If the correlation between reigning UTMB champion Katie Schide‘s 10km times and her ultrarunning exploits continue then we’re in for fireworks when she lines up against the GOAT Courtney Dauwalter in 2025!
Dauwalter has raised the bar – and then some – for female ultrarunning with record-breaking display after record-breaking display.
But fellow American Schide has picked up the baton in style, winning UTMB for a second time last year on the back of similarly impressive victories in the Canyons Endurance Runs and Western States.
Her UTMB time was a new course record too, eclipsing Dauwalter’s mark from 2021 by 21 minutes.
All of which means the ultrarunning world is eagerly awaiting the first clash between Schide and Dauwalter since 2023.
Stunning new mark
It’s been one-way traffic between the pair so far – four head-to-heads, including UTMB in 2019 and 2021 – which were all won by Dauwalter.
But if this month’s early marker from Schide is anything to go by then it really could be game on in 2025.
For the French-based star took part in the Prom’Classic in Nice last weekend and not only beat, but shattered, her 10k personal best.
She’s got quicker and quicker over that distance as a post on her Instagram account illustrated, when she highlighted the progression of her 10k PB:
2017 – 37:33
2018 – 37:18
2020 – 36:20
2021 – 35:45
But the biggest leap of all came on the Cote d’Azur this time around, with a brilliant 34:10 which put her in the top 20 of a massive field and suggests training is trending very much in the right direction ahead of a huge campaign.
Hardrock – and then UTMB?
She’s yet to reveal her full schedule but for now the one thing we know is that she intends to race Hardrock 100 in July.
The defending champion there is none other than Dauwalter, with Hardrock one of her five victories in a perfect 2024.
Dauwalter too is yet to map out her 2025 targets, saying on Instagram at the start of the year that she’s “still deciding” how many 100-milers will feature.
You have to go back to 2018 for the last time UTMB wasn’t won by Dauwalter or Schide so a 2025 showdown in Chamonix would be mouthwatering.
