Winner of the race in 2022 during his 100-mile debut, Adam Peterman returns to the 2025 Western States 100 after coming back from an extended injury. In the following interview, Adam talks about why he’s coming back to a race that he won on his first try, how he secured his Golden Ticket to the event, and some of his training in the past few months.
To learn more about who’s racing, check out our men’s and women’s previews before following our live race coverage on race day.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Adam Peterman Pre-2025 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Adam Peterman
Top of Form
before the 2025 Western States 100. How are you, Adam?
Adam Peterman
: I’m doing great. Yeah. We just drove in from Montana and it’s good to be here.
iRunFar: Right on. Well, you’re back at Western States. You won here in 2022. Your debut 100, your debut Western States, like, some people could just walk away after that.
Peterman: Yeah.
iRunFar: Why are you here again?
Peterman: Oh, man. I mean, at that point I kind of just started my running career. It would feel weird to just hang up the spikes one, two years in. So, no, I had such a great time in 2022, and I just knew I wanted to do that race again. You probably could have asked me the day after the race if I wanted to do States again, and I probably would have said yes.
iRunFar: We probably did ask. You probably said yes.
Peterman: I probably did. Yeah. If you go back and watch the footage maybe we can figure that out.
iRunFar: There you go. We’ll bet that out. But you had a couple, I mean, you had that great race. You had a win at the [2022] Trail World Championships in Thailand. And then you had a rough stretch.
Peterman: Oh, totally.
iRunFar: Well, what happened?
Peterman: Well, yeah. 2023 I ended up getting a sacral stress fracture. Just had, I guess it was just a bout of overtraining, probably in that winter leading into that. So that took me out of 2023, and then it just took a long time to get back into shape. I ran Canyons in ’24, didn’t run well there. I was hoping to get a ticket there and ended up like 12th place.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Peterman: But, you know, I started to find my footing again and ended up third at CCC. So, I feel like last year kind of redeemed the season towards the end. Yeah.
iRunFar: Yeah. At Canyons, you know, you finished 12th. What happened there? Was it where you overreached your fitness? Was it lingering injury?
Peterman: Oh, yeah. I think so. Going into it, I think with a lot of ultras you don’t know exactly where you’re going to be, and I just assumed that I would win or do really well again. I mean, every ultra I’d done up to that point had been successful. And so, yeah, I got served there pretty good.
iRunFar: You literally had been undefeated to that point in your earlier career.
Peterman: Up until that point, I’d been undefeated. But yeah, I just, I don’t think I was fit enough and then that compiled into a bad day, and then you get nutrition problems, and then everything went from there. So yeah. I had a full vision quest.
iRunFar: Obviously it’s nice to win everything you run, but was it nice to have, like, a little bit of a change in perspective?
Peterman: I’d say. I mean, I was undefeated in ultras, but, you know, I lost Pikes Peak Marathon in 2021. I lost a cross-country race I did the week before the World Championships. I lost a lot.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Peterman: So, to win that many in a row, I don’t think that was really something that was like, really getting in my head where I felt like I needed to win. Because, yeah, maybe I hadn’t lost an ultra, but lost all these other races. I mean, I do skimo sometimes, and I get absolutely smoked. So yeah. I’m used to losing.
iRunFar: So, you moved up. You finished third at CCC. You qualified for Western States.
Peterman: Yeah.
iRunFar: How did that feel?
Peterman: Oh, it was awesome. I mean, I feel like on the award stand at CCC, you know, everyone’s holding up their CCC trophy, and I was like, holding up the Golden Ticket.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Peterman: Because I was like, I’m back baby!
iRunFar: So that was the reason to be at CCC.
Peterman: I mean yeah. I guess I was signed up for CCC prior to knowing that it was a Golden Ticket race.
iRunFar: Got it.
