From The Whites To The Alps

TWO NEW ENGLAND WOMEN ARE RISING STARS IN THE ULTR A-COMPETITIVE EURO R ACE SCENE.

- Doug Mayer

“The same mountains. The same hut system. We both grew up in New England. We both went to Middlebury College.

And now we’re both living in Europe.” Katie Schide, a native of Gardiner, Maine, is sitting at a rooftop café in Zurich, Switzerland, ticking her way through a list of the things she has in common with her trail running pal, Hillary Gerardi.

At 26, she has the lean, borderline lanky look of a swift road runner. Her blonde hair is tied quickly at the back, giving the impression of someone who has better things to do with her time than spend it at a mirror. A scientist by training, she has the reserved style of someone who is an astute observer. In conversation, she reflects before answering, and chooses words cautiously.

In both personality and stature, she and Gerardi are notably dissimilar. Gerardi thinks and speaks quickly, nimbly bouncing between pent-up topics of discussion. At 5’ 1”, she’s less speedy when running through flatter terrain. “She’s pretty open about not liking running,” says Schide. But get her on a technical climb or descent, and she’s fast and nimble.

Halfway around the world from their native New England, she and Gerardi, 31, have more in common than many siblings. Back in New England, their circles overlapped so much as to be nearly identical, but the five years between them meant that they never quite intersected.

“And now this. It’s crazy.”

This is big news in European trail-running circles. In race after race for the last year, the two have been scoring top finishes across Europe in some of the most competitive events on the continent.