And Hall says that for much of her running career, "I got really used to being in this position of someone who is on the edge of a breakthrough yet never actually doing it." But looking at Hall's approach to running, and her commitment to the sport over nearly a decade of ultras, it seems like it likely wasn't a matter of if, but when her breakthrough would happen.
A 24-hour event is different. I have one task that day - running - and an unbroken stretch of time. If I desire, I can think about every single second and account for its passing. I can treat my seconds like Tupperware containers and try to fit as much running as I can into every single one. At the end of the day, I know where my time went. It went to running.
This year, as is the case almost every year, filling out the ballot will be challenging, as the athletes and performances have once again been truly outstanding. In my assessment, 2025 also stands out as a year with more high-profile DNFs than in recent years. "UltraRunning Magazine" doesn't give any specific criteria in weighing DNFs in their voting instructions, and it is up to each voter to determine for themselves the importance of a particular race result, including DNFs.
Running in bad socks sucks. If clocking up more than 65 marathons and 20 ultras, and plodding most of the way across Europe has taught me one thing, it is this: A runner is only as happy as his or her feet. You can drop hundreds of bucks on the best running shoes, but if you stick your foot into an old gym sock, you still risk ending up with blisters.
Kullamannen by UTMB - Mölle, Sweden The event is named after a legend of local folklore, and the races took place on mostly flat trails around the country's southern coast. Ultra 100 Mile The long course went for 107 miles but with only 7,545 feet of elevation gain. Christian Malmström (Sweden) and Hanna Aho (Sweden) won in 16:18 and 17:59. Malmström was fourth here last year, and Aho was fourth here in 2023.
Dower ran 13:31 on trails for 100 miles. She won by almost a full hour, and it was way up on Camille Herron's old 14:03 course record from 2021. The time makes Dower the second-fastest North American woman over 100 miles ever, and the win also offers an automatic entry back into Western States in 2026 for a redemption run.
It was the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after writing the article and with no races to run, Paco realized that the time had come to organize something in Italy that would bring back that intimate and essential dimension to our sport that he felt Nolan's 14 embodied. And so he thought up the Translagorai Classic, a challenge to complete an 80-kilometer route traversing the Lagorai mountain range in Trentino in northern Italy in under 24 hours.
Both sponsored runners who live together in the Dolomites of Italy, the pair shares insights into what it is like to crew and support each other, first as Valmassoi tackles the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, her hometown race, as Jones crews, and then as Jones runs the Val d'Aran 100k in the Pyrenees, as Valmassoi crews. As the two race and crew, the film walks us through eight "golden rules" of crewing, including those that anyone who has crewed can well relate to, like "survive the wait." The cinematography keeps it personal and real while capturing the often hectic nature of crewing at big races.
Fixed-time ultrarunning fans, get ready! The 2025 IAU 24-Hour World Championships take place on Saturday, October 18, in Albi, France. The race starts at 10 a.m. local time and follows a 1.5-kilometer (0.93 miles) course looping in and around the Albi stadium. The Albi venue in southwest France is no stranger to hosting championships, having held the 2016 IAU 24-Hour European Championships and the 2019 IAU 24-Hour World Championships.
There's an often-quoted adage that says, "Be kind to everyone you meet, because you don't know what they're going through." It asks us to acknowledge that life can be difficult for everyone, regardless of how happy or successful they seem on the surface. This is the theme that will resound in your head as you view "Katharina," a raw, deeply honest, and awe-inspiring film following Katharina Hartmuth over an 12-month period starting in 2024.
Jornet's adventure, dubbed States of Elevation, involves climbing all the 14,000-foot peaks in the Lower 48 and traveling between them by foot and bicycle. He climbed 56 Colorado mountains in 16 days this month, then bicycled nearly 900 miles to the Eastern Sierra to take on California's highest. In three days starting on Sept. 24, he hit the summits of Norman's 13, setting what is expected to be confirmed as the fastest known time for a supported trek of the high-altitude route.
Anne Flower didn't fully commit to running the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile until about two weeks before the event. She had never run 100 miles before and was nervous about getting injured or having to take a long time off from running afterward to recover. But, she'd earned an automatic entry into the race - twice - earlier in the summer by winning both the 2025 Silver Rush 50 Mile and the 2025 Leadville Trail Marathon,
There was over $85,000 of cash going out to top finishers, with both the winners of the 100-mile race going home with $20,000. Women Mary Denholm pushed the pace in the race's first half, but then the weather rolled in and Denholm left the race after mile 44 and 7:43 of running. Riley Brady was 20 minutes behind Denholm at that point, but gained the lead when Denholm dropped. Brady put time on everyone for most of the rest of the way and won in 20:29.
Jose Cruz is close to a sure thing at Wasatch. He's on the podium every year. He was second in 2024, first in 2023, third in 2022, second in 2021, and he won this year's race in 20:38. Cruz has The Bear 100 Mile in three weeks, too. Last year, after finishing second at Wasatch, Cruz doubled back to win at The Bear.
returns to the 2025 UTMB after not making it around the loop in his first two attempts. In his first interview with iRunFar, the American talks about his background in soccer and as a thru-hiker, how he discovered ultrarunning through pacing at the Hardrock 100, some of the mistakes he made at the start of last year's race, and how he plans to race with a bit more intelligence this time around.
Ludovic Pommeret of France lines up for the 2025 UTMB, a mere 21 years after he lined up for the event for the first time. In the following interview, Ludo talks about how his UTMB plans changed at the last minute, his summer of racing the Hardrock 100, UTMB, and hopefully Diagonale des Fous this fall, racing with his daughter a couple of weeks ago, and what success will look like for him this weekend.
