Katie Schide won the 2025 Hardrock 100 in a new course record time of 25:50. In the following interview, Katie talks about how she felt like she was running two different races during the day and night, how she ran by feel but was aware that her early splits were quite fast, taking care of her stomach when it was uncomfortable mid-race, and her late-race duel to the finish with men’s fifth-place finisher Zach Miller.
Read our 2025 Hardrock 100 results article for the full play-by-play on this year’s race.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Katie Schide, 2025 Hardrock 100 Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Katie Schide. It’s the day after the 2025 Hardrock 100 endurance run. You’re the women’s champion. Good morning.
Katie Schide: Good morning. I don’t know what day it is anymore.
iRunFar: You know your name?
Schide: Katie Schide.
iRunFar: Katie Schide. And you have been up for hours. You got up on time to see the Golden Hour, the final hour of finishers before the race’s 48-hour cutoff, so no slacking for you. Win the race and then turn back up to cheer for folks.
Schide: Well, we were, I mean, I’ve enjoyed watching the Golden Hour at Western States, and Germain [Grangier] had never seen an American-style Golden Hour, so we thought it’d be fun. And we got up and saw there was still a couple people close, so it was fun to see them come in. And I was so impressed at how good they looked.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Schide: Like, I don’t know if that’s standard, but the last two were, they looked super fresh.
iRunFar: They were finishing their Sunday jog.
Schide: Yeah.
iRunFar: Yeah. Let’s talk about your Friday and Saturday jog. How, like, big picture, when you look back at that 25 and some odd hours, how does it feel? Like, how does it look to you?
Schide: I think it’s very much two different segments of like, a fun, long morning run and then a bit of like, a struggle, problem solving, yeah, event to the finish. I think in my mind, it’s really split between the day and the night.
iRunFar: Okay.
Schide: The tough part started a bit before the night, but yeah, I think the night and the day were two very different races for me.
iRunFar: So like, the natural challenges were, of course, the altitude and the course itself, but then there were kind of added challenges, in that there was some smoke in the first part of the race, and then there was some extra heat.
iRunFar: Yeah. It got, the smoke, I mean, I noticed it obviously in the morning just because it was super hazy here. But once we got up the first climb, it wasn’t as hazy, and I didn’t notice it the rest of the day except for the nice sunset that it created. And the heat, yeah, that was, coming into Ouray was super hot. Luckily, it wasn’t that long, but I think maybe it got to me more than I realized. But yeah. And just even when you don’t feel the heat necessarily, just the radiation was a lot. I don’t know if you could see how sunburned I got, but I’m pretty sunburned. You can see my pole straps.
iRunFar: Oh, yeah. Those are pole straps. Well, let’s talk about the segment of the race that you said was the fun morning run segment. Yeah. Talk about those early morning hours wandering through Cunningham Gulch, Maggie Gulch, Pole Creek.
Schide: Yeah. It was really fun. I mean, I had been on the whole Pole Creek section before, so I knew it a bit. And I was kind of catching up and passing and being passed by a couple guys there. So, I had like, a few chances to chat briefly with some people, and just felt super smooth. And my goal was to not feel like I was ever pushing. And I think I did a really good job there. Although, later in the race, I was confused as to why I felt so bad. But, yeah. I mean, there’s other things happening.
iRunFar: Yeah. You said, before we started this interview, that it was maybe around going to the top of Handies Peak where you felt the first like, inklings of, like, Oh, I’m trying a little bit here. This is an effort.
Schide: Yeah. The very top of Handies, maybe the last like, 300 meters of climbing, I suddenly felt like, Wow. This got really hard really fast. But I knew in my head it was the highest point of the course. So, I thought, Okay. Well, I’ll just keep this in mind when I get to the high points, to the other high points. Like, I’ll just lay off a little bit. So, I don’t know if it was that. Afterwards, like in the downhill, things came back, and then I felt fine going over Engineer. And even into Bear Creek, I felt fine. So, I think that was sort of just its own little high altitude.
iRunFar: A blip.
Schide: Yeah. But I saw Kim and Topher Gaylord at the top, and a bunch of other people who said, “Oh, you look good!” And I was kind of like, “I don’t feel that great.” And they said, “Oh, don’t worry. Like, everyone kind of looked like that.” “Okay. Well, I’ll believe you.”
iRunFar: That’s amazing. You were gaining on Courtney [Dauwalter]’s course record splits going through that area. I think such that by Ouray, which is like, a little over halfway, 58-ish miles, you had somewhere in the vicinity of a minute per mile on her record pace. Were you thinking about those numbers at all? Were you moving entirely by feel? Like, where was that effort for you?
Schide: Yeah. I mean, I was moving 100% by feel. And I know that when Courtney ran that time, she had run Western States [100] three weeks before. So, I try not to like, look too closely at other people’s times. Everyone has their own way to run a certain time. But, yeah, I was just going by feel.
iRunFar: Okay. You had to have been aware that you were doing quite well, moving quite swiftly, though.
Schide: Yeah. I knew like, what time I was sort of looking to be in Ouray around. So, I had some like, major time points where I wanted to just have a check-in. Like, Am I going super fast, super slow, somewhere in between.
iRunFar: And I think you said off camera that you were ahead of your time starting like, at Sherman.
Schide: Yeah. But then when I came into Ouray, I was back on my sort of predicted time.
iRunFar: Okay.
Schide: So, I knew I had lost a bit of time between Sherman and Ouray.
iRunFar: Things changed a little bit for you there in Ouray. I think you suffered some stomach issues for a good chunk of the evening.
