After finishing second last year, New Zealand’s Ruth Croft came back to win the 2025 UTMB. In the following interview, Ruth talks about how she had to switch her strategy from focusing on splits to just surviving the bad weather in the night, how having a DNF from hypothermia at Transvulcania earlier this year helped her manage the weather conditions, and how a 10-year relationship with the UTMB races, which started with the 20215 CCC, finally culminated with a win on the big loop.
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.]
Ruth Croft, 2025 UTMB Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Ruth Croft. You’re the 2025 UTMB Women’s Champion. How does that sound?
Ruth Croft: Yeah, it hasn’t really had a moment to sink in.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Croft: It was just like, post-race, you’re obviously not feeling great. And yeah, I just think maybe next week I’ll have a moment to reflect on it.
iRunFar: Where actually you start to absorb it in your skin and your bones. Has that happened?
Croft: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
iRunFar: When you left this race last year after finishing second, did you get it in your mind early on that, you know, you can come back and do more, do better?
Croft: I feel I left a bit on the table. I just felt like, I think I said in the pre-race interview, it was very positive. I didn’t really hurt a lot or suffer a lot, and so I felt like maybe, yeah, there was a bit of time that I left on the table, and I wanted to come back and see if I could improve on it.
iRunFar: How much of your off-season and the build towards this, how much of that were you really focused on, “I’m here to improve my UTMB performance?”
Croft: I think my whole year has been UTMB.
iRunFar: I love that you’re honest about it.
Croft: No, it is.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Croft: It’s like the only thing I’m focused on. Yeah. And I think that’s kind of how I am. If I have a goal, I just want to go try and do my best and go all in on it. And even with my coach, Scott Johnston, the focus. I think it’s probably the same for Tom [Evans]. For both of us, our focus this year has been UTMB. And so it’s been about peaking for UTMB. All our training has been about what could benefit UTMB.
iRunFar: You had said ahead of the race that your goal was to execute a good race strategy and go out a little bit harder, but not too hard, right?
Croft: Mm-hmm.
iRunFar: So to, I don’t know the right way to say it, but ride that line a little bit closer in the first half of the race. Looking back, do you feel like you were where you wanted to be and you rode the line how you intended to?
Croft: Yeah, but I think the weather just changed things. I had a pacing plan going into it, and so I was on my target pace going through Les Houches. I was right on.
iRunFar: Okay.
Croft: And then same for Saint-Gervais. Same for Les Contamines. And then Les Chapieux …
iRunFar: It all went to hell?
Croft: Well, I was only a few minutes back, but then my mindset shifted, and I was like, “I just need to survive the night. We’re not going to worry about the pacing.” Because I don’t do well in the cold. And obviously, with Transvulcania and getting hyperthermia there and DNFing, I was a lot more prepared. I had a big Gore-Tex jacket. I had these cross-country ski gloves as well. And so I just didn’t want to DNF UTMB because of something that I could’ve had control over. Yeah.
iRunFar: Looking back, it’s kind of interesting that you had that experience at Transvulcania. Just a freak storm. You didn’t have the gear that you needed for it and ended up dropping. Seems like now really excellent preparations for what happened this weekend.
Croft: Yeah, it’s kind of like the silver lining, I think, because if I hadn’t had that experience, I think the same thing would’ve happened. It’s just things that you don’t really think about, like I had all my gels for UTMB in a flask, so I didn’t have to deal with opening them. And then just working out that if you have your jacket under your vest so you can access your quiver and your nutrition, or just the way that you do it, and how you can access your gear in your pack. Yeah.
iRunFar: It’s amazing how this race, at the front of the pack, it starts to come down to those details.
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: And all of those details end up saving minutes that add up to a lot at the end.
Croft: Yeah. I was probably wasting a lot, because I’m still not that efficient at it, but wasting time taking off my pack, and when I change gloves as well, and putting on my jacket, and that sort of thing. But I was just like, “Okay. You can’t wait until you get cold to start putting on your jacket or that sort of thing.” So it was just really about managing the night. And then once I got to daylight, I was like, “Okay. Then you can start thinking about racing again.”
iRunFar: It sounds like the conditions were a bit silly out there at times on Col du Bonhomme, Col de la Seigne, and then also Grand Col Ferret.
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: Can you describe what it was like? And yeah, just being able to stay focused on doing the race, but taking care of yourself in that too.
Croft: Yeah. I think last year I had a low point going up Col de Bonhomme, and it was exactly the same this year as well.
iRunFar: You’re like, “You’re back!”
Croft: I know. I was like, “Why are you doing this?” And it was pissing down rain. I was like, “I just want to be in bed right now.” And then I dropped down to Les Chapieux, and there were heaps of people there, and it cheers you up a bit. And then going up Col de la Seigne, it was just snowing. But again, I had all the right gear, so I was okay. And then I didn’t know that we weren’t going to do the Pyramids until we dropped down and didn’t turn left.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Croft: And then I knew that once I got to Courmayeur, the weather conditions, we were through the worst of it. Yeah.
iRunFar: That from there out it was going to hopefully start getting better?
