The TROY podium looms on the horizon but we still have a few more athletes to champion before we get there! The two athletes we get to celebrate today had big career-making runs in 2024. Both athletes stepped up to the 100-mile distance for the first time and left only scorched earth behind them. The scary part? We are sure they are only just getting started. If you’ve missed any of the countdown thus far, you can find them here: fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth.
In fourth position this year, we have Nike’s Rachel Drake and SWAP & The Feed’s David Roche.
The mom, MD/PhD, new anesthesiology resident, and runner with a whole lot of range is truly multihyphenate. Now, Rachel Drake is not new to the ultra-distance, having dipped her toes in up to the 100km early in her career, 2024 was definitely her hitting the springboard. Having previously finished 2nd in the Golden Trail World Series, Rachel is someone who likes to take a lot of speed into everything she does, 2024 being no exception. Before 2023 came to a close, she laced up her super-shoes and ran an incredible 2:35:28 at the California International Marathon, notching an Olympic Trials Qualifying Time. That performance qualified her for the US Olympic Marathon trials – but what did she do instead? Head to Black Canyon 100km in early 2024 hunting for a golden ticket into the Western States 100-mile. A dream soon to be realized.
Rewinding to look at Rachel’s season in whole, she raced eight times, winning six of those races with distances ranging from 7.1 miles to 100-miles. Talk about range. Rachel’s season kicked off in Hong Kong, where she crewed her husband, Tyler Green, in the 100km while racing and winning the 33km “The Third” race that same weekend. From there, she went to Black Canyon in search of a golden ticket. After a great battle at the front with runners like Becca Windell and Heather Jackson, Rachel pulled away for the win, cementing her spot at Western States. Staying close to home in prep for the “big dance”, Rachel ran and won the Gorge Waterfalls 30km (setting the course record) and the Tillamook Burn 50-miler. In true multihyphenate style, Rachel started her medical residency in anesthesiology the same week as Western States. Flying maybe a little later than ideal she took the start line ready to battle and finished 8th in her debut 100-mile running an insane 17:28:35 in the process. Many of us would have called it a season at that point but Rachel went on to take first at the Cirque Series race at Alta in August, place fourth at the Mammoth Trail Fest 26km in September, and then won the historic JFK 50-mile in a course recording setting 5:57:32! Honestly, we’re just tired thinking about it.
We asked Rachel what her highlight for 2024 was and loved its embrace of the chapters we get, “My highlight from 2024 was FINALLY graduating from medical and graduate school after 10 years of schooling and having copious opportunities to race and connect with our amazing trail running community all year long.” We know Rachel’s schedule is not going to get any easier any time soon, but we’ll be ready to cheer her on in whatever 2025 chooses to deliver.
While David Roche is not the only “uniquely” sponsored runner in our TROY top ten, we will definitely argue that he is in fact sponsored by the biggest possible group – the community at large. David and his wife Megan Roche, run one of the most successful coaching groups and their affiliated podcast by the same name, SWAP, or Some Work All Play. While known as a talented and supportive coach, many seemed surprised by David’s performances this season. Most notably, they seemed shocked by his course record run at the Leadville 100-mile, but those most surprised seem to have skipped several chapters of David’s running career. For those who need a refresher, David is a two-time national trail champion, a three-time member of Team USA, and was the 2014 USATF Trail Runner of the Year for the sub-ultra distance. That’s a decade-plus of trail running success that was finally turned towards the 100-mile distance this year. We have to imagine ten years from now that that list of achievements will only be longer.
It’s easy to look at David’s 2024 and see the clear successes, he raced four times, winning three times, running one course record, and three second fastest times in course history for the others. It’s also easy to forget that there is context missing from anyone’s season when we just look at the numbers on a sheet of paper – nowhere on the results sheet does it mention that David was hit by a car on a training ride this spring that could have dramatically altered his life. An event however that quite possibly dramatically altered the trajectory of this summer where he came to startlines unburdened. Pre-accident, David ran and finished second, in the second fastest time ever, at the Crown King Scramble 50km. Post-accident, David ran and won the Silver Rush 50 miler (2nd fastest time ever), won and set the course record at the Leadville Trail 100-mile breaking Matt Carpenter’s long-standing course record by 16 minutes, and finally ran and won the Javelina 100-mile (2nd fastest time ever) to bring home a golden ticket to WSER. Now that’s a wild 2024 context or not.
With a golden ticket in hand and WSER less than six months away the hype is already building for what is set to be the battle of legends in the men’s race. David is already hard at work getting ready to make the 100-mile foot race into a drag race like we have never seen. Are we excited for it? You better believe we are injecting that level of hype directly into our veins.
Rachel and David shot for the stars with out-of-this-world performances in 2024, and while they are the fiercest of competitors on the trail, both of these athletes rank high for best finish line hugs given as well. It’s 100% a performance index we can get behind in 2025. Check back here tomorrow as we roll into our third place position in this year’s TROY count down.