After last year’s inaugural Trail Performance of The Year (TPOY) we knew we wouldn’t be turning back. While sometimes one standout performance is enough to land a runner in the TROY top ten, this gives us a way to add recognition for the performances that truly rocked our socks off – one-off or amid an incredible season! Trail Performance of The Year, like TROY, is distance agnostic and tries to recognize incredible race performances from VK to ultra-ultra-distance endeavors. 2024 did not disappoint!
Women’s Trail Performances of The Year
- Jasmin Paris – The Barkley Marathons
The first female to finish the 100+ mile event, long theorized by Laz that it would never happen, Jasmin finished with just over 90 seconds to spare in 59:58:21. - Katie Schide – UTMB® Mont Blanc – UTMB
It takes a lot to break a Courtney Dauwalter record, but Katie ran into a league of her own, setting a new course record over the 170km route in 22:09:31. - Courtney Dauwalter – Hardrock 100 Endurance Run (Clockwise)
Making it a three-peat and cementing her legacy at the 100-mile race through the San Juan mountains of Colorado establishing the clockwise and overall women’s course record in 26:11:49. - Katie Schide – Western States 100
One of her many ‘best in class’ performances for 2024, Katie ran and won running wire-to-wire while putting up the second fastest time in WSER race history in 15:46:57. - Rachel Drake – JFK 50 Mile
Any surface any distance for Rachel Drake in 2024 as she becomes the first woman to break six hours setting a new JFK 50-mile course record in 5:57:32.
Men’s Trail Performances of The Year
- David Roche – Leadville Trail 100
The unbreakable record? David broke one of the longest-standing 100-mile records in ultra running by running 15:26:34, breaking Matt Carpenter’s time from 2005 by over 16 minutes. - Kilian Jornet – Sierre-Zinal
The unofficial sub-ultra distance Super Bowl, Kilian won his 10th Sierre-Zinal in August breaking his own course record from 2019 running 2:25:34 – a real buzzer beater. - David Sinclair – JFK 50 Mile
While we definitely believed the record to be ‘under threat’ this year, I don’t think anyone called it be broken by more than ten minutes. David blew us out of the water winning and running an outstanding 5:08:26. - Ludovic Pommeret – Hardrock 100 Endurance Run (Clockwise)
Ludo proved this summer that you very much can teach an ‘old dog’ new tricks. Just shy of his 49th birthday Ludo won Hardrock establishing a new clockwise and men’s overall course record running 21:33:06. - Vincent Bouillard – UTMB® Mont Blanc – UTMB
Our favorite surprise of the 2024 season, the senior product engineer of the race’s title sponsor HOKA outlasted the favorites and rising stars to take the win in a historically fast 19:54:23.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and there were many performances that didn’t quite make it into the top five. But that’s voting, baby; we still have so much to celebrate. The trail world and the athletes continue to show up in ways we never imagined possible – 2025, you’ve got your work cut out for you!