Silverton, Telluride, Ouray, Lake City, and then back to Silverton, Colorado. The 2026 Hardrock 100 runs clockwise on its wild and scenic mountain loop in Southwest Colorado.
The run through the San Juan Mountains starts at 6:00 a.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time on Friday, July 10. This year’s class of 147 runners will have 48 hours to finish the high-altitude route and get back to Silverton to formally kiss the rock.
Ludovic Pommeret running through Ouray with pacer Jim Walmsley on the way to winning the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The course alternates direction each year, and this direction is casually described as “up the walls and down the ramps” for its steeper but shorter climbs, and longer, more gradual downhills. The 102-mile (164 kilometers) course gains 33,000 feet (10,060 meters) of elevation at an incredible average of 11,000 feet above sea level (3,350 meters). Handies Peak, at 14,048 feet (4,281 meters), is the course’s iconic high point, and it’ll be at mile 64 this year.
A small course change this year, bringing back the historic Grouse Gulch aid station instead of the Animas Forks one used the last few years, has the run about a half mile shorter than in 2025. It was an exceptionally low snow year across Colorado, and while there’s always the potential for mountain weather, the course should be snow-free on run day.
As of this article’s publication, the Gold Mountain Fire is burning outside Ouray, along with a number of other fires across the Intermountain West. The race organization has announced its monitoring the wildfire situation and its potential impact on this year’s event. We’ll keep updating this article as we learn more.
The start of the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Course record holder and 2025 winner Katie Schide will not race this year as she continues her recovery from injury. Schide’s 2025 record of 25:50, run in the counterclockwise direction, is the overall record. After a year away, Courtney Dauwalter returns after winning in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Her 26:11 finish from 2024 is the race’s clockwise course record and the race’s second-fastest finish ever. Careth Arnold, last year’s TDS winner, and Tara Dower will be Dauwalter’s strongest challengers. Dower, however, raced the Western States 100 only 13 days before Hardrock, finishing sixth.
Two-time defending champion Ludovic Pommeret headlines the men’s field. The Frenchman set an overall course record of 21:33 in 2024, and his 2025 finish ranks as the race’s second-fastest in the counterclockwise direction. He’ll be challenged by the U.K.’s Tom Evans, who won the 2023 Western States 100 and 2025 UTMB, and a win here would set him on a path to win the world’s four most iconic 100 milers, with only Diagonale des Fous missing. The two Europeans will be challenged by Jimmy Elam, who carries a six-race win streak into Hardrock, including the 2025 Wasatch Front 100 Mile.
You can check out the full entrants list.
Ahead of the race, we’ll publish interviews with some of the race favorites and, of course, follow our live coverage starting at 6:00 a.m. U.S. Mountain Time on Friday, July 10. Stay tuned!
Thanks to LEKI for supporting iRunFar’s Hardrock 100 coverage!
2026 Hardrock 100 Women’s Preview
Courtney Dauwalter has the race’s second-, third-, and fourth-fastest finishes ever. She progressed the race’s overall course record in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Dauwalter didn’t race Hardrock last year, and in her absence, Katie Schide broke her overall course record. Schide’s 25:50 is 21 minutes faster than Dauwalter’s fastest Hardrock and 24 minutes faster than Dauwalter’s only counterclockwise run in 2024, when she ran 26:11. Dauwalter had a less-than-typical 2025. She dropped at the Cocodona 250 Mile, won the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, and was 10th at UTMB. At the end of 2025, she ran two road marathons with a 2:38 best. In 2026, Dauwalter won the Chianti 120k and was second at the Cocodona 250 Mile. Dauwalter has only 65 days from her Cocodona 250 Mile finish to the start of Hardrock. She’s absolutely the race favorite, and she lives in Leadville, Colorado, at an elevation of 10,000 feet, but Hardrock’s extreme high altitude has sometimes been a wild card for her race stomach. She dropped at Hardrock in 2021, her debut year, with stomach issues.
Courtney Dauwalter set a new women’s overall record at the 2024 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Careth Arnold
Careth Arnold is a longtime race volunteer and is running her first Hardrock. She’s a prolific racer and completed at least nine ultras in 2025. Top highlights last year were a win at TDS and a second-place finish at the High Lonesome 100 Mile. High Lonesome, in Colorado’s Sawatch Mountains, doesn’t get as high as Hardrock and doesn’t climb as much, but it does have an average elevation of over 10,000 feet. That’s likely a really good benchmark for Arnold’s Hardrock potential, and she also lives at altitude in Colorado. In 2026, she was fourth at the Way Too Cool 50k and second at the Canyons 100k. At the latter, she won but declined a Golden Ticket entry to Western States, instead prioritizing her run at Hardrock.
