For hours, Katie Schide (pre-race interview) chased ghosts. For hours, Jim Walmsley (pre-race interview) and Rod Farvard chased one another. And ultimately, after 100 brave, gutsy miles at one of many world’s most iconic ultramarathons, it was Schide and Walmsley who gained a quick, dramatic 2024 Western States 100.
Schide, an American who lives in France, was on tempo to interrupt the course file till late within the race, whereas People Walmsley and Farvard battled all through a lot of the second half of the race, alternating the lead as late as mile 85.
Schide’s profitable time was 15:46:57, simply over 17 minutes behind Courtney Dauwalter’s 2023 course file, nearly an hour sooner than her personal time final 12 months, and the second quickest girls’s time ever. Walmsley, in the meantime, gained his fourth Western States in 14:13:45, the second quickest time ever — solely behind his personal file of 14:09:28 that he set in 2019.
Second and third within the males’s race got here right down to an epic dash end on the monitor between Farvard and Hayden Hawks (pre-race interview), who completed in 14:24:15 and 14:24:31, respectively.
Within the girls’s race for the rostrum, Fu-Zhao Xiang (pre-race interview) completed second in 16:20:03, and Eszter Csillag (pre-race interview) took third for the second time in a row, in 16:42:17.
Each races featured one of many deepest and best fields in race historical past, with the lads’s high 5 all coming in sooner than final 12 months’s profitable time, and the ladies’s high 10 ending just below 40 minutes sooner than final 12 months’s extremely aggressive high 10.
At 5 a.m. on Saturday, June 29, they have been all among the many 375 runners who started the historic route from Olympic Valley to Auburn, California, traversing 100.2 miles of path with 18,000 ft of elevation acquire and 22,000 ft of loss. After final 12 months’s cool temperatures, the climate at this 12 months’s race was a bit hotter, albeit with a notable lack of snow within the excessive nation. The excessive temperature in Auburn was within the low 90s Fahrenheit.
A particular because of HOKA for making our protection of the Western States 100 potential!
Thanks additionally to Fractel for sponsoring our race protection.
Learn on for the complete race story.
The beginning of the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
2024 Western States 100 Males’s Race
In his return to the race that propelled him to the heights of world path working and his first extremely on American soil in three years, Jim Walmsley (pre-race interview) demonstrated why he’s, as soon as once more, the king of Western States. Earlier than the race, Walmsley exuded a calmness that maybe eluded him throughout his first makes an attempt on the race, when he attacked it with an obsessive depth that led him to famously take a incorrect flip after which dropping out in back-to-back years.
“We’ll simply roll with what performs out and simply form of see what occurs within the race,” he stated in his pre-race interview. There’s a marked distinction when in comparison with his remarks from his interview earlier than the 2016 race.
What occurred within the race was this: In his fourth Western States, Rod Farvard had the race of his life to push Walmsley like he’d by no means been pushed earlier than in his lengthy historical past with the occasion.
Farvard — a 28-year-old from Mammoth Lakes, California, who has improved his end annually on the race, from a DNF in 2021 to forty first place in 2022 to eleventh place final 12 months — put himself in a robust place from the beginning, main a big pack of runners that included Walmsley on the high of the Escarpment, the two,500-foot climb within the first 4 miles of the race. For the following 45-plus miles, Farvard remained within the high 10, a part of a chase pack of American Hayden Hawks (pre-race interview), Kiwi Dan Jones (pre-race interview), and Chinese language runner Guo-Min Deng, amongst others.
Dan Jones (left) and Hayden Hawks rolling by means of Robinson Flat through the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
On the Robinson Flat help station at mile 30 — the symbolic finish of the runners’ time within the excessive nation, which options a median elevation of round 7,000 ft — Walmsley, who began the race conspicuously sporting all black, got here by means of in 4:24 wanting quick and clean, now sporting an ice-soaked white shirt. Jones, the 2024 Tarawera 102k champion and fifth-place finisher in his Western States debut final 12 months, and Hawks, who set the course file at February’s Black Canyons 100k after dropping out of final 12 months’s Western States, adopted about 90 seconds later. The 2 runners, frequent coaching companions, ran collectively incessantly all through the day, with Hawks typically foregoing ice at help stations.
