Katie Schide, Jim Walmsley Prevail – iRunFar

Irrespective of the course, irrespective of the space, if it’s a serious path operating race, Individuals Katie Schide (pre-race and post-race interviews) and Jim Walmsley (pre-race and post-race interviews) will doubtless discover themselves on the entrance. And so it was on the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path, the third and longest race on the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships, the place Schide and Walmsley each took dwelling commanding wins in aggressive fields.

Thanks a lot to The North Face for sponsoring iRunFar’s protection of the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships!

This yr’s championships — a collection of races attracting a number of the world’s greatest path runners for an opportunity to compete for his or her nation — arrived within the mountain village of Canfranc within the Spanish Pyrenees. The 81-kilometer (50.3 miles) Lengthy Path race attracted many high athletes, like Schide and Walmsley. They had been joined by others like France’s Marion Delespierre (pre-race interview), the defending girls’s champion, and Italy’s Francesco Puppi (pre-race interview), the winner of this yr’s CCC.

The Pyrenees are (in)well-known for his or her steep, technical trails, and the course for the Lengthy Path match that description seamlessly. The route, an enormous mountain loop round Canfranc, featured 5,078 meters (16,600 toes) of elevation achieve, with an preliminary 1,500-meter (5,000-foot) climb to the summit of La Moleta, the best level on the course at 2,572 meters (8,438 toes). Given the individuality of the course, chatter throughout the week appeared to point that runners could be slower than the race group’s predicted instances of 8.5 hours for the highest males and 10 hours for the highest girls.

The U.S.’s Katie Schide, 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path champion. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

In the long run, although, on a near-perfect climate day within the mountains, the American duo of Walmsley and Schide once more demonstrated why they’re favorites for any race they enter, each operating very near these predicted instances. Schide ran from the entrance for all the approach to win the ladies’s race by greater than 25 minutes in 9:57:59, whereas Walmsley, after battling with Frenchmen Benjamin Roubiol and Louison Coiffet for a lot of the race, pulled away late to win in 8:35:11.

Getting into the race, it was anticipated to be a battle between the US, France, and Italy for the workforce competitors on each the boys’s and girls’s sides. Within the girls’s race, Italy ended up taking dwelling high honors, with the U.S. and France in second and third, respectively. Within the males’s race, France took dwelling first, with the U.S. in second and Italy in third.

Learn on for full race particulars, and you should definitely learn our in-depth protection of the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill and the 2025 Path World Championships Brief Path from earlier within the week.

Jim Walmsley (U.S) on the descent from Llano de Tortiellas Alto (71k) on his approach to the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path win. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path Girls’s Race

Katie Schide (pre-race and post-race interviews), an American who lives and trains in France, has achieved one thing only a few athletes throughout any sport ever do: She has normalized greatness. The ever-smiling Schide, who appears to excel throughout any distance and course, took the lead from the beginning of this race and stayed there for practically 10 hours, by no means trailing at any level. In actual fact, the “1” indicating her place at each checkpoint on her official splits presents a quantifiable have a look at her untouchable efficiency.

Katie Schide (U.S.) in a line of runners on the primary climb of the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

The truth that her commanding win was not stunning maybe speaks much more loudly. In spite of everything, that is what Schide does. In 2024, she received the Western States 100 by greater than half-hour and UTMB by nearly 40, the latter in a course file. This yr, she broke the course file on the Hardrock 100, profitable by practically three hours. Then, in early August, Schide positioned second at Sierre-Zinal, a end thought-about all of the extra spectacular given its proximity to Hardrock and its 31-kilometer (19 miles) distance, a lot shorter than races she’s sometimes dominated.

“I’ve heard myself described as a 100-mile specialist,” Schide stated in her pre-race interview, “which I by no means supposed to be.”

The 81-kilometer Lengthy Path race fell someplace between the 31 kilometers of Sierre-Zinal and 174 kilometers of UTMB, and was a distance that Schide was desperate to race this yr.

