The 2023 Western States 100 is simply across the nook and we’re right here to check out the sharp finish of this 12 months’s ladies’s area. Earlier than we get began, in case anybody wants a reminder of this distinctive, point-to-point, internet downhill course, listed here are the stats for the usual course: 100.2 miles, 18,000 toes of climbing, and 22,000 toes of descending.
On the time of penning this, we don’t know if the massive snows of this winter or final 12 months’s wildfire on the course will necessitate any important course modifications for this 12 months’s working. Nonetheless, we all know the race group is doing all the pieces they will to host the race on the traditional course. We additionally know that these situations will seemingly play into the competitors, with snow current on the primary 25 miles of the course for a spicy warm-up, in addition to miles of wildfire-exposed course that’s more likely to make the center miles really feel extra extreme than regular. And, additionally, we predict the traditional race-day warmth.
Final 12 months’s race additional confirmed how a lot quicker the Western States ladies’s area has gotten in recent times. Whereas Ellie Greenwood’s 2012 course report of 16:47 has remained untouched, 15 of the 24 quickest ladies’s occasions on the race have been logged in simply its three current races — 2019, 2021, and 2022 — with these 15 occasions logged by 13 totally different ladies. Ruth Croft’s 2022 profitable time of 17:21 was the third-fastest ladies’s time ever whereas fifth-place Emily Hawgood’s 18:16 would have gained the ladies’s race in all however 10 different years.
Ruth Croft and Emily Hawgood run by Robinson Flats throughout final 12 months’s Western States 100. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
We’re in for one heck of an thrilling ladies’s race at this 12 months’s Western States 100. None of final 12 months’s top-four ladies are returning whereas everybody who completed between fifth and ninth will probably be returning. Lining up apart these 5 will probably be one other half dozen ladies, every of whom might make a push for the rostrum, together with a few the world’s finest 100-mile racers for the time being. One other dozen sturdy ladies will add to the joy in working for the highest 10.
As you’d guess, iRunFar will probably be there to report firsthand on all of the motion because it unfolds beginning at 5 a.m. U.S. PDT on Saturday, June 24. Keep tuned!
A particular due to HOKA for making our protection of the Western States 100 doable!
You should definitely take a look at our in-depth males’s preview to study concerning the males’s race, and, then, comply with our reside race protection on race day!
Courtney Dauwalter on her technique to profitable the 2018 Western States 100. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Returning High 10
Solely 5 of final 12 months’s top-10 ladies of Western States are returning to race once more this 12 months, with the omission of first-place Ruth Croft, second-place Ailsa MacDonald, third-place Marianne Hogan, fourth-place Luzia Buehler, and Tenth-place Camille Bruyas. Meaning we’ll have a wholly new ladies’s podium.
Emily Hawgood – fifth, 18:16:02
Emily Hawgood
Nicely, have a look at that, Zimbabwe’s Emily Hawgood comes into the 2023 Western States 100 as the highest returning ladies’s runner after her fifth-place end final 12 months. That fifth place is not any fluke as over the previous two years, Hawgood has been seventh on the 2021 Western States 100 in addition to taking Tenth and sixth on the previous two UTMBs. Dwelling over right here within the U.S., she ran and gained the identical native 50k each final 12 months and this February.
Leah Yingling – sixth, 18:32:31
Leah Yingling
After a few years of quieter success, Leah Yingling made herself identified with an excellent 2022 season. Along with taking sixth at Western States in 2022, she was third on the Bandera 100k, third on the Transgrancanaria Superior 60k, second on the Canyons 100k, and nineteenth on the Path World Championships 80k. She’s began her 2023 simply as sturdy with a second place on the Method Too Cool 50k in March and a win on the Bull Run Run 50 Mile in April.
Taylor Nowlin – seventh, 18:46:42
Taylor Nowlin
Though she’s run ultras since not less than 2016, I’d must say that 2022 was Taylor Nowlin’s finest season to this point. Not solely did she take seventh in her 100-mile debut at Western States, she additionally took fourth on the Black Canyon 100k and ninth at CCC. We will’t discover any race outcomes for Taylor up to now this 12 months, so we’ll have to attend till race day to seek out out what type form she’s in.
Camille Herron – eighth, 18:51:54 (2022 post-race interview)
Camille Herron
What a journey it’s been for Camille Herron at Western States! She DNFed in each 2017 and 2019 earlier than ending in 27:28 in 2021. She stored at it final 12 months, ending eighth in 18:51. I’d hypothesize that what’s positive to be a snowy course in 2023 might problem that inspiring development, however she’ll certainly come into the race match if her current racing is any indication. In December she clocked 13:02 for 100 miles on the Desert Solstice races earlier than setting the 48-hour world report of 270.5 miles this March.
Katie Asmuth – ninth, 19:30:26
Katie Asmuth
Since she ran her method into the 2021 Western States 100 with a win on the 2021 Bandera 100k, Katie Asmuth’s been on a tear. She went on to take fifth on the 2021 Western States 100 and ninth right here final 12 months. Final 12 months, she additionally gained the Black Canyon 60k and this 12 months has been third at each the Method Too Cool 50k and Gorge Waterfalls 50k.
