You've Got To Win UTMB | Tom Evans 2025 UTMB Champion After 2 DNFs

I was exactly the same athlete a week ago and no one really cared. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. that pin it on. Is that all right to go through? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> If you want to change trail running and you want to be one of the key figureheads in the sport, you've got to win UTM. >> [music] [music] >> Scott Johnson, my coach, said in order to finish first. First, you've got to finish. in sixth in 2022 from Zimbabwe, [music] Emily Hog. >> I used to want to be at the very front of the race so you don't have to run any further than you do. But now like I was at the very very back of the front pen sat on the floor mind my own business do my own thing don't worry about what's going on rather than being on the front having cameras everywhere and making sure that yeah you look good and you've not got spit on your [music] face or whatever it is. I was just very very relaxed. [music] >> [music] >> Wow. [music] Going into the race, I knew it wasn't necessarily going to be the best runner who wins, but the runner who looks after themselves will give themselves a shot of the win, the podium, top five or whatever. But first, like, you've got to make it through the night. And if you don't make it through the night, you can't win. You crazy. [music] [music] >> Descending into San Jose, I knew it was going to be busy. In loud places, my heart rate goes crazy. >> [cheering] >> whether that's a a nerves thing after Cape Town. >> Did that really affect you? >> Yeah, massively. Way more that I very nearly stopped running. I hated running. Every time I saw someone or two people more so on their own, I thought I was going to be killed. So, in noisy areas now in the races, uh, I put headphones in. I put earplugs in so I can't hear anything. [cheering] >> My heart rate goes crazy. I hated running. I thought I was going to be killed. >> [music] >> He didn't put his rain jacket on till it was way too late. And and it's the reason why so many people dropped out because France didn't put his rain jacket on cuz everyone was just copying him. And I was like, it's raining. It's been raining for a minute. I'm going to put my rain jacket on. And it rains for two hours [music] in between sane and come to me when I was running with Ben [music] and I said, "Oh, how many people are in front of us?" And they said, "What do you mean?" I was like, "How many are you in front?" And they're like, "Oh, no, we are the front." And at that point, I was thinking, "This is not [music] right. I should not be at the front this early. It's so easy to go off too hard." And having made the mistakes of going off too hard, like the thing that I was stressed about was going too hard. Going into the race, I was really stressed. I rushed a lot of the last minute preparation with my nutrition plan. I didn't really have one. I didn't have a pacing plan. I kind of knew I'd ruined it already by San Jose. So, just held on for as long as I could because I really didn't want I really didn't want to drop out two years in a row. Signing up to UTMB for a third year after two DNFs honestly made me feel sick. I met Sofh beginning of 2019 and fairly quickly got together and moved in with each other and yeah, it was one of those from the very beginning you knew that it was going to work and we sort of [music] decided we want to have a baby. Our mindset was it might take a long time to fall pregnant. 6 weeks later we're pregnant. So I think like yeah it's amazing how quickly things change but yeah with her [music] like it's just a deeper motivation like people talk about dad's strength or like [music] mom strength parent strength I really believe in it I think it is a real performance enhancer we stayed in a jantier for 8 weeks re-watching Harry Potter and having mini quizzes every other day [music] watching Phoebe grow up learning to use her hands And it was just the most incredible 8 weeks of my life. And I have absolutely no doubt that yes, the physical training was important. But the biggest difference between this year and any other year was how much fun I had in the buildup. >> I don't necessarily like being out in front. I'd rather be the hunter than the hunted. Especially at the beginning of the race in between Sanjay and Contoine. I just w I didn't even bother hiking. I was like, I don't need to rush this bit. I'll just walk it. Didn't bother taking poles out. Just ambled along nicely. Group caught up. More headlamps. [music] Perfect. [music] >> [music] [music] [cheering] >> through notch down del I put earplugs in so I can't hear anything and then I then focus [music] and I then do 100% nose breathing and nose and diaphragmatic breathing. >> [cheering] >> Come on, Connie. Come on, Connie. Like up there, the weather was horrendous, especially bad at the top of the climbs. And yeah, we had a little bit of like a buddy buddy system. And we sort of said, "Right, every 5 minutes if someone's not talking." [music] And we weren't talking at this point cuz we got our hoods up, it's like just let's just check in to make sure we're okay. Tell me about your your life as a child. >> So I was born in London in February 1992. My mom worked in the house of parliament as a secretary