Piecing It Together: Lucy Bartholomew’s Pre-2026 UTMB Interview

The post Piecing It Together: Lucy Bartholomew’s Pre-2026 UTMB Interview appeared first on iRunFar.

Lucy Bartholomew of Australia arrives at the 2026 UTMB after finishing in the top 10 at the event for the past three years. In the following interview, Lucy talks about her race last year and feeling out of her depth with the bad weather, how she originally wanted to take a break from UTMB after three years but feels like she’s still trying to put the pieces together to get the loop right, the importance of keeping her training and racing fresh and interesting, and trying to get the best out of herself this weekend.

For more on who’s racing, check out our in-depth women’s and men’s previews and follow our live race coverage starting Friday.

[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to watch it.]

Lucy Bartholomew Pre-2026 UTMB Interview Transcript

iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Lucy Bartholomew. It’s a couple days before the 2026 UTMB. We’re in Chamonix, France. Lucy, hi.

Lucy Bartholomew: Hi, yeah, it’s good to be back again.

iRunFar: There is that again. This is your fourth time in a row here in Chamonix for UTMB.

Bartholomew: Yeah. Here we are again. It’s 10 years since I did YCC and since then I’ve done TDS and OCC and then the fourth lap consecutively of UTMB. It feels like home. It feels good to be back.

iRunFar: It’s just you and I believe one other person in the elite field who has been as consistent as you. You have three straight top 10 finishes topping out at seventh place last year. It’s hard to get this race right. There’s just proof in the data of that. What’s your secret?

Bartholomew: I don’t think I’ve got it right. There’s no secret. I’m just trying to jigsaw this thing together and I think that’s why I keep coming back, because I don’t feel like I found that potential and squeezed it, especially till the end. I felt like the first two UTMBs were very much the result is good, and 10th is obviously definitely an accomplishment, but I never felt like I competed. I very much just completed it and the racing went on around me and I just walked on through. Just the stubborn person I am. And then last year I felt like I got a sniff of what racing here feels like. I was in fifth for a long time until I took a fall and then just tried to mitigate the damage, but I’m really hoping to push that competing a little bit further into the race and all the way to Chamonix hopefully.

iRunFar: Talk a wee bit about that fall. Last year’s weather was pretty crappy. I think your fall came in the night in some rocks in the dark of Italy, is that right?

Bartholomew: Correct. In the hail, snowy, yeah, this Aussie was very lost out there and completely out of her depth. And just watching people on the muddy descents, they’re so incredible at it and I’m just not, and so I just took a slip, slid out and then went down onto my knee onto a rock that was just waiting for my kneecap. And, honestly, thought I was never getting up from it, so I got up with my poles in the middle of the night with my head torch and had a Frenchman run past and I think check on me. I couldn’t understand. But I remember just being like, and that was how the race ended. But got into Courmayeur and had it looked at and was just like, okay, I feel comfortable to keep going. It won’t be sexy or athletic, but we can keep moving forward.

iRunFar: I think I remember being at the Lac Combal aid station, which is the last major aid station before Courmayeur.

Bartholomew: I do remember.

iRunFar: It was dark, the wind was blowing, you were freaking cold, and then you had this knee situation that I think had just happened. And I thought to myself, gosh, Courmayeur might be an ending point for Lucy, but it wasn’t. You soldiered on, not to use the war metaphor, you marched on, and you didn’t just march on, you figured out how to mechanically put yourself together enough to finish in the top 10 again.

Bartholomew: The human body is incredible and when the mind is set to a goal. And the team that I had around me, I had Ryan Sandes crewing me and he was very, I think I was trying to look for this out as well. It’s kind of like my knee hurts. It’s not good. And he was just like, “I’ll see you in Trient. I’ll see you in Vallorcine. I’ll see you in Chamonix.” And so I owe a lot to the team that kept pushing me forward, obviously in a safe way, but it was disappointing because I felt like I was finally piecing together a bit of my potential out there.

iRunFar: It was nice to have an actual veteran of the sport on your crew.

Bartholomew: Yeah. And he’s coming back.

iRunFar: Teaching you to go aid station to aid station.

