Seven years Jim Walmsley's course record stood — 14:09:28, set in 2019, across terrain that makes most 100-mile runners recalibrate their entire understanding of what a fast hour looks like. Walmsley's record wasn't just a time on a results sheet. It was a reference point. Something athletes trained around, aimed at, acknowledged as the ceiling.
Vincent Bouillard erased it by 23 minutes.
The Frenchman crossed the Placer High School track in Auburn at 13:46:16 on Saturday evening, setting a new men's course record that moved the ceiling to a place the sport hasn't been before. Behind him came Francesco Puppi at 13:51:08 — a 100-mile debut — and Ryan Montgomery at 13:53:55. Three men broke 14 hours on the same day at Western States. That had never happened in the race's fifty years of history.
The Course
The Western States Trail runs 100.2 miles from the Squaw Valley ski resort in Olympic Valley, above Lake Tahoe at 6,200 feet of elevation, to the town of Auburn in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The profile is deceptive: the race climbs to roughly 8,750 feet over the Escarpment in the opening miles, then spends the bulk of its length descending — losing nearly 23,000 feet in total — through a succession of high alpine canyons, mid-elevation timber country, and the deep river canyons of the American River watershed that define the race's second half.
The heat accumulates in those canyons. The canyon floors between Devil's Thumb and Foresthill run hot by mid-afternoon, and the deepest sections — where the trail drops to river level and the air stills — produce the kind of sustained heat that breaks athletes who have been running well since dawn. Execution through miles 55 to 78 separates the top ten from the top hundred.
The Men's Race
Bouillard ran a measured first half. He wasn't leading at Foresthill (mile 62), the race's traditional tactical checkpoint where gaps harden. But with 15 miles remaining, he moved through the field and built a lead that held to the track.
His pace over the closing section — through the American River crossings, the Auburn Lake Trails, and the final descent off Pointed Rocks — was the kind that ends a race before anyone behind you can respond. Puppi, on his first attempt at the distance, arrived in 13:51:08. Montgomery, third, posted 13:53:55.
In fifty years during which a single man breaking 14 hours was a news event, three men did it in the same afternoon.
The previous record was Walmsley's from 2019. Bouillard's mark breaks it by 23 minutes and 12 seconds.
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Join ZealZagFollow us on InstagramThe Women's Race
Jenn Lichter crossed in 15:28:06 — a time that broke Courtney Dauwalter's women's course record by one minute and 27 seconds. It was Lichter's first attempt at the hundred-mile distance.
The women's course record is one of the most scrutinised benchmarks in trail running. Dauwalter holds multiple records across the sport's most prestigious distances, and her Western States mark was considered one of the harder targets to approach. Lichter finished 11th among all finishers overall.
Riley Brady took second. Marianne Hogan, the Montreal-based Canadian who topped the women's pre-race elite rankings, was third.
What It Means
The sport periodically resets its ceiling in a single day. Saturday at Western States was one of those days. Bouillard's 13:46 and Lichter's 15:28 are the new reference points — the marks that future fields will train around, aim at, and acknowledge as the ceiling for what this particular hundred miles allows.
Whether the performances reflect evolving training methodology, athlete depth, or course conditions is a conversation the sport will run through the summer. The times are confirmed.
For a guide to running the iconic Foresthill-to-Auburn section of the Western States course through the American River canyons, see our Foresthill to Auburn canyon run guide. For the full course overview and race week logistics, see our Western States 100 course guide.
