Written by RT Meg
Jim Walmsley is the greatest American ultrarunner of his generation. A four time Western States champion, the only American man to win UTMB, and a former world best 50 mile record holder. But before any of that, he was a discharged Air Force officer battling depression and suicidal ideation, searching for a reason to keep moving forward.
The Missileer
Walmsley’s path to ultrarunning greatness was never linear. After graduating from the Air Force Academy, where he had competed in track and cross country, the young officer was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana. His assignment: nuclear missileer, working 24 hour shifts in a small underground room.
It was a difficult, isolating lifestyle. Running, which had defined his identity through high school and college, felt like a closed chapter.
“Having to go into the Air Force, I kind of felt like my running career was done,” Walmsley has said. “I thought it was just on the track. I wasn’t aware of this whole trail running world.”
When he could find time around his shifts, Walmsley would set off on runs into the Montana wilderness. He didn’t know it yet, but those runs were planting seeds.
The Fall
Walmsley’s military career ended abruptly. His involvement in a proficiency test cheating scandal at Malmstrom, combined with an earlier DUI charge, led to his discharge from the Air Force.
What followed was the darkest period of his life. His mental health spiralled. Depression set in. Suicidal ideation took hold. Even now, roughly a decade later, Walmsley finds it difficult to revisit.
“I haven’t looked back on it too much,” he says. “I think sometimes it’s still a triggering time and I like being more in the present. Mentally, it’s easiest for me to not revisit it so much.”
The Bright Point
After seeking professional help, Walmsley took a job at a bike shop in Flagstaff, Arizona. Slowly, running re entered his life. Not as a career. Not as competition. Just as something that felt good.
He built a routine around it. After each run, he would plan the next one. Day by day, the structure brought stability.
“This is kind of when life started to be more stable, and I was coming out of my getting kicked out of the Air Force and things not going as well in life,” Walmsley recalls. “We identified running as a bright point and something that made me happy and something that I like talking about, and essentially the reality that I was getting positive feedback from running, where most of life wasn’t as positive at the time.”
The key, he says, was “not making off days contagious.” Eventually, that daily discipline became addictive.
“It’s telltale that maybe I was meant for ultrarunning, in that we tend to just overdo everything. I just leaned all the way into it and got back to making training part of my routine in life again.”
The Rise
Walmsley’s entry into ultrarunning was explosive. His background in track, road and cross country gave him a unique physical toolkit in a sport dominated by self taught mountain runners. He could run fast. He just needed to learn to run long.
His debut at the Western States 100 Miler in 2016 became instant legend, though not for the reason he hoped. Roughly seven miles from the finish and on course record pace, Walmsley took a wrong turn. He ran several miles off course before realising, eventually finishing 20th. It was the kind of spectacular failure that either breaks a runner or forges one.
Walmsley chose the latter. He came back and won Western States four times, setting the course record in the process. His dominance at the iconic 100 mile race through California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains established him as the face of American ultrarunning.
The numbers are extraordinary:
Western States 100: Four time champion, course record holder
UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc): Champion and course record holder. The first and only American man to win what Walmsley calls “basically the biggest prize you can win in trail running.” The roughly 108 mile race circumnavigates Mont Blanc through France, Switzerland and Italy, with 9,900 metres of elevation gain, more than the height of Mount Everest.
50 Mile World Best: Former record holder at 4:50:08
Olympic Marathon Trials: Placed 22nd at the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials, stepping outside his ultrarunning world to test himself on the road
HOKA Athlete: Signed in July 2016, becoming one of the most prominent faces in trail running globally
Learning a Different Sport
The transition from track to ultra was not seamless. Walmsley has been candid about the lessons he had to unlearn.
“Getting brought up in American running culture has set me up to have a bunch of fallacies and kind of fail in a lot of different ways in ultrarunning,” he says. “Typically, it makes me not patient enough.”
He learned that walking uphill is often faster and more efficient than running. He learned to eat little and often, even when his stomach revolts. And he learned to override every instinct telling him to speed up, to stay patient, to trust the process over 100 miles.
“Ultrarunning is very much a different sport,” Walmsley says. And the beauty, he believes, lies in the suffering.
“24 hours, I think, is a really long, really beautiful length of a race because you’re racing one day, one rotation of the Earth sort of thing. Something unifying throughout every participant in the sport is that we all go through a point of doubt and questioning it, and it kind of goes to motivation to finish and that drive to keep going.”
“It’s a basic thing that’s not so important in the grand scheme of life, but sometimes it’s so amazing because it just brings you to the present to focus on going forward. And I think that simplicity in the race is a really special feeling that we can have as humans.”
What’s Next
Now 35 and living part time in Arêches in the south of France, Walmsley is building back from a lingering knee injury that he exacerbated while racing 120 kilometres in Chianti, Italy earlier this year. He has confirmed he will compete in the OCC at UTMB week on August 27, a roughly 37 mile race from Switzerland to Chamonix, rather than the full distance event.
He is also targeting the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain and the Pyrenees in late September. His weekly mileage is climbing back towards 140 miles, mostly on hills, almost always on trails.
“I get to do longer runs that take me to fun places, so I’m back to a happy part of my relationship with running and being able to do enough that’s quite satisfying,” Walmsley says. “I see progression quite a bit.”
The knee forced him to skip Western States this year, and he’s chosen the shorter OCC over UTMB to protect his long term health. Patience, the lesson that has defined his ultrarunning career, is now being applied to his own body.
“I would rather find myself healthy and competing for UTMB again,” he says. “I’m taking more time to try to be more positive that hopefully my injury won’t reset again.”
And running itself? That will never stop.
“I would like to hope that I’ll be a lifetime runner. I think I’ve learned that about myself, that it helps me a lot mentally to keep moving.”
If You Need Help
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health, help is available.
Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 | Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
USA: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988)
Globally: International Association for Suicide Prevention