Each year, usually after UTMB, I start dreaming up future plans and thinking about where next year’s races might take me. This time, rather than prioritizing cool destinations or specific series or qualifiers, I have another idea.
I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about races I’d like to someday win, but very little thinking about people I’d like to someday beat. It feels weird to talk about beating people, winning and losing. Is a 2nd place finisher a loser? Kind of, but also it’s still great. It seems like it’s not really how we tend to think about ultrarunning. Maybe that’s a good thing, it keeps things friendly and respectful. But I think you can also want to beat someone while being friendly and respectful. If anything, it’s the ultimate sign of respect to hold someone in high enough regard that beating them would really be meaningful (as much as any of this is truly “meaningful”, but that’s deeper than I want to go right now). Sometimes we like to act like this is all about self-improvement and soul-searching, but I could get that through personal projects in the mountains. When I race, part of it is to stroke the ego and see how I stack up against the competition.
Over the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to race against many great athletes, including the best ultrarunners in the world. I beat some of them and I’ve been beaten by many others. After having plenty of time to reflect on the crushing defeat that Ben handed us all at UTMB, I got thinking about some of the top runners I respect/fear/want to beat most in the sport right now. Specifically ones I’ve never beaten before. People who I’m not confident I would beat, but am confident would inspire me to push myself deeply and get the most out of myself regardless of the outcome. A few names come to mind:
Ben Dhiman. The obvious first person I think of right now. I’m a big fan of Ben, his dedication to training and sharing his journey and pushing the limits of the sport. UTMB was my first and only time racing him so far. 0-1.
Jim Walmsley. Clearly one of the best to ever do it. He’s been repeatedly the fastest at the world’s biggest races and it’s a bucket list goal to beat him someday. We’ve raced at Western States 2024, where he was so far ahead of me he probably never even saw me, and World Champs 2025, where I DNF’d early and he dominated the race. 0-2.
Tom Evans. If you’re still active in the sport and you’ve won both UTMB and WSER, chances are I’d like to beat you. Not many people are in that category, but Tom and I have managed to never race each other and we should. 0-0.
Vincent Bouillard*. Asterisk because we’ve raced at WSER 2025, Worlds 2025, and UTMB 2026, but he DNF’d two of those and I DNF’d the other. He also falls into that category of having won UTMB and WSER, so I’d love a chance for a clean victory where we’re both healthy and finish the race, but I’m also a believer that anyone who finishes a race technically beats anyone who DNF’d that race. 0/2-0/1*.
Francesco Puppi. He’s been on fire and I think the range of distances he’s good at is amazing. My only hope would probably be 100k+, but I’d like to find myself on a start line with Francesco again soon. The only time that’s happened so far was the same Worlds race mentioned above, where I DNF’d and he finished 9th. 0-1.
Ludo Pommeret. I got to witness his Hardrock up close this year and I hope he’s still going strong when I eventually do Hardrock because he’d be a tough dude to keep up with. 0-0.
Dmitry Mityaev. My first international podium was UTCT 100k. I got second behind Dmitry and his monstrous quads. I haven’t had a chance for redemption yet, but I hope we meet again because now my quads have grown a little too. 0-1.
Are you kidding me^^^
If you’re reading this and you see your name on this list, let me know if you want to race and let’s figure something out. There’s no rule that says we can only have super deep competitive races at WSER and UTMB, it would just take a little coordination and planning for a bunch of us to show up for MIUT or TGC or Andorra or something. My schedule is pretty open right now. If the much more likely thing happens where the people on this list don’t read this, maybe I’ll message some of them and see if I can find out where I can test myself against them next.
I got a list, here’s the order of my list that it’s in:
For some reason in trail running there seems to be a general attitude of disdain for overt competitiveness. It’s prevalent from amateurs to pros. People will conceal any competitive ambitions and I wish they didn’t so much.
We race to race other people. That’s what gets us to push ourselves to places we didn’t think possible. The other people! It’s true for all levels of the sport. I think it’s awesome when somebody in 163rd puts on the afterburner to get 162nd.
That kind of back and forth fight with another runner builds a bond, not enmity. Much more so than being ambivalent about their pace. When I have a good (friendly) fight with someone I’m inclined to give them a hug at the finish line, win or lose.