar: You could feel it a little.
Schide: And it kind of freaked me out. I was like, oh no, maybe I really made a huge mistake here. Which it’s hard to say in hindsight if it was a good idea or a bad idea, in the end worked out. But this year I had written those times down for the first couple aid stations.
iRunFar: Were you using the 2022 splits?
Schide: Yeah, it was just as a check to make sure I wasn’t going super fast or much slower than them. I wanted to be kind of around that because I thought at this point, I think I can run those kind of times more comfortably than I did in 2022. But yeah, I just had more confidence about it, so because I knew the time in Saint-Gervais, I knew that the guys weren’t running very fast, so when I was with the first guys, I knew, yeah, of course you can always run fast at the start, but I felt like, okay, I don’t think I’m making too big of a mistake because I know I did this in 2022 and the guys were 10 or 15 minutes ahead of me. So trying not to judge my own effort based on where they were.
iRunFar: Did it feel hot to you in starting and did the night feel hotter to you? Sort of digging into some of the details. Was it any different than prior UTMBs?
Schide: It’s always really humid at the start.
iRunFar: Why is it so humid?
Schide: I think it’s just the time of year. The afternoons here are always humid, and then we’re really in the trees between Saint-Gervais, and Les Contamines, and you’re next to the river. So yeah, there’s a lot of humidity there. I didn’t find it that different from the other three times. And then during the night it was kind of normal, maybe a little bit warmer than 2022 and 2021 was quite cold also, maybe similar to 2019, but nothing crazy and it was super clear, no fog. I think we had really, really good weather.
iRunFar: It felt like the night time was almost the most pleasant night. There was no fog that your headlamp is trying to reflect off of. Most people were wearing one layer, sometimes there’s two layers out at night. It seemed like a really a charming night for running.
Schide: Yeah, it was nice. It was very manageable. It was like a few chilly points where I pulled down my sleeves or I put my jacket on just one time, I think.
iRunFar: If you look back at the Katie Schide racing style of a few years ago, it was often that you would run early in the race with other people. Sometimes you’d share kilometers and kilometers with some of your friends. But it seems like the Katie Schide of 2024 is front running off the start where you’re sort of in no other woman’s land, with other men. How has that change felt for you, not being as surrounded with women and passing the miles with other people this year?
Schide: Yeah, I think the last time I really ran with people at the start was Courtney [Dauwalter] at Western States last year. And otherwise, I don’t remember, I guess at UTMB in previous years, but I think that’s just because that’s where I was at and that was my effort was to be with them. I’ve also, for sure, gained a lot of confidence in the last, let’s see, six years since my first CCC. So yeah, just being more sure of my own decision making. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many women to run with as men, so you don’t have as many options for pacing. So at this point, it’s actually great because I do know most of the men in the field and can speak to some of the French guys, so I feel like I have a lot of options for people to run with. Even if I don’t want to talk, it’s nice to know you could say something.
iRunFar: Or you have the company of somebody, even if you’re not talking.
Schide: Yeah.
iRunFar: Yeah. I guess from the outside looking in, things looked like they were pretty smooth for you until maybe the last 20 or 25 kilometers, or rather, were you managing things that just weren’t that detectable from the outside?
Schide: I’m always managing my stomach, but it was manageable until the last two hours then I had a lot of cramping. I’m not sure if it was more my stomach or my diaphragm or both. But yeah, that was really hard. That’s basically what-
iRunFar: Took you out.
Schide: That’s what was holding me back in the last couple hours.
iRunFar: Was it cramps or just like bonking, no energy?
Schide: It was really intense stomach cramps. Yeah. I had to stop a few times to try to breathe because I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t inhale very deeply. But I was able to just keep moving. I could see I was still moving and not too slowly, so I just wanted to hold it together.
iRunFar: Like doing the pace that you needed to maintain your position as far as Chamonix.
Schide: Yeah, I knew my position was going to be fine. I more had some of those time goals in mind at that point, but I tried to just to be happy with what I was doing and not get too stressed.
iRunFar: Last question for you. There’s been this Western States-UTMB double thing that’s been a part of your summer, probably when Western States ended there was the relief of having accomplished that goal, but maybe your brain started doing the math and stuff on UTMB pretty quick. Is there today, now, both goals accomplish, mission accomplish? Can you let yourself feel like, yeah, end of season relief accomplishment?
Schide: Yeah, I am excited to start doing that. I feel like maybe once we get home and I have some time to breathe a little bit more, decompress. I’ve only spent three weeks at home since mid-April, so I think I’m just looking forward to being in my place and calm. Yeah, because when you bring that up, it still really isn’t something that’s totally sunk in yet. So yeah.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your win of the 2024 UTMB. Congratulations on the Western States-UTMB double, and congratulations on an off-season of sitting on the couch, relaxing-
Schide: Skiing.
iRunFar: Skiing, letting that all sink in.
Schide: Thanks.