Bartholomew: Yeah. It’s very important, not exactly what people say, but who says it sometimes out there. And Ryan to me is a teammate. He’s one of my best mates. He’s kind of like a dad. He feels like a brother. He’s obviously a mentor. When he told me to put a thermal on in Les Contamines and I didn’t really think I needed it and then I went out into this incredible storm and have never been more grateful for a thermal t-shirt, long sleeve. Those things just build up and that’s why I asked him back this year. [laughs]

iRunFar: So he’s on your crew again this year.

Bartholomew: Certainly is.

iRunFar: I love that. So in your head, you’ve done this race three times, you feel like you’ve had these three unique performances and not yet reached what you believe is your potential. What does that look like to you? Is it a time? Is it an experience? Is it a feeling? What is it?

Bartholomew: I think it’s just a feeling of getting to the finish line being like, yeah, that was everything. I’ve gotten to Chamonix and either have just been on the upswing of finally feeling like things were starting to click, which is crazy, 25 hours in, to be like, okay, let’s roll. But just feeling like I’ve got responses to things. When I got passed by two girls on the descent from La Flégère to Chamonix and we were doing a completely different sport. They passed me and I was just like, fair play.

iRunFar: I hate it when that happens.

Bartholomew: And I got to pass Courtney [Dauwalter] and she was like, “You go, girl.” And then they passed me and I was like, “On you go, girls.” We’re all just paying it forward to Chamonix at that point. But I would like to feel like I can be a little more a part of it. And that’s an internal feeling and it doesn’t have a result tied to it. And I think it’s hard to explain to people because they want a time or a position. But for me, this fourth lap was never meant, I was always going to take a break after three, but I went for fourth. I said I want to do it in a very different way. It’s a very intrinsic motivation, not for anything, to keep the top 10 consecutives rolling. It’s more about just putting myself back in it for myself and seeing where that lands me.

iRunFar: I kind of thought you were trying to start up a Western States thing. Like if I get 10 top 10 finishes, do I get a big silver buckle? [laughs]

Bartholomew: Look, if there’s a wave, I’m on it. But I think it’s just been so cool to line up with these races and to see the women’s race just absolutely explode. And to be able to rise with it has been really exceptional. I think this year, the races I’ve done, I feel like I’ve already exceeded my expectations. I feel really stoked to be here and to finish off my season this year here.

iRunFar: I’d love to hear about this event in the context of your season. The last time iRunFar saw you personally was at Transvulcania about four months ago now. Landing at the end of your season, what’s your take on the trajectory of your year?

Bartholomew: It’s been a year that if I had been told this is what 2026 would have looked like back in 2020, 2021, 2022, when I was really battling to even just line up with these things, let alone compete or complete them. I would have been just so incredibly excited about it. It’s funny because so many people are like, second and course records, you’re both breaking, but you come second. And they’re like, you must be disappointed. And I’m like, it’s easy to compare up, but if I compare back, I’m really just proud of myself for sticking with it. And Lavaredo and Transvulcania, the two big races I did prior to this. I’m just completely forgetting that I did Tarawera because I don’t even think that was a race. It was just a vision quest out there. [laughs] We’ll talk about the upswing of the year where it got better.

iRunFar: A little adventure out in the Redwoods.

Bartholomew: Set the bar low and then we can build. I think it’s just been so cool to do these two races that have been one day, someday races. And I wanted this lead into UTMB to look different. They were different races and a completely different racing experience for me, so I feel like I’ve gotten everything I wanted just from the build to this race. And this race, we’ll see the accumulation of all those miles and good times.

iRunFar: There are a couple of brands that really put a lot of effort into getting their runners here, training on the courses, being in the conditions, Salomon being one of them. You’ve been here for a while training pretty specifically for this race.

Bartholomew: Yeah. It’s an incredible setup, especially with this new high-performance program that Salomon is creating,

iRunFar: Of which you’re a part.

Bartholomew: Yep. Everyone’s a part of and gets buy-in into it. And it’s cool because I think I’ve done the UTMB Salomon training camp seven times or so. I have cut laps on this course, both in racing and in training. And this year it was a very different approach. Usually we come, we do the Chamonix to Les Contamines, Les Contamines to Courmayeur, Courmayeur Champex, Champex Chamonix. And it’s just these big four days. And this time we did three days, one day rest. We did sections of the course that felt more important, or that we felt like we needed to build a new relationship with, which for me was Champex to Chamonix.

iRunFar: So you built a relationship with the last 50k.

Bartholomew: I’m trying to just make peace with Trient and those climbs.

iRunFar: We love you, Trient climb.