After the trio of Walmsley, Hawks, and Jones went by means of Final Probability at mile 43 collectively, Walmsley put practically two minutes on them up the climb to Satan’s Thumb. “I used to be with everyone on the backside,” he stated, in accordance with the race’s official livestream.
About midway by means of, at mile 49.5, the order remained the identical: Walmsley within the lead with an elapsed time of 6:58, adopted by Jones one minute again, Hawks two minutes again, and Farvard simply over two and a half minutes again. The remainder of the highest 10 have been final 12 months’s Seventeenth-place finisher Dakota Jones; 2024 Transvulcania Ultramarathon champion Jon Albon (pre-race interview), who’s from the U.Okay. however lives in Norway; 2023 fourth-place finisher Jia-Sheng Shen (China) (pre-race interview); 2023 Canyons 100k champion Cole Watson; Western States specialist Tyler Inexperienced (pre-race interview); and Jupiter Carera (Mexico).
Cole Watson (left, in orange) and Tyler Inexperienced (proper) working by means of Robinson Flat. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Then started an exhilarating, chaotic second half of the race — that includes a gripping back-and-forth between Walmsley and Farvard, a wildfire close to the course, a two-man river crossing, and a dash end on the monitor.
It began when Walmsley entered Michigan Bluff at mile 55, once more wanting calm and in management, altering shirts and getting doused with ice. Farvard got here in simply behind him and left the help station first, main the race for the primary time because the first climb up the Escarpment. The identical routine befell seven miles later at Foresthill: Walmsley coming into first, Farvard leaving first.
Rod Farvard ending the climb to Michigan Bluff in second through the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
For the following 18 miles, the 2 runners alternated within the lead. By mile 78, they have been so shut that they have been crossing the American River on the similar time. Their battle underscored the general depth of the sector at this 12 months’s race: At mile 80, the highest 5 males have been inside 16 minutes of each other.
Rod Farvard crossing the American River in first with Jim Walmsley on the far financial institution. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Round then, the 15-acre Creek Hearth, which began not lengthy earlier than, was seen from the river and crews have been quickly not permitted to journey to the Inexperienced Gate help station at mile 80 as a result of the path to it handed near the fireplace. Finally, a reroute was established for crews to get to Inexperienced Gate and, later, after the wildfire was managed, the common route was reopened.
At Inexperienced Gate, Farvard got here by means of within the lead, with Walmsley 4 minutes again and searching like he was hurting. It was then, maybe, that the thought entered folks’s minds: May Farvard actually take down the champ?
However Jim Walmsley is Jim Walmsley for a purpose, and he once more proved why he’s among the many world’s finest. Towards the ropes, going through certainly one of his first actual challenges within the race that formed him, he delivered, coming into the following help station, Auburn Lake Trails at mile 85, greater than a minute sooner than Farvard. He had made up 5 minutes in 5 miles.
Walmsley by no means trailed once more, rising his result in 11 minutes by the Pointed Rocks help station at mile 94 after which selecting up his crew, together with his spouse, Jess Brazeau, at Robie Level to run the ultimate mile with him. He entered the monitor at Placer Excessive College to loud cheers, his loping stride nonetheless wanting clean, stopping a number of steps wanting the tape to wave to the group and lift his arms in triumph. He had finished it once more.
Jim Walmsley, 2024 Western States 100 champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Behind him, Farvard was fading however decided to cap a rare race with a second-place end. Hawks, who had made up 5 minutes on Farvard between Pointed Rocks and Robie Level, was on the hunt, and by the point he stepped on the monitor, Farvard was nearby.
It was then that followers have been handled to one of the distinctive sights in all of ultrarunning: After 100 miles of racing, two males have been sprinting in opposition to one another on a monitor. Ultimately, Farvard’s lead held, and he completed 16 seconds forward of Hawks. He collapsed on the end line — a becoming finish to an epic efficiency.
Dan Jones ended a robust race with a fourth-place end in 14:32:29, with Caleb Olson capping a powerful second half of the race — from eleventh at mile 53 to fifth in 14:40:12 on the end. All 5 males ran a time that may have gained the race final 12 months.
