HOKA athletes are preparing for the world’s upcoming trail running “superbowl,” UTMB, at a training camp in Saint Gervais, France, from late July to early August 2025. Top HOKA athletes from both the US and Europe aim to train and build team camaraderie before they compete at the UTMB races during the final week of August. Major events during UTMB race weekend include OCC (55K), CCC (100K), and UTMB (170km), among a variety of other competitions that attract over 60,000 participants, spectators, family/crew, to France’s Chamonix Valley each year.
In this article, we share a sneak peak into the camp and profile HOKA-sponsored athlete Allison Baca from Golden, Colorado. Baca, full-time mother and worker, will be competing in the UTMB CCC 100-kilometer race. With two major trail race wins in 2025, and excitement for a chance at redemption from a “did not finish” (DNF) at CCC in 2023, Baca has her sights set high—for the win. (Featured image courtesy Finisher Pix from Desert Rats.)
Checking out some new HOKA trail running shoes at camp in France.
Team player
The location for the 2025 HOKA UTMB Athlete Camp couldn’t be more of a trail running paradise. Saint Gervais, a small mountain town with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants, is situated at the doorstep of one of Europe’s most iconic peaks, Mont Blanc (15,781 feet). Over twenty-five HOKA athletes are housed in chalets with immediate access to world-class running trails right outside the door. Baca describes her experience, “I really didn’t know what to expect, but everyone’s been really welcoming and really fun to be around. The best part is sharing meals with the team, chatting with different people and also having food cooked for us.”
While Baca competes against many of the fellow athletes on race days, she said the sense of comradery from a team camp is something special, “It’s really fun to be with all of these great athletes, especially in this kind of setting. I don’t feel the same pressure of performing like when I’m at a race, this is relaxed and fun. Exploring trails with these other athletes has been a blast.”
Baca, who signed with HOKA in October 2024, expressed her excitement meeting many of her fellow HOKA athletes (particularly the Europeans she’d never met), and feeling like part of a team.
Baca at Black Canyon. Photo: Tony DiPasquale
Ferritin falls
Baca has had an incredible year of racing in 2025 (winning the Desert Rats and Black Canyon 50Ks), but her success was built on ups and downs the year prior. After experiencing fatigue and weakness in spring of 2024, she discovered her body’s iron levels were the main contributing cause. Low iron, particularly in endurance athletes, can be detrimental to performance and overall energy levels. “It takes time to bring ferritin levels back up,” said Baca. When racing the 2024 Desert Rats 50K, she could tell her energy was being zapped by her condition, “It felt like the way I was running was out of my control.”
After a consistent year of raising her iron levels, Baca’s body now feels stronger than ever. One of her first goals: going back to the Desert Rats 50K in 2025 to see what she could do. She won the race in a time of 3:57:03 (placing third overall). “It was a really good experience to go back this year and have a fun day out there. There was certainly some personal redemption, to prove to myself that I could do well on those trails. Also, it was a lot of fun for the family.”
Baca describes the draw of bringing her four-year-old son to Desert Rats and sharing the experience with him, “The race town, Fruita, is a really bike friendly area and my son loves bikes. There’s also this dinosaur theme around town, which he loves. Bikes and dinosaurs were the perfect combination for a four-year-old!”
Baca at Black Canyon. Photo: Tony DiPasquale
Family balance
“It’s so fun to experience a sport with my son and family. It’s a whole family affair.”
Baca balances the life of a full-time athlete, full-time career woman and full-time mother (and still had endless positive and bubbly energy during our interview here at trailrunner.com!). Baca lives in Golden, Colorado, a location where outdoor recreation is easily accessed out her door.
She shares parenting duties with her husband, an avid mountain biker and fellow outdoor sport enthusiast. “I have a lot to juggle, but my husband and I have a really good setup. He will do morning parenting duties when I go running. I’ll usually wake up around five, make my son breakfast, then hurry out the door to get my run in before I start work. Then I’ll be back in time for the afternoon shift with our son, so my husband can go on a ride, run, golf or whatever he wants to do. We split up our day activities so we both have our own time to do our activities.”
On weekends, both Baca and her husband go a step further in sharing their parenting duties to allow each to have longer runs/rides. “On weekends one of us spends the whole day on childcare duty so the other can have a long day to play.” Baca admits that she also incorporates physical activity/training into her childcare, “I’ll usually take my son running. It used to be in a stroller, but now that he’s really good at mountain biking he’ll bike with me on trails while I run. We take lots of breaks, eat lots of snacks and have so much fun. It’s so great to train together!”
On the trails in France with HOKA athletes.
Nothing like Europe
While Colorado is certainly a trail running mecca, trail running in Europe is a different challenge. “The problem I’ve noticed here in the US is that we don’t have access from the doorstep to trails with huge climbs. We have great trails in Golden, but no immediate access to massive climbs of 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) of elevation gain.”
During the past several years, Baca would wake up at 3 A.M. during the week to drive deeper into the mountains to access the steeper trails she needed to run for her European trail race training. Although it’s possible to train for European races in the US, it certainly takes extra dedication—even in a mountainous environment such as Golden, CO. Following the HOKA UTMB training camp, Baca will remain in France to continue training on the steep terrain she’ll encounter at CCC.
At the HOKA camp.
Speed + Grit
Although Baca is currently training on steep alpine slopes, she’s no stranger to flatter, faster paced running. Her wins at the Black Canyon and Desert Rats 50Ks were impressively fast (both under four hours!). Baca doesn’t define herself as a “speedster” or “mountain goat,” but instead adapts her training to her environment, “In the winter I’m often doing flatter, faster training because I don’t have access to the mountains that are snow covered. Then in the summer it’s a really good time to focus on climbing on steeper terrain.”
She admits that both fast and steep running have a draw for her, “I don’t know that I like one more than the other. On one hand I enjoy seeing how fast I can do something and the other seeing if I have what it takes to actually accomplish it. Both are equally exciting, but I’ll admit the mountain one is a little bit more fulfilling.”
The finish line in Chamonix.
CCC X 2
Ten days before racing the CCC 100K in 2023, Baca hit the ground hard. She fell on a mountain run in Colorado, smacking her quad and face against the ground. She did her best to walk painfully back down the trail. With a non-refundable flight to Europe for the race, she decided that in spite of the injury, she had no choice but to race. “I’ve learned to only buy refundable flight options,” joked Baca. She started the race but unfortunately her injury was too great and she dropped out of the race at 40 kilometers, “I was hoping that there was some way my body could heal in time, but it just wasn’t going to happen.”
Now in top racing form, Baca is excited to return to CCC and snag a similar “redemption” win as she did at Desert Rats. Baca describes her feelings going into the race, “I am telling myself to run my own race. That’s all I can do. I can’t afford to worry about all these other people that are also very fast. I’m going to enjoy the training and the process, regardless of what happens in the race. I have loved this summer of training so far, it’s been one of my best training blocks. I definitely want to make it to the finish line and hopefully do so first.”
Stay tuned for action from UTMB in the final week of August 2025. In addition to CCC, Baca will also be representing Team USA for the second time at the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships from September 24 to 28. View the team roster here.
Follow Baca on Instagram here.
