Looking for the women's results? Find them here.
Caleb Olson snatched victory at the Western States 100 men's race with one of the fastest times ever, while the legendary hundred miler proved predictably unpredictable for several runners tapped for a possible podium.
The 29-year-old was in the front pack as it took off from Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort on June 28 and kept a blistering pace for the first half of the race. After dropping fellow American Chris Myers in the canyons, he ran solo for the final 45 miles, looking "cool, calm and collected" in an Instagram post showing him fording the American River at mile 78, and coming in at 14 hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds. That's only two minutes behind Jim Walmsley's 2019 record.
The Utah runner is relatively new to the scene, but threw down the fastest debut ever at WSER in 2024 and made headlines again in February when he set a stunning new course record at Transgrancanaria wearing a shoe prototype that's rumored to be the new Nike Ultrafly.
What else went down?
Colorado's Chris Myers, also 29, managed to hold onto second place and came in just behind Olson in 14:17:39, also one of the fastest times ever on the course and besting his 2024 time by an hour.
After Jim Walmsley dropped out of the race five weeks ago due to a knee injury, all eyes swivelled to Kilian Jornet, who was making his return to the race after a victory 14 years ago. Though he took third place after staying towards the front for the duration of the race, his time of 14:19:22 is more than an hour and 15 minutes faster than his last win, so clearly he's got faster over the years – the problem is, so has everyone else.
Jornet quickly took to Instagram to congratulate Olson and Myers, writing: "The beauty of stepping outside your comfort zone is that nothing’s guaranteed. What an incredible intensity from start to finish - running one hour and 15 minutes faster than I did here to win 14 years ago, but today even that wasn’t enough."
Was there carnage?
As usual, there was plenty of carnage to be had on the course, with David Roche turning out to be one of the first casualties on the men's side. Roche, who last year finally broke the longstanding Leadville 100 record and then won the Javelina Jundred, had stated publicly he intended to win the race at his debut, even launching a YouTube series called Road to Western States to chart his journey. In the end, the heat proved too much for the Colorado runner, who dropped at Foresthill after around 10 hours on the course.
Similarly, last year's surprise UTMB winner Vincent Bouillard had flown to California to try the race for the first time after taking third place behind Walmsley and Jornet at this year's UTMB Chianti. The French runner made it nearly 14 hours on the course before DNFing at Green Gate.
You can view the full men's results here.
As usual, this year's course saw runners and bystanders navigating snow as well as scorching temperatures, with the thermostat hitting the 90s yesterday afternoon. The warm weather meant the river was low enough for the runners to cross on foot (holding onto a rope) rather than being ferried across in rafts.
