Gemma Hillier-Moses ready for biggest test yet at Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB

Gemma Hillier-Moses returns to Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB this week, 12 months on from putting herself in the spotlight when winning the 73km race.

That was the British runner’s first UTMB World Series win and while the memories from that day in Tuscany are still vivid, she will face a very different challenge this time around.

When RUN247 sat down with her ahead of this year’s race she recalls that the atmosphere was “pretty special”, adding: “I think what made it more amazing was that Jim [Walmsley] and Kilian [Jornet] were finishing in the 120k.

“I remember Jim passing me in the forest section and saying, ‘It’s a bit muddy isn’t it?’ Then I got to the finish and the whole place was packed because everyone was waiting for them to come in.

“So it felt like a really high-profile finish line, which was quite cool.”

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Step up in distance

This year, however, Hillier-Moses will herself tackle the full 120km distance in the Ultra Trail Chianti Castles – the longest race she has ever attempted.

The move is part of a carefully planned progression as she targets a return to the 101km CCC at UTMB in Chamonix later this season, a huge focus for her in 2026.

“What we wanted to do this year was make CCC the main goal,” she told us. “I need more experience over those longer distances going into it and the reason for doing the 120k at Chianti is that although it’s my longest race, it will probably be a similar time on feet to CCC.

“So it just gives us a chance to practise fuelling, practise the process and get another race under the belt at that sort of duration.”

Encouraging start to the season

Hillier-Moses, who is coached by her husband Lewis Moses, heads to Italy in superb form after beginning the year with victory in the Arc of Attrition 50 to continue her impressive upward trajectory.

After surviving aggressive cancer treatment earlier in her life, something we will talk to her about in the third part of this interview, she only ran her first ultra in November 2023 but now has two big wins to her name in the last 12 months.

And that recent Arc result – when she finished well over an hour ahead of her nearest female rival – came despite the race not being a major target in her training plan.

“The Arc ended up being like an A race in terms of the performance,” she said. “But it wasn’t really an A race in terms of the training.

“I hadn’t done heaps of long runs into it – my longest was about five hours – so I went in just focusing fully on the process rather than the result.”

That approach paid off, with Hillier-Moses finishing strongly in the latter stages of the race – something she believes bodes well for the longer distances ahead.

“The biggest thing for me was that in the last couple of hours I felt really strong,” the 37-year-old told us.

“The fuelling worked really well and my legs still felt good in the final hour.

“So hopefully that’s a positive sign going into the longer races.”

Process over pressure

Despite arriving at Chianti with a recent win and strong memories from last year, the Suunto athlete insists she is not placing unnecessary pressure on herself and points out there are plenty of other women – including Norway’s Yngvild Kaspersen and American Rachel Entrekin – ahead of her in the rankings this week.

[UPDATE: Ultrarunning GOAT Courtney Dauwalter has now been added to the start list too following the cancellation of the Tenerife Bluetrail by UTMB]

“I try not to feel too much pressure,” says Gemma. “Even with sponsorship or expectations, I always remind myself that I love what I do and I love this sport.

“At the end of the day you can only do what you can do on that day under those conditions.”

Instead, she focuses almost entirely on execution rather than outcome.

“I might have an idea of what I want to achieve, but I put that in a box and get rid of it,” she explained. “Race day is all about the process – pacing, fuelling and making good decisions.

“And then whatever happens, happens.”

That mindset has served her well so far in her trail running career – and as she prepares to take on her longest race yet, it remains the foundation of her approach.

“There’s so much that can happen in ultra running,” she said. “You can have the best preparation possible and things can still go wrong – or the opposite can happen. So you just take each race as it comes.”

In the second part of our interview we’ll chat to Gemma in more detail about her return to CCC – and why UTMB and Western States could be on the agenda in years to come.