Aran Valley by UTMB is a European UTMB grand slam event. Last year Yao Miao competed in the PDA 55 km category, winning and breaking the course record. So the Aran Valley course is not unfamiliar to her.

But this time she ran the CDH 110 km category — double the distance. She hadn't run this distance in three years. Her last 100 km race was the 2023 Ninghai Trail Challenge; shortly after returning to the trail scene from road racing she still showed strong form, not only taking the women's title but finishing 6th overall.

This year Yao Miao welcomed a new sponsor, ACG, and raced in ACG gear. She was 2nd in the women's 50 km at the Gorge Waterfalls (USA) trail race; at the Australia trail race by UTMB she won the women's 50 km title and also recorded a runner-up finish at another event.

Arriving at Aran Valley, Yao Miao was still the top favorite for the win.

The race gun went off at 6:00 AM local time.

Soon after the start Yao Miao began to crush any suspense over the victory, extending her lead over the women's second place at every checkpoint. She even passed 2019 UTMB men's champion Pau Capell on the climb before the 23 km checkpoint, briefly moving up to 7th overall.

At the 51.9 km checkpoint Yao Miao led the second-placed woman by 40 minutes, sitting 10th overall and only 24 minutes behind the men's leader.

Despite suffering eye discomfort in the second half and spending more than ten minutes at a feed station to deal with it, Yao Miao still won decisively in 13:04:34, nearly one hour ahead of French runner Alexandra Cassan-Ferrier.

She finished 8th overall, meaning only seven male runners beat her. She also broke the course record of 13:06:34 set by American Katie Schide in 2022.

Yao Miao's next race will be the CCC at UTMB — can she win again? (She was champion in 2018.)