The Long Game at UTMB

PC: UTMB

What stands out in this film isn’t the finish. It’s the control.

You watch Tom Evans in the days before UTMB and there’s no chest-beating. No talk about domination. Just conversations about pacing, weather, fueling, and not repeating last year.

That’s the story.

He DNF’d here before. This time the focus is narrower. Jacket on early in the rain. Earplugs through loud checkpoints so the crowd doesn’t pull him faster than he wants to go. Eat on schedule. Stay within himself.

The decisive move doesn’t look like a highlight clip. It’s ten minutes of hiking hard in the dark. Poles down. Pressure without panic. The gap opens because he is still steady when others are not.

If you run long races, you recognize this. The biggest mistakes rarely feel dramatic in the moment. They feel small. A surge you didn’t need. A climb taken a little too hard. A checkpoint where you let the noise dictate the pace.

This film is worth watching because it shows the opposite of that. It shows an athlete who understands that winning a race like UTMB is often about what you refuse to do.

There’s value in seeing that.

Watch it.