basically I think and my dad worked in the city. >> They got divorced when I was two or three maybe three. So growing up had yeah sort of two different family lives. That was yeah at the time I really enjoyed. I was very sporty the whole time. Um every single school report was if Tom can put as much effort in the classroom as he does on the sports pitches, he could be dangerous. Um and I never did. Rugby was the cool thing to do. I was definitely never the most talented but I tried the hardest and it made me look better than I actually was. I thrived off the fitness element of it. Like every running fitness test, whether it was in the gym or doing hill reps, whatever it was, I had to win everything. Not because I was competitive, but just because I loved the training and I loved the suffering at a young age. And yeah, I remember writing rugby training programs when I was like 13 years old. Like I was running in school holidays and wanting to be the best We expect Tom Evans to be coming in next. He has DNFed UTMBB the past two years. So, he is going to want to uh have a good showing today. And here he is, Tom Evans from the UK. And right behind him, Ben Demon. Got into Cormayer with Ben knowing that statistically for the last five, six years, you need to be in the lead at Cormayer to win the race. When Theo attacked, uh, I didn't know much about Theo. I knew he had a really, really good run at Marathon to Mumbo 90k, but he had been coughing for the whole race, I was like, it's inevitable what's going to happen. You've also just put 2 minutes on us in a 20-minute climb. That will come back to bite you. And sure enough, we passed him around. My race plan was very very strict on a pacing standpoint, not to go too hard from the beginning up to our but then from our to the finish it was done on field. [music] [applause] Tom is super nice and he's super focused. So I think that's a really good thing. And yeah, he just like was super inside his way. So I think that's a perfect configuration for us. [cheering] [applause] >> The plan was to go to kick on from the top of Grand Cay depending on what the weather was like and the conditions on the descent after everyone from CCC had been through and actually the descent was pretty good. Yeah. So, I said something to Ben like, "Oh, I can't remember what I said. May I asked him a random question about uh living in the Pyrenees or something, and he had been really good at replying, but then didn't reply." So, I turned around and couldn't see a headlamp. I was like, "Ah." Got into Arnua. As I left, Arnu is a fairly important aid station because you've [music] got quite a long way to Lafouli. The weather's horrendous. And then as I left, Ben was coming in and I was like, "Okay, well, that's that's at least a minute. a minute doesn't seem like a long time, but it is quite a long time to make up. And every time I would turn around, the gap was just getting wider and wider, and I could see the elastic snapping. Interesting talking to Ben after the race, he said like it was your uphills. Like, it wasn't I knew you were fast on the flat, but I didn't know you could do that on the uphills. Tom Evans. [laughter] >> Big up song. >> [music] >> from Lafouli. It was a okay like you've now got this opportunity. >> Don't mess it up. Don't rush. Don't go too hard. I knew that Sophie and Phoebe were going to be in Champac and I just [music] wanted to get from where I currently was to the next aid station to see them not as quickly as possible but not far off. [music] [music] Having dnfed at Cormaya then Lafouli when I got to Chelac for me that was already success I then saw soap and Phoebe and got pretty emotional when I saw them gogg >> like we're not there yet but we are on our way. to doing it. And then from that point, I knew that I was then going to see them at every aid station. And it's not necessarily three climbs and I'm home, but I then try and break it down. It's like, right, just one at a time. Climb, descent, climb, descent, climb, descent, and don't never let myself think any further ahead than that. But I think just because it was so I know the climbs so well. I've done them so many times in training and in racing. So like, yes, I let my mind wander, but not very far. You've still can be you can roll your ankle on tarmac. >> Tom Evans looks so strong. The difference between kind of first and second place in the men's race and like just what their face looks like considering that they've run literally all through the night. Tom Tom sick and strong and and other British guys are catching up too. So [music] I don't necessarily like being told what to do and not having any control like the army and especially going through sadness and going through training. It's just a big game. When you realize how to play the game, life is easy. I knew that I didn't want to go to university and for me it was just one it was the big challenge of of being accepted into the army. I had some friends in 2016 who did who were in the army also in the Welsh guards who did marathon to SAB. After them getting back we went out for some beers at the pub and I said if we got chatting I was like if you guys did like this well it can't really can't be that hard. Like the fact is I am so much fitter than you are. so much of a faster