After a third-place finish at last year’s event, Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth is back at the 2025 Hardrock 100 to try to have a smoother lap around the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. In the following interview, Katharina talks about some of the issues she had in 2024, her win at the 2024 Tor des Géants, coming back from knee surgery over the winter and dealing with other injuries, and what she’s looking forward to out on the course.
To learn more about who’s racing, check out our preview before following our live coverage during the race.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Katharina Hartmuth Pre-2025 Hardrock 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Katharina Hartmuth before the 2025 Hardrock 100. How are you, Katharina?
Katharina Hartmuth: Hi, I’m good, thank you.
iRunFar: Yeah, I’d say welcome back to the San Juans, but you seem to spend more time here than I do in the last year.
Hartmuth: Probably, yeah.
iRunFar: What brings you back to Hardrock?
Hartmuth: Oh man, I just love this race.
iRunFar: Yeah?
Hartmuth: Yeah. And last year’s experience at the race was interesting, to say the least. So I was like, I have to come back. I have to do better.
iRunFar: And why was it interesting last year as a refresher?
Hartmuth: Oh, man. Yeah. Last year was interesting because I was already going into the race not knowing if I could run properly. And then it was funny because that was not an issue in the race at all. But yeah, I had a good first half of the race, and then in the second half, my race totally fell apart. I couldn’t eat for a couple hours and then I bonked. It was the worst bonk ever. I’ve never had that before. And then I had that issue, and then at some point I lost my vision, which was also not helpful. I had a bladder infection during the race, so it was like, yeah, it was just a lot of stuff that I definitely didn’t expect to happen.
iRunFar: But you managed it?
Hartmuth: I did.
iRunFar: Not as well as you would like, obviously, but you managed it.
Hartmuth: I did, yeah, because my pacer didn’t allow me to go back to Cunningham. When I was making my way up the Little Giant, and I was like, “I don’t really know how to get up there”, because my legs were so, they were solid. I couldn’t move. And she was like, “No, there is no way we’re going back.”
iRunFar: 150k, you’re literally thinking about going backwards to drop out.
Hartmuth: Yes, because I was like, the going down seemed at least doable.
iRunFar: That sounds like quite the race experience.
Hartmuth: It was, yeah.
iRunFar: A growing experience.
Hartmuth: Oh yeah. I still managed to somehow fall in love with the race despite all this.
iRunFar: And maybe it’s a hopeful nature of yours to think you can come back and have a… You can’t have much of a more difficult experience, right?
Hartmuth: Yeah, probably.
iRunFar: Yeah. Well, speaking of difficult experiences, you were here doing an interview this time last year, and you had literally not run yet that year or that season, and you had another major injury this spring that set you back a long while. What happened?
Hartmuth: Yeah, it was incredibly unfortunate and very frustrating to be honest, because yeah, last year was a bit of a roller coaster, and at the end of the year I had to undergo knee surgery because of these ongoing problems after an accident and training.
And then finally I came back after the knee injury. I had a nice build up and I was ready to run at Madeira [Island Ultra-Trail] in April, and I wasn’t in great shape. I was like, wow, I felt good and I was ready to finally to race again. And then I did my last long run before the race, and I just slipped. A damp fall on gravel. It was a bit loose, and I was like, yeah, no big deal. I hit my knee a bit, but I was like, yeah, I mean, come on. It was just a small slip, how bad can it be?
And I finished my run and yeah, it hurt a bit the next few days, but I was like, Yeah, okay, I just taper now and it’ll be fine. And then we went to Madeira and it just didn’t get better at all, and I couldn’t even walk without pain. So, at some point I was just like, Something is not right. And then the day before the race, I still tried to do a little run just to see if some miracle happened.
iRunFar: Like last year before Hardrock.
Hartmuth: Yeah, exactly. And I did five steps and I was like, no. Just pain. And so I went back, we did a scan in Zurich in Switzerland and revealed that I actually had a bone bruise on my knee because I fell so unfortunately that I hit the femur bone. And it looked pretty bad actually, on a scan. And I was surprised because it was just a small slip. Well, but that meant that I couldn’t run for seven weeks, and it was only two and a half months to go until Hardrock.
iRunFar: Yeah. So how did you manage that?
Hartmuth: Well, I mean…
iRunFar: Because you did.
Hartmuth: Yeah, I did. Well, I spent my time at home. I rested for two weeks, and then I could slowly go back to the bike. So luckily I really like biking. And so I was like, Okay, at least I can do something. And I really tried to stay positive. I must say that Hardrock was a really big motivation to stay calm. Yeah, I can do this. It’s tight. I always knew it would be super tight. But yeah, I managed to somehow, yeah, stay I think somehow in a good condition. But I didn’t do anything on my feet. I didn’t walk, I didn’t hike, nothing like that. And then I came here five weeks ago and I still wasn’t allowed even to hike.
iRunFar: So, at the beginning of June, you’re in Silverton and you can’t even hike uphill?
