"This article follows up on the first one by looking at this year's UTMB pacing through the lens of top runners' intensity factors and performance drops over the course of the event. We discussed these two terms in our first article in this series, as well as just below. Our goal is to gain insights into athletes' pacing throughout the race."
"As we know, Tom Evans and Ruth Croft both put on absolute masterclass performances, working through the adverse elements to come out on top. Both winners work with the same coach, Scott Johnston, whose training regimen clearly set these athletes up for success at the top level. It is also interesting to note that they both work closely with the same data scientist, Joseph Mestrallet."
"For this article, we focus on the UTMB event with data pulled from LiveTrail, the event's live tracking system. We mainly focus on the metrics of effort, intensity factor, and performance drop: Effort: A grade-adjusted pace calculation. Gives us a view of what is happening on the ground. Intensity factor: The percentage of the maximum one-hour effort the runner is able to deliver based on their race performance. Gives us a view of what is happening inside the runner."
Tom Evans and Ruth Croft delivered dominant wins at UTMB 2025, overcoming adverse weather and showing consistent pacing across the 108-mile loop. Both athletes work with coach Scott Johnston and data scientist Joseph Mestrallet, indicating coordinated training and analytics support. LiveTrail tracking data enables analysis of effort, intensity factor, and performance drop to measure external pace, internal exertion, and decline in capacity. Intensity factor represents percentage of maximal one-hour effort sustained, while effort is a grade-adjusted pace metric. Performance drop quantifies changes in intensity factor over the race. Comparative analysis of top finishers reveals how pacing strategies and physiological resilience shaped outcomes.
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