Ben Dhiman returns to the 2025 UTMB after not making it around the loop in his first two attempts. In his first interview with iRunFar, the American talks about his background in soccer and as a thru-hiker, how he discovered ultrarunning through pacing at the Hardrock 100, some of the mistakes he made at the start of last year’s race, and how he plans to race with a bit more intelligence this time around.
For more on who’s racing, check out our in-depth men’s and women’s previews and follow our live race coverage starting Friday.
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Ben Dhiman Pre-2025 UTMB Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar, here with Ben Dhiman before the 2025 UTMB. How are you, Ben?
Ben Dhiman: I’m good. Happy to be here.
iRunFar: Ah, what a place! We’ve not had a chance to chat on camera before, and when we do talk with somebody for the first time, we like to find out their history with sports and athletics.
Dhiman: Sure.
iRunFar: So, how did you get involved with sports?
Dhiman: I was a soccer player growing up. I did run a little cross country, but it was a bit too one-dimensional for me. I needed other things going on, I guess. I had kind of a knack for it, though. I was all right. So I did a little cross and a little bit of track, but soccer was my thing. I was obsessed.
I played through high school. I was on the all-state team in Ohio. But finally, I did eventually get away from it, and my next passion was hiking. So I just got into doing long-distance hiking trails and stuff, and naturally, I sort of converged a bit in the trail world and with the running, and it took off from there.
iRunFar: And how did you fall into that?
Dhiman: How did I fall into that? I did the Continental Divide Trail in 2016. And then in 2017, I was working at the Brown Bear Cafe in Silverton, as a waiter and was just sleeping in a little tent by the river, saving a little cash to go on the next adventure, and Hardrock came to town, and runners were coming into the cafe, and somebody was like, “Hey, do you know somebody that could maybe pace me?” And I was like, “Hey, I can run. I’ll pace you.” So I wound up getting to do two pacing duties. I actually ran with Nick Coury for a stretch when he ran 26 hours that year or something.
iRunFar: That’s pretty quick.
Dhiman: Really good. But then after, I went with another guy, and I ran from Ouray to KT with him, I think.
iRunFar: I think that’s a long way.
Dhiman: Yeah.
iRunFar: For somebody who wasn’t a runner.
Dhiman: And I had already run from Cunningham to Ouray with Nick. So I had done a whole …
iRunFar: At a pretty good pace … Relatively speaking, a pretty good effort.
Dhiman: Yeah. But I had good hiking legs, and it was all about trying to be positive.
iRunFar: And you could just run the vertical mile of descent into Ouray.
Dhiman: Yeah, well, that’s true. Because Nick is an amazing descender.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Dhiman: But honestly, that’s sort of how I found out about it, and it really piqued my interest to just see. Also, to see it at that year happening on such a high level with Kilian [Jornet] there with a broken shoulder and everything. It was really inspiring stuff.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Dhiman: So I signed up for the High Lonesome inaugural year after that one. So right after that, I went and did High Lonesome.
iRunFar: Like, literally a week later or a year later?
Dhiman: I think it was like two weeks later.
iRunFar: Two weeks, really?
Dhiman: Yeah. Yeah, because Caleb [Efta], the owner, he was like, “Hey, I have a spot if you want to do it.”
iRunFar: So you had to have been doing some running before that.
Dhiman: I mean, not a whole lot, frankly.
iRunFar: Yeah? Wow.
Dhiman: I was hiking a lot, and then. Yeah, I started dabbling a bit, but after, I started to get more serious, obviously, eventually, but that whole 2017, I did very little running training, we could say.
iRunFar: Yeah. And then eight years later, here you are in Chamonix.
Dhiman: Yeah, eight years.
iRunFar: One of the favorites to run UTMB. The last two years have been amazing. You’ve been on the podium of Les Templiers and La Diagonale Des Fous, you’ve won MIUT, Lavaredo.
Dhiman: Yeah.
iRunFar: How does that feel?
Dhiman: Well, I mean, yeah, it feels good, I guess.
iRunFar: Yeah?
Dhiman: Yeah. I don’t know. Yeah, I love to chase down classic races, so.
iRunFar: You’ve been doing this.
Dhiman: I haven’t been able to really crack the big one yet, but I think, yeah, hopefully it goes well.
iRunFar: Before we get into that, what was the highlight of those couple of races? Like, does one stand out or is it a particular?
