A Golden Day: Hundreds of UTMB age-group finishers from all over the world crossed the finish line in Chamonix on Sunday, long after the race began on Friday evening.
Caroline Zahnow admits she was having a rough go of it early on Sunday morning near Vallorcine, France.
The Seattle resident had been out on the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc course for nearly 36 hours and hadn’t slept in more than 48 hours. But bolstered by an enthusiastic support crew of family and friends—and reenergized by a second sunrise while hiking up the last big climb of the course—the 33-year-old corporate strategist for Expedia Group dug deep and eventually made her way to the finish line amid the roaring crowds and hoopla in Chamonix after 38 hours, 4 minutes and 22 seconds on her feet.
The UTMB course is officially 108 miles long with 33,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. The race always starts on a Friday evening, meaning runners face the dark of night early in the race. But because this year’s race was delayed two hours because of rain, Zahnow and the other 2,400 runners ran for about 30 minutes before sunset and less than an hour before nightfall set in completely.
Talk about finishing your first 100-miler in grand fashion!
“Yeah, go big or go home!” Zahnow said with a laugh. “I think the two nights of not sleeping was really hard. In retrospect, I should have picked a different hundred miler so I could at least practice one night of no sleeping. But I’m glad to finish. It was really amazing.”
Zahnow started trail running after moving to San Francisco in 2022 and ran her first long trail race in 2023, when she ran the 46K at the Broken Arrow Skyrace in Olympic Valley, California. She became fast friends with a few other trail runners and admits they “went down the rabbit hole of collecting (UTMB) stones,” eventually running a 50K and two 100Ks in the UTMB World Series system and then entering last winter’s UTMB lottery as a group entry.
To their surprise, they made the cut, and suddenly they were training for the biggest and most dramatic race in the sport. And she definitely got her money’s worth. And so did her friends Matt Schulman (33:38:14) and Andrew Leach (38:39:14), who also finished UTMB on Sunday.
Let’s just say grinding through the course had its usual share of challenges for Zahnow—relentless climbs and descents, general fatigue, a bit of rain, sore knees, and a tweaky Achilles tendon.
The UTMB race course passes through 10 towns and mountain outposts in France, Italy and Switzerland as it winds around the Mont Blanc massif, and there are big parties with fervent local fans in each one. And that meant more unique interactions with fans and local residents around the course.
“I thought the energy in all the towns was just unreal,” she said. “People lining the streets and screaming, and they’d see your name on my bib and are yelling, ‘Caroline! Caroline!’ I had a group of guys that I saw at three different aid stations that would sing ‘Sweet Caroline’ when they saw me. That’s just something I feel you don’t get in the U.S.”
One of the best parts of the Western States 100 is Golden Hour, that final 60 minutes of magic in which dreams come true on the Placer High School track. One of the best aspects of UTMB is that the final morning and afternoon becomes an entire Golden Day as runners of all ability levels grind to the finish line before the 46-hour, 30-minute cutoff time.
When Zahnow reached the finish line, she was met by her huge support crew of family and friends who had met her at aid stations around the course. (That included her parents, Lyn and Rick Zahnow, her brother James Zahnow, her boyfriend, Conor Horkan, her bestie Lexa Keenen and her boyfriend, Richard Mable, plus Conor’s brother, Teagan Horkan and his girlfriend, Katherine Chase.)
They all wore bright green T-shirts with hand-scrawled messages and carried enlarged pictures of her face on sticks.
“It was so great to pull into an aid station and they’re just there lining the fence like, ‘Woooo!'” Zahnow said. “And they’ve got all my little heads so I could pick them out of the crowd easily. I wouldn’t have gotten through it without them.”
Hundreds of age-group finishers from all over the world crossed the finish line in Chamonix before the 6:15 p.m. cutoff time on Sunday evening to earn the satisfaction of a coveted UTMB finish like Zahnow.
“I think I need to marinate all this experience first before I commit to something else,” said Zahnow, who celebrated with dinner and drinks on Sunday and then visited QC Spa on Monday. “Yeah, it was hard—in a good way. It’s always good to have a challenge, and I think it’s a privilege to be able to choose to suffer like this.”
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UTMB ‘Golden Day’ Finishers
Here’s a sampling of a few other American athletes who finished UTMB on Sunday after experiencing their second sunrise on the 108-mile course.
Matt Mcclain, 45, Beaverton, Oregon, 37:25:32
Matt Mcclain, a sportswear business director for Nike, had twice run the Tour du Mont Blanc over several days with ultrarunning buddy Greg Shumavon and was intrigued about running UTMB.
“I didn’t have a very good first half. Starting in the rain was a little bit tough, so I got cold, and I had a little bit of a nagging pain in my leg that was kind of flaring up. But then after I got to Courmayeur, everything turned around and I felt great, so the second half was just a blast. When it got warm (on Saturday), I started jumping in some of the creeks and ice bathing my body, and that made such a big difference. I would pop in the water and jump out and feel like I had fresh legs.”
Kristina Pattison, 45, Bend, Oregon, 39:19:52
Kristina Pattison, a physical therapist and coach who trains ultrarunners and wildland firefighters, ran Marathon du Mont Blanc in 2016 and first attempted UTMB in 2024 but pulled out at Trient because of hyponatremia. She returned last year to complete the 92-mile TDS race and came back for UTMB this year. She was crewed by her husband, Andrew, who a wildland firefighter.
“There’s no other race where you get to be out there with people from all over the world,” she said. “You’re just hearing all these different languages from all over the world and, when the sun rises and you’re in Italy on the south side of Mont Blanc and you’re just looking at that massif all day. It’s so beautiful. Nothing like it.”
John Kaberna, 51, San Francisco/Barcelona, 39:53:25
John Kaberna, the owner of a cybersecurity company, started trail running during the Covid pandemic while he was living in Dallas and continued to challenge himself with longer races.
“I just went out super hot the first half and blew up,” Kaberna said. “I struggled to get into Champex-Lac. I just had no energy, but I took a two-hour nap at Champex-Lac and was able to continue. Usually it’s water, electrolytes or food, and I tried all three of those things and nothing worked.”
“The only thing left was sleep, but this is my fourth 100-miler in a little over a year, and I have never needed sleep before. It just shows you can have your checklist, but sometimes you have to depart from the usual and think outside the box. In every one of these races you have at least one thing that’s never happened before, which is kind of what makes it so cool.”
Ihor Stratan, 40, New York City, 41:07:12
Ihor Stratan, who originally hails from Ukraine, has run dozens of trail and ultrarunning races since 2018, including the TDS in Chamonix in 2024.
“The race was pretty tough and demanding, but it went pretty well, and I was able to finish before the cutoff time, so I enjoyed it,” Stratan said. “The weather was perfect during the daytime. In the beginning there was some rain, but then the clouds dissipated and we had wonderful weather during the daytime. We saw the mountains. There were gorgeous views on the course. I’m satisfied. It was a great challenge.”
Margot Fleming, 41, Los Angeles, California, 42:07:59
Margo Fleming, a global brand marketing manager for Lululemon, is a longtime trail runner who ran with UTMB bib number 1776. She ran her first 50K in 2015 and has since run numerous trail races from 25K to 100 miles. She’s the daughter of the late Tom Fleming, a two-time winner of the New York City Marathon (1973 and 1975).
“It went pretty well. I had a little hitch with food, but other than that the weather was in our favor, my body cooperated, and it was great. And I had a kick in the end, so I’ll take it,” Fleming said. “But I couldn’t have done it without my friends, who came and supported me and set me up getting to the starting line. That’s the hardest part, just getting there.”
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