Bouillard took the lead after winning UTMB in 2024<\/span> (Photo: Nate Simmons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cNot a one-hit wonder,\u201d Malcolm bellowed into the speakers. \u201cVincent is the real deal. No fanfare, no pacer. Just hard work and getting it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even as he enters his prime, Bouillard still might bristle at the idea that he\u2019s one of trail running\u2019s new stars. The victories and course records were difficult to imagine even a decade ago, when he was just beginning to dabble in ultramarathon racing. Back then, he was focused on his internship at Hoka, where he was an energetic and sharp student looking to use his material engineering background to make a difference at the young company.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, Bouillard had long considered himself a devoted fan of ultrarunning, and after he was hired at Hoka full-time in his twenties\u00a0he threw himself into developing new foams and integrating other materials into shoes for runners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a huge fan of just enjoying the sport,\u201d Bouillard told Outside<\/em>. \u201cMy work is about product innovation\u2014footwear product innovation. It ties to my passion for running because running shoes are fairly important in order to succeed at the sport.\u201d<\/p>\nA Lifelong Love of the Mountains<\/h2>\n Bouillard grew up in Annecy, France, which is sometimes described as the \u201cVenice of the Alps,\u201d and is located in the shadow of Mont Blanc. He spent most days of his formative years in the mountains alongside his parents and was influenced heavily by a grandmother who was always hiking or riding her bike. \u201cIf she would have had a Strava profile, she would\u2019ve been a local legend,\u201d he said with a chuckle.<\/p>\nBouillard took the lead late in the race at Western States<\/span> (Photo: Nate Simmons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHis family never strived to accomplish any feats in the mountains, just to spend time with one another. Bouillard ran cross-country and track as a student, but he was never hyper-competitive. He remembers his throat burning in the cold air from races, which he collected all the bibs from but never trophies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never, ever the fastest, nor ever wanted to win competitions,\u201d he recalled. At the end of each track season, Bouillard would get the itch to go to the mountains and run longer distances than the organized sport required of him. When he wasn\u2019t doing that, he was logging hundreds of miles on his bike or skiing in the winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrail running has always been there even before it was called trail running for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was at the intersection of so many passions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bouillard never lost his childhood sensibilities, even after he reached the pinnacle of the sport. His family and friends did not follow trail running like he did, but they began to come out to his races to cheer because he loved it. One memory that has kept him grounded: just days after he won UTMB, he grabbed lunch with his grandfather. His victory \u201cwas the topic of conversation for maybe a minute,\u201d he said, \u201cbut then it was like, \u2018Okay, we switch on to something else that\u2019s in the news.’\u201d<\/p>\n
At Western States, Bouillard had a motley crew of supporters\u2014family, friends and colleagues from Hoka, all of whom watched him beat one of the deepest fields in the race\u2019s history. The top-four finishers all shattered the previous course record, albeit in abnormally cool temperatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not one to consider myself very skilled or very fast or very good,\u201d Bouillard said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always loved training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Racing With His Head and Legs<\/h2>\n It was clear that Bouillard\u2019s obsessive training in the months before had paid off in a steady, disciplined showing that didn\u2019t see him take the lead until the final ten miles of the race. He kept in contact with the race\u2019s leaders through the windy high country early and the warm canyons in the middle, entering the Foresthill\u00a0aid station at mile 62 in third place.<\/p>\n
His crew, consisting of Hoka colleagues who otherwise worked with Bouillard to develop shoe projects instead of winning prestigious races, had stressed efficiency entering the day. The team came up with a mantra\u2014Every Second Counts<\/em>\u2014and clocked Bouillard\u2019s stoppage time for the entire run at about seven minutes total, crew member Jared Smith wrote in an email.<\/p>\nBouillard broke the course record, previously set by Jim Walmsley<\/span> (Photo: Nate Simmons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cVincent was calm and focused all day long. He knew what he needed coming into the aid stations so our focus was to get him in [and] out with what he needed as quickly as possible,\u201d Smith told Outside<\/em>.<\/p>\nBouillard had watched several of the sport\u2019s titans drop out of the race early, including Killian Jornet and Jim Walmsley. Bouillard had confronted his own demons on the course. \u201cWestern States was the race that intrigued me the most and scared me the most,\u201d he said. He failed\u00a0to finish in 2025 after enduring serious health issues with his gut and digestive system.<\/p>\n
