Written by RT Ross, Runners Tribe
An In Depth Analysis of Trail and Ultrarunning’s Most Transformative Year
Step back from the individual stories and look at the bigger picture. 2025 was not just a good year for trail and ultrarunning. It was a paradigm shift. A year where records we assumed would stand forever crumbled. Where athletes who had never run 100 miles broke marks that legends had set decades ago. Where the depth of competition reached levels that would have seemed absurd even five years prior.
Let’s run through the damage.
Ann Trason’s Leadville Record: Gone After 31 Years
When Ann Trason ran 18:06:24 at the 1994 Leadville 100, she was at the absolute peak of her powers. Just weeks earlier, she had set the Western States 100 course record and won her sixth consecutive title there. She had already accumulated 14 Western States victories, 20 world records, and been named Ultrarunner of the Year 12 times. She was, by any reasonable measure, the greatest female ultrarunner who had ever lived.
At Leadville in 1994, she raced against seven Tarahumara runners from Mexico’s Copper Canyons, a group whose legendary running ability had been documented by anthropologists and would later be immortalized in Christopher McDougall’s bestselling book “Born to Run.” The race attracted an HBO documentary film crew and significant media attention. Trason led at the 50 mile turnaround, having reached Winfield in under nine hours, faster than any woman before. Though Juan Herrera eventually passed her with 13 miles remaining to win the men’s race, Trason finished second overall and set a women’s course record that seemed untouchable.
The second place woman that day, Barbara Dolan, crossed the line seven hours and thirteen minutes behind Trason. For 31 years, no woman came close to Trason’s mark. Many elite women tried. All failed.
Anne Flower, a 35 year old emergency room physician from Colorado Springs, decided to enter the race two weeks before it started. She had never run 100 miles. Her stated goal was simply to finish. Her reach goal was to finish before it got too late into the night. Her dream goal was maybe a top ten finish if everything went perfectly.
Flower had earned automatic entries twice that summer by winning both the Leadville Trail Marathon and the Silver Rush 50 Mile. Those performances showed she was fit. But 100 miles at altitude is a different animal entirely. Her perception, as she told iRunFar, was that “people running 100 milers are broken after. For me and my lifestyle, I wasn’t sure if that’s what I wanted to do.”
She ran 17:58:19. Eight minutes faster than Trason. She became the first woman ever to break 18 hours at Leadville in the race’s 42 year history. She finished second overall, just as Trason had in 1994. She averaged 10:47 per mile at altitude for nearly 18 hours. And she did not even realize she was close to the record until the final miles, when spectators near the Boulevard told her the mark was within reach.
“I feel like I shouldn’t be in the same category as Ann Trason,” Flower said afterward. “She’s a goddess of running.”
When asked about breaking records set in the 1990s, Flower offered a revealing perspective: “I feel like we should be breaking records set in the 1990s. We have better training, better nutrition, better shoes.”
She is not wrong. But that does not make it any less stunning that an ER doctor who balances her running with full time medical practice, who signed up two weeks before the race, who had never attempted 100 miles, ran down a record set by the greatest female ultrarunner of all time on her first try.
Courtney Dauwalter’s Hardrock Record: Gone
The Hardrock 100 Endurance Run is not a race. According to its own philosophy, it is a “run” through the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, established in 1992 as “a salute to the toughness and perseverance of the Hardrock miners who lived and worked in the area.” The course covers 102.5 miles with 33,000 feet of elevation gain, crosses 13 mountain passes above 12,000 feet, summits 14,048 foot Handies Peak, and has a 48 hour cutoff. Runners do not cross a finish line. They kiss a painted rock.
Courtney Dauwalter had dominated Hardrock. She set the clockwise course record in 2024 at 26:11:49 and the counterclockwise record in 2023 at 26:14:08. She was not present in 2025 to defend her title.
Katie Schide, an American who holds a PhD in geology and lives in France with partner Germain Grangier, came to Hardrock having already won UTMB (2022, 2023, 2024 with a course record), Western States (2024, as the second woman ever under 16 hours), and Diagonale des Fous (2023). She had spent weeks in the San Juans beforehand, reconnoitering the course so thoroughly that she injured her knee in a training fall.