Croft: Yeah. And it did. By the time we hit Grand Col Ferret, I didn’t have to put my waterproof pants on or anything.
iRunFar: It’s interesting that the night and the worst weather coincided with each other this year.
Croft: Yeah. Well, it was kind of nice that we had good weather for the back half as well. Yeah.
iRunFar: So competition-wise, early in the race, you were just sitting there close to the lead, but there. Strategy-wise, were you thinking about who was in front of you or behind you? Or were you just trying to key into splits? And then later on, how you felt?
Croft: So Courtney [Dauwalter] passed me not long after La Balme. I had stopped to put my waterproof pants on, and she was moving, I felt like, a lot better than me. But again, I was not too worried. I was just doing my own thing. And then Camille [Bruyas] passed me not long after Lac Combal, you do that climb, and then there’s that balcony that you contour.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Croft: She passed me there, and she was moving really well, and I was just not feeling great. I just don’t feel like I do well in the dark. But by the time I got to Courmayeur, I was faffing around with my bag a lot. I changed my head torch at Lac Combal. And the battery must’ve been wet or something, and so my head torch just stopped working like a kilometer later. And so then I had to go into …
iRunFar: Really?
Croft: Yeah, yeah, but I had a backup, so I used that. But I just felt like I was burning time dealing with all my gear. And then I got into Courmayeur, and I didn’t feel like Camille or Courtney had put a ton of time on me. And then, yeah, I just started feeling good going up Grand Col Ferret and was able to start moving a bit better, I think.
iRunFar: It’s curious to me, that, the end of the weather and also the end of the night. What is it that queued into you starting to feel good?
Croft: Yeah, I don’t have great eyesight at night either. I don’t know.
iRunFar: You really are like a Kiwi.
Croft: Yeah. I don’t know. For me, with UTMB, it’s like you just got to get to Courmayeur. You just got to get there, and then after that ,things will start to get better. And obviously by Arnouvaz, with daylight’s coming, and there’s just something that switches on in me, and I’m like, “Okay.” Yeah.
iRunFar: I feel like the last 50k of this race course is a pretty brutal…
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: All of it is hard, but it’s just steep climb, steep descent, steep climb, steep descent over and over. Yeah. What was your feeling on that very challenging terrain?
Croft: I did not feel good after. I was thinking I came into Champex-Lac, I was feeling good. And then after Champex-Lac, I started really not feeling good. And I was like, “Oof, this is not good. We’ve still got like 50k to go.” And then my goal for it was, I was like, “You just got to get to Trient and you’ll see Martin [Gaff].” And then I got that Camille was 11 minutes back. And then, yeah, I was worried that she was …
iRunFar: It didn’t feel like enough time?
Croft: No, definitely not. I was like, “She’s going to do what I did to Marianne [Hogan] last year, only this year it’s going to be payback.”
iRunFar: I have payback coming.
Croft: I know. I was like, “11 minutes is nothing,” especially if you don’t feel like you’re moving well. And I think last year, I said that I wasn’t going to draw on last year, but you can just remember the sensations you had at that time. Yeah, but luckily, I was able to just make up a bit more time and get a bigger buffer where I felt a bit safe.
iRunFar: So was it like you were looking back at last year being like, you had all this power and all this energy, and then this year it felt like you’d already used some of that?
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: Okay.
Croft: Well, I said to Debo [Dylan Bowman], “Last year I started a donkey and finished like a horse, and this year I felt like I did it in reverse.” And I really preferred last year.
iRunFar: There is something about that sensation of feeling like you still have all this that you can give.
Croft: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
iRunFar: But I guess you lit a couple of your matches early.
Croft: Early on. Yeah, yeah.
iRunFar: Yeah. Us watching you, we knew that the real estate was growing between you and the folks behind you. Did you have any sense of that out on the course? Or were you just running scared the whole time?
Croft: Yeah. I work with Joseph [Mestrallet], who does my pacing plan. And he had a team of people out there, and so they were giving me splits from La Fouly, I believe.
iRunFar: Okay.
Croft: And so they were all on the course, just telling me the gaps.
iRunFar: Okay.
Croft: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so then I was getting pretty accurate splits, knowing that it was growing. Yeah.
iRunFar: And was there any sense of, I don’t know what the right word is, relief? Or like, “Okay, I can at least relax into this a little bit?”
Croft: I think when I got into Vallorcine and it had grown, I think it was up to 22 minutes. I think, yeah. And then Martin was just like, “Okay. Camille needs to put a minute on you per k.” Like, “Just chill out. Don’t do anything stupid.” And I was at the point. I was like, “I just want to get this done.”
iRunFar: Yeah. Yeah.
