Twenty-four days from now, the starting gun fires at Olympic Valley as the sun crests the Sierra Nevada. The 2026 Western States Endurance Run begins at 5:00 AM. One hundred miles west in the town of Auburn, at the edge of the California foothills, the finish line arch will not see a winner cross until late Saturday afternoon — or, in the deepest years, Sunday morning. The 100.2 miles in between cross some of the most unforgiving trail terrain in North America at the one time of year the lower canyons can be lethally hot.
The people who track Western States for a living use the same phrase when describing the 2026 field: the deepest in history.
This is not routine pre-race promotion. The specific combination of athletes confirmed for June 27 represents something genuinely unusual — a gathering of ultrarunning's most significant names at a single start line, at the same moment in their careers.
The Men's Race
Jim Walmsley (Flagstaff, Arizona; age 36) announced his return on May 1, confirming a sponsor entry. Four Western States titles. The men's course record. A year away from the race following a DNS in 2025. Walmsley is three years beyond what the sport conventionally considers prime for an ultrarunner, but Western States is not a conventional race and Walmsley's relationship with Auburn is not a conventional story.
The 2026 question is not whether he can run a good Western States. The question is whether he can run his best Western States — against a field that has partially assembled with the intention of testing his record.
Kilian Jornet (Spain; age 39) was third in 2025, 8 minutes behind the winner and under 2 minutes from second. He won Western States in 2011. He returned for 2025 intending to win. He came third. Jornet has confirmed his 2026 entry with the explicit framing that this year's race is unfinished business — and his preparation block, according to his own public training disclosures, has been more specifically tuned to the Western States course profile than any year since 2011.
He plans to run UTMB at the end of August after Western States, exactly replicating his 2011 campaign when he won both races. At 39, Jornet remains one of the most technically sophisticated ultrarunners alive. The high Sierra traverse — the first 30 miles of Western States — is terrain he knows deeply from his winters of ski mountaineering in the ranges above Tromsø and his summers on technical mountain terrain.
Hayden Hawks (Utah) is the third name in the men's conversation. Hawks has been building toward Western States for two seasons — his spring 2026 training block has reportedly gone according to plan. Hawks runs the course differently from Walmsley and Jornet: technically precise on descents, carefully paced in the early Sierra miles, capable of sustaining miles 60–90 at a pace that neither Walmsley nor Jornet typically maintains after a fast early section.
The Women's Race
Courtney Dauwalter (USA) holds the women's course record at 15:29:33, set in 2023 — a time that broke the previous record by over an hour. She confirmed a sponsor entry for 2026.
The women's field in 2026 includes athletes who have spent the entire 2025–2026 preparation cycle specifically targeting this race. The era of Western States having one untouchable women's champion may, based on this start list, be ending.
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Join ZealZagFollow us on InstagramThe Course: Key Battlegrounds
The Western States course runs from Palisades Tahoe (6,200 ft) to Auburn (1,300 ft) over 100.2 miles, with 18,000 feet of climb and 23,000 feet of descent. The descent figure is the course's defining characteristic — more downhill than most ultramarathons of equivalent distance.
The critical checkpoints:
- Robinson Flat (30 miles): First crew access. Gap assessment. Runners who went out too fast in the Sierra show it here.
- Devil's Thumb (47 miles): The 1,800-foot canyon climb on switchbacks. Where overextended runners begin losing significant time.
- Foresthill (62 miles): The race's second-half decision point — how you feel here and what you believe the remaining 38 miles will cost you.
- Rucky Chucky (78 miles): The American River crossing — waist-deep in June snowmelt, cold and fast-moving. Everything after this point is determination as much as fitness.
- No Hands Bridge (96.8 miles): The last landmark before Auburn. A runner who reaches No Hands in daylight with legs to finish has run a good Western States.
Temperature and the Canyon Factor
The Sierra miles in pre-dawn hours can drop below 40°F. By the time runners descend into the deep canyons near Volcano Creek (miles 35–50), afternoon temperatures routinely reach 95–100°F. The 50-degree thermal swing across the course is one of Western States' most demanding logistical challenges — and one of the most significant separators between runners who prepare specifically for this race and those who arrive fit but not heat-adapted.
The Strategic Layer
Western States sits at a specific position in the ultramarathon calendar: the last major event before the UTMB universe at end of August. Jornet's UTMB ambitions mean he cannot destroy himself at Western States chasing Walmsley's record. Walmsley — a 36-year-old with one race in focus — can run toward his own limit without reservation. The strategic layers compound as June 27 approaches.
For a guide to running the Western States course yourself, see our Western States 100 trail and route guide.