Bartholomew: I love Trient. But it felt very cool. Martina [Valmassoi] was there training for UTMB as well. And we were lucky enough to have François [D’Haëne] just pace us through these sections and talk about all his experiences on good runs, bad runs, bad weather, good weather. And I felt like it wasn’t just running miles. It was taking in so much other experience and knowledge that will be very helpful. Because one of the things François said to me that I will for sure be repeating to myself, I’m saying, man, I hate Grand Col Ferret. It’s always when the sun’s rising, I’m caffeine low, I’m energy low. It’s just tough. And he’s like, Lucy, it’s fleeting. This whole thing is fleeting. This whole race is fleeting. And he’s like, Monday, everyone leaves. Sunday, everyone leaves. But one day you will miss these moments. So it’s kind of like, it’s going to be over. So just do it. And I just loved that because I think I put so much emphasis on these moments that I become my own worst enemy sometimes. The fleetingness of it is special in itself.

iRunFar: Well you have your mantra for the climb up Grand Col Ferret sorted then, thanks to François.

Bartholomew: Yes, my mantra for the whole race is meet the moment. Because I think that’s going to be part of just this women’s field. It’s going to be so cool because I think there are going to be some amazing moments and to try and be a part of them. And then the fleetingness, which I think as I climb Grand Col Ferret, it will not feel fleeting. [laughs]

iRunFar: It will feel long and far and tall.

Bartholomew: But it will pass by. I will get there.

iRunFar: Eventually it will end. One of the things I’ve been thinking about with pro trail ultrarunners lately is how often these days, in order to stay “relevant” or “be pro,” you have to continually come back to similar situations. UTMB, Western States, a few other things for the ultra trails. Shorter trail running has their own set of races that you have to repeat. Mountain running kind of the same. But the people who are drawn to what you do and what we do, there’s some freeform aspect to trail running. So that’s one thing that I’m increasingly interested to hear about, is how you keep doing similar things year on year. Interesting, new, unique, mentally.

Bartholomew: I think it’s really important to have that personal artistic flair to the preparation to these things, because if it’s just robotic and repetitive, you hamster wheel the year based on the big races that you’re expected to be at, should be at, there’s more pressure to perform at. And that’s why, again, I said this year, I need to do it differently. And I came to the US in between Lavaredo and UTMB. It wasn’t just to leave the EU for my visa, but also to surround myself with different people and to train differently and just have a little bit more of my personality in this build. And I think it’s been really good for me. It’s taught me a lot and it’s been challenging. But I think that is the only way that this keeps fresh. And for me, UTMB, I feel like I’m lining up at the same spot for the same race. But every year, the weather, the way it raced, the way I feel, it completely changes.

iRunFar: Who you are, a little bit.

Bartholomew: Who I am. Yeah. Chamonix has seen some versions of Lucy. Some I’m not proud of, but it’s seen me grow up. I came here in 2014. My dad [Ash Bartholomew] finished UTMB in 40 hours, went to YCC, have come back so many times. And I just feel like the iterations that Chamonix has seen of me, and it’s challenged me and it’s humbled me and it’s rebuilt me. It’s just this evolution as I run around the mountain. I was saying to someone today, I feel like UTMB is not character defining, but it’s character revealing. And it really brings out your best. It shows your weaknesses. And then it enables you and gives you time and opportunity to work through it and come out and be like, okay, I’m stronger than I thought. I can continue on when going gets tough and that’s a pretty beautiful thing.

iRunFar: I love that. Lucy Bartholomew, best of luck to you on your fourth racing lap around UTMB. And then who knows how many laps in total?

Bartholomew: Ten times and entry into Western [States].

iRunFar: This is iRunFar and I’m standing in a field of cow shit today with Lucy Bartholomew. It’s two days before UTMB. Are you going to win this race?

Bartholomew: I’m going to try.

iRunFar: [laughs] We can do the real one now.

Bartholomew: I was like, whoa, okay. I’m sweating, you’re just saying that. [laughs]

iRunFar: Amazing. Is this going well? Everything you hoped it would be?

Bartholomew: [laughs] So there’s nothing so far that’s worse.

iRunFar: No, I’m just going to delete the whole thing.

Piecing It Together: Lucy Bartholomew’s Pre-2026 UTMB Interview by Meghan Hicks.