runner. I could do way better than you guys. Yeah. Fast forward 12 months and I'm on the podium at MDS. >> Had you run anything before that? >> I had run the a race called the Beacons Ultra. I was in the Bre and Beacons doing some army training and saw on the Thursday saw some flags out on the course and thought, "Oh, this is cool. There's a a race going on. Let's find out what the race is." I don't know if it's still there, but a really good ultra running and trail running shop in Breen likeies. I don't know if it's still a thing. I was I had all men kit. So, I bought everything, shoes, pack, waterproofs, everything from the shop and then raced the next day and surprised myself having done eight hours the day before and 5 hours the day before that won. Didn't see anyone on the course and fairly easy, relatively easy. And then did Martin Darab [music] descending into Trion. I banged my toe pretty badly and it was pretty sore for like 10 15 minutes and I was thinking, "Oh, this is I don't know what it's going to be like on the flat, but if it's anything like the downhill, [music] like it's not over yet." When I got to Trion, that was my these were my new home trails. [music] This was I done this twice a week. And the reason that I did it was so that when I got to Trion, I could just engage autopilot. And I was like, I know this climb better than [music] anyone else. This feels like home. [music] The climb out of Triant is my least favorite climb on the whole course, but it almost became my favorite climb just [music] because I knew it so well. It's really steep, but it's not actually that long. But then once you've done it, you're like [music] at the top of that climb like you are pretty much finished. There was lots of guys on course [music] um giving good information and at that point I knew that I was at least 15 minutes up. I could hear them from way up in the forest at the top of the climb and it was actually quite cool [music] cuz you could hear them sort of the guy on a microphoneing everyone up getting everyone ready but they had no idea you were there which was very sort of felt like the silent assassin and then as soon as you came out you could just hear the sound and it [music] was I think because I dled down all of the sounds before with earplugs it made it really special and I got to sort of fully immerse myself in it and I think they had obviously been waiting for someone. >> Well, now you wonder why we stayed in Aronia. >> I've done this last part of the course >> 15 times in two months. >> This is home. It's a very strange route in to Valisine, but actually I think it gives you so if you do the descent, it then just gives you a little bit of you see the people, you hear the noise, it just gives you a little bit of time to just refocus, reenter before going into the final aid station. That's still really important. I've gone into Valisine 15 minutes behind the person in front twice and have beaten the person in front twice. If I can do it, someone else can do it. So, still at that point, it's not a, oh, you've won this. Like, you can just chill out. It's a We don't chill out until the finish line because anything can happen. Heat. Heat. [music] [cheering] [screaming] >> [cheering] >> I sort of let myself believe if I get to the top of flesh air and I don't see anyone behind me then at that point you can really start. I believed I could do it, but at that point it's a all I've got to do is stay on my feet. And as we got just before Fleger, the UTMB camera guy was running with me said, "Ah, Ben's just got to he's just starting to descend on the first bit." And I at that point you're like, "Okay, well that's 25 minutes away." Like if I stay on my feet, I'm okay. I've done that descent so many times. like don't take any risks but at the same time like I kind of just want to finish now. It's always longer than you think when you're going through so many it seems like it goes on forever but yeah it's just completely crazy just incredible is at that [music] it's probably at that point that I let myself tell myself that I'd done it. Here we go. [music] Chall winner [music] champion South is finally [music] at the finish line. Tom is our champion for 2020. >> [music] >> All of the hard work, all of the selfdoubt, [music] the non-belief, all of that suddenly just vanished. I am doing this. my [music] family. I genuinely want the best life that we can possibly have. It took a [music] while to figure it out. Some things I thought after finishing third in my first year, you'll just figure it out next year. You didn't figure it out the year after. I didn't. But the hard work paid off and that's all it was. There is nothing that you can't achieve if you put your mind to it and you will find a way to do it. Whether that's wanting to win an Olympic medal or it's trying to get into university somewhere, you can [music] find a way. Yes, you might have to work really hard. You have to make a lot of sacrifices [music] maybe. I think a lot of people wanted me to do it. They sort of thought to a certain extent it's only a matter of time till [music] he does it but he still has to do it. If you want to be if you want [music] to change trail running and you want to be one of the key [music] figure heads in the sport you've got to win UTMB.