He had first come to Western States in 2021 to help crew Walmsley\u2019s third title at the event. Bouillard felt the terrain and the heat for the first time, and suffered a gaffe\u2014he was supposed to run with Walmsley for a short stretch late in the race but got lost on the trail, which he\u2019s still teased about to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it helped me realize to what extent, yes, there is one runner that crosses the finish line, but it takes a true team effort,\u201d he said. \u201cEven after that day and experiencing what I did, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m never doing this race. There\u2019s no way. It\u2019s way too hard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nBouillard and his partner celebrate at the finish line<\/span> (Photo: Nate Simmons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut Bouillard could usually talk himself into new challenges. When he was still in college, he traveled to the Arctic Circle in Northern Sweden to compete in the first-ever Tromso Skyrace, directed by trail running stars Emilie Forsberg and Jornet; they had designed a 45-kilometer (27 miles) route with 4,500-meters (14,763 feet) of elevation gain on highly-technical terrain.<\/p>\n
Bouillard said it was the first time he signed up for \u201csomething that was way too cray and too long\u201d for what he was ready for. Still, he managed to place 17th in just over ten hours.<\/p>\n
During the coronavirus pandemic, even though the sport had shuttered many competitions, Bouillard remained religious about training, spending hours every day on his bike or running. In the years after, there were glimpses of his ability and training. In 2023, he won both the Gorge Waterfalls 100K\u00a0in Oregon and the Kodiak Ultra Marathons 100-miler in California.<\/p>\n
Juggling Engineering and Professional Running<\/h2>\n Bouillard\u2019s win at UTMB in 2024 took everyone by surprise, including his coworkers at Hoka. \u201cIt was an incredible day that I\u2019ll remember forever,\u201d he said. Many of his fans along the course were those he worked alongside at the office, his manager being one of them. In the months after, they watched as Bouillard juggled his engineering project load with his new athlete contract from the brand.<\/p>\n
While most athletes might quit their day job to focus solely on running, Bouillard was determined to keep working as an engineer, even if it meant cutting back on his hours so he could train more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d Smith said. \u201cFor as long as I\u2019ve known Vincent\u2014almost nine years now\u2014it just makes sense as it\u2019s who he is\u2026thoughtful, focused and someone who simply works hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, Bouillard\u2019s title at Hoka is \u201cfootwear innovation engineer,\u201d and he helps develop the concepts around running shoes designed for elite athletes. \u201cIt\u2019s a broader research role than just focusing on one single component or category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nBouillard celebrated by writing his record time on a shoe<\/span> (Photo: Nate Simmons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBouillard isn\u2019t just learning to balance work and running, he\u2019s also a new father to a baby girl, whom he greeted along with his wife, Kamilah, near the finish line at Western States. Every second mattered in this race, so much so that Bouillard had told his team before he set off that a primary goal was to finish before his daughter\u2019s bed time. He made it just in time. When he finished in Auburn, it was just before 7 P.M. local time and she was still awake.<\/p>\n
The sun was just starting to set. After he finished his burrito, Bouillard and his family left to get some sleep, even though another victory at another major race had yet to fully sink in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s big dream moments that are coming together,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published July 18, 2026 03:06AM Vincent Bouillard couldn\u2019t stop running. The 32-year-old Frenchman had just finished the 100.2-mile Western States Endurance Run in a record time of 13 hours, 46 minutes and 15 seconds, when he turned around and began to jog the course in reverse, extending his hand to high-five hundreds of fans who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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