Careth Arnold, 2025 TDS women’s champion. Photo: UTMB
While Arnold declined her Western States entry, Tara Dower is attempting an aggressive Western States-Hardrock double after dropping from the 2025 Western States due to illness and ending up first on the Hardrock waitlist two weeks later, always a heartbreaking spot to be. At Western States, Dower worked it hard and finished sixth. The two races are only 13 days apart. Dauwalter won both races in 2023, but they were 20 days apart that year. Dower was fourth at Hardrock in 2024 in 33:10, and she’s been wildly successful since late last year. She won the 2025 Javelina 100 Mile in course record time, was third at the 2026 Black Canyon 100k, and was third at the 2026 Gorge Waterfalls 50k. Like Dauwalter and Arnold, Dower, too, lives at altitude in Colorado.
Tara Dower climbing up to the KT aid station during the 2024 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Ten years ago, Kaci Lickteig won the Western States 100. She’s no longer winning the sport’s biggest races, but she’ll be a fun follow at Hardrock. Lickteig lives in Nebraska but has often raced in Colorado, including a fourth-place run at the 2024 High Lonesome 100 Mile. In 2025, Lickteig was ninth at the Javelina 100 Mile and sixth at the HURT 100 Mile.
Kaci Lickteig, the 2019 Javelina 100 Mile champion. Photo: Javelina Jundred/Paul Nelson
Like Lickteig, Vermont’s Aliza Lapierre doesn’t have easy access to altitude training. She did finish eighth at the 2025 Hardrock 100 in 39:54. In 2026, she was fourth at the Cruel Jewel 50 Mile and, at even longer distances, she was seventh and second at the 2024 and 2023 Cocodona 250 Mile. Like last year, she arrived in Silverton early to gain that elusive altitude adaptation.
Aliza Lapierre on her way to finishing eighth at the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
More Women to Watch
- Jordan Armstrong – 4th 2026 Jemez 50 Mile; 5th 2023 Wasatch 100 Mile; 8th 2023 Bighorn 50 Mile
- Darla Askew – 7-time Hardrock 100 finisher (2023, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012); 11th 2025 Cascade Crest 100 Mile
- Jenny Pierce – 6th 2025 Cascade Crest 100 Mile; 4th 2024 & 1st 2022 Crazy Mountain 100 Mile; 4th 2023 Wasatch 100 Mile
- Meghan Slavin – 11th 2025 Bear 100 Mile; 3rd 2023 & 2nd 2021 Mogollon Monster 100 Mile
- Emily Wanless – 5th 2024 Cascade Crest 100 Mile; 7th 2023 Leadville 100 Mile
Darla Askew runs in Cunningham Gulch, mile 9, early in the 2023 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Notable Withdrawals
- Alyson Kirk – 4th 2025 Crazy Mountain 100 Mile; 4th 2024 Cruel Jewel 100 Mile
- Katie Schide – 1st 2025 Hardrock 100, 1st 2024 & 2022 UTMB; 1st 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail
2026 Hardrock 100 Men’s Preview
France’s Ludovic Pommeret is the two-time defending champ and overall course record holder. He’ll race this year’s run at age 50 and turn 51 less than two weeks after race day. He hasn’t slowed down at all, though. In 2024, on this year’s course direction, Pommeret ran 21:33 to set the overall course record. Then last year, he won again in 22:21. The time was the fifth-fastest finish overall and second fastest in the counterclockwise direction, trailing only François D’Haene’s 2021 run. Pommeret typically excels on the course’s downhill sections. Since last year’s win, Pommeret was sixth at UTMB and fourth at Diagonale des Fous in late 2025, and he was third at the Marathon des Sables Legendary stage race in April 2026.
