Race Favorite Ruth Croft Drops Out Of UTMB

Ruth Croft will not start UTMB on Friday, the defending champion said Wednesday in a post on her Instagram account, pulling out of a race she was favored to win for reasons unconnected to injury or fitness.

“While I felt my fitness has never been so good thanks to another year being supported by the best team of people, today my heart and mind want to be elsewhere,” she wrote. She called the decision “very hard yet obvious to make,” and signed off by wishing the field “a fun and safe journey around the mountain.” She did not say what she will race instead.

The claim about her fitness is on the record in some detail. Five days before she withdrew, TrainingPeaks published the shape of her 2026 build under coach Scott Johnston: a peak week in late July of 121 miles, 23 hours 34 minutes and 28,183 feet of climbing, weighted uphill repetitions of 3 x 20 minutes carrying 10 kg with poles, and lift-assisted descents of roughly 1,000 vertical meters at a time. Johnston told RUN247 on Monday that her volume had barely moved from last year and that the additions were strength, descending and weighted climbing. “The primary quality that every ultra runner needs to be improving, even at Ruth’s level, is the ability to resist fatigue in the legs,” he said.

What she offered instead was a line she attributed to Paul Lind: “there are only so many times you can go to the well in 100 miles. That number is finite, and I want to make all of them count.” Croft has spent that currency slowly. Friday would have been her fifth start at 100 miles. She was second at Western States in 2021, won it in 2022 in 17:21:30, was second at UTMB in 2024, and won last year in 22:56:23, the race that made her the first woman to have taken the OCC, the CCC and the UTMB. Four starts have produced four podium finishes and two wins, and Ultra Running Magazine named her its 2025 Worldwide UltraRunner of the Year in January.

Her absence removes the second of UTMB’s 2025 champions from this year’s race. Tom Evans, who won the men’s 100-miler in Chamonix a year ago, came off the start list on Aug. 13. Kilian Jornet announced on Aug. 20 that his knee needs surgery, and Jim Walmsley withdrew with a knee injury the following day. Sunmaya Budha disappeared from the women’s list on Aug. 23. Katie Schide, who holds the women’s course record, was already out with a foot injury, and Mathieu Blanchard said on Aug. 5 that heel pain would cost him the whole summer. UTMB had called this year’s entry, 846 elite athletes across its races, one of the strongest in its history.

Croft arrived in Chamonix on the back of a season without a defeat over 100 kilometers: a fourth Tarawera 102K win in 8:41:11 in February, a win at the MaXi-Race 58K in Annecy in 6:20:52, and a second place in the UTA 50K in 4:34:42, a minute and a half behind Miao Yao’s course best. Her only stoppage of the past two seasons came at Transvulcania in 2025, where hypothermia ended her race and she was rescued after calling her mother.

iRunFar’s women’s preview, published Aug. 17 and updated Monday, installed Croft as the favorite and noted that no woman has won consecutive UTMBs since Rory Bosio in 2013 and 2014. Justin Mock rated Courtney Dauwalter, winner of a fourth Hardrock 100 this year, the biggest threat to her. Dauwalter is still entered, as are Blandine L’Hirondel, who needs UTMB to complete the same Chamonix set Croft finished last year, Rachel Entrekin on her debut at the race, and Anna Carlsson, fourth in 2025. The race leaves Chamonix at 5:45 p.m. Friday and covers 177 kilometers (about 110 miles) with 9,900 meters (about 32,500 feet) of climbing.