Ultra Trail Whistler 2024 Results

The Pacific Northwest’s and Canada’s first and only UTMB World Series event happened this past weekend in Whistler, Canada. I was there, I ran the 70K, I got myself a 100K index and 3 stones. There’s a lot more to report from this event that many were boycotting, others were cynically watching from the sidelines, and many more didn’t know about any controversy and signed up to race. Here are the top results, for full results, as always, visit the UTMB website:

100K – (70K, 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Emma Patterson – USA – 09:10:17
2. Julie Lesage – Canada – 09:33:27
3. Jennie Labrie – Canada – 09:50:51

Men:

1. Richard Cook – USA – 07:42:45
2. Elliot Holtham – Canada – 07:54:10
3. Luke Nichols – Australia – 08:18:45

180. Mathias Eichler – Germany – 16:23:31

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50K – (49K, 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Katie Morgan – Great Britain – 05:20:09
2. Laurie Proulx – USA – 05:26:36
3. Heidi Ohrling – Canada – 05:45:10

Men:

1. Cade Michael – USA – 04:20:50
2. David Norris – USA – 04:30:20
3. Andrew Newell – USA – 04:51:01

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20K – (24K, 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Rachel Hebaus – USA – 03:06:00
2. Anne Baylot – Canada – 03:11:44
3. Marguerite Royer – Canada – 03:17:03

Men:

1. Jonathan Gendron – Canada – 02:32:32
2. Misael Zapien – Canada – 02:41:11
3. John Dean – Canada – 02:45:05

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Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• 100K Starters: 215 – DNF: 15 – Finishers: 200. Women: 34 (17%), Men: 166 (83%).
• 50K Starters: 238 – DNF: 8 – Finishers: 230. Women: 66 (29%), Men: 164 (71%).
• 20K Starters: 310 – DNF: 6 – Finishers: 307. Women: 119 (39%), Men: 188 (61%).

In total Ultra Trail Whistler by UTMB saw just 763 starters and 737 finishers – which is a super low DNF rate, due to some very generous cut-off times. 219 (30%) women and 518 (70%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves their respective stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

I’ll reserve my overall thoughts about this event for another post, maybe you even get a race recap too. But it’s clear from these numbers that this was a tiny event by UTMB standards. The business folks in their organization cannot be happy about this. This isn’t sustainable for a global corporation – in fact, as reported last week – Mauritius had 703 starters and the local organizers just pulled out of their contract with UTMB and cancelled any further runnings of a UTMB event on the island. On the other hand, this was a first year event – with considerable headwinds – and the course was managed smartly, requiring just three aid stations. The atmosphere on the ground was positive and supportive – exactly what is needed for runners to complete this monster of a race course and wanting to come back next year and bring some friends. I doubt UTMB owning this event directly – not like the Mauritius event – would leave so little runway and pull the plug after just one year. Whistler as a location is just too good of a place to not have a trail race.

Anyways, this coming weekend we’re heading to France’s beautiful Côte d’Azur for the Nice Côte d’Azur by UTMB event. Ironman just held the Women’s World Championship in Nice last weekend on September 22nd.