The race started under smoky skies from nearby wildfires. Air quality was poor. Midday temperatures reached 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Multiple elite runners suffered severe stomach problems throughout the day and night.
Schide led from the first climb. By mile 9, she was six minutes ahead of the women’s field and five minutes ahead of Dauwalter’s 2023 counterclockwise splits. By mile 30, she had built a 35 minute gap on record pace. At the halfway point in Ouray, mile 58, she was running a minute per mile faster than Dauwalter’s record.
“I was moving 100% by feel,” Schide told iRunFar. “And I know that when Courtney ran that time, she had run Western States three weeks before. So I try not to look too closely at other people’s times.”
Schide’s stomach began turning on her around mile 70. She spent 10 minutes at the Ouray aid station sitting, closing her eyes, taking slow breaths, trying to burp. But she kept moving. She kept the pace high enough. She crossed the line in 25:50:23, becoming the first woman to break 26 hours at Hardrock in either direction.
The time was 21 minutes faster than Dauwalter’s overall course record and 24 minutes ahead of Dauwalter’s counterclockwise mark. Schide finished sixth overall, behind only the top five men, including her partner Grangier in third.
With this victory, Schide became just the third runner in history, after Kilian Jornet and Dauwalter herself, to have won the sport’s four most iconic 100 milers: UTMB, Western States, Hardrock, and Diagonale des Fous.
The Women’s 100 Mile World Record: Gone
Camille Herron’s 100 mile world record of 12:42:40, set at Tunnel Hill in 2017, was one of the most respected marks in ultrarunning. Herron had improved the previous record by 63 minutes, running 7:37 pace for 100 miles on the crushed gravel rails to trails course in southern Illinois. The performance was so dominant that it seemed to belong to a different era entirely.
Caitriona Jennings of Ireland turned 45 in June 2025. She had run the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics. She had won the 2022 IAU 50K European Championships. She held Irish national records at 50K (3:16:33) and 100K (7:43:01). She had four top ten finishes at Comrades Marathon. But she had never run 100 miles.
On November 8, 2025, at Tunnel Hill, Jennings ran 12:37:04. She broke Herron’s record by five and a half minutes. She averaged 7:34 per mile for 160.9 kilometers. For nearly the first 80 miles, her splits varied by no more than a second or two from 7:26 pace. Her consistency was metronomic.
“I just kept ticking off the laps,” Jennings said. “I had no idea how far I could go, but everything just came together.”
Her coach, McConnon, who had worked with her since she was a triathlete representing Ireland at junior level, offered insight into what made the performance possible: “She has an amazing engine, and some capacity for pain. She’s willing to go beyond the pain barrier and on and on. When most people would give up, she doesn’t. She also has a great capacity to recover.”
The day after setting a world record, Jennings flew home to Ireland on an overnight flight, took a quick nap, and cycled into her office job at Aviation Capital Group on Monday morning. Normal stuff.
The Women’s 50 Mile World Record: Gone
Earlier that same day at Tunnel Hill, Anne Flower added another world record to her collection. She ran 5:18:57 for 50 miles, obliterating Courtney Olsen’s 2024 mark of 5:31:56 by nearly 13 minutes. That is almost 13 minutes off a record that was itself less than a year old.
Flower averaged 6:23 per mile for 50 miles on the flat, crushed gravel course. She made a last minute decision to race Tunnel Hill instead of the Indianapolis Marathon. She was crewed only by her mother, who had a bottle in one hand and a gel in the other at each aid station.
This is the same person who broke Trason’s Leadville record three months earlier. The same person who won the Javelina 100K in 2024. The same person who ran the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. The same person who balances all of this with a full time job as an ER physician.
USATF named her Athlete of the Week. UltraRunning Magazine named her the second ranked Ultrarunner of the Year for 2025. Anne Flower, in her first full year focusing on ultras, broke records at 50 miles and 100 miles that many assumed were untouchable.
