After finishing just outside the top 10 last year, Josh Wade of the U.K. found himself on the podium of the 2025 UTMB in third. In the following interview, Josh talks about his background in fell walking, his pacing throughout the race, how the weather played to his advantage, how UTMB was always a dream race, and how he hopes to come back for many more years.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2025 UTMB results article.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Josh Wade Post-2025 UTMB Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Josh Wade after his third-place finish at the 2025 UTMB. How are you, Josh?
Josh Wade: Yeah, I’m really good. Super chuffed. Body doesn’t feel too bad apart front legs and feet are a bit sore.
iRunFar: But you seem to be in a pretty good mind space as well.
Wade: For sure. Yeah, it’s really good.
iRunFar: It’s our first interview with you. So we’d like to find out kind of your background with sports and athletics. Where did your journey get started?
Wade: Sure. So, I come from a fell walking background as a kid and then got back into it maybe my late teens-.
iRunFar: And it’s coming out of the Lake District in the U.K.?
Wade: Exactly. The Lake District. Walking up and down, power hiking, up and down hills. This is all good training.
iRunFar: It was just walking for that back in the day.
Wade: Yeah. And this is not thinking about training for ultras or anything like this. And then that progressed to running and then just spending long days out in the hills and just having fun really. And then started entering races and, “Oh, I really enjoy this.” I just love training and then I started to progress a bit more with the racing ultras and I’m now here at UTMB.
iRunFar: When and how did you start running first of all?
Wade: Started running. I did some local fell races in the lakes, of course.
iRunFar: And how old were you?
Wade: Maybe 2017. When was that?
iRunFar: So 20. Young 20s.
Wade: Yeah, so not too long ago. Yeah, and then just progressed onto the longer stuff.
iRunFar: You obviously started out doing pretty well from the get go at trail and ultras.
Wade: Yeah. I think maybe the long day spent out in the hills and just doing all aerobic base training has helped maybe with the long stuff.
iRunFar: Yeah. Well, you found yourself here at UTMB. You’re running in the top 10 for maybe the first 80k or so. How did that feel? Do you feel in your element or how are you working through that first 80k.
Wade: Sure. Well, I came here last year and I had a few problems in the first half, so I was having to stop and stuff like that. And I don’t know if it was to do with food or anything, but in training, I was trying to work out everything to get everything right this year, and I set off and everything felt good. Pace felt good. I wasn’t trying to force anything actually. I just wanted to run a good race of how I felt. And yeah, I just felt good the whole time really. Apart from the cold weather, it was like going over Col de la Seigne when it was snowy and stuff like that, I was like this is crazy. This is more like the U.K. Spine Race. But apart from that, the body felt good and the legs felt good.
iRunFar: And if you started talking about just cold and rain, your ways back home would probably give you a little…
Wade: For sure. When I saw the forecast, I was like, “This is pretty good for me.”
iRunFar: So you get to Courmayeur about in 10th, that area, and then what happened going up and down Grand Col Ferret because you were making… Yeah, just walk me through it how it went from your perspective.
Wade: So I spent quite a bit of time with Thibaut Garrivier, and he was maybe stronger than the downs, I was maybe stronger than the ups, so we were working together a bit. I came into Arnuva and I just started to feel really good and climbing really well up Grand Col Ferret. Got to the top of Grand Col Ferret, felt super good, descending well, and everything was just flowing. The body was firing on all cylinders and I felt really good. So I was just like, “Let’s just keep going like this.”
iRunFar: Yeah. Did you have to rein yourself in at all? Because I mean, it’s one thing to make progress on a climb and catch a bunch of people, and then you’re like, “I just caught a bunch of people,” or you’re just letting it go.
Wade: Have I gone too hard? I did feel a bit like that on the flatter terrain coming down to when you’re heading towards Champex-Lac, La Fouly I was moving at a good pace. I thought, “This feels pretty strong, maybe back off a bit there.” But I didn’t back off and I was like, “Okay, let’s just keep going.” And we never know, right?
iRunFar: Yep.
Wade: Could we go wrong? But yeah.
iRunFar: I mean, because that has to be sort of a tricky calculation for you because here you’re feeling good, but you’re also in third place in UTMB, which objectively would be huge.
Wade: Yeah, for sure.
iRunFar: Like if you keep pushing it too hard, you risk losing all of that.
