Hey y’all, we scrolled through 650+ IG posts and 80+ articles, newsletters, podcast episodes, and videos since Friday’s issue so you could start the week without living on your phone. Here’s your Monday Ultra Minute:
Aimee Warnke and Aaron Kubala, both Triple Crown of 200s entrants, won Bigfoot 200. Warnke became the first woman to finish in about 61 hours, according to a finish-line Story she reshared, while Kubala won the men’s race in 47:21:11. Both have now completed the first two legs, with Moab 240 left in October. Kubala set Tahoe’s course record in June. Brody Chisholm finished second in 53:36:41 and Josh Coleman third in 57:19:04. At 10:27 a.m. Central Monday, Trackleaders marked Warnke FIN with a finish checkpoint of 2 days, 13 hours, and 17 minutes and listed her sixth overall; official results were still pending. TUM profiled her last August as Aimee Jacobs, a San Antonio-based Army physical therapist who was diagnosed with rare pelvic chondrosarcoma and won her first 100-miler outright three months later.
At Last Soul Ultra, Mark Dowdle, Norman Mascher-Aspensjö, and Ayyoub El Osrouti were on lap 77 after completing 76 loops, or 509.2 kilometers, and remained the final three runners at 11:08 a.m. Central Monday. Hendrik Boury stopped after 68 loops and Martin Stiller after 66. Harvey Lewis had already ended his run, with the official board crediting 46 completed loops and 308.2 kilometers, about two and a half weeks after Badwater.
Eric Thompson won both the Squamish 50 Mile in 7:50:55 and the two-day 50/50 in 13:40:57. Liz MacDonald won the women’s 50 Mile in 8:56:41, while Jennie Labrie won the women’s 50/50 in 15:57:28 after placing second Saturday. In Sunday’s 50K, Alexandre Campbell ran 4:29:38 to lower the men’s course record by 3:22, and Jade Belzberg placed third overall in 5:11:19, winning the women’s race for the third consecutive year.
Conor Brown and Lexi Jackson set course records while winning the Jigger Johnson 100 Mile in 29:41 and 33:12. On the 108-mile course through New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Brown improved the prior men’s mark by nearly 47 minutes and Jackson lowered the women’s record by more than four and a half hours. Jackson also set the unsupported New Hampshire 4,000 Footers FKT last September in 5 days, 16 hours, and 30 minutes. Benjamin Niebla and Aaron Gott completed the men’s podium; Jessica Crandall and Lenka Matejkova were second and third among women.
Challenge du Montcalm permanently stopped PICaPICA after another consultation with Météo-France. The 105K had begun under heat and thunderstorm alerts, and organizers said conditions would not permit a safe restart. The official classifications put Théo Soriano first in 22:36:39, followed by Mathieu Colzato and Anthony Pipitone. Anne Bidalun led the women’s standings in 30:22:12, with Marjorie Pons second and Armelle Devourdy classified third at Soulcem 1 rather than given a finish time. The organizer published four classifications based on where runners were when the race stopped.
Dany Racine and Claudine Soucie won Boréalys Mont-Tremblant’s Odyssée 100K in 7:51:54 and 9:09:43. Clément Perrier and Matthieu Saliou tied for second overall, 11:01 behind Racine; Karol-Ann Roy and Catherine Claveau-Thibault completed the women’s podium. In Sunday’s Tremblante 50K, Benoit Gaillard won in 4:42:28, while Elisa Morin won the women’s race and placed third overall in 4:44:39.
Joe McConaughy and Julija Šorytė set course records at the Olympic Mountains 100K. McConaughy won in 10:24:13, taking 59:19 off the prior men’s best, while runner-up Harley Le Leivre also beat the old mark in 11:22:40. Šorytė won the women’s race in 13:17:00, lowering her own 2024 best by 1:03:31.
Course records also fell from Park City to the San Juan Mountains and Southern California. Elizabeth O’Connor won the women’s Mid Mountain 50K in 4:10:30, placed sixth overall, and took more than 17 minutes off the prior mark; Braden Perry won overall in 3:54:11. At the San Juan Softie 100, Nathan Haley ran 23:28:32 and Katie Kammer ran 24:52:08, giving the roughly 104-mile race new men’s and women’s records. Makai Clemons added a Bulldog 50K record in 3:23:49, improving the prior listed best by 6:14.
Klaire Rhodes reported a brown-bear attack Thursday morning on a Chugach trail she runs weekly. Rhodes reported a deep puncture wound to her left hip, plus claw and teeth marks, and said bear spray worked. She described her injuries as relatively minor, but wrote that the physical and psychological recovery leaves her unsure about racing in Europe in less than two weeks.
Kilian Jornet warned of sharply increased rockfall on Mont Blanc after weeks of heat, little precipitation, and continuous snowmelt. He said the Tête Rousse and Goûter refuges had been closed since August 11 and connected the immediate danger to glacier retreat and thawing permafrost. The European Climate and Health Observatory links Alpine permafrost thaw with rockfall and infrastructure damage, matching Jornet’s warning that classic routes are becoming more dangerous or disappearing altogether.
Jessie Diggins plans to attempt Superior 100 in September as the third race in a post-skiing trail experiment. The retired cross-country skier gave herself three different trail races as a retirement gift: Broken Arrow’s multi-day Triple Crown, Sierre-Zinal, and now a first try at 100 miles on Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail.
Also worth a look:
Andrew Drummond’s unsupported Long Trail attempt remained on course at mile 112.9 at 11:08 a.m. Central Monday, about 1 hour, 33 minutes behind Will Peterson’s record pace with 159.1 miles remaining.
Karel Sabbe said he had 500 kilometers left in his HexaTrek FKT attempt after nearly four weeks, summing up his condition: “Tired. Skinny. Happy. Strong.”
Robyn Lesh wrote about returning to CCC after placing seventh last year, replacing place and time goals with stronger climbing, better fueling and cooling, and more comfort racing competitively.
Liz Derstine reflected on her Swiss Via Alpina FKT, from predawn starts that helped manage heat and storms to the urge to immediately chase a faster time instead of celebrating the record.
Zach Bitter joined Free Outside to discuss the sport’s shifting money and media landscape, access to Western States and Hardrock, multi-day sleep, pedestrianism, PEDs, and therapeutic-use questions.
Ultra Uncovered’s latest Leadville conversations feature Tim Tollefson, on why the race stayed outside his professional calendar until this year, and Pat Cade, a six-time finisher starting 2.5 hours behind the field to raise money for Lake County programs; congratulations, too, to co-host Corinne Trujillo Shalvoy, whose Women Can apparel just launched at REI in Colorado Springs.
Lastly, Erica Rasmussen completed Leadville’s 10K in a wheelchair, and her finish-line video is worth a watch.
The most viewed links from our last issue:
That’s it for today. If TUM helps you follow the sport without spending your whole day on Instagram, the best way to help it grow is to share this issue with one friend who’d get it. Or simply like this post. Thanks for reading.
Ken
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