Canada’s Marianne Hogan placed third in the 2024 UTMB, taking more than an hour off of her time from her previous second-place finish in 2022. In this interview, Marianne talks about how she ran her own race rather than focusing on the competition, the fall she took in the second half, and how she plans to return to have another attempt at UTMB.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2024 UTMB results article.
Marianne Hogan Post-2024 UTMB Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Sarah Brady of iRunFar. I’m here the day after the 2024 UTMB with third place woman, Marianne Hogan. Congratulations. Marianne. How are you feeling?
Hogan: Thank you. I’m good. I’m not that bad actually.
iRunFar: Okay, brilliant. Yeah, still upright. That’s an achievement.
Hogan: Yeah, exactly.
iRunFar: What an amazing day for you. So I know you were a second here last year, but you’ve knocked an hour and 20 minutes off your time, was it?
Hogan: Yeah, but I had a full psoas this time around, so I think it was a little easier for me to drop some time off.
iRunFar: Yeah, amazing achievement. I just remember you saying in your pre-race interview that your ambition for this was to be able to race right to the finish. Do you feel like you were able to do that this time around?
Hogan: I feel like there’s still some better things I could do. I had a little bit of an issue with my legs at the end, and it really showed off in that last portion of the course, but I feel like I raced more than I did in 2022, so I have to be somewhat satisfied, even if I’m still a little hungry to come back for more.
iRunFar: Yeah, so not a perfect day, but an improvement.
Hogan: Yeah.
iRunFar: So you started off pretty aggressively, so from about 30k in, I think you were already in second, but everyone was bunched together quite close. How did you find that opening part of the race?
Hogan: Yeah, I think it’s a good warm up for the course in a certain way. I feel it’s an easier portion of the race and you always kind of feel good in that portion. Or the two times that I’ve done it, I just feel like it’s a portion that has a lot of flow to it, and I was just having a good time and just trying to not go out too fast but go out fast enough that I’m having a good time, I guess.
iRunFar: Okay, cool. And then a little bit later on, by the time you got to Courmayeur, Katie [Schide] had gone off in front and then you’re still in second, and Blandine [L’Hirondel] is maybe seven or eight minutes behind, so you kind of had some breathing room then. Did that feel good to just be on your own for a while?
Hogan: Yeah, I feel like I’m not really a person that races with regards to my competitors in a certain way. I just kind of go with how I’m feeling, and it didn’t really matter to me how far Katie was ahead or Blandine was behind. That’s just the pace that I was going. So it was good information to have. I knew that Katie had gone on fast because a lot of people had been telling me along the course. But yeah, it was good to know where Blandine was because I had ran a little bit with her, so it was just interesting to see where I was and how I was feeling in comparison to them, I guess.
iRunFar: And you seem to have a really strong third quarter to the race and you moved ahead a little bit more, but then there was a bit of an incident here. What happens with your hand?
Hogan: Yeah, I was feeling pretty good all the way to Arnuva, and on the way down I was starting to have my legs act up again, kind of the same general issues that I always have. It was starting to get to me and I don’t know, out of the blue, I got distracted and I hit a rock and I went flying forward and my finger went in the wrong direction.
iRunFar: Oh gosh.
Hogan: I didn’t know if it was broken, if it was dislocated, but clearly it was completely out of whack, so I knew something was up with it.
iRunFar: And did you stop for long? Not that there’s much you can do about that on the side of a mountain, but did you stop for long to try and address it or did you just power through?
Hogan: No. The live was with me, so I just said, “Oh, I think I just broke my finger,” and I got back up and started running again. Of course, it was somewhat painful, but I guess when you’re in the middle of an ultra, you’re already in pain, so it doesn’t really matter at that point.
iRunFar: Yeah, it’s probably less noticeable than if that happened in daily life.
Hogan: Yeah, exactly.
iRunFar: And you were saying just before it became a little tricky then using your poles, how did you manage with that for the rest of the race?
Hogan: Yeah, it became quite tricky actually. Just putting weight on my poles, that whole hand was a little hard and every time that my pole would hit the ground, it was giving a shock to my finger. So I had to just roll with it because there’s not really else anything else I could have done. At Champex, I was briefly examined by the medical team there and they wanted to do this, tape my two fingers together, but I opted not to do that because I felt like it was going to restrict me even more and just decided that we were going to deal with whatever was going on at the finish line.
iRunFar: That’s very brave. And then when I saw you at Vallorcine, you looked like you were just tired like someone who’d been out for a lot of hours and through the night, which you were, but you were still moving well on the downhill. Your legs obviously held up pretty good.
Hogan: Yeah, it was interesting. When I hit my hand, it’s as if the pain switched to my finger instead of my legs. But I think by Vallorcine it was, I don’t know, five or six hours later and the pain had come back into my legs. And if I’m being honest, I struggled quite a bit on that descent through Vallorcine and, from that point on, I was kind of losing control to the function of my legs. And I knew that the next section was going to be difficult and I had to give it my all and give it a shot to try to hold on to second. But I knew that Ruth [Croft] was closing in hard on me, and I respect Ruth incredibly a lot. And I knew that she was going to be a hard closer and I gave it my best shot, but she came flying by.
iRunFar: Was it a relief in a way to stop looking over your shoulder?
Hogan: No, because I didn’t really want to look back, but at some point I knew she was coming because the live stream, the person following me, left me, went behind and then came back and, at which point, I said, “You went to see Ruth?” And she said, “Yeah.” “If you’re coming back,” I was like, “she’s probably close.” So yeah, he said, “Yeah, she’s coming,” and she just flew by and that was it.
iRunFar: Okay, fair. And did you switch focus then? Did you think about trying to chase her or did you just switch focus to just holding onto your podium spot?
Hogan: I think neither. I actually was moving as quickly as I could. I really couldn’t … Lifting my legs, my hamstring was just incredibly tight and I couldn’t do much more than what I was doing. So I was just thinking, “We’re moving forward, we’re moving forward, and how ever fast I can get there is as fast as I’ll get there, but I just got to make it to the finish line and see what happens.” Because I was giving it my best effort. That’s for sure.
iRunFar: Yeah, amazing. So much grit. Yeah, just such a competitive women’s race this year. And then, are you going to take some sort of downtime now? I know you’re staying here in Chamonix until Wednesday, so what are your plans for after the race to recover?
Hogan: I’m going to relax with my family. My family’s here and it’s really nice to be able to spend some time with them after the race. So I’m excited for that. And then we’ll see. I think I’m going to take the time my body needs to recover and then start thinking about the next thing, I guess.
iRunFar: Okay, very good. So you’ve had two really strong UTMB experiences in a row, getting progressively better, but you still haven’t quite peaked at this race. So do you think you’ll have to come back again?
Hogan: Yeah, for sure. The thought was coming through my mind as I was losing the function of my legs in that last section. I just thought I want to come back and try to solve the puzzle of how I can make my legs work till the end. And yeah, I’m determined to come back and give it another shot. That’s for sure.
iRunFar: Okay, very good. We can’t wait to see what more you can do on this course.
Hogan: Thank you.
iRunFar: Congratulations and thanks very much.
Hogan: Thank you.
