Vincent Bouillard is trail running’s newest star

Vincent Bouillard couldn’t stop running. The 32-year-old Frenchman had completed 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 jogging in reverse, and extended his hand to his five hundred fans who lined the track at Placer High School in Auburn, California, the iconic site of the race’s finish line for more than five decades.

Bouillard raced another quarter mile on the red track before he finally stopped, not because he was tired, but because he had another objective before his historic day was over: sharing a burrito with his crew. Eventually he took off his shoes and went to stand near his team and watch the other runners come in, as he did in 2025, when he exited the race early due to stomach problems.

We finished last year’s unfinished business,” Bouillard said of his 2026 victory.

An unlikely ultrarunning hero

Bouillard is one of the most unexpected stars in his sport: extremely quiet with a relatively brief track record in competitive athletics. He is a product engineer at running shoe brand Hoka, who earned a sponsorship contract from the company just after surprising the ultrarunning world. Winning the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in 2024.

If anyone thought that result was a fluke, he put it to rest this year at Western States, breaking Jim Walmsley’s course record by more than 23 minutes and becoming only the seventh runner to win the race and the UTMB. His 2026 performance at Western States was praised as one of the best in the history of the sport. As they entered the final mile, the crowd fell silent to listen to the audio of a live feed of the race through speakers near the track. Corinne Malcolm, one of the program’s announcers, gave fans context of what they were seeing.

“Not a one-hit wonder,” Malcolm shouted into the speakers. “Vincent is the real deal. No fanfare, no flamboyance. Just hard work and getting it done.”

Even as he enters his prime, Boulard may still be haunted by the idea that he is one of trail running’s new stars. The wins and course records were hard to imagine even a decade ago, when he was just starting to dabble in ultramarathon racing. At the time, his focus was on his internship at Hoka, where he was an energetic and bright student who wanted to use his materials engineering background to make a difference at the young company.

First and foremost, Bouillard had long considered himself a dedicated fan of ultrarunning, and after being hired full-time at Hoka in his twenties he threw himself into developing new foams and integrating other materials into shoes for runners.

“I’ve always been a big fan of just enjoying the game,” Bouillard said. Outside. “My work is about product innovation—footwear product innovation. It ties into my passion for running because running shoes are so important to being successful in the sport.”

lifelong love of mountains

Bouillard grew up in Annecy, France, sometimes described as the “Venice of the Alps” and located in the shadow of Mont Blanc. He spent most of his formative years in the mountains with his parents and was greatly influenced by his grandmother who was always out hiking or riding her bike. “If she had a Strava profile, she would be a local legend,” he said, laughing.

His family never attempted any feat in the mountains, only spending time with each other. Bouillard ran cross-country and track as a student, but was never ultra-competitive. He remembers his throat burning in the cold air during the race, where he collected all the bibs but never won any trophies.

“I was never the fastest, nor did I ever want to win a competition,” he recalled. At the end of each track season, Bouillard had a desire to go to the mountains and run the longer distances required by organized sport. When he wasn’t doing that, he was logging hundreds of miles on his bike or skiing in the winter.

“Trail running has always been there for me, even before it was called trail running,” he said. “It was at the intersection of a lot of passions.”

Even after reaching the pinnacle of the game, Bouillard never lost his childlike sensibilities. His family and friends didn’t follow trail running like he did, but they started coming to cheer on his races because they loved it. One memory that keeps him grounded: Just days after winning UTMB, he had lunch with his grandfather. His win “was probably a topic of conversation for a minute,” he said, “but then it was like, ‘Okay, let’s switch to something else that’s in the news.'”

At Western States, Bouillard had a motley crew of supporters – family, friends, and Hoka’s coworkers, all of whom had watched him defeat one of the deepest fields in the history of the race. Even in unusually cold temperatures, the top four finishers broke the previous course record.

“I don’t consider myself very skilled or very fast or very good,” Bouillard said. “But I’ve always loved training.”

running with your head and legs

It was clear that Bouillard’s obsessive training in the preceding months had resulted in a steady, disciplined performance that saw him hold the lead until the final ten miles of the race. He kept in touch with the race leaders through windy country and hot valleys in between, and entered the Foresthill aid station at mile 62 in third place.

His crew, consisting of Hoka co-workers who had otherwise worked with Bouillard to develop shoe projects rather than winning prestigious races, placed an emphasis on efficiency entering the day. The team came up with a mantra-every second counts—and Bouillard’s stopping time for the entire run clocked in at nearly seven minutes total, crew member Jared Smith wrote in an email.

“Vincent was calm and focused the whole day. He knew what he needed to get to the aid stations, so our focus was on getting him in (and) out as quickly as possible,” Smith said. Outside.

Bouillard had seen many of the sport’s greats exit the race early, including Killian Jornet and Jim Walmsley. Boulard faced his own demons on the course. “Western States was the race that most intrigued me and scared me the most,” he said. He failed to finish in 2025 after suffering serious health problems with his intestine and digestive system.

He first came to Western States in 2021 to help Crew Walmsley to its third title. Bouillard got a feel for the terrain and the heat for the first time, and suffered a mistake – he was supposed to run with Walmsley for a while at the end of the race, but he got lost on the trail, something he frets about to this day.

“I think it helped me understand that yes, there is a runner who crosses the finish line, but it requires a true team effort,” he said. “Even after that day and experiencing what I did, I was like, ‘I’m never doing this race. There’s no way. This is too hard.'”

But Bouillard himself could usually talk about the new challenges. While he was still in college, he traveled to the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden to compete in the first Tromsø SkyRace, guided by trail running stars Emily Forsberg and Jornet; He designed a 45-kilometre (27 mi) route on highly technical terrain with a 4,500-metre (14,763 ft) elevation gain.

Bouillard said it was the first time he “signed up for something that was so cheesy and so long” that he was prepared for it. Nevertheless, he managed to finish 17th in just over ten hours.

During the coronavirus pandemic, even as the sport shut down many competitions, Bouillard remained dedicated to training, spending hours every day on his bike or running. His ability and training were reflected in his later years. In 2023, he won both the Gorge Waterfalls 100K in Oregon and the Kodiak Ultra Marathon 100-mile in California.

Juggling engineering and professional running

Bouillard’s victory at UTMB in 2024 surprised everyone, including his coworkers at HOKA. “It was an incredible day that I will always remember,” he said. Many of his fans during the course were people he worked with in the office, his manager being one of them. The following months saw Bouillard take charge of his engineering project alongside his new athlete contract from the brand.

While most athletes might quit their day jobs to focus solely on running, Bouillard was determined to continue working as an engineer, even if it meant cutting back on his hours so he could train more.

“It’s unbelievable,” Smith said. “Since I’ve known Vincent – ​​almost nine years now – it just makes sense because of who he is… thoughtful, focused and someone who just works hard.”

These days, Bouillard’s title at Hoka is “Footwear Innovation Engineer,” and he helps develop concepts about running shoes designed for specific athletes. “This is a broader research role than just focusing on one component or category,” he said.

Not only is Bouillard learning to balance work and running, but he’s also a new father to a baby girl, whom he welcomed with his wife Kamila near the finish line in the Western States. Every second mattered in this race, so much so that Boilard told his team before starting the race that his primary goal was to finish the race before his daughter’s bedtime. He made it just in time. When he finished in Auburn, it was just before 7 pm local time and she was still awake.

The sun was just starting to set. After finishing their burritos, Bouillard and his family settled in for some sleep, even though another win in another major race was not quite complete.

“It’s these big dreamy moments coming together,” he said. “It doesn’t have any message.”