Dhiman: I mean, there was a lot of learning involved in each of those, and I think that’s sort of really important. Honestly, when you don’t succeed at a race, it’s really easy to take lessons and move with them and have lots of motivation. The challenging part is, I mean, it sounds silly, but to win and then also learn lessons and try to take stuff you get from a successful race and continue to move the bar forward. Because me, I like to just keep raising the bar. I’m really not somebody who’s content. As soon as I get a good result, I’m like, “Well, we could have gone a little faster there and there and there.” I mean, that’s running for you. That’s the beauty of it. There’s always a little bit to gain. So I’ve been trying to just treat these as lessons. And I mean, I appreciate them. As I cross the line, I’m in a state of bliss, but then not long after, I’m in a state of pain, and then after, I’m starting to revise things and turn things over again and get hungry.
iRunFar: So you’ve been at the UTMB start line twice.
Dhiman: Yes.
iRunFar: And you haven’t finished either of them?
Dhiman: Nope.
iRunFar: So based on your philosophy, you’ve got some good lessons out of those.
Dhiman: Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, I had two rough days out here.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Dhiman: Which is, I mean, it’s uncharacteristic of me. If you look at my results, I don’t drop races really, but I’d say, “Hey, it is what it is.” You just got to keep moving forward. I’m not going to back down. I’m going to keep trying.
iRunFar: Yeah. Are there any key takeaways from those events?
Dhiman: Well, I mean, last year’s was specifically nutrition-oriented, just really not keeping my sugar and hydration levels in proportion to the point where I just got sick as a dog and couldn’t keep going. And I mean, that’s a situation where. I mean, we can look at the nutrition, but we can also look at if you’re making mistakes, it means that the pacing is too high, probably. I like to try to troubleshoot these things from a holistic level and not just drill down on, “Oh, you just needed another half liter per hour and you’ll be fine.” It’s like, “No, really, we need to approach this with more intelligence.”
iRunFar: That is an intelligent approach. It’s not just about your stomach. What else is affecting it? It’s not just the food you put in it.
Dhiman: Yeah, if you’re just really stressed out in general, it’s going to create situations there as well. I think last year we had a group where five or six really hungry individuals who all wanted to win, and we were all maybe a bit excessive, and the only guy that wound up surviving that group was the winner.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Dhiman: Right? All of us dropped out of that group.
iRunFar: Which was pretty, from watching from the outside was …
Dhiman: It was embarrassing.
iRunFar: Not embarrassing, from the inside it may be embarrassing, but from the outside there were a lot of guys who had a chance. And this year is interesting because it is again a pretty wide-open race.
Dhiman: I think so. Yeah. I think so.
iRunFar: Very exciting. There’s not one person you’re like, “They’re the one.”
Dhiman: Yeah. I mean, even when we have that, there’s always the questions, but I think especially this year, we don’t have Kilian or Jim [Walmsley], so everybody’s saying, “Well, who’s going to step up?” I hope we all kind of step up and behave with some maturity here. But if not, I am going to certainly attempt to run a smarter race than I did last year. I mean with the same energy and intention, but just a touch more …
iRunFar: You could use a little bit of that energy later in the race.
Dhiman: Exactly.
iRunFar: That effort.
Dhiman: Yeah.
iRunFar: I mean, is there any thought to try to go out with a François [D’Haene] or a Ludo [Pommeret]? People who have won this.
Dhiman: We can’t wait around for these old guys.
iRunFar: Ouch. As an old guy.
Dhiman: I love and admire both of those guys, but honestly, I don’t think you can pace off any individual runner.
iRunFar: Yeah, totally.
Dhiman: But I think maybe they’ll have an influence on the pacing. I mean, Ludo won’t have an influence.
iRunFar: No.
Dhiman: I think he would just hide behind and then wait for his opportunity. But maybe Francois will have an influence on the pacing. I know in France, when he was winning everything every year, a lot of people would just respect his pacing, as some people might Jim or other people. Now though, I think that the nature of the group will be dictated certainly by somebody going a little harder, but I think there are a lot of us who’ve already learned the critical lesson of not doing the foolish thing and waiting to use your energy later. Hopefully that’ll carry us all through in a better time.
iRunFar: Yeah. And that could lift the whole field up. On the other hand, you have years where Pau Capell went out from the gun.
Dhiman: Yeah.
iRunFar: And just sent it.
Dhiman: But if you just look at his time, that’s not even going to make top-five this year.
iRunFar: No, probably not.
Dhiman: It’s gotten a lot faster.
iRunFar: It’s pretty exciting.
Dhiman: Yeah.
iRunFar: So you’re an American, and you live in the French Pyrenees. What brought you to living in France?
Dhiman: My wife is French, so we just decided to have our family over here and …
iRunFar: There you are.
Dhiman: The rest is history.
iRunFar: Yeah. Right on. Well, enjoy these French mountains and …
Dhiman: Thank you.
iRunFar: Continue learning out there.
Dhiman: Great.
iRunFar: Best of luck.
Dhiman: Thanks, Bryon.
