At sunrise in the foothills of the Wind Rivers, Hannah Jochem is already moving at a steady pace. Her dog, Kaya, is close behind as the clouds are lit up by the early sun, and they traverse the Red Ridge trail at Johnny Behind the Rocks. It’s not a training run or a workout, it’s just the way she starts the day.
“Running always feels like the base,” says Jochem. “It’s like eating or sleeping. It’s what I do.”
This feeling has been her guide for two decades. Hannah grew up in Ohio, where she ran middle school cross country, but she was far from the top of the team back then.
“My dad told me he used to be all sad watching me finish toward the end of my middle school races,” Jochem laughed that he only told her that after she had some of her more recent success. But she stayed consistent with her running and worked her way to finishing her first big race, the Boston Marathon, during her college years.
Rock climbing and skiing took Hannah and her partner, Chris Smallwood, around the country after school. The pair spent time climbing in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge before moving to Mammoth, CA, and Park City, UT, to try their hand at ski-bumming, before Hannah entered a nursing program in New York City. She continued to run the whole time, running in the mountains of the west, and eventually, dialing up her longest runs at the time, up the length of Manhattan and across bridges into Brooklyn.
Jochem’s passion for races evolved from road running to trail running over the years, bringing her to a sixth-place finish at the Leadville 100, one of the world’s most challenging endurance races boasting 15,000 feet of elevation gain with most of its 100 miles of trails sitting at 10,000 feet elevation or higher. Before Leadville 2024, she won the Dead Horse Ultra 50 miler in 2023 and the local Sinks Canyon 50k this year. 
Last month, she set the fastest known time for women on Wind River Peak, which is just north of 30 miles out and back from Worthen Lake, in 7 hours and 24 minutes. Not one to brag, she claims that her new record, which is a whopping 43 minutes faster than the previous one, isn’t as impressive as it sounds.
“The women’s record isn’t super competitive like the men’s, where you’ve got Aaron and Gabe going back and forth,” said Jochem. “But I hope by doing it, maybe I’ll inspire other women to go try hard on it.”
Despite her accomplishments, Hannah doesn’t use Instagram or have any sponsors talking her up to the world; she just puts in the work, and the results do the talking.
“I like to think about my miles as money I get to spend,” she says. “When I’m trying to decide what I want to do next, I’ll think, ‘I’ve built up all of these miles, how do I want to spend them’”
The patience that running teaches Hannah also applies to her rock climbing. An accomplished 5.13 rock climber, Hannah can be found around the limestone cliffs of Lander working on some of the most challenging rock climbs, even during 60-mile weeks – a prowess in the combination of the two sports few athletes on the planet share. But climbing, she explained, doesn’t always bring the same positive feelings that running does.
“I love climbing, but it doesn’t always make me feel good,” said Jochem. “Running always does.”
When she’s not running, Jochem, who recently earned her nurse practitioner degree, will take up a job in neurocritical care in Salt Lake City, where she and Chris will split time with Lander in the coming years. She hasn’t worked in neurology before, but she’s excited for the challenges it might present.
“Neurology isn’t as well understood as some other fields of medicine,” said Jochem. “It’s pretty nuanced, so there’s going to be a lot of learning, but I’m excited for it.”
Even with the 12-hour shifts that a nursing job demands, she’s always found the time to get the miles in, and her training philosophy tends to be straightforward without any secret sauce to share.
“You just have to be consistent and get in the miles, and maybe do some weight training,” said Jochem.
When he’s not out climbing, her partner, Chris, often trains alongside her.
“Every time I do something cool, he gets really excited,” Jochem shasred. After she ran Leadville for the first time, he began training for his first ultra, and won it. Their shared passion for being in the mountains helps with motivation for training on the rock and the trails.
“The most inspiring part of Hannah’s running to me is that her motivation doesn’t seem to waver,” said Smallwood. “She just puts in the work, day after day, year after year.”
Kaya, the couple’s white husky-shepard mix, joins for nearly every run.
“She runs most of my runs with me,” said Jochem, who laughed about how it’s impossible to communicate how long a run they’re going on to her excited hound. “I wish I could let her know it’s gonna be a long one by putting my vest on or something like that.”
Whether she’s holding on to make a tough clip on the limestone, grinding up a steep trail, or working a 12-hour shift, the theme of endurance persists. And over time, as her miles accumulate, she needs to spend them outside, where she loves to be most. “I just love being outside,” said Jochem. “Like I love doing yardwork, or reading a book on the porch, just because I get to be outside… So yeah, running comes back to that too.”
Remembering her rim-to-rim run across the Grand Canyon, she said, “At first light when the canyon lights up all orange and you’re out there alone… There’s just nothing like that.”
It’s moments like these that sum up why she keeps putting one foot in front of the other – for the rhythm, the habit, and for the joy of running.