Dan Jones being aggressively cooled down by his pacer through the river crossing. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Behind Olson got here Jon Albon, working 14:57:01 in his 100-mile running-race debut, adopted by the surgical Tyler Inexperienced, who completed in seventh for his fourth straight high 10 end on the race. Inexperienced’s time of 15:05:39 additionally marked a brand new males’s masters course file, breaking the 2013 Mike Morton file of 15:45:21.
Rounding out the highest 10 have been Jia-Sheng Shen in eighth with a time of 15:09:49, Jonathan Rea in ninth who methodically moved his approach up over the last 60 miles to complete in 15:13:10, and Chris Myers in tenth in 15:18:25.
2024 Western States 100 Males’s Outcomes
- Jim Walmsley (Hoka) – 14:13:45 (pre-race interview)
- Rod Farvard (The North Face) – 14:24:15
- Hayden Hawks (Hoka) – 14:24:31 (pre-race interview)
- Dan Jones (Adidas Terrex) – 14:32:29 (pre-race interview)
- Caleb Olson (Nike ) – 14:40:12
- Jon Albon (The North Face) – 14:57:01 (pre-race interview)
- Tyler Inexperienced (Nike) – 15:05:39 (pre-race interview)
- Jia-Sheng Shen (The North Face) – 15:09:49 (pre-race interview)
- Jonathan Rea (Hoka) – 15:13:10
- Chris Myers (Salomon) – 15:18:25
Jupiter Carera representing Mexico up at Robinson Flat through the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
2024 Western States 100 Ladies’s Race
By the excessive nation, into and out of the canyons, and alongside the river of the world’s oldest 100-mile path race, Katie Schide (pre-race interview) raced solely the ghosts of the clock and historical past. Smiling all through, she appeared unaffected by the solitude and the enormity of the likelihood that lay earlier than her: to try to interrupt the course file of one of many world’s most iconic path races.
Schide, an American who lives in France, got here into the race because the clear favourite, and for good purpose: She completed second final 12 months, breaking Ellie Greenwood’s beforehand untouchable 2012 course file by greater than three minutes and dropping to solely Courtney Dauwalter, who broke Greenwood’s file by an astounding 78 minutes on her technique to a historic Western States-Hardrock 100-UTMB triple win. Schide, winner of the 2022 UTMB and 2023 Diagonale des Fous 100 Mile, spent the final two-and-a-half months in Flagstaff, Arizona, coaching for Western States, profitable this 12 months’s Canyons 100k in a powerful tune-up and placing in a monster coaching block.
In her pre-race interview, Schide stated that she had considered methods to enhance her race from final 12 months, which maybe ought to have been the primary warning to her competitors. The second, then, was her rapid separation from the ladies’s chase pack: She summited the Escarpment, a 2,500-foot climb through the first 4 miles, in first place and by no means seemed again. By the primary help station — Lyon Ridge at 10 miles — she was already 12 minutes below course file tempo, and by Robinson Flat at mile 30, she was 21 minutes forward of second-place Emily Hawgood (pre-race interview), from Zimbabwe however residing within the U.S.
Katie Schide in management within the excessive nation at Robinson Flat through the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The lead solely ballooned from there. By Dusty Corners at mile 38, Schide was an unimaginable 26 minutes below course file tempo, and although she misplaced a couple of minutes from that tempo by the point she climbed as much as Michigan Bluff at mile 55, her smile had not waned even barely. She easily entered the long-lasting help station, doused herself with ice, modified shirts, and was quickly on her approach. She by no means sat down.
Twenty-seven minutes behind her was Hawgood, trying to construct on back-to-back fifth-place finishes. Eszter Csillag (pre-race interview), a Hungarian who lives in Hong Kong, adopted quickly after, in the identical third spot she completed in final 12 months.
Fu-Zhao Xiang cruising by means of Robinson Flat. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
After them ran a dense pack of girls: Solely 16 minutes separated Hawgood in second from Lotti Brinks in eleventh.
