How I got into UTMB, and what I would do differently

The question I get most is some version of "how do I get to Chamonix?" People expect the answer to be a training plan. It is not. Getting to the start line is a two to three year campaign, and the training block is the last quarter of it.

I finished UTMB in August 2024 in 34:40, 406th out of 1,760. I am not fast and I did not win anything. What I did do is work out how the entry system actually functions, which took me longer than it should have. Here is the whole thing, including the parts I got wrong.

The campaign, in four stages

Nothing here is secret. It is all in the official rules. It is just spread across a dozen pages in an order that makes no sense until you have done it once.

1. 01

   Get a valid Index in the right category

   Before stones matter at all you need a UTMB Index in a distance category the race accepts, earned in the last 24 months. UTMB wants 100K or 100M. CCC wants 50K or longer. OCC takes 20K.

2. 02

   Collect stones, from the right races

   Only World Series Events and Majors pay Running Stones. An Index race gives you an Index and nothing else. This is the step where most people waste a year.

3. 03

   Be ready in January

   Pre-registration is a window of about ten days in early January, and the draw happens days later. Everything in stages one and two has to be finished before it opens.

4. 04

   Then, and only then, train for the race

   The training block is the part everyone starts with and the part with the most free advice available. It is also the last thing that happens.

The mistake that cost me two years

Between 2022 and 2024 I finished four races in the UTMB system. A mountain marathon at Millefonts, the MXTREME at Montreux over 108 km and 7,760 meters of climbing, the Ultra de Provence at 164.8 km, and a 20 km along the coast at Nice.

Three of those four earned me zero Running Stones. The 20 km, the shortest and easiest day of the lot, was the only one that paid.

The reason is a distinction nobody explains clearly: a UTMB Index race gives you an Index, and a World Series Event gives you an Index and stones. They look identical on a race calendar. I spent two years running hard mountain ultras that built my Index beautifully and my stone count not at all.

So when the January 2024 lottery came around, I went in with two stones. The average applicant that year had several times that. I got in anyway, which was luck, not strategy, and it is the single worst thing to build a plan around. The planner exists so you can see the gap between your pile and the pile the people who get picked are holding.

The DNF was the useful part

In September 2022 I started a hundred miler in Nice, 167 km with 9,070 meters of climbing, and did not finish. Eight months later I went back to almost exactly that distance at the Ultra de Provence and finished in 31:35. Sixteen months after that I finished UTMB.

That is the actual shape of it. Not a leap, a progression, with the failure in the middle doing most of the teaching. If you are planning a campaign and there is no room in it for a race going badly, the plan is too fragile. The full record is on my about page, DNF included.

What I would do differently

• Check the stone value before entering anything. Every race, every time. A 100K World Series Event pays three stones. A 100K Index race pays none, and they hurt the same.
• Use a Major if you can reach one. Majors pay double, so one race does the work of two.
• Count backwards from January, not forwards from today. Every stone has to be banked before pre-registration opens, and a race in February is eleven months too late for that year's draw.
• Keep one stone alive. You need one earned in the last 24 months to enter at all. Mine have lapsed, which is a fairly embarrassing thing for me to admit and a good illustration of how easily it happens.

Where to start

Find your own numbers first: here is where they are hiding in your UTMB account. Then put them into the Running Stones Planner, which will tell you how far off you are and which races could close the gap before the next lottery. When you have a place, the training plans are free too.

Independent and not affiliated with UTMB. The entry rules change most seasons, so check the official registration conditions before planning a season around anything here.