The American 100K Record: Gone
Charlie Lawrence, already the 50 mile world record holder (4:48:21, set at Tunnel Hill in 2023), arrived at the Desert Solstice Track Invitational in Phoenix on December 20, 2025 with one goal: break the six hour barrier for 100 kilometers. The ratified world record was 6:05:35, held by Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin since 2023.
Lawrence ran 250 laps around the 400 meter track at Central High School. He finished in 6:07:10, 95 seconds shy of Sorokin’s world record but more than two minutes faster than Jim Walmsley’s American record of 6:09:26, which had stood since 2021.
The time is the fourth fastest 100K ever run on a ratifiable course. Only Sorokin (twice) and Japan’s Jumpei Yamaguchi have gone faster. Lawrence, 29, averaged 3:41 per kilometer for 62.14 miles and walked away talking about what he needs to fix to finally crack that six hour barrier.
Courtney Olsen’s 100K American Record: Gone
On the same day Jennings and Flower were rewriting the record books at Tunnel Hill, Courtney Olsen was running the 100K distance in the same event. She finished in 6:59:55, becoming only the second woman ever to break seven hours for 100K in a ratified event. New American record. Only Anne Trason had gone faster, running 7:00:48 in a mark that had stood for 30 years.
Olsen, who had lost her Hoka sponsorship at the end of 2024, responded by putting together one of the most impressive seasons in road ultrarunning history: the 2024 50 mile world record (since broken by Flower), the 2025 100K American record, and a U.S. 50K championship in a course record. Then, in January 2026, she dropped down to run 2:35:39 at the Houston Marathon, a PR and U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying time. She is not a one trick pony.
Tove Alexandersson: Dominance Redefined
Tove Alexandersson of Sweden won the Short Trail event at the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc, Spain. The 45K race had 3,657 meters (12,000 feet) of climbing. The margin of her victory was 33 minutes and 55 seconds over silver medalist Sara Alonso of Spain.
Thirty three minutes. In a world championship. Against the best short trail runners on earth.
Alexandersson is primarily an orienteer and ski mountaineer. She is considered one of the most successful women orienteers in the sport’s history. Trail running is not even her main focus. She took the lead 30 minutes into the race and was never challenged. By 16 kilometers, she was 11 minutes ahead. By 28 kilometers, the lead was 22 minutes. She finished 17th overall, running only about 8% slower than the men’s winner despite having to be more careful on descents after a fall three weeks earlier that required stitches.
“Today I was more careful on the descents to avoid repeating the accident I had here three weeks ago,” Alexandersson said. “At the start, I felt slower on the way up to La Moleta, as I couldn’t quite run at my usual pace. Overall, I had a really good race and enjoyed the course a lot.”
Days after winning a trail running world championship, she was in Bormio, Italy, for a training camp with the Swedish ski mountaineering national team, preparing to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The rest of the world championship field was home recovering. Alexandersson was doing 10 to 20 second intervals on skis.
Sarah Webster’s 24 Hour World Record
At the 2025 IAU 24 Hour World Championships in Albi, France, Great Britain’s Sarah Webster ran 278.622 kilometers (173.127 miles), breaking Japan’s Miho Nakata’s 2023 world record of 270.363 kilometers by over eight kilometers. She was running only her second 24 hour race ever, having qualified with a 243.393 kilometer effort just seven months prior.
Webster is a 46 year old veterinarian from East Sussex who works about 30 hours a week. She is not a professional runner. She started conservatively, running in the top 10 for the first six hours but five kilometers behind Nakata’s record pace. By halfway, she was even. From there, her consistency was extraordinary. She averaged 5:11 per kilometer (8:19 per mile) including any breaks over the 24 hour period, running remarkably even splits on the 1.5 kilometer loop.
She broke the record with over an hour remaining and kept running to add another eight kilometers to the mark. In a field of world class male 24 hour runners, only four of them ran further than Webster.
Ludovic Pommeret: Age Is Just a Number
Ludovic Pommeret of France defended his Hardrock title at age 49, two weeks before his 50th birthday. He won in 22:21:53, the fifth fastest time in race history. Paced by Jim Walmsley through the heat of the day and Vincent Bouillard through the night, Pommeret ran a tactical masterclass, staying conservative on the climbs and surging on the descents.
