The Year of Course Record Decimation

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Friends,

In basketball – especially NBA culture – the exclamation “This League” is a phrase often used by hardcore fans. An expression conveying a mix of awe, disbelief, and entertainment, “This league” has many relevant applications.

LeBron is still a dominant force at forty years old? This League. A bit of drama between a star player and the media? This League. A bench warmer dropping a 50-burger out of nowhere? THIS LEAGUE!

Because I’m involved in a million group chats discussing various races and general trail news, I’ve taken to using the phrase in text exchanges to convey the same feelings about this moment in trail running.

When we eventually close the books on 2025, and reflect on its significance in the arc of our sport’s history, I think it will be remembered as the year of step change improvement – the year where course records weren’t just broken, they were annihilated. And seemingly on a weekly basis.

Let’s do a quick mid-season check-in of “This League” moments:

Black Canyon 100k – Seth Ruhling lowered all-time great Hayden Hawks CR by 5mins while Riley Brady laced a performance of the year worthy finish, lowering Keely Henninger’s CR by a mind boggling 30mins.
Tarawera 102k – Running a new course in 2025, two-time defending champion Dan Jones, who grew up in the area, predicted the men’s winning time would be about 7:50. He ultimately finished in 7:17 – a full 29mins faster than his winning time in 2024. Meanwhile Ruth Croft battled with Caitlin Fielder until late in the race, eventually pulling away to finish in 8:24, a full 50mins faster than she ran in 2024. Though we aren’t comparing apples to apples, the consensus from Tarawera was that these were BY FAR the best performances in race history.
Transgrancanaria 125k – At Transgrancanaria, a place where many of the sport’s best have competed over the last decade, Caleb Olson blasted the 125k race in 12:17. In another case of course tweaks, most felt this year’s route was slightly faster than historical versions. That said, Caleb ran more than an hour faster than the 2024 winner and more than 25mins faster than the previous CR held by Pau Capell from 2019. It was objectively the best performance ever on the island by a large margin.
Mesquite Canyon 50k – In what was meant to be a tune up for Chianti, Jim Walmsley showed he’s still improving, running 30mins faster than the 2016 version of himself. 30mins! Faster than a younger Jim! In a 50k! Just crazy.
Gorge Waterfalls 100k – Battling for spots on Team USA, Adam Peterman and Shea Aquilano both showed scary fitness ahead of Western States with massive course record victories – Adam Running 28mins faster than Vincent Boulliard’s 2022 CR and Shea running 20mins faster than Hannah Allgood’s 2021 CR.
Canyons 100k – In his 100k debut, without the desire for a Golden Ticket, Francesco Puppi could have taken a conservative approach, running in the pack, and making his decisive move late in the race. Instead he pushed fearlessly at the front, eventually winning in a course record time of 8:04 – a full 40mins faster than the existing standard held by Rod Farvard.

A meme referencing the destruction of several major CRs in 2025.

These are races with long histories and stout records held by some the sport’s all-time greats. Yet we’re still seeing course-best times fall by 20, 30, & 40min margins. Quite frankly, it’s insane and only seems to be accelerating.

Expanding our view to the past 12 months, of course, we also saw David Roche break Matt Carpenter’s legendary Leadville CR, Katie Schide break Courtney Dauwalter’s UTMB CR, and David Sinclair and Rachel Drake both break formidable JFK50 CRs. Meanwhile, in the long trail realm, Tara Dower broke the overall FKT on the Appalachian Trail and Karel Sabbe broke the Te Araroa Trail FKT across the length New Zealand.

It’s all so impressive that it sometimes feels overwhelming. Records are falling so often, and by such large margins, it’s getting hard to keep up with. The only reasonable response: THIS LEAGUE!

Looking ahead a few months, here’s DBo’s official list of course records on the hot seat:

Cocodona 250 CR – It feels to me that people are learning how to execute these 200+ mile races, navigating the sleep, nutrition, and pacing matrix much more effectively than a few years ago. Given the competitive depth – the best ever at the distance – I’m expecting unprecedented times at Cocodona.
Men’s Western States CR – The best men’s field ever assembled in Olympic Valley will be gunning for Jim’s 2019 mark of 14:09. I believe they’ll go well under 14hrs, something that was unthinkable when I ran the race for the first time in 2012.
Women’s Western States CR – I have it on good authority that there are several women in the field gunning for Courtney’s 15:29 standard.
Women’s Hardrock CR – Katie Schide makes her much anticipated Hardrock debut, running counter-clockwise. Courtney has been open that her Hardrock CRs came on imperfect days. I think both have the ability to run under 24hrs on the course and Katie will have her chance this summer.

What a time to be alive. We’re experiencing the golden age of trail running. Let’s all sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

This league,

DBo

Ruth Croft establishes a new CR, breaking her own time at Tarawera.

Miscellaneous Stuff

+ Strava File Of The Week – How could you not feature Francesco Puppi’s Canyons 100k performance in our weekly admiration of fitness? Francesco managed to lower the existing course record by a staggering 40mins in his 100k debut, winning by a 23min margin. Declining the Golden Ticket to Western States, Franceso is now focused on CCC and the Long Trail World Championships where he will represent Italy.

+ The Race of the Season?? – Now that Canyons is behind us, I had a look at the start lists for Broken Arrow, our next Trailgating destination. While Western States and UTMB rightly occupy much of the annual summer conversation, Broken Arrow’s three premier distances – Ascent, 46k, & 23k – are three of the best start lists of the entire season. The combination of Team USA qualifiers and the GTWS make this iconic race even more dense with talent. I can’t wait!

+ Anton’s Newsletter – As someone who grew up in the sport binging Anton’s blog, I’m still a captivated by every piece of written content he produces. Blogs have evolved to Substacks where Anton published a new piece this week titled Snow Shovels and Singlespeeds. A meditation on technology, tool selection, and what it says about a person, this is a must read. “A man has to have a code…”

+ Cocodona Fantasy – The infamous Cocodona 250 begins on Monday outside of Phoenix, AZ. Perhaps the most competitive 200+ mile race ever, we are obviously playing fantasy. Go pick 5-deep for men and women!

+ Cocodona Livestream – Speaking of Cocodona, make sure you have the livestream bookmarked for the first half of next week. The multi-day broadcast has quickly become one of the biggest moments of the trail season, drawing thousands of people at all hours of the day. Given the Courtney effect, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mountain Outpost is breaking viewership records!

+ Ben Dhiman’s Newsletter – Probably my favorite running Substack at the moment, Ben Dhiman reflects on his preparation and execution at Ventoux by UTMB, where he kicked off his season with an impressive victory in the 90k. Perhaps counterintuitively, the performance came off significantly less run training through the winter months compared to last year. Congrats, Ben!

+ Coree Woltering x Merrell – Something we discussed on Rest Day, Coree Woltering announced that he’s assumed the role of Trail Team Manager for Merrell. Part of a larger trend of athletes contributing to brand partners beyond podium performances, Coree will seemingly be in charge of scouting, signing, and supporting the next generation of Merrell trail runners.

+ Trail Poetry – Dear friend of Freetrail, Angie Funtanilla had one of her poems published by iRunFar. Entitled I Found My Breath, it’s a lovely and quick read.

+ Allison Baca’s R2R2R – Allison Baca is having an awesome year. Two wins at the Black Canyon 50k and Desert RATS 50k, and now a shiny new unsupported FKT on the Grand Canyon R2R2R. Running 7:31:15, Allison was about 6mins slower than the supported FKT held by Taylor Nowlin from 2018. Strava file here.