“These are the athletes which have all the time impressed me essentially the most: individuals who could possibly be actually robust at quick races after which additionally carry out rather well at ultras,” she stated.

Katie Schide (U.S.) descends throughout the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path with 10k to go. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

It was with this inspiration that Schide arrived initially line in Canfranc for the Lengthy Path race. By 15k at Carreton, Schide had already constructed an almost five-minute lead, and it solely grew from there. By midway at Ibón de Truchas, she was forward by nearly 20 minutes; by Peyrenère at 59k, the lead was greater than 30. She seemed easy and assured all through, sporting her trademark smile as she ran alone for a number of hours. Schide completed in 9:57:59, beneath the race group’s predicted time of 10 hours for the highest lady.

“I’m undecided how a lot I agree with the expected instances from the race group,” she stated in her pre-race interview. “They’re fairly optimistic in our skills, I believe.”

Given Schide’s two-year run of domination, they had been in all probability justified of their pondering.

Behind Schide, Nepal’s Sunmaya Budha, who completed tenth at this occasion in 2022, and Italy’s Fabiola Conti, the skyrace and mountain marathon specialist, had been locked in an in depth battle for second place for a lot of the day. At Ibón de Truchas (40k), Budha was forward by lower than a minute, and 7k later at Col d’Ayous, they got here by way of collectively.

Sunmaya Budha of Nepal runs in second place on the Ibón de Truchas, midway into the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

In the course of the 13-plus kilometers between Col d’Ayous and Peyrenère at 59k, they stayed collectively to arrange what appeared to be a compelling last 20k of racing. Over the following 5k, although, Budha pulled away barely, coming into 65k at Candanchu with a few 90-second lead, and by Llano de Tortiellas Alto at 71.5k she had constructed an eight-minute lead, which she wouldn’t relinquish.

Finally, Sunmaya Budha completed second in 10:23:03. Fabiola Conti held on for third in 10:35:51.

Fabiola Conti (Italy) completed third on the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

The battle for the highest 5 was equally compelling and got here all the way down to the wire. Between 73k at Collado de Estiviellas and the end simply 8k later, Canada’s Jazmine Lowther handed Rosa Lara (Spain) to edge her by just below two minutes. Lowther’s final 50k was spectacular, as she moved all the way in which up from twenty ninth at 15k to complete fourth in 10:45:18.

Jazmine Lowther (Canada) descending from the Llano de Tortiellas Alto at 71k throughout the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. She completed fourth. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Lara, who completed sixth at OCC 4 weeks in the past, held off France’s Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret to spherical out the highest 5. Rousset Séguret, the winner of this yr’s Transvulcania Ultramarathon, who has stated this is able to be her last yr {of professional} operating, hung across the center of the highest 10 for almost all of the race earlier than taking sixth.

Lara Rosa (Spain), who completed fifth, descending from the Llano de Tortiellas Alto (71k) on the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Ending lower than 5 minutes behind her was Martina Valmassoi (Italy) in seventh, who posted a powerful end regardless of battling a hamstring harm earlier this yr. France’s Marion Delespierre (pre-race interview), the defending champion at this race, used a formidable second half of the race to complete eighth in 11:03:01.

Martina Valmassoi (Italy) at 21k into the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

However maybe the race of the day — and possibly all the championships — was for ninth place. After greater than 80k of racing by way of the mountains, Italy’s Giuditta Turini and France’s Hillary Gerardi (pre-race interview) discovered themselves in what amounted to a observe race, sprinting towards one another in an epic conclusion on the ultimate straightaway. Turini edged her by a single second, and each girls fell to the bottom on the end line.