Wade: Yeah, I agree. When I was just heading up the hill to Champex-Lac that’s when I passed the third position, and I was trying to run the douchey-grade stuff and I was like, “Should I run this?” But I did, and then I was like, “Okay, no, let’s just do it.” So I was trying to ride that line a bit.
iRunFar: Yeah and then you’re in third. So how are you feeling there? Was anything going wrong or you just…
Wade: No, then now I’m at the point of, “Okay, where’s second?” So I was actually asking people, “How far’s second?” And they were giving me all sorts of different times, like, “12 minutes, 7 minutes, 15 minutes.” So I just didn’t know what was going on. But I was still pushing. I didn’t feel like I was letting off at all. I still felt really good and so I was just trying to keep pushing.
iRunFar: Fair pushing, not attacking, but you’re still looking ahead.
Wade: Yeah. That kind of thing. Not like absolute full attack, but I was still like, “Could I catch second? I don’t know.” And I was super chuffed with third.
iRunFar: How does it feel to come into Chamonix in third place for UTMB?
Wade: It was so good. It was the best day of my running so far. I love this race, and this has been the goal race for me since I started doing this sport. So, I was over the moon.
iRunFar: How does that have you thinking about the future?
Wade: Yeah, I just want to keep coming back for more.
iRunFar: UTMB specifically?
Wade: I always say I’m doing this race for the next six years. Seriously.
iRunFar: That would be UTMB, yes.
Wade: Seriously. I’m like, I’ve got six years to do this race, but whether I do it for six years or four years, I don’t know because I want to do Hardrock and [the Diagonale des Fous] though as well. These are two 100 milers I really want to do as well. Yeah, but I’ll be back next year for sure to UTMB probably.
iRunFar: You’re very much drawn to those big mountain hundreds?
Wade: Yeah, the big mountain hundreds.
iRunFar: You’ve won both the 100k-ish and the 100-mile race at Ultra-Trail Snowdonia. I’d love to hear a little bit about that race because we see it in the results, but I’ve never been over there. Tell the world about Snowdonia.
Wade: The race there is completely different to UTMB. When you’re running down here, you’re running over the cols and stuff, you can really open up your stride. In Snowdonia, you can’t really do that. You have to be looking at the ground all the time and jumping over rocks and going through bogs. So it’s actually really hard running. We say running, but you’re actually more like obstacle course racing but very different to UTMB. To train for UTMB, when I was training for Snowdonia, because I live in Kendal, obviously you could just get the specific training in the Lakes, so you just run on the technical ground. Whereas here at UTMB I’ve had to work on a lot more properly running, so I’ve done a lot more flat running through the winter and stuff like that to work on that.
iRunFar: And you have to find farm roads in the Lakes?
Wade: Yeah. Canals. But, I enjoy that kind stuff as well, so yeah. Snowdonia, it’s rugged and it’s the really tough races.
iRunFar: Do you ever get it take in any of the views or just a bit at the tops of your shoes?
Wade: Well, it drains your mental strength as well because you’re having to watch all the time whereas here you just run most of the time.
iRunFar: At least you do. Probably some fast walking as well.
Wade: Apart from the uphills, they’re all walking. But the downs, yeah, coming down Grand Col Ferret, you can just run and it’s good and it’s really nice.
iRunFar: You got anything else lined up for this year?
Wade: Not this year, no. I’ll start the next year with Transgrancanaria.
iRunFar: Awesome. Well, congratulations on your next year Josh and take care.
Wade: Thanks, Bryon. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
BONUS QUESTION
iRunFar: And we’re going to have a bonus question. Josh, you grew up in the Lake District. You still live in the Lake District?
Wade: Yes.
iRunFar: What’s your favorite fell race? Short, long, whatever. You can name one or two if you need to, but what’s the highlight of the calendar?
Wade: It’ll have to be the Kentmere Horseshoe, because that’s my local one.
iRunFar: What’s it like?
Wade: It’s 12 miles, 3,500 feet. It’s got three checkpoints and you just do the loop and it starts in the field at the bottom of Kentmere.
iRunFar: What’s the descent on that one?
Wade: Well, the descent is really rough. It’s like you go through just a feel like bogs and then you end up in this dry river stream where it’s like all boulders and stuff.
iRunFar: Perfect. Training for the end of Transgrancanaria.
Wade: Well, yeah. There you go.
iRunFar: Cool. We’ll have to check that out.
Wade: Yeah, you should do. Yeah.
iRunFar: Thank you.
Wade: Thanks.
