Aran Valley by UTMB is a European UTMB Grand Slam event. Yao Miao raced the PDA 55 km category there last year, taking the win and breaking the course record, so the Aran Valley course was not unfamiliar to her.

This time she raced the CDH 110 km category, doubling the distance — a distance she hadn’t run in three years. Her last 100 km race was the 2023 Ninghai Trail Challenge, when she had recently returned to the trails from road racing but still showed great strength, taking the women’s title and placing 6th overall.

This year Yao Miao welcomed new sponsor ACG and raced in ACG kit. She was women’s runner-up in the 50 km at the US Gorge Waterfalls trail race; at the Australia Trail Race by UTMB she took a 50 km win and a runner-up.

Arriving at Aran Valley, Yao Miao was still the clear favorite for the title.

The race gun fired at 6:00 a.m. local time.

Shortly after the start Yao Miao began to crush the suspense over the win, incrementally increasing the gap to the second-placed woman at every checkpoint. She even passed 2019 UTMB men’s champion, Spanish runner Pau Capell, on the climb before the 23 km checkpoint and at one point was 7th overall.

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

Although she suffered eye discomfort in the second half and spent over ten minutes being treated at an aid station, Yao Miao still won convincingly in 13:04:34, finishing nearly one hour ahead of the women’s runner-up, French athlete Alexandra Cassan-Ferrier.

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

Yao Miao’s next race will be UTMB’s CCC — can she win again? (She won the CCC in 2018.)