Ida Nilsson working her approach again into subsequent 12 months’s Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
On the midway level, the highest 10 have been Schide, 33 minutes up in an elapsed time of seven:26; Csillag; Hawgood; Chinese language runner Fu-Zhao Xiang (pre-race interview), the fourth-place finisher finally 12 months’s UTMB; Lin Chen (China); American Heather Jackson, a flexible former triathlete who lately completed fifth at a aggressive 200-mile gravel bike race; ultrarunning veteran Ida Nilsson (pre-race interview), a Swede residing in Norway; Becca Windell, second on this 12 months’s Black Canyon 100k; 2023 CCC winner Yngvild Kaspersen (Norway); and Rachel Drake, working her 100-mile debut.
Schide, simply identifiable in her pink shirt, maintained her giant lead all through the second half of the race, remaining calm, managed, and upbeat all through the robust canyon miles. By Foresthill at mile 62, she was 19 minutes forward in fact file tempo and 48 minutes forward of the second-place Xiang. Schide’s stride nonetheless seemed clean as she waved to followers and even high-fived a cameraman.
Schide’s aggressive tempo ultimately slowed — by Inexperienced Gate at mile 80, her lead on the course file had dissipated — however her spirits didn’t. After a fast sponge tub at Auburn Lake Path air station at mile 85, she fell behind course-record tempo for the primary time all day, solely 15 miles remained till the end.
Schide entered the monitor a few hours later, working along with her crew and no headlamp. She would end earlier than darkish. She stopped for a hug on the ultimate straightaway and lifted the tape with, in fact, a smile.
Katie Schide, 2024 Western States 100 champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Xiang had methodically pulled away from Hawgood and Csillag throughout an extremely robust second half to win the battle for second. She completed in 16:20:03 for the third quickest time in race historical past. Chen, who dropped out at mile 78, was one of many few elite runners who had a DNF on this present day, which was categorized by a scarcity of attrition in each the ladies’s and males’s elite races.
Eszter Csillag got here in about 22 minutes behind Xiang in 16:42:17 for her second consecutive third-place end, a 30-minute enchancment from final 12 months — a statistic that maybe exemplifies the pace of this 12 months’s race higher than another.
Eszter Csillag having fun with(?) her crossing of the American River. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The battle for fourth and fifth was practically as shut as Farvard and Hawks’s race for second within the males’s race a few hours earlier.
At Pointed Rocks at mile 94, Hawgood led by barely two minutes, working exhausting and straight by means of the help station. Kaspersen, in the meantime, was consuming Coke and made up nearly a minute by Robie Level.
Western States rookie Yngvild Kaspersen ran a sensible race en path to putting fifth. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Emily Hawgood’s lead in the end held, and she or he completed fourth in 16:48:43 to enhance her end from prior years by one spot. Yngvild Kaspersen was lower than two minutes again in 16:50:39. Ida Nilsson capped a robust day to complete sixth in 16:56:52 and break Ragna Debats’s masters course file by nearly 45 minutes. Which means the highest six girls all completed in below 17 hours in a race that had solely ever had three girls end below that mark — and two of them, Dauwalter and Schide, have been final 12 months.
The remainder of the highest 10 have been Heather Jackson in seventh in 17:16:43, and, in shut succession, Rachel Drake in 17:28:35, Priscilla Forgie (Canada) in 17:30:24, and Leah Yingling in 17:33:54.
The highest 10 girls have been all sooner than the Twelfth-fastest time in race historical past going into the day.
Leah Yingling making her approach throughout the American River. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
2024 Western States 100 Ladies’s Outcomes
- Katie Schide (The North Face) – 15:46:57 (pre-race interview)
- Fu-Zhao Xiang (Hoka) – 16:20:03 (pre-race interview)
- Eszter Csillag (Hoka) – 16:42:17 (pre-race interview)
- Emily Hawgood (Adidas Terrex) – 16:48:43 (pre-race interview)
- Yngvild Kaspersen (Adidas Terrex) – 16:50:39
- Ida Nilsson (Craft) – 16:56:52 (pre-race interview)
- Heather Jackson (Herbalife) – 17:16:43
- Rachel Drake (Nike) – 17:28:35
- Priscilla Forgie (Soar) – 17:30:24
- Leah Yingling (Lululemon) – 17:33:54
Heather Jackson (entrance) and Ida Nilsson crossing the American River collectively, with the ladies’s masters file in play for whomever would end sooner.