Winning the Western States 100 on Saturday evening in 14 hours, 11 minutes, 25 seconds on a notoriously hot day in Auburn, California, will go down as an all-time life achievement for Caleb Olson. But it will forever be the second best thing that happened to him this year.
Meanwhile, Abby Hall returned to her dominant running and won the women’s race in 16:36:16 just two years after suffering a devastating knee injury and broken leg while training near her home in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Kilian Jornet finishes third at Western States.
Olson, a 29-year-old runner from Draper, Utah, ran away from a strong field of runners to win the historic 100.2-mile race from Olympic Valley, California to Auburn. Despite 95-degree heat most of the afternoon, he covered the course’s 18,000 feet (5,500m) of elevation gain and 23,00 feet (7000m) of elevation loss in the second fastest time in the race’s 52-year history. But that pales in comparison to his wife, Morgan, giving birth to their son, Marshall, seven weeks ago.
View the full results from 2025 Western States 100
“It’s pretty amazing. I wasn’t even sure I’d make it to the start line because I thought that having a newborn would change training so much, impact recovery, and I wouldn’t be able to pull it off,” said Olson, who was met at the finish line by his wife and young son. “I was really playing it by ear, but luckily Morgan really stepped up and covered tons of night shifts to take care of our son. It’s been amazing. It’s so rewarding to get to a finish line and be able to share this experience with them.”
It was Olson’s second straight strong performance at the country’s most prestigious ultraunning race. Last year he was fifth in 14:40:12, the fastest debut time in history. This year, he pushed to the front early in the race with other pre-race contenders Chris Myers, David Roche, Rod Farvard, Adam Peterman, Kilian Jornet, and Seth Ruhling.
But at the 38-mile Dusty Corners aid station, Olson and Myers, a 29-year-old runner from Nederland, Colorado, surged ahead from the field and made it a two-person race the rest of the way. The two worked together ahead of course-record pace for the next 17 miles until Olson took the lead for good just before the 55.7-mile Michigan Bluff aid station.
Olson, who averaged 8:30 min/mile pace over the course of the entire race, was hoping to make a run at Jim Walmsley’s 2019 course record of 14:09:28. He ran as hard as he could through mile 90 or so and built a 6-minute lead, but fatigue and the heat started to take its toll, and Myers and Jornet started to eat into his margin over the final 10 miles of the race.
Olson had been rising in the ranks of the sport for several years, as evidenced by three top-20 finishes at the CCC 100K in Chamonix, and a runner-up showing at the Ultra Trail Cape Town 100K in 2023.
He had more than enough left in the tank and, even though he narrowly missed Wamsley’s record, he finished with a 6-minute cushion on Myers (14:17:39) and a nearly 8-minute advantage on Jornet (14:19:22).
“There was a lot of back-and-forth all day, but we worked together,” Olson said. “When we started running together, he said, ‘Run your own race, and feel free to drop me. I’m going to drop you if I get the chance, but we’re also stronger together so let’s ride this as long as we’re both feeling good.’ So we just kind of worked together and had so much fun out there.”
Hall’s return to the top
Hall’s time was more than an hour behind Courtney Dauwalter’s 2023 course record, but she improved by more than six hours on her 2021 debut at the race and posted the fourth-fastest woman’s time in history. Runner-up Fuzhao Xiang of China finished in 16:47:09, the sixth fastest women’s time in history, followed by Canadian Marianne Hogan in third (16:50:58).
Hall finished 14th in the women’s race in her first attempt at Western States in 2021. That started her on an upward trajectory that saw her place second and third, respectively in the 2021 and 2022 Courmayeur/Champex/Chamonix (CCC) 100K race in Europe, followed by a win in the Transvulcania La Palma 73K race in the Canary Island in October 2022.
But then while training near her home in Flagstaff in June 2023, she fell awkwardly on a trail, hyperextending her left knee and suffering a Kilian Jornet finishes third at Western States. She worked feverishly to return last year at the 171K Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race in Chamonix, France, but finished a disappointing 31st place.
Hall had tried to earn a golden ticket entry into this year’s Western States, but came up just short on two occasions. However, Reno-based runner EmKay Sullivan, who earned a golden ticket entry with her third place finish at the Black Canyon 100K in Arizona in February, called Hall late last winter and told her that she was pregnant and would be deferring her entry, and that meant Sullivan’s golden ticket entry would roll down to Hall.
“It’s absolutely surreal,“ said Hall, 34, who was paced part of the way by her husband, Cordis Hall. “Something I have been thinking about all week and repeating in my head is, ‘what’s for you will find you,’ and I really felt like I was meant to be here. I pushed through two hard Golden Ticket events, and I just feel so fortunate with the way it worked out with the ticket roll-down. I kept pushing and taking it one step at a time. I went through a lot of hard things in the last two years, and getting to experience this makes it all worth it.”
It’s hot out there, y’all
The heat took its toll on numerous runners as elite pros Roche, Farvard, Vincent Bouillard, Heather Jackson, Martyna Mlynarczyk, Eszter Csillag all dropped before darkness, as did 80-year-old Nick Basset, the oldest runner in the race, 70-year-old Michel Poletti, the co-founder of the UTMB race in Chamonix, France, and 70-year-old Jim Howard, a two-time winner in 1981 and 1983, also succumbed. Temperatures hovered in the 90s for much of the day.
“Man, this race is hard,” Roche said moments after dropping out at the 62-mile Foresthill aid station.
The 29-year-old Peterman, the 2022 Western States champion and world champion from Missoula, Montana, also struggled in the heat, but eventually persevered to finish early Sunday morning in 23:09:29, more than four and a half hours after his wife, Erin Clark, 30, placed 11th in the women’s race in 18:52:22.
