Western States has always held a special place in the ultrarunning calendar and 2025 looks set to be a vintage edition.
The headline act is surely the GOAT Kilian Jornet, 15 years on from his ‘Unbreakable’ debut and his first return since winning it in 2011.
The 52nd edition will feature 369 runners from all around the world on the start line at Olympic Valley, California, near the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.
Ahead of them is an iconic 100-mile route to the historic gold-rush town of Auburn, California, a legendary destination in trail running and considered the birthplace of mountain ultras in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
It all gets under way at 5am local time on Saturday, June 28, at Palisades Tahoe Resort.
We’ll be providing updates and reports as the event unfolds and will drop in the live tracking link.
There will be a live broadcast throughout too which will be streamed live on YouTube and will be embedded below.
That’s scheduled to start at 4:15am local time (7:15am ET, 12:15pm BST, 1:15pm CET) on Saturday, June 28 and the broadcast will continue through the entirety of the event, concluding at 11am on Sunday, June 30.
Western States 100-mile Endurance Run
start list
The full start list can be found here.
Read on for our analysis of some of the star names who will be doing battle – and who we think will come out on top.
Notable runners
Route
From Olympic Valley, the runners will traverse the picturesque high country of the historic Western States Trail through the Granite Chief Wilderness in the early morning.
They will then plunge into the deep canyons of the American River drainage and pass through the sites of old mining settlements such as Last Chance, Deadwood and Michigan Bluff, making technical and challenging ascents and descents.
They then cross the Middle Fork of the American River at mile 78 where a guide rope is stretched across the river, with rafts used in high-water years.Â
From there, they will make a final push to the finish line at the track of Placer High School in Auburn, California.
The trail features more than 18,000ft of ascent and descends nearly 23,000ft – and as things stand the forecast looks hot and dry with 27 degree temperatures predicted and humidity ranging between 30-75% in the Valley and the mercury rising to over 30 degrees celcius in Auburn.
Analysis
There is no getting away from the fact that we are missing both defending champions with Jim Walmsley and Katie Schide not competing this year, and the fields aren’t quite as incredible as they looked at the start of the year.
Jornet will clearly take some beating in the men’s race. The Spaniard won this event back in 2011 and is still at the top of his game having not finished outside the top two in any of his last three UTMB races.
All eyes will be on how he performs, especially now that three of his biggest potential rivals have withdrawn. Four-time winner Walmsley, the course record holder and last year’s champion, is a big miss.
But Hayden Hawks and John Rea will also no longer be competing, so the competition will be led by the likes of 2022 champion Adam Peterman and last year’s runner-up Rod Farvard, who pushed Walmsley all the way.
Vincent Bouillard, who had two UTMB race wins last year, could also be in the mix along with David Roche, who won two fast 100-milers last year. A coach to the stars who hadn’t run a 100-miler himself until relatively recently, Roche and has since set some astonishing records.
Dan Jones and Caleb Olson also ran well last year and could mount a challenge.
Dauwalter and Schide are out on their own at the top of the women’s ultrarunning tree so a shame neither takes part.
Schide won here last year and Dauwalter, who is racing Lavaredo by UTMB instead the day before, is the course record holder.
In their absence, the race is wide open and could provide plenty of excitement.
China’s Fu-Zhao Xiang will be looking to go one better than her second-placed finish last year, while Eszter Csillag of Hungary and Emily Hawgood of Zimbabwe, who came third and fourth respectively, are also back for more.
Heather Jackson, a former pro triathlete, is one to watch. She was seventh last year, won the Javelina 100-miler in 2023, and comes here having won Unbound XL, gravel racing’s biggest event, just a month before.
Last year’s winner at Javelina was non-binary runner Riley Brady, who also won the Black Canyon 100k earlier this year, and could challenge the frontrunners.
Tara Dower is another fascinating contender. She set an incredible fastest known time (female or male) for the Appalachian Trail last year and won two hundred-milers in a row in 2023.
Kiwi Caitlin Fielder will make her 100-mile debut, but has won three of her last four races over 50-100km and could be a wild card pick to do well.
The Western States 100 Results from 2010 are:
*Course record
-
- 2024 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:13:45/ Women: Katie Schide, USA, 15:46:57
- 2023 – Men: Tom Evans, GBR, 14:40:22/ Women: Courtney Dauwalter, USA, 15:29:33*
- 2022 – Men: Adam Peterman, USA, 15:13:48/ Women: Ruth Croft, New Zealand, 17:21:30
- 2021 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:46:00/ Women: Beth Pascall, GBR, 17:10:42
- 2019 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:09:28*/ Women: Clare Gallagher, USA, 17:23:24
- 2018 – Men: Jim Walmsley, USA, 14:30:04/ Women: Courtney Dauwalter, USA, 17:27:00
- 2017 – Men: Ryan Sandes, South Africa, 16:19:38/ Women: Cat Bradley, USA, 19:31:31
- 2016 – Men: Andrew Miller, USA, 15:39:36/ Women: Kaci Lickteig, USA, 17:57:59
- 2015 – Men: Rob Krar, Canada, 14:48:59/ Women: Magdalena Boulet, USA, 19:05:21
- 2014 – Men: Rob Krar, Canada, 14:53:22/ Women: Stephanie Howe, USA, 18:01:42
- 2013 – Men: Timothy Olson, USA, 15:17:27/ Women: Pam Smith, USA, 18:37:21
- 2012 – Men: Timothy Olson, USA, 14:46:44/ Women: Ellie Greenwood, GBR, 16:47:11
- 2011 – Men: Kilian Jornet, Spain, 15:34:24/ Women: Ellie Greenwood, GBR, 17:55:29
- 2010 – Men: Geoff Roes, USA, 15:07:04/ Women: Tracy Garneau, Canada, 19:01:55
Past winners
Tab 2 content.
![Kilian Jornet Sierre Zinal 2024 mountains [Photo copyright: Golden Trail World Series]](https://run247.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Kilian-Jornet-Sierre-Zinal-2024-mountains-912x720.jpg)
