Katie Schide, 2024 UTMB Champion, Interview

Megan Hicks of iRun far I'm with Katie shy it's the day after the 2024 UTMB and you're the champion again congratulations Katie good morning thank you yeah it's nice to be awake and walking around how does it feel you're the champion of this race for the second time it's a bit surreal um to be honest yeah I I it's a race I always dreamed of winning uh yeah a few years ago and then to finally be able to put together a good day in 2022 was yeah like more than I could have asked for and then to be able to come back and and have another great run at it was yeah like kind of still still sinking in I guess it's uh you have the feelings in your legs but maybe not your mind yet yeah I think it all just there's been a lot to do since finishing so not much time to soak to soak it in yet yeah it is a blessing and a curse of winning the largest 100 mile out there is that there are people like us who want to talk to you for a long time the next day right yeah this isn't too long it's okay um I want to start with something you said at the Finish Line yesterday that hit me um you said um that in 2022 you were nervous about like going out fast like you didn't know if you'd be able to stick it but this year you had a different sense of confidence idence that like in your ability to run will you tell us a little more about that yeah there was a lot going on um just before the start in 2022 um where I was like had to move houses cuz we had a covid case in our house and um there was just a lot going on emotionally and also logistically and I kind of got to the start line just sort of like all right I don't I honestly I was like kind of convinced I had covid and then I was going to you know I done test but I still didn't believe them and thought happen like in champ or in it did for my partner so I wasn't far off but um yeah so I kind of just was like okay let's just go for it and sort of just yeah this mindset of like well I don't really care it's probably not going to work anyway and then when I was running quite fast everyone was sort of like concerned for me I could feel that feeling from other people going too fast yeah because I hadn't done my previous two UTMB had not been that fast and um yeah I guess I hadn't like shown a performance at that level before so I think people are a bit like oh maybe you should be a little bit more conservative even if they were cheering I could still feel feel it and it kind of freaked me out I was like oh no maybe I really made a huge mistake here um which it's hard to like say in hindsight if it was a good idea or a bad idea in the end it worked out um but this year I yeah I had written those times down for the first couple Aid stations you using the 2022 splits yeah just it was just as a check to make sure I wasn't going super fast or like much slower than them I wanted to be kind of around that cuz I thought at this point I think I can run those uh those kind of times more comfortably than I did in 2022 but yeah I just had more confidence about it like I so because I knew the time in s j I knew that the guys weren't running very fast so when I was with the first guys I knew yeah of course you can always run fast at the start but I felt like okay I don't think I'm making too big of a mistake because I know I did this in 2022 and the guys were like 10 or 15 minutes ahead of me so trying not to judge my own effort based on where they were um did it feel hot to you like in starting and did the night feel hotter too like sort of like digging into some of the details did it was it any different than prior utm's um it's always really humid at the start why is it so humid um I think it's just the time of year the afternoons here are always humid and then we're really in the trees between s and Lin and you're next to the river so yeah there's a lot of humidity there um I didn't find it that different from the other three times um and then during the night it was kind of normal maybe a little bit warmer than 2022 okay and 2021 was quite cold also uh maybe it's similar to 2019 okay but nothing crazy and it was super clear like no fog I think we had really really good weather um it felt like the night time was almost the most Pleasant night like it there was no fog that your headlamp is trying to reflect off of everybody was wearing most people were wearing one layer sometimes there's two layers out at night it seemed like a really like a Charming night for running yeah it was nice there was it was very manageable there was like a few chili points where I pulled down my sleeves or I put my jacket on just one time I think so if you look back at like the Katy shy racing style of a few years ago it was often that you would like run early in the race with other people sometimes you'd share kilometers and kilometers with some of your friends but it seems like the Katy sh of 2024 is like front running off the start where you're sort of in no other woman's land um with other men does that yeah how does that has that change felt for you sort of not being as surrounded with women and passing the miles with other people this year yeah I think the last time I really ran with people at the start was Courtney at Western States um last year and otherwise I haven't really I don't remember I guess at UTMB in previous years but I think that's just because that's where I was at and it that was my effort was to be with them and um yeah I've also for sure gained a lot of confidence in the last uh let's see six years since my first CCC so yeah just being more sure of my own decision making unfortunately there aren't as many women to run with as men so you don't have as many options for pacing so I think point it's actually great because I do know most like most of the men in the field and um can speak to some of the French guys so it give I feel like I have a lot of options for people to run with even if I don't want to talk it's nice to like know you could say something or you have the company of somebody if you're not talking yeah yeah um did it feel I guess from the outside looking in things like looked like they were pretty smooth with for you until maybe the last 20 or 25 km or rather were you managing things that just weren't that detectable from the outside uh I'm always managing my stomach yeah um but nothing it was manageable uh until yeah like the last 2 hours then I had a lot of cramping um I'm not sure if it was more my stomach or my diaphragm or both okay but yeah that was really hard that's basically what was out that's what was holding me back in the last couple hours um was it like cramps or just like ball no energy or it was really um really intense stomach cramps yeah okay um yeah I had to stop a few times to try to breathe because I yeah I I wasn't sure what why I couldn't inhale very deeply um but I was able to just keep moving so that's I could see I was still moving and not too too slowly so I just wanted to hold it together like doing the pace that you needed to maintain your position I knew my position was going to be fine I was more had some of those time goals in mind at that point but um I tried to like kind of let yeah just to be happy with what I was doing and not get too stressed last question for you um there's been this Western States UTMB double thing that's been a part of your summer probably when Western States ended there was like the relief of having accomplished that goal but maybe your brain started doing the math and stuff on UTMB pretty quick is there today now like both goals accomplished mission accomplished can you let yourself feel like yeah end of season relief accomplishment yeah I I am excited to start doing that I feel like maybe once we get home and I have some time to like breathe a little bit more uh decompress and I've been on I mean I haven't I've only spent 3 weeks at home since mid April so I think I'm just looking forward to like being in my place and calm and yeah cuz it really when you bring that up like it still really isn't something that's totally sunk in yet so yeah congratulations on your win of the 2024 UTMB congratulations on the western states UTMB double and congratulations on an offseason of yeah sitting on the couch relaxing skiing letting that all sink in thanks