Blandine L’Hirondel interview: “I really want to run this UTMB and put together a complete race”

Blandine L’Hirondel (KIPRUN) finished third at UTMB 2023 and fifth in 2024. 2026 marks her return to the flagship race of the UTMB Mont-Blanc event, but the French runner arrives in Chamonix managing endofibrosis that limits her whenever she has to raise the intensity. The sports physician and gynecologist, who won the Diagonale des Fous in Réunion in 2025, will have to work around it. This time, she is chasing more than a win, a place or a fast finish.

Blandine, how are you feeling ahead of UTMB 2026?

Mentally, I’m doing very well. I’m really happy to be here. Physically, though, I’m not at 100% because I’ve developed a minor condition that has been causing symptoms for the past few months. There’s nothing I can do about it apart from surgery, but I’m going to put that off until after UTMB. So it could potentially be a bit of a handicap. But I was never going to write off UTMB. I’m not at 100%, that’s true, but I have other goals than chasing the podium, the win, a time or a finishing position. I really want to run this UTMB and put together a complete race. I want to optimize everything I can and learn from the mistakes I’ve made in previous years. We’ll see what happens. I’m not really setting myself any goals beyond trying to enjoy it and be happy with how I manage the race.

You’re not at 100%, but where would you place yourself on your fitness scale?

Let’s say that as soon as I go beyond a certain level of intensity or pace and increase my blood flow a little, I run into a problem with the artery supplying my left leg. As soon as arterial flow rises slightly, the leg no longer gets enough blood. It’s called endofibrosis. So when I say I’m not at 100%, I mean I won’t be able to run hard at high intensity. Then again, you’ll tell me that if I’m running at threshold pace in an UTMB, that’s a bad sign anyway.

If I can hold a low pace and intensity consistently throughout the race, it could be a very good UTMB.
Blandine L'Hirondel3rd at UTMB 2023

So this will affect your race pacing?

Absolutely. I’ll just have to be disciplined. I often go out a little too fast. There are moments when you get carried away, and if I let that happen for even half an hour or an hour and increase the intensity, if my leg stops getting enough blood right from the start, it could cause some muscular damage. I can feel my quad suffering at those moments, and after the race I get sore muscles and cramps in the quadriceps. So I’ll have to avoid going too fast. But if I can hold a low pace and intensity consistently throughout the race, it could still be a very good UTMB. That’s often what you’re looking for in an ultra: not to fade, or to fade as little as possible, as the race goes on.

There’s still a fair amount of expectation surrounding you heading into this edition…

Of course there’s a lot of expectation. I keep an eye on what’s being said about me on social media and in the media, and I’m genuinely surprised that people still include me among the favorites and in their predictions. I take it in a positive way. It’s quite gratifying to see that people want to see me up front.

That said, I think I’m able to distance myself from it. I know what I’m capable of, I know my current fitness and my goals. It’s a weight off my shoulders to tell myself that I’m going to run my own race and we’ll see what happens. In an ultra, anything can happen. Even the very best can have a bad patch or take a fall. We see it in every race, and that’s what makes this sport so exciting.

Even the very best can have a bad patch or take a fall, and that’s what makes this sport so exciting.
Blandine L'Hirondel3rd at UTMB 2023

This is also a sport where you go looking for suffering. How do you know when you’re pushing beyond what’s reasonable?

Some kinds of suffering come with racing: blisters, major drops in energy, muscle pain, the mental strain of getting fed up and so on. They’re pains directly related to competition. Then there are other physical pains where you can really feel that you’re putting your health and your body at risk. I know how to tell the difference. When it’s just race-related pain, you can push your body a very long way. As for my condition, there’s no risk from pushing too hard. It’s simply an artery with a narrowed diameter. If I push too hard, my thigh will hurt, that’s all.

The field has been shaken up a little by defending champion Ruth Croft’s withdrawal. What does that tell you?

It’s a fairly open race, but there’s still a huge amount of depth at the front. There are plenty of great athletes and a lot of Americans, so I think the pace will be very fast from the start. Some of them will probably hold it because they’re incredibly strong. For others, it could get a bit dangerous. As the miles tick by, some of the more experienced runners may come through from behind and start challenging the leaders halfway through or two-thirds of the way into the race…