The Queen Keeps Climbing
The continued rise of Rachel Entrekin and Jeff Colt’s perfect race — plus more from this week in trail & ultra
Issue 48, sponsored by Mount to Coast
Rachel Entrekin Dominates High Lonesome
The last time we wrote about Rachel Entrekin, she was being crowned the "Queen of Cocodona" after a back-to-back course record–breaking win at the 250 mile race in Arizona. Now, her inevitable rise to ultrarunning’s elite ranks continued at the High Lonesome 100, where she extended her remarkable unbeaten streak. She has now won 17 straight races since finishing fifth at Cascade Crest 100 in July 2022, and she crushed the course record here with a blistering time of 21:56:16, good enough for fourth overall (and just 4.5 minutes shy of third).
The notoriously rugged 100-mile race through Colorado’s Sawatch Range dishes out 24,000 feet of climbing, multiple alpine passes, and lung-busting altitude averaging above 10,000 feet. Rachel's performance wasn't just dominant. It felt preordained.
“I positioned myself towards the front of the pack early, found my 'barely manageable' pace and stuck to it,” Rachel said in her race recap. "By Raspberry Gulch (mile 92), my ability to do trail math had deteriorated to that of a preschooler. I decided the best plan would be to send it, run everything as fast as I could, and hope it was enough."
It was more than enough. Entrekin beat the previous women's record set by McKendree Hickory last year by about 23 minutes. Even sweeter? Her victory ensured race director Caleb Efta is now proudly sporting a fresh tattoo (a playful wager fulfilled after both men's and women's records fell).
The High Lonesome team notably carved out intentional space for underrepresented groups in ultrarunning, which is something Entrekin praised in her recap. “Representation in sport matters tremendously,” she wrote. “It was a breath of fresh air to see actual moves being made, not just talk.”
Entrekin’s winning streak includes two prestigious victories at Cocodona 250, though her other wins have come at less prominent events like Whiskey Basin and Badger Mountain Challenge. With her dominant showing at High Lonesome, she’s rapidly solidifying herself among America’s top ultrarunners. Her ascent feels inevitable, and it seems only a matter of time before we see her lining up at the sport’s most prestigious races—Hardrock, UTMB, Western States—alongside the very best in the world.
Completing the women's podium behind Entrekin was Careth Arnold, finishing second in 23:16:33, followed closely by Rachel Lemcke, who secured third place in 23:25:01.
Amelia Boone also made a notable return, finishing strong and healthy, which is a significant personal victory after being plagued by injury struggles in recent years. Boone shared afterward, “Crossing the finish line strong and healthy was everything I needed.”
Jeff Colt Runs the Perfect Race
Jeff Colt came into High Lonesome with something to prove. After missing out on a spot at the World Championships team earlier this year despite a strong showing at Gorge Waterfalls, he turned his full focus to this race. The buildup was steady and deliberate, capped by back-to-back long runs on course, pacing Jeff Mogavero at Western States, and a Broken Arrow 46K tune-up. “Not slacking, not overkill,” he wrote in his race recap. “Just right for keeping my training in step with my life balance.”
Race week didn’t feel smooth, though. “Mechanics, mind, motivation, muscles, all of the M’s felt shitty,” he explained. But by Thursday’s shakeout run, the gears were finally turning. And on race day, everything clicked. Colt executed with calm and confidence, pulling away and storming to an 18:52:00 finish, and obliterating Jimmy Elam’s 2023 course record by nearly 50 minutes.
Colt executed a near-perfect race, noting afterward on Instagram, “It's a weird feeling when everything goes right.”
Behind him, 2022 champ, Ryan Smith delivered another strong showing, improving his personal best by an impressive 44 minutes. Daniel Trampe ran steady to snag the final podium spot.
With a stellar livestream by Mountain Outpost and an ever-growing field of elite competitors, High Lonesome 100 is quickly establishing itself as one of North America's premier mountain ultras.
More from High Lonesome
Rachel Entrekin wrote, excuse me, blogged, a captivating recap of her race. I love this bit, where she talks about her transformation from unknown to celebrated (and celebrity) elite:
“I decided to email the RD and ask for a pro spot, despite the fact I am pretty much an idiot who is lucky enough to be so good at running that it covers up my rookie mistakes. Caleb, understandably, had no idea who I was, and politely told me to wait for the lottery, which did not get me into the race. Dammit.
Fortunately, Caleb must’ve been in a benevolent mood, because a few weeks later – wham! I got an email saying he’d be happy to have me toe the start line. Phew.
(Anyway, then Cocodona happened, and suddenly now I’m The Thing at HiLo and I’m getting recognized at Trader Joe’s.”Not to be outdone, Jeff Colt wrote a stellar recap of his own. He opened up about missing out on Worlds, writing:
I finished 4th, under the previous course record, but not enough to cut the mustard. I was devastated. I didn’t want to admit it cause I wanted to be a good sport. I also want the USA to send the best possible team to World’s, but I really wanted to be on that team. It took a while to appreciate how good of a race I really ran.
Take a minute to check out Rachel’s Ultra Signup. Inevitable.
If you’re curious about the course layout, as I was, Stephen Searer made a flyover and shared it on X.
FloTrack, who covers mostly Track and XC, and who has nearly 500k followers on Instagram, posted about High Lonesome this week, which goes to show the reach and growth of the race.