Giuditta Turini (Italy) positioned ninth on the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path Girls’s Outcomes

1. Katie Schide (United States) – 9:57:59 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
2. Sunmaya Budha (Nepal) – 10:23:03
3. Fabiola Conti (Italy) – 10:35:51
4. Jazmine Lowther (Canada) – 10:45:18
5. Rosa Lara (Spain) – 10:47:15
6. Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret (France) – 10:50:45
7. Martina Valmassoi (Italy) – 10:55:07
8. Marion Delespierre (France) – 11:03:01 (pre-race interview)
9. Giuditta Turini (Italy) – 11:05:19
10. Hillary Gerardi (France) – 11:05:20 (pre-race interview)

Girls’s Groups

1. Italy
2. United States
3. France

Full outcomes.

The 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path girls’s podium (left to proper): 3. Fabiola Conti, 1. Katie Schide, 2. Sunmaya Budha. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path Males’s Race

In his pre-race interview, Jim Walmsley (U.S.) (post-race interview)struck the tone of somebody who was simply completely happy to be there. Solely 4 weeks after he received the 2025 OCC, Walmsley, the American ultrarunning star, entered the Path World Championships Lengthy Path with a shorter taper and never understanding how his “racing legs” would reply. “I believe I’m in a great place to be aggressive, and I’m excited to compete,” Walmsley stated, “and that’s all I can ask for at this level.”

Solely he’ll know if that was an trustworthy evaluation of his health or a small psychological ploy, as a result of he ran a typical Walmsley race, hanging out within the high 5 earlier than definitively taking the lead round 60k. He received by practically 11 minutes.

The U.S.’s Jim Walmsley, 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path champion. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

It was one other feather within the cap of Walmsley, who has received the Western States 100 4 instances, most lately in 2024, and UTMB in 2023. If there have been doubts that he was a flat-course specialist who wins races solely along with his velocity, this win — on trails he described as “chunky” in his pre-race interview — additional cemented the concept that he, like Katie Schide, can win on any terrain, in any distance, towards any competitors.

And competitors there was. Getting into the race, there have been a number of runners who might have been thought-about favorites to win. Reigning Lengthy Path champion Benjamin Roubiol (France) was returning to defend his title, whereas Italy’s Francesco Puppi was additionally driving the health from a win 4 weeks in the past at CCC. Even a number of of Walmsley’s American teammates — rising star and 2025 Western States 100 champion Caleb Olson (pre-race interview), the ever-consistent 2022 Lengthy Path champion Adam Peterman, and 2025 Hardrock 100 fifth-place finisher Zach Miller — had been among the many high opponents in a loaded discipline. Olson sadly needed to drop early as a result of knee ache from a fall within the race.

Benjamin Roubiol (France) leads Jim Walmsley (U.S.) and Vincent Bouillard (France) on the primary climb, 5k into the race. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

In a shock to nobody, Walmsley began the race close to the entrance of the sphere, remaining within the high 4 by way of Canal de Izas at 21k in a lead pack that included Roubiol, his French teammate Louison Coiffet, and Sweden’s Petter Engdahl. By the following support station, Formigal at 30k, the trio of Walmsley, Coiffet, and Roubiol was nonetheless collectively, however Engdahl had fallen again.

Louison Coiffet (left), Benjamin Roubiol (center), and Jim Walmsley at Canal de Izas, 21k into the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

Over the following 20 kilometers, the French duo of Roubiol and Coiffet stayed inside touching distance of Walmsley, whereas Italian Cristian Minoggio, whom Walmsley raced to the road at OCC 4 weeks in the past, remained behind Engdahl in a powerful fifth, lower than six minutes again of the chief.

Cristian Minoggio (Italy), who would end fourth on the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path, runs subsequent to the Ibón de Truchas (40k). Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

However within the 13-plus kilometers between Col d’Ayous at 47k and close to Peyrenère at 59k — the longest stretch of the race between checkpoints — Walmsley opened up a lead of practically a minute over Coiffet, whereas Roubiol fell off the tempo. He was now greater than six minutes behind Walmsley.

