Tom Evan's mindset ahead of Hardrock
Ahead of his 2026 Hardrock 100, the UTMB champion speaks to why he runs. For the freedom, potential, and a love that runs deeper than results.
"Sometimes for me, some of my favourite runs are just starting my watch, putting a jacket on and then just going and not worrying about anything and just getting the running done," he says. No fanfare. No splits to chase. Just motion, and the quiet that comes with it.
It's a surprising and simple thing to hear from a man who in 2025 stood at the top of the sport, weathering a storm to win UTMB, the most coveted title in trail running. For Tom, racing and freedom aren't opposites. They're the same impulse seen from two angles.
"You can run all about performance, or you can run about having fun," he says. "Running on the trails gives me that extra bit of freedom, that ability to be able to express myself. the feeling, the sensations, the motion, the people, the places. "It is just a deep-rooted love for the sport and everything that comes with it."
Now that love is pointing him in a brutal direction. Come the 10th of July, Tom Evans is running the 2026 Hardrock 100, a hundred miles through Colorado's San Juan Mountains, more than 11,000 meters of climbing, thin air, and a course that has humbled the very best. It is, by reputation, one of the hardest things a runner can attempt.
For him, that's not a deterrent. It's the entire appeal.
"I have always liked pushing myself physically and mentally to the extreme to see what I'm capable of achieving, and that's definitely how my running journey started out." Hardrock is the kind of place that asks the question he's spent his career chasing, not can you win, but how far can you go.
"Running is about fulfilling my potential and seeing what I'm capable of doing."
What's changed, as he's grown into one of the world's best, is who the answer is for. The drive is no longer only inward. "It's to try and inspire people to get out onto the trails and for them to go on their own journey of self-discovery." The mountain that tests him is also, in his telling, an invitation to everyone watching.
"Running has not just been a crutch for me when I've been struggling, but it's also been an amazing way that I've been able to see the world, meet some incredible people and find out everything about myself." The sport gives, and it takes, and somewhere in that exchange, he keeps finding out who he is.
No two trails are the same, no two days. Hardrock will be its own animal, high, cold, relentless, indifferent to a UTMB title or any title at all. But the man heading toward the start line in Silverton already knows why he's going. He told us in the simplest words he had. "I love the feeling. I love the sensations. I love the motion. I love the people I meet. I love the places I go."
Running is everything.
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