On Saturday, August 16, Anne Flower and David Roche each ran spectacular races on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile to set new course data with instances of 17:58:19 and 15:12:30, respectively.
Flower broke Ann Trason’s 31-year-old file of 18:06:24 by simply over eight minutes and completed second general within the race. It’s price noting that when Trason set her file in 1994, she additionally positioned second general within the race.
In the meantime, Roche repeated his victory from final yr and lowered his personal course file by simply over 14 minutes. Final yr, Roche broke Matt Carpenter’s 2005 course file by 16 minutes.
Each earlier file instances stood for lengthy sufficient that they appeared unattainable, regardless that many elites had tried. Whereas the course that Carpenter and Trason ran was a bit of bit shorter, and by some accounts a bit of bit simpler, the longevity of their data was a testomony to their unimaginable runs on the time.
Roche’s run final yr confirmed that any file, no matter how outdated, might be damaged, and Flower solely reiterated the purpose this yr.
David Roche reaches the crimson carpet in course file time on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile, for the second time in two years.
This could solely be thought-about a breakout efficiency by 35-year-old Flower. Whereas she gained the Silver Rush 50 Mile earlier this yr and the Javelina 100k final fall, it seems that this was her first try on the 100-mile distance. She’s principally competed in smaller races within the 50k to 50-mile vary, the place she’s constantly been on the entrance of the sphere. It additionally seems she has a strong historical past in highway marathoning.
Flower took the race out rapidly, operating because the second-place girl and simply exterior of the highest 10 general till the Outward Sure assist station, 23.5 miles in. From there, she took the lead within the girls’s race and steadily moved up within the subject general, discovering herself in third on the primary traverse of Hope Move. She was constant within the second half, the place many individuals battle, and completed sturdy to overhaul all however the wining man within the closing miles. This allowed her to take the ladies’s win, end second general, and set the ladies’s course file.
Anne Flower on her strategy to a brand new girls’s course file.
Roche ran on the entrance of the race from the beginning and was a minute forward of his earlier file tempo 90 minutes into the occasion. He was solely three minutes up on his outdated file 50 miles in on the turnaround at Winfield, however he closed a lot sooner this yr, making up 11 minutes on his splits from 2024 within the second half of the race. This should have felt like a little bit of redemption for Roche, who dropped out of the 2025 Western States 100 earlier this yr with abdomen points simply previous the midway level.
David Roche within the early miles of setting a brand new males’s course file.
The Leadville 100 Mile out-and-back course is thought for its excessive elevation, moderately runnable trails, and the double traverse of Hope Move, one on either side of the midway level. There are a number of punchy climbs sprinkled all through the course, and traditionally, many falter within the again half of the occasion because the miles, altitude, and fatigue construct up. The occasion begins and ends within the city of Leadville, which is the very best integrated metropolis within the nation, sitting at 10,154 ft. The race course tops out at Hope Move at an elevation of 12,600, and the route takes in about 14,400 ft of climbing.