Camille Herron runs towards Foresthill at mile 61 of the 2022 Western States 100 on her technique to ending eighth. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Extra Podium Potentials
Courtney Dauwalter
It’d be more durable to discover a greater favourite at a given extremely distance proper now than Courtney Dauwalter in path 100 milers. To place issues in perspective, ITRA 100 miler rankings, she’s within the high 50 total the place she’s tied with Drew Holmen, who was third and fifth within the males’s race the previous two Western States. Over the previous two years, Dauwalter’s gained the 2021 UTMB, 2021 Extremely-Path Cape City 100k, 2022 Madeira Island Extremely Path (MIUT) 115k, 2022 Hardrock 100 Mile, 2022 Diagonale des Fous, 2023 Bandera 100k, and 2023 Transgrancanaria. Now, something can occur on race day, and Dauwalter did drop from Western States in 2019 and Hardrock in 2021, however she’s bought to be the odds-on favourite. When she final completed Western States in 2018, she did so in 17:27, which was the second-fastest ladies’s time on the race to that time.
You recognize there’s race teed up when the reigning UTMB champ isn’t listed first within the discretionary part of the preview, and so it’s right here that we observe Katie Schide with no disservice supposed! So, yeah, Schide gained UTMB final 12 months after taking eighth at that race in 2021 and sixth in 2019. In 2021, she gained Path du Ventoux and took second on the Lavaredo Extremely Path, whereas she gained the Val d’Aran 105k final 12 months. Whereas she’s made a reputation for herself excelling at mountainous races like UTMB, Lavaredo, and MIUT, she confirmed she’s bought wheels in working a 6:23 80k (50 miles) on the EcoTrail Paris this March.
Ida Nilsson
Whereas we’ve been watching her win top-level worldwide ultras since 2016, I do imagine this will probably be Swedish runner Ida Nilsson’s 100-mile debut. Though we noticed her race fewer worldwide ultras from roughly 2019 by 2021, she introduced her return to the world stage with her second place on the Path World Championships 80k final November. Thus far this 12 months, she was fifth on the Black Canyon 100k earlier than profitable the Canyons 100k in late April. Phrase is that she’s fairly centered on her Western States preparations.
I do know I’m ready to see Keely Henninger run the Western States she’s able to. In two begins, she’s completed ninth in 2021 and DNFed in 2022, however she’s clearly able to a podium on the race. Henninger gained this 12 months’s Black Canyon 100k and has beforehand gained the Lake Sonoma 50 Mile in 2018 and 2021. She’s additionally transformed her spectacular velocity to the mountains prior to now, taking fourth at CCC in 2017 and fifth at Lavaredo in 2018.
Eszter Csillag
Whereas she’s seemingly much less well-known within the U.S., Hungary’s Eszter Csillag, who lives in Hong Kong, confirmed that she’s succesful in working with one of the best ladies on this planet throughout her standout 2022 marketing campaign. Final 12 months, she was fifth at UTMB, fourth on the Path World Championships 80k, and fifth at Transgrancanaria. Csillag gave a touch of what was to come back when she took fourth at CCC in 2021.
It’s been whereas since we’ve seen Devon Yanko run Western States. Nonetheless, as a reminder, she was third again in 2016. Since then she’s continued to combine issues up, transferring from street marathon to mountain 100 miler and again. On the extremely facet in recent times, her standout outcomes embrace a course report in profitable final 12 months’s Umstead 100 Mile, a win finally 12 months’s Javelina 100 Mile, and a 3rd place on the JFK 50 Mile in 2021.
Keely Henninger, Brittany Peterson, and Ruth Croft working by Robinson Flat at mile 30 throughout the 2021 Western States 100. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Nonetheless Extra Quick Ladies to Watch
- Stephanie Auston (Australia) – 2nd 2023 & 2nd 2019 Tarawera 100k; 1st 2022 Extremely-Path Kosciuszko 100k; third 2020 Black Canyon 100k
- Nicole Bitter – 2nd 2023 Bandera 100k; 1st 2020 Javelina 100 Mile; seventh 2019, seventeenth 2018, sixth 2017, sixth 2015 Western States 100
- Riley Brady – 2nd 2022 Javelina 100 Mile; sixth 2022 Bandera 100k (They’re entered within the nonbinary gender class, and will probably be competing within the feminine awards class per the entrants’ record and the race’s nonbinary entrant coverage.)
- Priscilla Forgie (Canada) – 2nd 2023 Canyons 100k; 1st 2022 Extremely-Path Harricana; 1st 2022 Squamish 50 Mile
- Mandie Holmes – fifth 2022 Desert Solstice 100 Mile; 4th 2020 Javelina 100 Mile; 14th 2017 Western States 100
- Heather Jackson – 1st 2023 Canyons 50k; 2nd 2023 Black Canyon 100k; fifth 2022 Javelina 100 Mile
- Nancy Jiang (New Zealand) – 1st 2023 Tarawera 100k; 1st 2018 & 2020 Kepler Problem; eighth 2019 & fifth 2018 OCC
- Kaci Lickteig – 4th 2022 Javelina 100 Mile; eleventh 2023 Black Canyon 100k; sixth 2014, 2nd 2015, 1st 2016, third 2019, Tenth 2021, & 18th 2022 Western States 100
- Meghan Morgan – third 2023 Black Canyon 100k; eighth 2022 Canyons 100k; 4th 2022 Bandera 100k
- Jenny Quilty (Canada) – 1st 2022 Doi Inthanon 100 Mile; ninth 2022 Chuckanut 50k; eleventh 2022 Canyons 100k; 1st 2021 Extremely-Path Harricana
- Wen-Fei Xie (China) – seventh 2022 TDS; 2nd 2022 Doi Inthanon 100 Mile
Kaci Lickteig after ending in third on the 2019 Western States 100. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Name for Feedback
- Who do you suppose will come out on high on this 12 months’s Western States 100 ladies’s race?
- What do you suppose would be the profitable time?
- Are there some other quick ladies we’ve missed who’ll be working?
