Portrait of the Western States 100 Course Records
July 1, 2012 by EJ Murphy · 4 Comments
In honor of Timothy Olson’s and Ellie Greenwood’s course record-setting runs at the 2012 Western States 100, here’s a tribute to the history of the Western States course records.
[Click here for a full-size version of the comic.]
Western States 100 Men’s Course Record Progression
1974 – Gordy Ainsleigh – 23:42
Official Running of WS on Old Course Men CRs
1978 – Andy Gonzalez – 18:50 (only two-time men’s course record holder, although one is unofficial)
1979 – Mike Catlin – 16:11:56
1981 – Jim Howard and Doug Latimer – 16:02:37 (first and only tie for course record)
1984 – Jim King – 14:54
1986 – Chuck Jones – 16:37:47
1988 – Brian Purcell – 16:24:00
1991 – Tom Johnson – 15:54:05
1997 – Mike Morton – 15:40:41
2004 – Scott Jurek – 15:36:27 (Star Fire course)
2010 – Geoff Roes – 15:07:04 (snow course)
2012 – Timothy Ols0n – 14:46:44
Western States 100 Women’s Course Record Progression
Official Running of WS on Old Course Women CRs
1978 – Pat Smythe – 29:34
1979 – Skip Swannack – 21:56:27
1982 – Bjorg Austrheim-Smith – 18:46:00
1982 – Bjorg Austrheim-Smith – 18:23:00 (first of three women to have set course record more than once)
Official Running of WS on New (Post-1984) Course Women CRs
1986 – Kathy D’Onofrio-Wood – 20:58:16
1988 – Kathy D’Onofrio-Wood – 18:52:40 (second woman to set multiple course records)
1989 – Ann Trason – 18:47:46
1990 – Ann Trason – 18:33:02
1991 – Ann Trason – 18:29:37
1992 – Ann Trason 18:14:48
1994 – Ann Trason – 17:37:51 (set course record five times)
2012 – Ellie Greenwood – 16:47:19
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EJ Murphy draws the Happy Trails comic strip for iRunFar.com, while also creating the Ultrarunning Guy comic.
All posts by EJ Murphy
Nice graphic! Really fun to see the progression of the CR!!
Thanks Dallan,
I have to say that I thought the easy part of this project would be entering the CR times but it turned out to be a bit trickier then I anticipated and hope I didn’t miss anyone. With the new course being officially run in 1986 and the old course last used in 1984, the 1985 race is left in limbo as not being recognized as either. It was won by Jim King in 16:02:44 and Terri Gerber in 20:30:03.
I used Ultra Sign-up ( http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=6720 ) for most of my data so thanks to them although they did not differentiate the old from new course so my progression was thrown for a loop when I reached 1984 and Jim King’s 14:54:00 CR run. I later learned from other great resource that Jim’s run was done in 101 degree heat. Thanks to John Medinger for pointing me to a very interesting resource from Craig Thornly ( http://conductthejuices.com/2010/06/08/ws-historical-temperature-and-snow-data/ ) which includes the temperature highs and lows of each years race. John also has his own list http://www.ws100.com/all-time-top-100-men.pdf and http://www.ws100.com/all-time-top-100-women.pdf
I believe there were also five age group records set. Olson broke Killian’s M29&U, Sandes broke Geoff’s M30-39, Mackey broke Kaburaki’s M40-49, Rory broke Trason’s W29&U, and Ellie of course broke Trason’s W30-39. What a day.
this is brilliant!