Ultrarunning
How I became pro: Tom Evans
This is the story of how an Army Captain made the entire ultrarunning world stand to attention.
While the pastoral Sussex countryside might not quite hold a torch to the burning intensity of the Sahara Desert, nor rival the vertigo-inducing altitude of the Alps, for Tom Evans it means everything. One of the world’s finest ultrarunners, he can trace his enthusiasm for the outdoors right back to his childhood around Eastbourne on England’s south coast.
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“I had an amazing upbringing focused on nature and the environment,” recalls the 29-year-old. “Looking back, doing what I do now in an outdoor endurance sport makes sense. I was also fiercely competitive growing up, with a big extended family including stepbrothers and stepsisters, of which I was the youngest."
Tom Evans running in Surrey, UK
© Ian Corless / Red Bull Content Pool
Before racing 2017's Marathon des Sables, the furthest I’d ever ran was a 10k cross country at school. I always loved a challenge.
With no idea what an ‘ultra’ was back then, the bulk of Tom’s running as a teen came on the rugby pitch. It was there he found an unlikely mentor: “I was certainly better on the pitch than I was in the classroom. There was a teacher and rugby coach called Mr Westgate who had a big influence on me. I still live by many of his quotes, including ‘Pack your own parachute’, which basically means you’re responsible for your own performance. Another good one was ‘Leave your baggage on the touchline’, and that’s what I do when I train even today, I head out of the door and leave my mental baggage at home. Rugby was actually the sport I cared the most about and tried the hardest with.”
Captain Fantastic
Tom would eventually go on to represent his country, only he wasn’t lining up at Twickenham, but at RMA Sandhurst, one of the most prestigious military academies in the UK. "I could have given it a good go [at professional] rugby” he says, “but I’d always wanted to be in the Army since joining the cadets at school. I had never wanted to do anything else, so after school I joined up. Sandhurst was a huge learning curve. Being in charge of 30 soldiers by the age of 20 - all of whom had been to Afghanistan, all of whom were older than I was - made me grow up quickly."
One of the ways in which he was able to forge bonds with battle-hardened combatants was to use fitness, straining every sinew every day to improve himself and lead by example. “Over the course of my eight years in the British Army, operations in Afghanistan were closing down, and Iraq had closed down, which made it a bit harder being the officer in charge because I didn’t have that experience [abroad], so I found a different way of getting that respect, and fitness is such an easy thing to be good at.”
Tom Evans taking home the win at the CCC race at UTMB in 2018
© UTMB CCC
Operation Desert Storm
Then, in 2016, everything changed for the the Army man when he accepted a pub bet to compete in the iconic Marathon des Sables, one of the toughest footraces on earth. Seven months later Tom found himself on the start line in the Sahara Desert for 2017’s edition of the event, massively inexperienced but eager to make an impact: “Some of the friends who talked me into it had already raced it. The furthest I’d ever ran was a 10k cross country at school, but I always loved a challenge. The race went better than any of us could have possibly imagined.”
He can say that again: remarkably, across six days and 156 miles of intense desert racing versus some of the wiliest runners in the game, Tom finished his debut ultra-race across 251km of desert in third place. “Day One, I ended up at the front of the race and my competitors were as surprised as I was. They must have thought ‘Who is this idiot? He’s gone way too hard too early and he’s going to fade away,’ but I didn’t, and by day three they were a bit more welcoming with me as they knew I was going to be around for a bit.”
Together with a talent for running and good biomechanics, Tom’s military training had seemingly instilled a do-or-die attitude and threshold for pain that few could match: “You might be hurting, suffering, but I’m ready for that, I’ve been training for it. The more uncomfortable something is I know the better it’s going to go."
Tom Evans during the final stage of the Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica.
© Honza Zak
Peak performance
Proof of that was also clear in 2018 when he won the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB)’s prestigious CCC race. Calculating the gruelling foot race across the Alps perfectly, he overtook China’s Min Qui and went in front with less than 10K to go. The fact he'd been hit by illness at the midway point and still powered through three countries made it all the more impressive.
“The evening before the race, my manager informed me I had officially become a Red Bull athlete,” remembers Tom. “I was thankful for Red Bull for trusting in me and taking that chance on me on the eve of my biggest race of the year. It gave me an unbelievable mental push. When times were tough mid-race, I put my hands on my head, on my cap, and felt the Red Bull logo. I reminded myself of how many hours of hard work had gone into getting in this position, not just by me but the team around me, and their dedication; friends and family, and my sponsors for believing in me.”
"On Day One, I ended up at the front of the race and my competitors were as surprised as I was. They must have thought ‘Who is this idiot? He’s gone way too hard too early and he’s going to fade away,’ but I didn’t...
Making the leap
Later that year he was ready to leave the Army and make the leap into becoming a full-time ultrarunner: “It was only in 2018 when races had gone well and I was beating pro athletes that I believed I could race full time. Speaking to another Red Bull athlete, Ryan Sandes, who I’d looked up to forever, helped a lot. He believed in me and said I can make it work. And I’ve been able to race against Ryan quite a lot since which has been nice.”
Tom Evans is a force of nature in ultrarunning
© Red Bull HK
In fact, at Tom’s debut 100-miler at America’s most famous ultra-race, Western States, in 2019, Evans finished nine places above Sandes as he clocked in at 14 hours and 59 minutes, breaking the record for fastest overseas competitor in the event. Despite placing third overall, it was another stride towards greatness for the budding superstar: “With 100 miles you’re racing against yourself, not other competitors, and in any other year anything under 15 hours would have probably won me the race. There happened to be two quicker athletes on the day, but to achieve such a feat in such an iconic race was incredibly special."
On something of a roll going into 2020, Evans was back to winning ways at February’s Ultra Trail World Tour in Tarawera, New Zealand, where naturally he broke the 102km course record (08:03:26) And then Covid-19 hit. For ultrarunning’s new poster boy a pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse possible time: “I was in such good shape and such good form, I had a really busy year planned, so for everything to stop meant I lost some purpose, some drive and desire. Lockdown was tough but now I get to appreciate the good times even more.
More recently the ex-military man faced another obstacle when he picked up an overuse injury. “I basically gave myself a stress fracture in my femoral head, so ended up needing surgery, but it’s fully recovered now and I’m feeling great…”
Expect him to dazzle on the trails again in 2022 and beyond. Parachute packed and all.
Wings for Life World Run is back: sign up before 5th January 2022 and you could receive a gift from Tom Evans. Find out more here.