Ludovic Pommeret hikes in front of David Ayala on his way to winning the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
A career Grand Slam is when you win at Western States, UTMB, Hardrock, and Diagonale des Fous. Only Kilian Jornet, Courtney Dauwalter, and Katie Schide have accomplished this quadfecta. Evans has two of the four, and a win at Hardrock could set him on a path to be the second man to achieve the feat. Evans won Western States in 2023 and UTMB in 2025. He hasn’t raced much since UTMB, though. He dropped at Transgrancanaria in March 2026 and won the 24-mile Three Peaks Race in April 2026. Evans lives and trains in the U.K. and is exhaustive in his preparation. He has spent time in a sports lab and does a lot of training on a treadmill where his runs include combinations of extreme uphill grades, weighted vests, simulated pole motions, downhill grades, ankle weights, and an oxygen mask to simulate high altitude. One could even imagine there being a stuffed bear or moose in the corner to model Colorado’s wildlife for full training effect.
Tom Evans on his way to winning the 2025 UTMB. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Jimmy Elam
I don’t know Jimmy Elam, but I have this idea that his training is the opposite of Evans’. I don’t envision him on a treadmill with all the bells and whistles. Elam lives in Utah, and while he doesn’t share the name recognition of Pommeret and Evans, he could spoil their runs. He has won six ultras in a row in the American West, most at altitude on big mountains. In 2026, he won the Miwok 100k and Old Pueblo Endurance 50 Mile. In 2025, he won the Mammoth 200 Mile and Cascade Crest 100 Mile. In 2024, he won the Wasatch Front 100 Mile and San Juan Solstice 50 Mile. And in 2023, he was second at the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile and won the High Lonesome 100 Mile. Elam’s mountain experience and consistency will surely have him in the podium mix. Will he stay close enough to Pommeret and Evans early to have a shot late?
Jimmy Elam, the 2024 Wasatch Front 100 Mile men’s winner. Photo courtesy of Wasatch Front 100 Mile.
David Ayala
Montanan David Ayala was only 18 minutes out of third place at Hardrock in 2025, his debut at the event. He’ll surely look to build off that result this year. Like Elam, Ayala also has great mountain running experience, including wins at the 2024 IMTUF 100 Mile and a second-place finish at the 2021 Bighorn 100 Mile. Like Evans, Ayala is also coached by Evoke Endurance.
David Ayala running through Ouray on the way to fourth in the 2025 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
In 2016, Jason Schlarb tied with Kilian Jornet for the win at Hardrock. His 22:58 finish that year still ranks as the race’s eighth-fastest finish ever. That was a decade ago, but Schlarb was third here in 2024, too. He’ll be more familiar with the course and its challenges than nearly anyone else in the field.
Jason Schlarb during the 2024 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Ryan Smith has some Hardrock history, too. He was third in 2021 in a time that sits just outside the race’s all-time top 10. Like Schlarb, Smith has maybe slowed down a bit since then. He was 14th at this year’s Chuckanut 50k and fifth at last year’s San Juan Solstice 50 Mile, but he was still second at the 2025 High Lonesome 100 Mile too. His time at High Lonesome was 33 minutes slower than Elam’s 2023 finish there.
Ryan Smith after finishing third in the 2021 Hardrock 100. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
More Men to Watch
- Dylan Bowman – 8th 2026 Jemez 50 Mile; 9th 2023 & 2nd 2021 Hardrock 100
- Nick Coury – 7-time Hardrock finisher (2024, 2022, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2008); 7th 2024 & 8th 2022 Hardrock 100; 2nd 2025 Zane Grey 50 Mile
- Alex Docta – 6th 2025 Mogollon Monster 100 Mile; 4th 2023 Jackpot 100 Mile
- Arlen Glick – 11th 2025 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k; 4th 2023 Hardrock 100; 3rd 2023 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile
- Jeff Rome – 4-time Hardrock finisher (2025, 2024, 2018, 2017); 7th 2025, 4th 2024, 2nd 2018 Hardrock 100
- Paul Terranova – 6th 2024 & 2023 Hardrock 100; 6th 2023 Leadville 100 Mile
Silverton, Colorado, local Jeff Rome runs through the town of Ouray during the 2025 Hardrock 100, on his way to a seventh-place finish. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Notable Withdrawals
- Nate Jaqua – 1st 2025 & 2023 HURT 100 Mile; 1st 2023 Crazy Mountain 100 Mile
- Michael McKnight – 9th 2026, 8th 2025, 1st 2023, & 2nd 2022 Cocodona 250 Mile; 2nd 2024 Tahoe 200 Mile
Call for Comments
What 2026 Hardrock 100 predictions do you have?