Behind him, Mathieu Blanchard finished second in 23:44 and Germain Grangier was third in 24:04. A French sweep of the men’s podium at one of America’s most iconic mountain races.
Pommeret, who won UTMB in 2016 and has been a fixture at the sport’s biggest races for nearly two decades, continues to redefine what is possible in the late 40s and beyond. After Hardrock, he was already planning to line up at UTMB six weeks later, continuing a trend of elite ultrarunners attempting ambitious doubles that would have been considered reckless a decade ago.
The Depth Explosion
Individual records tell only part of the story. The depth of competition has exploded across the sport.
At the 2024 Western States 100, Leah Yingling ran 17:33:54 to finish tenth among women. That time would have won the race outright in 38 of the previous 51 editions. The tenth place finisher ran a time that would have been a winning performance for four decades.
Chris Myers ran 15:18:25 for the fastest men’s tenth place time in race history. Both the men’s and women’s tenth place times were at least 30 minutes faster than any previous tenth place finishes. Six women finished under 17 hours for the first time in the event’s history. Ida Nilsson set the women’s masters record. Tyler Green set the men’s masters record. The top ten women were all faster than the twelfth fastest time in race history going into the day.
This is not an anomaly. It is the new normal.
What Is Driving This?
The convergence of multiple factors has pushed the sport to new heights:
Nutrition Science: The science of fueling for ultra distances has advanced dramatically. Isotonic gels allow athletes to absorb far more carbohydrates without gastrointestinal distress. Personalized nutrition plans are now standard at the elite level. Athletes like Anne Flower and Caitriona Jennings can maintain paces that would have caused metabolic collapse for previous generations.
Professionalized Training: More athletes are working with dedicated coaches, strength trainers, sports psychologists, and nutritionists. Katie Schide’s program includes all of the above. The marginal gains compound. Course reconnaissance, altitude camps, periodized training, and recovery protocols have become standard for elites.
Shoe Technology: Carbon plates and advanced foams have revolutionized road running, and that technology has migrated to trails. The shoes athletes are racing in today would have been science fiction a decade ago. IAU regulations now specifically address shoe stack heights and carbon plate restrictions, a regulatory response to technology that has meaningfully improved performance.
Economic Incentives: Prize purses at major ultras have grown substantially. Sponsorships are more lucrative. This attracts athletes who might have gone to road running, triathlon, or other endurance sports a decade ago. The talent pool is deeper than it has ever been.
Psychological Shift: Once Courtney Dauwalter started annihilating course records at Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB, it shifted the collective psychology. Athletes now believe old records are breakable. When Flower said “I feel like we should be breaking records set in the 1990s,” she was expressing a mindset that has become widespread among elite ultrarunners.
The Quotes Tell the Story
After Katie Schide won Western States 2024, she noted: “Last year we saw the top ten women totally exploding what everyone thought was possible. It seems like it is going to happen again today.”
Courtney Dauwalter, watching from afar, called it “the floodgates opening.”
Anne Flower, after breaking Trason’s Leadville record: “I feel like we should be breaking records set in the 1990s. We have better training, better nutrition, better shoes.”
The language is telling. These athletes do not see old records as sacred. They see them as targets.
What Does This Mean for the Sport?
We are watching trail running grow up in real time. The records that fell in 2025 will fall again. Schide’s Hardrock mark will be challenged, possibly by Dauwalter herself in 2026. Jennings’s 100 mile time is within reach for several athletes. Flower’s 50 mile record will attract attention from road specialists testing themselves at ultra distances.
The sport is gaining visibility, legitimacy, and investment. The World Mountain and Trail Running Championships draw deeper fields every year. Major brands are investing in trail running teams. Live broadcasts of UTMB, Western States, and other major events reach global audiences.
And the athletes keep getting faster. Not incrementally. Dramatically. In ways that make you question what the actual human limits are.
The Takeaway
If you are a competitive runner, the bar has risen. The days when showing up fit and talented was enough to contend are over. At the elite level, every detail matters.