Petter Engdahl ran in fourth place on the Ibón de Truchas, midway into the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. He would end in sixth. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

From there, as he’s accomplished so many instances in the midst of his profession, Walmsley pressed the fuel to erase any hope his opponents nonetheless may need held. By Candanchu at 65k, his lead had grown one other minute; by Llano de Tortiellas Alto simply over 5k later, it had ballooned to almost seven minutes. With solely about 10k to go, all Jim Walmsley needed to do was keep away from blowing up — a objective he achieved — and he completed in 8:35:11 for the win.

Ruobiol, for his half, rebounded rapidly from his fall off the tempo, rejoining his teammate Coiffet by Llano de Tortiellas Alto at 71k. The French duo ran the remainder of the race practically in tandem, ending collectively in 8:46:05 to all however assure the workforce win for his or her nation.

Benjamin Roubiol (left) and Louison Coiffet of France on the descent from Llano de Tortiellas Alto (71k). They might tie for second. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Cristian Minoggio, who entered the race as maybe the third most achieved runner on his personal workforce behind Puppi and Andreas Reiterer, remained regular in fifth for the center chunk of the race earlier than passing Engdahl in that lengthy 13k stretch between Col d’Ayous at 47k and close to Peyrenère at 59k to take fourth, the place he would stay till his end in 8:57:16. It was one other robust efficiency from the Italian, who can add a high 5 at this race to his second-place end behind Walmsley at OCC for a formidable 2025.

Slovakia’s Peter Fraňo, in the meantime, additionally handed Engdahl in that very same stretch to interrupt into the highest 5, however Engdahl remained inside 90 seconds of him by the ultimate checkpoint at Collado de Estiviellas at 74k. Peter Fraňo in the end held on for fifth in 9:01:37, whereas Petter Engdahl, regardless of falling away from the lead pack earlier, took sixth in 9:03:38.

Peter Fraňo (Slovakia) completed the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path in fifth place. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

The race for the remainder of the highest 10 was a great one. Poland’s Andrzej Witek, who took third at this yr’s OCC behind Walmsley and Minoggio, battled with Peterman early within the race earlier than taking up seventh place for good by Peyrenère. Peterman, who hung round within the high 10 for all the race, pale late, letting a six-plus minute lead over a charging Puppi — who at one level within the race was forty ninth — evaporate from Candanchu to Llano de Tortiellas Alto. However he retook a minute lead by Collado de Estiviellas, organising a compelling end. In the long run, Adam Peterman rebounded to complete eighth in 9:18:36, with Francesco Puppi lower than two minutes behind in ninth at 9:20:22.

After operating a lot of the second half of the race in shut proximity, Frenchman Vincent Bouillard, the 2024 UTMB champion, beat out teammate Baptiste Chassagne, the runner-up in that very same race, by ending 9:22:10 to Chassagne’s 9:25:28, to spherical out the highest 10.

Adam Peterman (U.S.) at 21k into the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. He would end inside the highest 10. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path Males’s Outcomes

• 1. Jim Walmsley (United States) – 8:35:11 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
• 2. Benjamin Roubiol (France) – 8:46:05
• 2. Louison Coiffet (France) – 8:46:05
• 4. Cristian Minoggio (Italy) – 8:57:16
• 5. Peter Fraňo (Slovakia) – 9:01:37
• 6. Petter Engdahl (Sweden) – 9:03:38
• 7. Andrzej Witek (Poland) – 9:12:38
• 8. Adam Peterman (United States) – 9:18:36
• 9. Francesco Puppi (Italy) – 9:20:22 (pre-race interview)
• 10. Vincent Bouillard (France) – 9:22:10

Males’s Groups

1. France
2. United States
3. Italy

Full outcomes.

The 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path males’s podium (left to proper): 2. Benjamin Roubiol, 1. Jim Walmsley, 2. Louison Coiffet. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

Protection Thanks

Thanks a lot to Uxue Fraile for serving to iRunFar to cowl this race.