Croft: I was like, “Everything’s hurting now.”
iRunFar: It must’ve felt good to hear that then, though.
Croft: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. You don’t have to worry too much then.
iRunFar: The people at this race, the spectators out on the course, they’re really quite something. And Vallorcine was …
Croft: Oh, it was nuts.
iRunFar: Yeah, it was a head above the rest this year.
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: What was that like for you, being there and leading the race and just having this insane party?
Croft: It was like the whole course. Even I was saying to Courtney when I was with her when we went to Les Houches, and it’s amazing, the number of cheers. She had a perpetual cheer squad. It was insane. And then obviously Notre Dame de la Gorge. And then I was feeling terrible going into Les Chapieux. And then the cheers there picked me up. Yeah. I think it’s such a unique race. And it’s kind of cool, the support that we got out there.
iRunFar: Rolling into the finish line, being the first woman across the line, winning the race that you took second in last year. The culmination of a goal that, I don’t know, arguably you’ve been working toward for several years now.
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: Doing your best UTMB.
Croft: Yeah. Well, I was saying I first came to Cham, or came to Europe, to race was in 2015, and that’s when I did CCC for the first time. And I knew then I always wanted to do UTMB. So it just took 10 years to get to that point. But yeah, I always think it’s cool to look back to see the runner I was then, and then to be able to close the loop out 10 years later.
iRunFar: That’s a long-term relationship.
Croft: It is.
iRunFar: That’s a lot of dating.
Croft: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is, yeah. But it’s just like every one of the races has served a part in my career, especially OCC as well, just when I was doing the shorter stuff. Yeah, so it was pretty special.
iRunFar: Do you think the runner who came here in 2015 ever thought that you’d be running 100 milers and winning UTMB and …
Croft: I cut the straps off my poles when I came in 2015.
iRunFar: Those don’t seem useful.
Croft: No, because I was with Maj [Majell Backhausen]. And he was telling me about how you have to cut all your tags off and everything to save weight, and so I cut the straps. So there’s photos of me from CCC, and I’m just holding poles. So I’ve come a long way.
iRunFar: To be fair, I think a lot of people do that, save-weighters. I was a previous pole strap …
Croft: You’ve done the same?
iRunFar: Yeah.
Croft: Oh. Wow, I’ve never met another.
iRunFar: Oh, no. There are people out there.
Croft: Really?
iRunFar: Well, you think you’re saving weight.
Croft: But that also makes them way less functional.
iRunFar: They’re not functional at all, actually. You defer the entire purpose of the pole, actually. No. But yeah, so crossing the line. Having this roar of Chamonix, getting to run through, what is it? Like 1.5k or 2k of people cheering you all the way through town? Was there a sensation of, like, “Okay. I’ve really done what I’ve come here to do with UTMB?” Like satisfaction?
Croft: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Yeah. I was just happy with how the day executed. But the main thing I had, I got to share it with my family and my friends. And I think that’s always, I probably said that every interview at UTMB. That’s why it means the most to me. And yeah, seeing them at the aid stations and then getting to see them at the finish line, that’s what I’ll probably remember most. And just the support that we had out on the course.
iRunFar: It’s kind of funny that running as a sport, if you’re not on a cross-country team or whatever, it’s sort of a singular thing. But somehow, us ultra runners, we manage to turn it into a team sport and get this huge group surrounding us.
Croft: Yeah. And if I didn’t have Martin crewing me… or even just, like I said before, there’s just the support on the course. That would be a very lonely loop around Mont Blanc.
iRunFar: That’s an excellent way to put it.
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: This could be a lonely loop, but it’s not.
Croft: Yeah. Yeah. We would’ve pulled out at Les Chapieux.
iRunFar: In the dark of the night, in the storm.
Croft: The rain.
iRunFar: Let’s have a mug of hot tea and go to bed.
Croft: Yeah.
iRunFar: Is there some couch relaxing in your future? Or what happens next for you?
Croft: Yeah, same. I just get really unfit now. Yeah, that’s the goal. I’ll go do the Vipassana in the middle of September. And yeah, I don’t know. I feel like there’s been a lot of focus on UTMB, so I kind of want to let that all slip to the side and do some other stuff.
iRunFar: And then a New Zealand summer of adventuring in front of you, hopefully?
Croft: Yeah, hopefully. Yeah, definitely. It’s going to happen. Yeah.
iRunFar: Carrying heavy packs while wearing short shorts around the mountains?
Croft: Yep, you’ve got it. And maybe some packrafts in there, too.
iRunFar: Perfect. Maybe no class four white water this year.
Croft: Yeah. We’ll be staying away from the grade three.
iRunFar: Congratulations, Ruth Croft, on your win of the 2025 UTMB.
Croft: Thanks, Megan.
