Ben Dhiman won UTMB in 18:16:29, the fastest anyone has ever run it, on his fourth attempt at the race.
I sat down with him in Chamonix the next morning, before the awards ceremony, while he was still, in his words, vibing off the energy of the day before and just starting to feel a little run down.
We barely talked about the race.
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FOR THE LONG RUN: EXPLORING THE WHY BEHIND RUNNING
UTMB Champion Ben Dhiman on Winning the Biggest Race in Trail Running
What Ben wanted to talk about instead was the part that transfers to the rest of us. Here is what stuck.
The fourth try is the story, not the win
Ben has now run UTMB four times. Three of those did not go the way he wanted.
This is my fourth time running UTMB, and it's the first time I really got it right. So I think there's a lot to be said in trial and error.
He is careful about how he frames the confidence that gets you there. It starts with self-belief, he says, and then you find out that self-belief on its own is kind of an illusion and that none of it is too important. What matters is what sits behind it. There is no empty manifesting. You need a good combination of confidence and the work to back it up. And it does not hurt to have a few shots at the thing.
He raced on instinct, and instinct is just preparation you cannot consciously reach for
A lot of my running yesterday was just done on an instinctual level, and that instinct can only be created by really doing a lot of the preparation beforehand and then kind of just letting it go after.
His point about race plans is one every runner has learned the hard way: we can all have ideas about how we want to pace or execute a race, but it never really turns out that way. When the moment arrives, the only thing available to you is trust. Ben says he never doubted himself out there, and he credits that entirely to the day to day practice of running, which let him leave his body to its own devices in exactly the situation where most people want more control, not less.
Two non-negotiable days. Everything else is play.
This is the most immediately usable thing in the conversation. Ben's week has a couple of harder days that do not move, whether that means longer or faster. Everything else is open.
A lot of his easy days start with staring at maps, looking for a new way up a peak he has already climbed a hundred times.
Training doesn't have to feel like training.
For some people, consistency comes from a really simple routine. For others it comes from having no routine at all. He describes the goal as training with the grain rather than against it. If your grain is ear pods in, music on, laps of the local park, that is the version that will actually survive.
Consistency is king
The fundamental resolve to be consistent is, in any way you think about it, this is the king.
I brought up the amateur trap of being so locked into a plan that you turn down a run with a friend. Ben pushed back on me a little, and he was right to. It is fine to dodge your friends if what you need that day is quiet. What is not fine, in his view, is judging yourself for how you run.
At the end of the day, I don't think you should judge yourself about how you run. I think what's important is that you just do it. And if you can have fun doing it, whatever that looks like to you, I think you're winning.
The goal was never the point
I asked what it feels like to pour yourself into a goal and have it go well. He said he was not quite sure yet, and then gave the most useful answer in the episode.
I don't think it matters too much if you succeed or not. I think it just matters that you try, and you do what you can to arrive at that point. I don't think a goal in and of itself is reliant on achieving it. It's more just getting lost in the doing that really turns the gears.
It helps that he genuinely likes the activity. He loved running before he was a competitive athlete, he loves it as one, and he assumes he will love it after he is done being great at it. He describes it as a form of self-expression, something that feels pure and childlike, and says it never feels like a chore to go run.
What he is actually proud of
Not the time. Not the win.
I'm really proud of the people around me. Really proud to be able to give this to my wife, because sacrifice goes far beyond me. People are forced to live my schedule and do my thing. So I'm proud for us that we were able to do it, and that it's not in vain.
He described the version of the conversation that happens at home. "You really gonna just leave here tomorrow and leave me with all the kids on a Sunday morning again?" And the answer: yeah, because we gotta win UTMB.
What he is proud of is that they saw through those darker moments to get here, and that it turned out to be for something.
The fastest UTMB anyone has ever run, and the thing he leads with the next morning is the people who lived his training schedule alongside him.
Follow Ben Dhiman on Instagram. Want more conversations like this one? Listen to all of the episodes on For The Long Run.
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About Jon Levitt and For The Long Run
Jon is a runner, cyclist, and podcast host from Boston, MA, who now lives in Boulder, CO. For The Long Run is aimed at exploring the why behind what keeps runners running long, strong, and motivated.
