Ultra runner talks about how a move from America to Europe, combined with a talent for endurance, led to her becoming one of the world’s best off-road runners.
Katie Schide had always known that she possessed the ability to run for a long time and cover large distances. “Growing up, I played field hockey really competitively, and my strength was always that I could run the whole field for the whole game without getting as tired as everyone else,” says the American. “I had this endurance capacity.”
What she hadn’t realised, however, was that those athletic talents would eventually help to establish her as one of the finest trail and mountain runners in the world. The 33-year-old grew up in Maine and spent much of that time outdoors, regularly accompanying her father on hikes through the spectacular, mountainous scenery of New England.
She is someone who has always run, too, but it wasn’t until her PhD in geology took her to Switzerland in 2016 and she met her partner – fellow professional trail runner Germain Grangier – that a whole new world began to open up to her.
An unexpected fifth place at the prestigious Livigno Sky Race in 2017 highlighted her promise and provided a crucial springboard. “I’ve basically been living off of the sport since 2020,” she says.
Victory in some of trail running’s biggest events have come her way since. Twice Schide has come finished first at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) – in 2022 and then last year, when she broke the 173.3km (108 miles) course record in a time of 22:09:31 across a route that also features a total elevation of 9525m. That same summer, she also won the Western States, the oldest 100-mile race in the world, in California.
This year has brought success in the Hardrock 100, setting a women’s course record with a time of 25:50:28 that makes her the first woman to finish the notoriously challenging event in under 26 hours. Then, at what was the third edition of the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in the Spanish Pyrenees at the end of September, Schide was a convincing winner in the Long Trail 82km event.
When she sits down to speak with AW over video call, she does so from the home she shares with Graingier on the edge of the Mercantour National Park that sits in the shadow of the southern French Alps and provides the perfect training base for the sport she describes as bringing together everything she loves. She is still very much in recovery mode from the exertions of recent weeks and months, but is more than happy to discuss her journey to the top of her chosen profession.
How does becoming world champion rank alongside everything you’ve achieved so far?
It’s a good question. Our sport isn’t that organised quite yet in how competitions are set up and, with different series and different races, there isn’t a super clear structure.
So sometimes even a race that isn’t necessarily considered prestigious can end up being extremely competitive and the inverse can also be true. In this case, the world championship race was quite competitive, but I know it’s hard from the outside to follow, because you really have to know all the players and all the races and distances and terrain and locations to really understand every part of it. That’s something that trail running really needs to improve on but hopefully we’ll get there eventually.
In terms of the World Championships, it’s also changed a lot in the last few years.
I would say the mountain running and the vertical races have always been extremely prestigious, and that has not changed at all over the last 15-20 years, but I think we’re still trying to find our footing in how to set up the marathon distance and ultra distance events.
With all that being said, I had never been to a world championships, and it had been something I’d always been interested in. I was excited to change it up a bit, because we can get stuck in the same circle of races and the cool thing about the world champs is that it brought something new and exciting.
It’s still a prestigious race and it’s cool to say that I won but every race is always not just about winning. It’s about how you feel you executed on the day. In that way, I’m pretty happy with it and I enjoyed the experience. I’d be interested to go to another one in the future.
How was it different to an event such as the UTMB?
The week before UTMB has become like a brand trade show, essentially, which is fine. It’s what brings money to the sport and keeps the sport alive. But I feel like there’s almost two events at UTMB. There’s this trade show and then there’s a race. The world champs was really just a race. It made it feel a little bit more special that it was really just focused on the athletes and representing different countries, which I thought was cool.
What is the biggest change you’ve seen in trail running since you’ve been involved?
All the biggest changes happened post covid. I think there was just a resurgence in the outdoor market in general. To me it’s great but there are always trade-offs. There are the growing pains and the people who were there before… there are always complaints that it’s not how it used to be. But I think you can still find those “like how it used to be” events if you want and you can also ride the wave of the newer, bigger events if that’s what interests you. I think there’s still something for everybody.
On the professional side, there are more people who are able to do it as a full-time job. When I had my first little partnerships with some free gear and maybe some travel support, you could probably count the number of people who were making their living off the sport on one hand. Now there are way more people who are able to do it full-time and really invest all their time and energy into that and really optimise everything. You see times and performances and the density of the field has just skyrocketed.
Could you have imagined, when you first started out, that you would eventually end up in this situation?
I didn’t really know what the sport was until 2015 so it wasn’t something I was dreaming of.
When I met Germain I think he had so much more confidence in me than I had in myself. He had a better understanding of the sport in general than I did and he was like: “You could be really, really good”. I’m a competitive person but I thought: “Oh, he’s just being nice”, and every year I just got a little bit better.
My first really good result was 2017 at the Livigno sky race. It’s now called the Golden Trail Series but before that it was called sky running and that was the peak competitive field of trail running across all distances. That was what Germain was doing at the time when I met him, and so I went to races with him.
I had just arrived in Europe at the end of 2016 so it was nice to have someone to show me around. I was in following mode and I did that Livigno race and finished fifth.
Germain had finished and gone to the hotel room to change and come back [to meet me] because he thought he had time. I finished the race, and he wasn’t there, and when he came back he said: “You’re already finished? Oh, wow!”. It was such a surprise to me and it just felt like a huge result. People usually pinpoint my UTMB win in 2022 as my beginning, but it was way before that.
It must have all been quite a culture shock for you
When I moved to Zurich in 2016 I had never been to Switzerland before. I had only been to Europe once, and it was to Rome with my high school Latin club for a week. So this was my introduction to Europe. I guess I can adapt to different places and that’s never been a huge deal. I’m good at finding my routines and settling in.
If you were to strip it back, what would you say running gives to you?
That’s changed a lot over the years. At the beginning, when I was working in these huts in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it was really just because I loved hiking, being outside, finding new trails and the feeling of being out in the mountains.
And then when I was doing my masters in Utah, it was more like my daily exercise. Running has always been the thing that is my time. I’m pretty introverted, and even when I was working in busy places, for my masters, for my PhD, for whatever, it’s the time that I get to really have to myself. That has always been an undercurrent through the many years and many evolutions that I’ve had.
Even in college I ran every day. It was just part of my habit, and I knew it was something that made me feel better throughout the day. After that I was able to channel some of my competitiveness into the sport.
I’m really goal driven and what brought me through all my higher education too was having goals, small steps every day, things to accomplish. [Running] has let me put all aspects of my interest into one thing.
I love being outside. I love being active. I like having goals. I like trying to optimise. I love maps. My dad was one of the original developers on the mapping app inReach. I grew up surrounded by maps and I love planning so I think the sport has taken everything I love and put it into one activity. At this point, it’s beyond bringing enjoyment and satisfaction and time outside. It’s also my job, so some days that’s the motivator. Not often, but sometimes.