If you are a recreational runner, this is the most exciting time in the sport’s history to be paying attention. The performances are mind bending. The rivalries are compelling. The characters are genuine. Trail running has arrived.
And if you are someone who has never run a trail race but has thought about it? Stop thinking. Start running.
The records prove that human potential is far greater than we assumed. The distances that seemed impossible a decade ago are routine now. The times that seemed untouchable have been touched, broken, and rewritten.
The old guard set the standards. The new generation is tearing them apart. And somewhere on a trail right now, an athlete nobody has heard of yet is training for the performance that will make us recalibrate everything we thought we knew.
That is the beautiful thing about this sport. The next record is always one race away.
Written from somewhere on a trail, probably behind schedule.
References
Anne Flower and Leadville 100:
iRunFar. “Chasing Ann Trason: Anne Flower’s Historic 2025 Leadville 100 Mile Run.” August 23, 2025.
iRunFar. “Anne Flower and David Roche Set Course Records at 2025 Leadville 100 Mile.” August 18, 2025.
iRunFar. “An ‘Accidental’ Leadville 100 Mile Record: A Conversation with Anne Flower.” October 1, 2025.
Outside Run. “How ER Doc Anne Flower Broke 31-Year-Old Leadville 100 Record.” August 19, 2025.
Marathon Handbook. “Records Shattered At The 2025 Leadville Trail 100.” August 18, 2025.
Denver Gazette. “Coloradan Anne Flower breaks 31-year-old record at Leadville Trail 100 Run.” September 10, 2025.
ACEP Now. “Dr. Anne Flower Completes Record-Breaking Running Season.” January 9, 2026.
UltraRunning Magazine. “Anne Flower named #2 2025 UltraRunner of the Year.” January 13, 2026.
Ann Trason Background:
Leadville Race Series. “The Unforgettable Story of the Tarahumara and Ann Trason.” April 30, 2023.
Ultrarunning History. “Ann Trason: 2020 Hall of Fame Member.” December 10, 2020.
Wikipedia. “Ann Trason.” Accessed February 2026.
iRunFar. “Unforgettable Moments in Ultrarunning: 1994 Leadville 100 Mile.” April 22, 2022.
GU Energy Labs. “GU Pioneers: Ann Trason.” March 26, 2018.
Trail Runner Magazine. “Legends of the Trail.” February 24, 2020.
Katie Schide and Hardrock 100:
iRunFar. “2025 Hardrock 100 Results: Katie Schide Breaks Course Record and Ludovic Pommeret Repeats.” August 22, 2025.
iRunFar. “Katie Schide, 2025 Hardrock 100 Champion, Interview.” July 14, 2025.
Outside Run. “Katie Schide, Ludo Pommeret Triumph Amid Tragedy at 2025 Hardrock 100.” July 14, 2025.
Marathon Handbook. “Katie Schide Smashes Hardrock 100 Record.” July 12, 2025.
RUN247. “Hardrock 100 2025: Pommeret and Schide take titles.” July 12, 2025.
Uphill Athlete. “Key Takeaways from the 2025 Hardrock 100.” July 31, 2025.
Durango Herald. “Garland reflects on challenging 2025 Hardrock 100.” July 24, 2025.
Caitriona Jennings and 100 Mile World Record:
iRunFar. “Caitriona Jennings Sets 100-Mile World Record at the 2025 Tunnel Hill 100 Mile.” November 21, 2025.
iRunFar. “An Interview with Caitriona Jennings After Her 100-Mile World Record.” November 21, 2025.
Athletics Ireland. “Caitriona Jennings Shatters Women’s 100-Mile World Record at Tunnel Hill.” November 9, 2025.
Irish Times. “Irish athlete Caitriona Jennings breaks 100-mile world record.” November 9, 2025.
Irish Times. “Coaching Caitriona Jennings to the 100-mile world record.” November 12, 2025.
RTE Sport. “Donegal’s Jennings smashes 100-mile world record.” November 10, 2025.
Canadian Running Magazine. “Irish runner sets new women’s 100-mile world record.” November 10, 2025.