Schide: Yeah. Coming into Ouray, it started to get really hot and, that’s when my stomach started to feel really just bloated and sort of gassy. And I thought, Oh, I just need a good burp and I’ll be fine, and I could not get it.
iRunFar: Wouldn’t happen.
Schide: Yeah. We tried a bunch of different things, tried chugging some Coke, getting some bubbles in there, and it just wasn’t working. So eventually, I was like, Hey. I just gotta keep moving because we’re not going to solve this right now. But my pacer, Eric, coming out of Ouray was just super reassuring and helpful that I was moving well, and just kind of nicely told me to suck it up, which is what I like to hear. We kept moving. I tried again at Governor’s Basin, but we just couldn’t find a solution. Eventually it settled out on its own.
iRunFar: And it became just a matter of like, managing your stomach issues. Like, the proverbial bloat of your stomach went away, but I think you maybe had difficulties just getting in the nutrition that you wanted after that?
Schide: Yeah. I was trying to offset the discomfort by not eating as much, but then that made me a bit too dizzy, because I didn’t have enough calories. And, I eventually was like, able to start eating again and yeah, find a good balance.
iRunFar: Okay. You said while we were walking over here for this interview that your emotional low point was in Chapman Gulch, which is about 20 miles to go.
Schide: Yeah. I think my crew might have thought I was in a worse place than I really was, because I kind of saved up all of my emotions to dump on them there, which is why I don’t,
iRunFar: You’re like, “I’m coming in to dump.”
Schide: That’s why I don’t want anyone to pace me who I have too strong of an emotional connection to, because I know I will just lose it.
iRunFar: [laughs]
Schide: Yeah. So it’s good I had some like, strong figures that I, yeah. But when I got to Chapman, I kind of just needed someone to like, slap me, I think. [laughs] But, no. My crew kind of helped me pull it back together. And then I think just, there’s always that feeling of like, kind of leaving the last crew point where you’re like, Alright. Now the only next thing to do is to get to the finish.
iRunFar: We’re actually in the final segment to this thing.
Schide: We’re like, We made it here. And that felt really nice to leave. It was good that I hadn’t done the whole Grant Swamp Pass climb because that was so much longer than I thought it would be. Yeah.
iRunFar: It’s quite a thing for it to be the second to last climb in this direction.
Schide: Yeah. I kept seeing this, like, red light that they had at the top.
iRunFar: Okay.
Schide: And I was like, I don’t think we’re getting any closer to that light.
iRunFar: No way I’m ever going to get to that.
Schide: Yeah. But I just focused on Cody [Lind]’s feet in front of me and was like, Just follow that and we’ll get there eventually.
iRunFar: And I think you said you had actually a good time in like, the last climb of the course and finishing it up?
Schide: Yeah. We had a great time. We were chasing Zach [Miller] up the last climb.
iRunFar: Yeah. You had your own private race with Zach Miller at the end.
Schide: That was really fun. We caught him right at the top of the last climb. He said, “Hey, Katie,” and then just took off. And I knew he wasn’t going to let us catch him. But when we saw him down at the river, before the road crossing, I was like, Alright. Let’s lay it into him a little bit. [laughs]
iRunFar: [laughs] If he’s going to stay in front of you, you’re going to make him work for it?
Schide: He worked really hard for it, so he deserved it.
iRunFar: Did you let yourself enjoy what had happened, like, in that final mile or so coming into town or were you just in like, I’ll enjoy this later mode?
Schide: No. We were actually having, like, a really good time in the last downhill. I think that, I mean, the last downhill actually isn’t that difficult compared to the rest of the race.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Schide: So, it was kind of fun to like, actually be able to run, and I was feeling good. And I’d been eating quite a bit at the end, which I heard is rare. So, yeah, I think that’s actually the most Cody and I talked in our I don’t even know how many hours together, 8.5 hours, nine hours together, was just in that last downhill. So, yeah, I had a really good time at the end. Yeah. Maybe one of the best sections of the whole race in terms of feeling.
iRunFar: That’s amazing.
Schide: So, it was good to like, finish on a good note.
iRunFar: That’s amazing. You’re the winner of the women’s race. You’re the course record holder, both for this direction and the overall record. You’re also one of only two people who get a return ticket to this event. By being the winner, you get an automatic entry to next year. You know, like, I hate asking this question the day after a race, but it’s just a ticket dangling right there. Have you given that any thought yet?
Schide: I can’t answer that yet. Yeah.
iRunFar: TBD.
Schide: Yeah. We’ll see.
iRunFar: The rest of your year, like, obviously, you’re going to hopefully sit on the couch and do some nice walks for the next little bit here. But what are you thinking about for the rest of 2025?
Schide: Yeah. I also don’t, unfortunately, don’t have an answer to that either. I think, Germain and I were both really wanting to come here with like, full respect for the altitude and it being like, a variable we hadn’t played around with much.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Schide: And I just want to like, see how the recovery goes. I think physically, I actually feel better than I normally would after a race, just because the speed is so much lower. There isn’t as much muscular damage, but I know that can also be dangerous, because I don’t want to get back into anything too quickly if my actual, you know, nervous system, fatigue is a thing. So, we’ll wait and see how we feel in a little bit, and reevaluate the rest of the year.
iRunFar: Amazing.
Schide: The problem is there’s always too many options.
iRunFar: There are many options. Yeah. But that means that if your body doesn’t feel ready for one, there’s more waiting for you.
Schide: Yeah.
iRunFar: It’s a good problem to have.
Schide: Yes.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your win and your course record here at Hardrock.
Schide: Thank you.
iRunFar: And we look forward to seeing what you decide to do next.
Schide: Thanks. Yeah.