Maurizio Calabrese ran High Lonesome this year for his 4th time. All three previous attempts have ended in a DNF. Not this time.
Additional Results
Speedgoat by UTMB kicked off today, with Kodi Kleven and Christian Allen winning the 28k. The 50k is tomorrow. More on those results in next week’s issue.
Jimmy Elam bounced back from losing his High Lonesome course record by setting a new one at Cascade Crest 100—his 17:08:55 finish sliced 47 minutes off Seth Swanson’s 2014 mark. Kaytlyn Gerbin, in her first 100 miler since hip surgery and becoming a mom, won the women’s race in 21:35:41—the fifth-fastest time in race history.
With over 41,000 feet of vert, Ouray 100 hast to be one of the steepest 100-milers anywhere, and Sarah Ostaszewski rose to the challenge, setting a new women’s course record in 32:42:17 (beating out her own 2023 CR by a bit more than an hour). Ted Bross took the men’s win and broke the overall course record in 29:19:13.
At the Vermont 100, Jenny Hoffman capped off nearly two decades of history with the race by winning the women’s 100-miler in 17:29:27—the sixth-fastest in event history. Justin Scheid led the men’s race wire to wire, finishing in 15:37:07. In the 100K, Cole Crosby set a new course record in 9:16:50, pulling away late after a 30-mile battle. Joanna Fortier dominated the women’s race in 10:36:04, winning by over an hour.
At Eiger Ultra Trail by UTMB, Tracen Knopp (who will be representing Team USA at the World Championship in September) led the American charge with a runner-up finish in the weather-shortened E101 (43 miles), clocking 7:21:00 behind Tomáš Fárník’s 7:13:00 win. Daniela Oemus took the women’s race in 8:11:00. In the E35, American Dan Curts finished second in 2:59:00, just two minutes behind Stian Dahl (2:57:00). Julia Peter won the women’s race in 3:58:00.
Katie Asmuth returned to form at Tahoe Trail 50K, winning the women’s race and finishing sixth overall. “First race I’ve felt myself since surgery,” she wrote. “Now I’m ready to fight again.” Next up: Leadville 100.
Zachary Frisch set a new FKT on Mount Timpanogos (“Timp”), the second highest peak in the Wasatch Mountains, finishing in 2:14:38. Frisch races Speedgoat 50K tomorrow.
I missed this last week, but Xander Keiter broke his own supported FKT on Maine’s Hundred Mile Wilderness, finishing in 23:09:51 and shaving over 90 minutes off his 2023 time. “This was undoubtedly the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he wrote, calling it a final, emotional lap on a trail he’s spent years chasing.
My thanks to Mount to Coast for supporting The Ultra Minute this month
We’re on week three of Mount to Coast’s July sponsorship of The Ultra Minute, and this week I want to highlight a shoe I’ve been genuinely reaching for a lot lately: the T1. It’s MTC’s first trail model, and is light, cushy, and agile. On everything from buffed-out singletrack to sketchy loose rock, and sharp limestone, it’s held its own. Just a really fun, comfortable shoe.
You can check them out at mounttocoast.com.
Other News & Links
Courtney Dauwalter is headed back to UTMB. The three-time champ (2019, 2021, 2023) confirmed she’ll race this year’s edition with a recent post on Instagram, marking her return after skipping 2024. She enters UTMB after a DNF at Cocodona 250 and a win at Lavaredo. Rival Katie Schide, last year’s UTMB winner, has yet to confirm if she’ll defend her title.
Last week we shared UTMB’s announcement of Pacific Trails California by UTMB. This week, the either announced another or I missed it last week: Ultra Trail Shudao by UTMB, set for Nov 8–9, 2025 in Sichuan, China. The course follows the historic Shu Roads, apparently weaving through bamboo forests, rice terraces, and Jianmen Pass. Distances include 100K, 50K, and 20K.
Tara Dower received the 2025 Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award for her FKT on the Appalachian Trail. Catch her acceptance speech on her YouTube channel.
Daniel Pattis revealed his sprained ankle is a bit worse than he thought, with two town ligaments in his foot.
Jonathan Thomas is attempting a self-supported FKT on the Colorado Trail. He kicked off three days ago.
Back in January (Issue 24), we shared that Sawna Guadarrama and her partner Eamon had lost their home in the LA fires. At the time, she posted a photo of their Hardrock 100 finisher mug—charred, but intact—pulled from the debris. This week, while back in Silverton, she picked up a new one. “Clean, simple, whole,” she wrote. But she’s still holding on to the old one—“a reminder that we all walk through fire at some point… and sometimes, it’s the ashes that remind us we made it through.”
That’s it this week! My family is finally recovered from the virus we had, so we’ve been logging some time in our backyard getting our garden beds set up, which means this weekend I’ll hopefully be back there getting my hands dirty.
Btw, this week I opened the TUM Substack chat to everyone, so if you have a question for the community or news to share, start a thread. Monday I experimented by asking what result stood out, and got some great responses (thanks again to everyone who joined in!). I’ll do the same next week, and intend to continue experimenting with it. See you there!
And special thanks to the paid supporters who help keep this project going. Your support, in addition to partners like Mount to Coast, help make this project sustainable longterm.
Ken
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