Over the past few months,L’Hirondel Her left leg has long been troubled by iliac artery intimal fibrosis.

This is a vascular condition that commonly affects endurance athletes. When exercise intensity rises and the leg muscles require more blood, the diseased artery cannot meet the demand, which can lead to pain, fatigue, stiffness and even cramping.

Surgery is one way to address the problem, but she decided to postpone the surgery until UTMB after that.It also meant that, this UTMB she couldn't sustain long surges, couldn't recklessly follow an opponent's attack, and certainly couldn't turn the race into a continual back-and-forth.

For an athlete facing a race of roughly 173 kilometers, with cumulative ascent approaching 10000 meters, these constraints sounded somewhat absurd.UTMB And yet it's a race that's easy to get carried away with — especially right after the start, surrounded by rivals and with the crowd in Chamonix pushing emotions to the max.

And for L’Hirondel she didn't even have the right to be "carried away" this year. 

This year was not L’Hirondel 's UTMB debut.

2023 In , she clocked24 hours 22 minutes 50 seconds to finish third among women;2024 That year, she once again stood on the starting line and ultimately finished fifth.

These experiences also made her increasingly aware that, on a long course like the Tour du Mont Blanc,“being able to run faster now”and“should be running faster now”are often two different things.

In the past,L’Hirondel she admits she sometimes went out too aggressively in the first half of races. This year, she actually didn’t have many choices.

Problems with her left leg forced her to keep intensity within a relatively stable range. Increasing the pace too early could not only cause a late-race drop in energy, but could truly lead to ischemia, pain and cramps in the left leg, directly ending the race early. So in the first half she ran very conservatively.

When others changed pace she didn’t rush to respond; when someone moved ahead she didn’t immediately chase. She simply tried to keep the race within what she could tolerate.

This way of running wasn’t very noticeable at the very start of the race. By the time it reached70 kilometers later, the effect slowly began to show.

When the race entered Italian territory and reachedLac Combal the area,L’Hirondel she moved up to first place among the women. From here on, she never relinquished the lead.

There was nothing particularly dramatic about the process. She didn’t launch a vicious attack, nor did she suddenly raise her pace by a large margin. More often she simply maintained her original rhythm while those who had been more aggressive up front began to slow down.

A1500 meter race, the final300 meter sprint can directly decide the outcome; in the marathon, by30 After a certain number of kilometers, a clear surge can completely split the group. But inUTMB a race like this,“attacks”are so concealed that sometimes you can't even tell they're attacks.

You simply can still run when others stop, able to hold your form. When the race clock is stretched past twenty-plus hours,“not slowing down”is itself a huge advantage.

L’Hirondel The tactic originally taken to protect her left leg unexpectedly100 aligned with the mile-by-mile logic of the race.

Becoming the women's leader didn't make the second half any easier. As the race continued, fatigue still crept up a little.L’Hirondel。

She fell multiple times in the final stages and her condition visibly worsened. By the time she reached the La Flégère aid station, with only the final stretch to Chamonix left, she told those near her:“"I might not make it."”

After ten-odd hours or even twenty-plus hours of running, the quadriceps had already endured a huge eccentric load. Normally, downhill sections require them to continuously decelerate the body and absorb impact; but by the race's end, the leg muscles were near their limit and every step could become a burden.

At the same time, concentration had dropped. Rocks, tree roots, steps—things that are usually easy to handle—could now cause a fall. AndL’Hirondel she still had to deal with a lingering blood-supply problem in her left leg.

At this point, those behind herRachel Entrekin andEmily Schmitz were no longer her biggest trouble. Her mind and body were locked in a fierce struggle, pleading with her body to let her go just a little further.

2025 at the end of the year,L’Hirondel and had once planned to retire after winning the Grand Raid (La Diagonale des Fous) on Réunion.

Réunion is where she truly began trail running. If she could win a major race there and then end her career, it would feel like a complete ending.

She didn't want to keep running until her form clearly declined and be forced to stop. But after winning the race she changed her mind. She found she still enjoyed training, was still improving, and still had the ability to compete with the world's best.

So, sheUTMB stayed.ForL’Hirondel her, this is the race in trail running that comes closest to the Olympics. Before this year's race, she hadn't been focused on the win, the time, or even the placing.

Because her physical condition made those goals seem too distant, the first problem she needed to solve was simply how to control the intensity and then complete the race.

As a result, she not only finished, she also ran her fastest-everUTMB, andbecame the champion.

In competitive sport, people always like to talk“Pushing the limits”Go a little faster, push a little harder, hang on a little longer.

L’Hirondel This year, however, it was the exact opposite: for more than twenty hours she had to acknowledge her limits. If she couldn't keep up, she didn't; even when she felt good she couldn't let excitement make her burn herself out early — she kept to her own rhythm and moved forward.

To some extent, it was precisely those "limits" that won her the race. And that may also be...100 ...what makes UTMB-style, mileage-based races so compelling.