Katie Schide of the U.S. put on a dominant performance at the 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail, leading the race from start to end. In the following interview, Katie talks about how she stayed motivated to push while running much of the race alone at the front, how she was able to move much faster than expected on the terrain, her appreciation for all the fans, and if she feels she’s succeeded at being the versatile runner she wants to be in 2025.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail results article.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Katie Schide, 2025 Long Trail Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Katie Schide. It’s the day after the 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail, and you’re the women’s champion. How does that feel, Katie? Congratulations.
Katie Schide: Thanks. It feels pretty good. Yeah. I felt good going into the race, but you never know how things are going to play out. There are so many things you can’t control, and to have everything just fall into place was great.
iRunFar: You said in your pre-race interview that you wanted to be known for your versatility, that you didn’t want to be known as a 100-mile specialist. Do you feel that you’ve proven that in 2025?
Schide: Yeah. I think 2025 has been my most unique season maybe, because I did do a lot of different things. Actually, Sierre-Zinal definitely wasn’t part of the original plan. So, I think it was cool to just take things as they came, and just follow truly what I was excited about. I never felt like I had to be anywhere. I always chose to do exactly what I wanted to do, and yeah, that’s the best thing.
iRunFar: You ran yesterday’s race basically by yourself. You were solo at the front. Of course, you were with men. How did that feel to be in a race, but kind of by yourself all day long?
Schide: It’s actually, it can be pretty hard. I’ve run some other races like that, too, and it’s hard sometimes to really stay in it and stay pushing. It’s easy to get complacent. But I think what helped yesterday was knowing that my time counted in the team ranking, and it gave me this extra push knowing every minute I could take would help the girls behind, and help with our overall ranking. So that was the thing I tried to focus on. But I also, because the course is so technical, I didn’t want to take too much risk, because I know once you start to get tired, it’s really easy to take a really dumb fall. And I knew that would be worse than, yeah. So I just tried to keep things under control, but just keeping my time in mind to try to get to the finish as quickly and smoothly as possible.
iRunFar: There was lots of talk pre-race, including with you in your pre-race interview, about how technical the course was, how slow it was, and perhaps how long finishing times were going to be. In the end, things went fairly quick for what was actually out there. How did that unfold for you? Were you looking at your watch being like, “What? Is this actually going?”
Schide: I think I got to the first crewed aid station like half an hour faster than I had written down.
iRunFar: Okay.
Schide: So at that point, I was like, okay. This is running a lot faster than I thought it would. And then I started doing the math in the middle and was thinking, “Okay. Maybe I can go under 10 hours.” And that’s what got me going at the end. I saw I was really close to 10 hours, and it gave me a little carrot to chase at the end. Yeah.
iRunFar: There are some cool elements of this course that are just not typically found in trail running races, a couple ridges you got to experience in the middle of the course. Did it feel like a throwback to your early days of doing more skyrunning-focused stuff?
Schide: Yeah. It’s funny you say that because I feel like the shorter style races used to be more focused on skyrunning-style races. And then when Golden Trail emerged and kind of unfortunately pushed skyrunning to the side, we don’t see as many high-level technical races anymore. And I think it was just cool to have this course be the World Championship because it kind of brought back more aspects from skyrunning. You saw in the short distance, what they call the Short Trail race, the 42k.
iRunFar: They’re not actually short.
Schide: Yeah, the very long race that is called short, yeah. I mean, it was two orienteers that won. So I think that gives you a sense of who this terrain was really for. And I think that’s great to have different styles of races, and that’s the whole point of the sport is to be adaptable and show up in different places and be able to actually go into the mountains and just take what you get.
iRunFar: I mean, this is a bigger picture thought, but I almost feel like this was like the Federations saying to the trail running world, like, “Hey. We want to do real trail running. We want to do mountains. When it’s mountain running, we want it to be mountain running. When it’s a World Championships, we want it to be a proper course.” Given the commercial side, that there has been a movement in some of the series towards making things, you know, better access for coverage and stuff like that. For me, it seemed like it was a statement from the Federations being like, “We’re going to do proper trail running this weekend.”
Schide: I was actually really surprised. I honestly, coming into it, was a little like, I’m not sure how many spectators there’s going to be because it’s so hard to access. Is there really going to be live coverage because there’s not a lot of network, and it’s just really hard to get everywhere. And being out on the course, I was so surprised how many people were out there.
iRunFar: Wasn’t that awesome?
Schide: It was so cool.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Schide: I mean, special shout-out to all the French. They really showed up in a big way. There were so many French people. I mean, we’re very close to the border. There were so many spectators. And I think what was also special, because there’s all the federations of athletes, it was a lot of familiar athlete faces that you know from all the different countries, and that’s what makes it really special. You feel like it’s like all your friends out there cheering for you, and that was really cool. And I think what you’re saying is right. This was definitely a real proper trail mountain race. And I think there’s a time and place for every kind of trail running, because there are a lot of different types of trails in the world. But this was definitely more a focus on being in the mountains, and that’s pretty cool.
iRunFar: Team USA had a great day overall, in their individual performances and team. Were you getting reports on how the rest of Team USA was doing during the race, or were you just sort of honed in on your own experience?
Schide: I was asking, I mean, I was getting a lot of info about Jim [Walmsley]. I was asking about him just to know how he was doing, and I was getting updates. I didn’t really get much info on the girls until Candanchú, which is the last crewed point, just because of the situation of the race course. But I had heard that they were still moving well, and people weren’t having their best days ever, but still pushing through. And so that was a bit of a motivator at the end. It was like, okay, not everyone feels great, but we’re all like, working together.
iRunFar: Moving forward.
Schide: And so I didn’t know where we were in the ranking until the end. But to have both teams finish second, Jim with the win on the men’s side, and the other men in the top 10, was really great. I feel like we had a great showing on the Long Trail race for sure.
iRunFar: Chatting with Team France this morning, they said, well, you know, okay. Americans won the individual races, but both of them live in France. Any commentary about that? [laughs]
Schide: I’m not sure if Jim really, I guess they’re spending more time in France these days. But I think Jim is actually better at, both of us, I think, didn’t need to live in Europe to be good on this terrain. For sure, it helped that Jim was in the Beaufortain for a bit, the last couple years. But I mean, I grew up on the East Coast. I grew up on technical trails. It for sure helps to be in France, where I think probably the biggest thing is just knowing so many people. Like, when I say there’s so many French supporters out there, I know so many of them. It feels more like a home race than if I were to just show up in a random place and not know anyone. But yeah, no. I mean, we’re both U.S. citizens. So, yeah. But it does show you where kind of the core of the sport is.
iRunFar: We’re pushing up against October now. Is your season of racing officially over, or are you thinking about anything else for the last quarter of the year?
Schide: As of now, all focus is on the skiing cross-country season moving forward.
iRunFar: And maybe a little R and R.
Schide: Yeah. Some resting in between. Some enjoying our changing colors at home and waiting for snow.
iRunFar: Katie Schide, congratulations on your win of the Trail World Championships Long Trail.
Schide: Thank you.