Anne Flower 50 Mile World Record:
iRunFar. “Anne Flower Sets 50-Mile World Record at the 2025 Tunnel Hill 50 Mile.” November 21, 2025.
iRunFar. “An Interview With Anne Flower After Her 50-Mile World Record.” November 10, 2025.
USATF. “Flower’s 50-mile world record earns her USATF Athlete of the Week honors.” November 2025.
My Best Runs. “Anne Flower Sets New Women’s 50-Mile World Record.” November 2025.
Charlie Lawrence 100K American Record:
iRunFar. “This Week In Running: December 22, 2025.” December 25, 2025.
Runners Are Smilers. “Charlie Lawrence Runs 4th fastest 100km time.” December 21, 2025.
UltraRunning Magazine. “Ultra Weekend Recap: December 21, 2025.” December 22, 2025.
Wikipedia. “Charles R. Lawrence.” Accessed February 2026.
Stryd Blog. “Inside Charlie Lawrence’s New 100K American Record.” January 22, 2026.
Courtney Olsen 100K American Record:
Outside Run. “Is Courtney Olsen the Fastest Courtney in Ultrarunning?” February 2026.
CITIUS Mag. “USATF 50 Mile Championship Recap: The View From The Tunnel.” November 2025.
Tunnel Hill Race Website. “2025 Results and Records.” ultrasignup.com.
Western States 2024 Depth:
iRunFar. “2024 Western States 100 Results: Walmsley Wins a Fourth Time While Schide Rocks the Women’s Field.” August 12, 2025.
Outside Run. “2024 Western States 100 Results.” July 2, 2024.
WSER Official Website. “2024 Results.” wser.org.
Tove Alexandersson World Championships:
iRunFar. “2025 Trail World Championships Short Trail Results: Tove Alexandersson, Frederic Tranchand Triumph.” September 28, 2025.
iRunFar. “From Orienteering to 2025 Short Trail World Champ: A Conversation with Tove Alexandersson.” November 4, 2025.
World Athletics. “Tranchand and Alexandersson shatter short trail records at Canfranc.” September 2025.
WMRA. “Frederic Tranchand and Tove Alexandersson Shatter Records.” September 27, 2025.
RUN247. “World Mountain & Trail Running Championships 2025.” September 27, 2025.
Sarah Webster 24 Hour World Record:
iRunFar. “2025 IAU 24-Hour World Championships Results: Sarah Webster Smashes World Record, Andrii Tkachuk Wins.” December 24, 2025.
iRunFar. “Great Britain’s Sarah Webster Sets Women’s 24-Hour World Record.” October 21, 2025.
iRunFar. “Calculated Pacing: An Interview With Sarah Webster on Her 24-Hour World Record.” October 21, 2025.
British Athletics. “Sarah Webster Breaks 24-Hour World Record.” October 31, 2025.
Athletics Weekly. “Sarah Webster runs women’s world 24-hour record.” October 23, 2025.
Marathon Handbook. “Sarah Webster Smashes 24-Hour World Record In France.” October 20, 2025.
Canadian Running Magazine. “British woman sets new 24-hour world record.” October 19, 2025.
Ludovic Pommeret:
iRunFar. “Ludovic Pommeret, 2025 Hardrock 100 Champion, Interview.” July 14, 2025.
Outside Run. “Ludo Pommeret is running UTMB six weeks after winning Hardrock.” August 22, 2025.
Compressport. “Hardrock 100: Ludovic Pommeret Wins Again in Style.” July 2025.
My Best Runs. “Ludo Pommeret and Katie Schide Dominate a Gritty 2025 Hardrock 100.” July 14, 2025.
General Ultrarunning Context:
iRunFar. “Every Surface, Any Distance: Top Ultramarathon Performances of 2025.” January 2, 2026.
Hardrock100.com. “Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run Information.” Official race website.
Colorado Encyclopedia. “Leadville Trail 100 Run.” coloradoencyclopedia.org.
Durbin Race Management. “Tunnel Hill Race Information.” durbinracemanagement.com.
IAU. “Shoes Regulation Applicable to Ultradistance.” iau-ultramarathon.org.