Hartmuth: Yeah. So luckily I had a bike here, so I was like, Okay, at least I have the bike. I can cycle indoors and outdoors. So I did that. And then after 10 days, I started to hike only uphill. I did some stuff on the treadmill actually, because there you go up, but you don’t have to go down. And then suddenly I started some uphill running and it felt good. And then I was still hiking downhill, and at some point I tried some downhill running and it was somewhat okay, but it was always like sometimes there was pain, sometimes there was no pain.
It’s so difficult to navigate this type of injury. And I know that with the bone, if you push it too much, it just comes back. But yeah, somehow I managed to do even a couple of long runs, which is surprising.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Hartmuth: But yeah, I think the last two weeks I got a lot of confidence in, at least in that knee.
iRunFar: Oh no.
Hartmuth: Yeah, because well that knee seems to be fine now, but the other knee I had surgery on that made some issues then. So yeah. Well, it never ends.
iRunFar: No, but you’ll have some stuff to navigate—
Hartmuth: Oh yeah.
iRunFar: During the race itself, what are you looking forward to most during the race?
Hartmuth: Oh, that’s always a good question. Well, first of all, I just look forward to be out on the course, just running, be there on my own. Actually, I’m not that much looking forward to the start. I always prefer to be on my own such that I can settle into my own pace and not be stressed out. And the start is always like everybody’s still together and it’s always a bit stressful.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Hartmuth: But yeah, I’m just super looking forward to climbing all these passes and to be out there, see the people at the aid stations, just yeah, the experience. Having hopefully a good day, yeah.
iRunFar: So, between your two major injuries, you had a tremendous run winning Tor des Géants last September.
Hartmuth: That’s right. My last race.
iRunFar: So, you managed to get some really good fitness in short periods of time, so that’s useful. But does having such a good race, such a strong performance, because also a course record — first woman under 80 hours, if I’m remembering correctly. But does having such a good run for so long change your framing for a race that’s 30 hours, at Hardrock?
Hartmuth: Well, I’m not sure because the thing with Tor is that you can be relaxed because it’s so long that you can’t go fast at all, because otherwise you kill yourself way too early. But I think what I learned at Tor is that you really, especially with the nutrition, and that was a problem at Hardrock last year, if you just managed to dial that somehow and just keep eating such as you never get into that bonk state. I was so surprised because even on the last day, day four, I could still push well, and I was like, Okay, this is actually interesting. Well, the sleep thing was a bit an issue because that’s obviously something that plays a role there. So fortunately for Hardrock, it’s not that big of an issue.
iRunFar: Hopefully you’re not sleeping during Hardrock.
Hartmuth: No, that would be bad.
iRunFar: It’s always an option.
Hartmuth: It is, I’m not planning to sleep in this race. No, but I think, yeah, it was interesting for me to see because I always thought if you go to a really long distance, it just gets harder. And of course it was a hard race, but in some aspects just worked well. And I think also just thinking of and reminding myself of my why all the time and just keeping motivation up, but somehow it worked so well.
iRunFar: So maybe those are things you can bring into Hardrock in terms of—
Hartmuth: Yeah, I hope so. Oh, definitely.
iRunFar: Having the whys and tweaking your nutrition a little bit.
Hartmuth: Yeah, that was my big goal for this year, to just somehow manage to keep eating. Because I know that last year I lost two and a half hours just in the last three races because I tried to eat, but I couldn’t.
iRunFar: Which is not uncommon here. You’re not the only one.
Hartmuth: No, it’s not. I know.
iRunFar: If I could eat the last 14 hours of Hardrock, this would go a whole lot better.
Hartmuth: If I learned something that is just everybody’s suffering at this race.
iRunFar: Totally, totally.
Hartmuth: But I see some potential there.
iRunFar: Is there enough of a difference between a UTMB, which is some hours faster, and a Hardrock where you can maybe run a little more easily the first half to try to be able to manage the fueling and nutrition for longer?
Hartmuth: Yeah, well, the main difference for me is first of all, UTMB is much more runnable. So that is more stressful on the stomach. On the other side, the other big difference is that we are at altitude here. I think that is what killed my stomach last year. But yeah, I think that it’s a bit less stressful. Just think of UTMB, how many people are running. The first four or five hours you are among people, even when you run in front. So that is a lot of stress. So that’s what I like about Hardrock, it’s such a small field. So it’s only the first two passes and then you are mostly on your own.
iRunFar: 20k, you could be—
Hartmuth: Exactly.
iRunFar: … alone for the next 10 hours.
Hartmuth: And as much as I love to run with some people, it’s like I really look forward to just being on my own.
iRunFar: Awesome. Well, Katharina, have a great time out there-
Hartmuth: Thank you.
iRunFar: And enjoy your time on Hardrock Course.
Hartmuth: Thank you very much.
