The UTMB winner talks about his approach and why finding happiness has been a key ingredient in his recipe for success.

Since his spectacular Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) victory in August, former British Army Captain Tom Evans has been working to a military-style schedule to accommodate a multitude of media and sponsor commitments.

Yet, after a calculated and dominant performance over approximately 170km/10,000m elevation gain, it’s his baby daughter Phoebe that stops him in his tracks: “Sorry! We had a poonami…” he says, apologising for the slightly delayed start to this interview.

Phoebe won’t know it yet, but the joys of fatherhood coupled with an altered mindset have been transformative for her dad in 2025. He came third at the UTMB in 2022, but failed to finish in 2023 and 2024. “I was snatching at things,” he reflects. “I felt like I needed to win more than I wanted to win, whereas this year it was like, ‘I really just want to do my best’ – and I believed that my best was certainly close enough to be the best.”

Evans’ coach Scott Johnston told him that, if he wanted to win, first he had to finish. It was a lesson in patience and perspective, but one that was well practiced with his new family.

“Ten minutes before we drove to the start line at UTMB I was actually changing Phoebe’s nappy,” says the Red Bull athlete who finished over 30 minutes clear of second place in 19:18:58. “Yes, I’m professional, but Phoebe comes first and she needs us more than I needed to win UTMB.

“I think taking it seriously but not taking myself too seriously was really important. It’s so easy to get obsessed with something so seemingly small, but at the end of the day it’s just a race, and I think that’s definitely the way I looked at it this year.”

The concept behind this year’s build – and clearly Evans’ recipe for success – was to have fun. He was happy and training well at home in Loughborough where he was surrounded by “an amazing group” of family and friends, so with the backing of his cognitive performance consultant Dr David Spindler, they agreed to “pick everything up and move out [to the Alps]”.

In his YouTube mini-series No Stone Left Unturned, one of Evans’ friends refers to him as a “mountain warrior monk”. His discipline, self-control, resilience and endurance are certainly comparable attributes, but his purpose has changed. “It didn’t feel like a training camp,” he admits. “I used to think that in order to be my best I had to train at my absolute limit where I couldn’t run one more mile in the week or climb another metre. I needed to be completely wrecked by the end, and I needed to be locked away in a small apartment at altitude with no distractions… and I’m really good at that, but it’s not fun.

“I enjoy the training, but even if you’re training five hours a day you’ve still got a lot of time to do absolutely nothing. I train so much better when I’m happy, and if you train better you’ll probably race better. It was the first time that we’d made a really conscious effort to bring people along with us and make it home from home.

“We’ve had so much fun being able to be a proper little family and getting the work done, and to be able to support my wife [professional triathlete Sophie Coldwell] getting back into training was really rewarding for me, too. I say our superpower as a couple is that we get things done; we figure out a way and we make it work… and we didn’t just make it work, we thrived. We both had the most amazing time and, looking back on it now, it’s incredible. The training was still really hard, but outside of training I’ve never laughed and smiled so much.

“The race was the cherry on the top. To get to the finish line and see Soph and Phoebe was exceptionally special and a memory that I’ll never forget. This year has blown everything from an athletics standpoint out of the water and it makes it even better that it had a fairytale ending.”

A typical training week (CHAMONIX, AUGUST 4-10, 2025)

Evans, who won the Arc of Attrition (80km/2300m+) in Cornwall and Tenerife Bluetrail (110km/6250m+) in early 2025, says he made two major changes to training this year compared to previous years.

One was additional fuelling to help train his stomach and aid recovery; the other was opting for passive heat acclimation (hot bath or sauna) instead of active heat acclimation (such as hiking/running in hot conditions).

“I found that training at such high volume, active heat acclimation just destroyed me,” he explains. “I was so tired and not recovering, so we swapped that to passive heat acclimation. I didn’t do any active heat sessions in this build, and although the race didn’t end up being hot, I felt way more prepared and far less tired.”

Monday: (am) 2hr run with 4 x 8min at marathon pace on flat (around 5min/miles); (pm) gym: “In the UK it’s typically heavier work, legs and upper body; in Chamonix it was far more bodyweight, lots of core, and more prehab/rehab, lots of knee health and downhill quad conditioning,” says Evans.

Tuesday: (am) uphill weighted training hike/run for 3.5km (1000m elevation) (15kg pack on back): “I ditch the pack at top, run down fast and whatever my heart rate was on the first climb, I aim to average the same going back up without the pack (around 10-15min quicker),” he says, then cable car back down; (pm) passive heat in sauna

Wednesday: (am) 50min shakeout run; (pm) overnight night 5.5hr run on UTMB course for specificity (10.30pm start)

Thursday: rest day

Friday: 3hr easy run (just inside 7min/mile pace on flat sections), hiking on some of uphill; (pm) gym

Saturday: (am) hill strides – 5 x (15sec-30sec-45sec-60sec with jog down recovery); (pm) 90min easy and passive heat

Sunday: 3hr run on the course with 3 x 15min at 100-mile race effort pace

Favourite session: “A vertical kilometre on the treadmill - I have a custom treadmill that goes to 25% incline - so over 4km you’ll climb 1000m in around 30 minutes.”

Least favourite session: “A downhill-specific session such as 4 x 10min as hard as you can. Aerobically it’s not hard but you have to concentrate so much. It’s high risk but very high reward, or anything in the cold I don’t really like!”

To find out more about Tom Evans, visit his Red Bull athlete page here