Final weekend, on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile35-year-old Coloradan Anne Flowerin her debut 100 miler, received in a time of 17 hours and 58 minutes to set a brand new ladies’s course report. That point bested ultrarunning icon Ann Plason‘s 31-year-old course report of 18:06, by about eight minutes.
Over the intervening years since Trason’s efficiency, many ladies have tried however failed to succeed in her almost untouchable report, with the race’s excessive altitude, persistent runability, daytime warmth, and sometimes terrible thunderstorms battering them again. It was, then, Flower who lastly, efficiently chased Trason’s splits all the way in which throughout the end line.
Anne Flower on her method to a brand new ladies’s course report on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile. Photograph: Life Time
Ann Trason on the 1994 Leadville 100 Mile
Again in August of 1994, when Trason set the prior course report, she was having the operating 12 months of her life. In Might, she received the Silver State 50 Mile outright in a time of seven:29, which remains to be the ladies’s course report. And a month later, she received her sixth consecutive Western States 100 with a then course-record time, ending second total.
Whereas Trason is probably finest recognized for her exploits at Western States, previous to 1994, she had run Leadville twice, in 1988 and 1990, successful the ladies’s race each instances. However the 12 months 1994 was completely different. She was on the very prime of her recreation and on the prime of her sport.
Ann Trason on the 1994 Western States 100. Photograph: Western States 100
Alongside Trason that chilly morning in Leadville had been seven Tarahumara from the Copper Canyons of Mexico, a gaggle recognized for being expert long-distance runners. The race had a major media presence, with a big movie crew engaged on a feature-length documentary concerning the Tarahumara and Trason.
Leadville native Johnny Sandoval went to the lead early and constructed a half-hour hole on a chase group of 5 Tarahumara and Trason by round mile 30. The chase pack, which had splintered into teams, caught Sandoval on the base of Hope Cross. Main after that had been two Tarahumara runners, Juan Herrera and Martimano Cervantezand Trason.
By the highest of Hope Cross, Trason had opened a niche and descended to Winfield within the lead. She reached that Winfield 50-mile turnaround in below 9 hours, quicker than any lady earlier than.
Although Herrera would find yourself passing Trason with solely 13 miles left to run to win the boys’s race, when Trason crossed the end line, it was with a brand new ladies’s course report of 18:06. You’ll be able to learn extra about that history-making day in our Unforgettable Moments of Ultrarunning article.
Hope Cross, on the very left of the picture, marks the excessive level of the Leadville 100 Mile course. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Anne Flower on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile
Flower, an emergency room physician from Colorado Springs, got here into Leadville with 2024 wins on the Arches 50k, Behind the Rocks 50kand the Javelin 100k. She tuned up for Leadville in 2025 — and acclimated to racing at its altitude — with summer season wins at each the Leadville Path Marathon and the Silver Rush 50 Mile. Based mostly on these outcomes, Flower seemed primed for a promising 100-mile debut.
As has develop into the case lately, the 2025 race version began quick. Katie Asmuth arrived at Might Queen at mile 13 because the lead lady and two minutes forward in fact report tempo. Flower was a couple of minutes behind her and was adopted by Imogen Ainsworth in third place.
By the point Flower reached the Outward Certain Support Station at mile 23.5, she had assumed the lead, which she would by no means relinquish. By the point I noticed her about midway up the Hope Cross climb on her method to Winfield, she was forward in fact report tempo. When she reached the 50-mile mark at Winfield, she was 10 minutes forward of Trason’s legendary report cut up. Over the race’s second half, the place many individuals have struggled over time, Flower solely gave away two minutes to Trason’s splits to complete eight minutes quicker than the outdated report. In doing so, she grew to become the primary lady to run below 18 hours.
Anne Flower breaks Ann Trason’s 31-year-old course report on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile. Photograph: Life Time
It was, certainly, one for the report books!
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes from Two Mile Brewing Firm in Leadville, Colorado. Dubbed “America’s Highest Brewery,” Two Mile Brewing is house to the Poverty Flats Porter, an old-school fashion porter that’s wealthy in chocolate, nuttiness, and molasses. A real breakfast porter, Poverty Flats is a good alternative on a cold night in Leadville.
Name for Feedback
- Have been you in Leadville this previous weekend to look at this Anne Flower’s historic run?
- Did you assume Ann Trason’s report would ever be damaged?