Peterman: But I was checking very regularly to see what the ticket races would be. And when I saw the CCC, I was just like, let’s go. Like, perfect. So yeah. I was really happy to see that it was, and then it was definitely on my mind during the race for sure.
iRunFar: And how about how about this season? How have you felt so far?
Peterman: It’s been good. Yeah. I did, the Gorge Waterfalls 100k in April.
iRunFar: Won that.
Peterman: I felt really good that day. And then since then just had another, I pretty much did two six-week blocks of training with Gorge in the middle.
iRunFar: Right on.
Peterman: And, yeah. It’s gone really well. Like, I compare things to previous years and, yeah, everything I would say has gone better in this block than it did before Western States in 2022, but at the same time, training’s just one part of it. But yeah, I feel fit. I feel great.
iRunFar: I mean the good thing is like you also gained experience over that time and perspective. So like, yeah you have to execute on race day, but you’re coming in here with more tools, hopefully.
Peterman: Hopefully. And I think, you know, I think what we saw last year with the men’s field just running so fast, we saw like this big revolution in nutrition. And I hope that I can work on that or capitalize on that at States because, yeah. Like when I won in 2022, I was eating aid station drink mix and Mott’s gummies. Like, that’s what I ate. I had a nutrition plan the first 40 miles, but it kind of fell apart and that’s what we were relegated to the last 100k.
iRunFar: Alright.
Peterman: So, hey, maybe there’s something to that, but I’m hopeful that this year I can be closer to hitting high carb intake.
iRunFar: What does your nutrition plan look like now, if it’s no longer Motts and aid stations for strength?
Peterman: It’s evolved. Well, I’m with Scratch, in Boulder, and so that’s been a really cool partnership. They’re helping me, but they actually have a new prototype that I’m using. I guess I can’t speak too much to it, but it’ll be that, a combination of some other gels. And then, drink mix, and then they actually have chews that aren’t Motts. So, we might have to break out the Scratch chews if it comes down to it.
iRunFar: They’re tasty.
Peterman: I do enjoy them. I have to say. I think they’re a little better than Motts.
iRunFar: They’re different for sure.
Peterman: Yeah. They probably are a little better for you while you run.
iRunFar: Yeah. So how would you compare yourself to Adam in 2022? Three years later as a runner.
Peterman: As a runner.
iRunFar: Yeah. Well we’ll limit that scope to running.
Peterman: Yeah. Well there’s a lot that’s changed. I feel a little stronger, I think. Probably more resilient. I think back then I just started training for ultras and, like, I was just going for it. I never took rest days or anything like that. And I think it ended up with me feeling kind of fried at the end of training blocks. So now I try to take a day off every week or every other week.
iRunFar: Mm hmm.
Peterman: I think that’s been helpful. Focusing more on nutrition, outside of running, like just getting in more calories. I’m a big guy. I burn a lot of calories. I don’t think I got enough calories in and that led to that sacral fracture.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Peterman: Even though, you know, I might have been eating 4,000 calories a day. I probably needed 5,000 or 6,000. So, yeah, just been focusing more on that. But, you know, I try to bring a lot of the same things to it. I try not to overthink it too hard. Try to, you know, still do some runs that are pretty fun up in Montana. But, yeah, I think bring similar type of training, but I’ve tried to focus on more of these other things like recovery and nutrition.
iRunFar: And still enjoying it.
Peterman: Yeah. It’s been good. Yeah. It’s been really enjoyable. I would say the only thing I haven’t enjoyed in this training block is the heat training.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Peterman: I’ve got to be honest I don’t love heat training. I have an ice fishing tent with heaters in it, a bike in that and the stationary bike, and yeah that hasn’t been so fun.
iRunFar: You’d rather just be ice fishing in like 20 below.
Peterman: Probably. Yeah. Probably. Although I don’t really like ice fishing either, so that’s like the one fishing I don’t like.
iRunFar: Got it. Yeah. Well, it’s good to see you back here, Adam, and best of luck this weekend.
iRunFar: Thanks so much, Bryon.
