Allie McLaughlin is a regular at the Broken Arrow Skyrace, having raced every year since 2021. In this interview, our first with Allie, she talks about her lengthy mountain running career, what keeps her coming back to Broken Arrow, her return to shorter distance racing after trying a few 50-kilometer races, and changes she’s seen in the event in the many years she’s been a part of it. Also, special guest appearances by four-legged friends Harley and Paha.
For more on who’s racing, check out our in-depth Ascent and 23k previews and follow our live race coverage of the Ascent on Friday and the 23k on Sunday.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Allie McLaughlin Pre-2025 Broken Arrow Skyrace Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Allie McLaughlin. It’s a day before the Broken Arrow Ascent and a couple of days before the 23k. You are a regular here at this race. I’m the newbie. Hey.
Allie McLaughlin: Hi. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. I do feel like it’s a little home turf.
iRunFar: Yeah. You’ve been at this race every year since 2021?
McLaughlin: Yeah. And yeah. Harley, my dog has been here for four years, and then Paha has been here last year and this year. I did the Triple Crown [of the Ascent, 46k, and 23k events at Broken Arrow] my very first year and I had never run that far. I’d never run a 50k and I had never run that far in three days. And I came out like, not injured, which was a big milestone for me, and so, and just like the people here in the mountains. I definitely fell in love with it. So it’s been a staple ever since.
iRunFar: Amazing. I want to back up just a little bit and talk about your career with mountain running and trail running. You have been in the sport for over a decade at this point. iRunFar has been sort of watching you from afar.
McLaughlin: Oh, thank you.
iRunFar: It is our first on camera interview with you so I would just love to hear, by the way, we do have a dog situation here with Ally’s dogs Paha and Harley roaming around, so you might hear a little bit of that, but it’s awesome. Yeah. Tell us just a little bit about your now extensive mountain and trail running career.
McLaughlin: Yeah. So I started, I graduated from CU Boulder in February 2013.
iRunFar: Okay.
McLaughlin: And then in 2014 was my first trail races, with Pikes Peak Ascent, and I made the U.S. team that year. So, that was my first year making the classic team and then I made it this year 11 years later and it’s so special to have, like, been around that long. A lot of people are mentioning it now which makes me feel kind of old for a short distance, but I’m just, like, trying to remember that I’m not. But, yeah, it’s been so special to watch especially seeing shorter distance get more attention now. I think it was, yeah, definitely ultras for a long time. And I tried the ultra. I tried the 50ks and I loved it. I did okay at it, but I’m definitely, I made a decision after last year that I want to go back down to, like, marathon and below, specifically, like, two hour races are kind of, is my sweet spot. And, yeah, maybe I’ll go back to the 50ks, but it’s been so cool to watch people, too, in the sport and watch them, like, yeah. Just all of us kind of grow up together. We see the young kids. We see people still around and, yeah, it’s crazy to think it’s been eleven years.
iRunFar: My favorite part about looking at your results is like, a couple times you’ve bopped up to like the 50k distance, kind of like the traditional trajectory for an off-road runner. They’re like, okay mountain running, shorter trails, ultra, and then it just keeps getting longer and longer, but I feel like you have crept up to the 50ks and then you’ve been like, nope. Going back to it.
McLaughlin: Yeah. And you know, I think, I mean part of it was, I think we enjoy what we’re good at and I started to see a little success early in the 50k, and then and then it got harder. You think things usually, you get better at them and for some reason it was getting harder. And you know, the competition’s always going up too. So that’s the thing, but I realized I enjoy, like, redlining from the start.
iRunFar: And staying redlined.
McLaughlin: Yeah. Yeah. And you can’t do that necessarily and run well in a 50k. I mean, maybe we can, with the right, like, I don’t know. With the right training and the right day but, yeah. Definitely coming back to the shorter stuff. And again, I think with the talk in the sport it is. It’s like when you get older you lose speed and you have to go up, and that might happen, and I’m sure it will at a point, but I don’t want to let it happen yet.
iRunFar: You’re ready to stay with the shorter and faster stuff.
McLaughlin: Yeah, totally. And it’s only getting faster, which is kind of scary, but also super cool.
iRunFar: You are keeping up just fine.
McLaughlin: Oh, thank you.
iRunFar: It was just three weekends ago that was the 2025 U.S. Mountain Running Championships. You were on the women’s podium there. You qualified for team USA to represent The USA at another World Mountain Running Championships. You are keeping up just fine.
McLaughlin: Yeah. Thank you for the reminder. [laughs] Yeah. That was a super fun race. Knowing Anna [Gibson] and Lauren [Gregory].
iRunFar: This is amazing. [remarking about the dogs]
McLaughlin: Anna and Lauren. I’ve known Lauren for a very long time. I’ve seen her kind of grow up in the sport, and to know how fast they are on the track. I never really got to really live out my track years. I was injured a lot in college, and then I came straight into trail running and so I never got to see what I could have done on the track, and so to see them have these blazing times, Olympic Trials qualifying, and to be able to keep up with them, like that’s enough for me to like, feel confident and cool in my abilities. I’m like, yeah. If they can do that on the track, I just yeah. It’s awesome to keep up with them on the mountains.
iRunFar: You keep coming back to Broken Arrow. Like, you do a lot of different races. There’s a couple different ones that you kind of like to repeat. Like, I see Pikes Peak Ascent.
McLaughlin: Yeah.
iRunFar: Ally Mac there. That’s your home turf. You live in Colorado Springs.
McLaughlin: Absolutely.
iRunFar: And then there’s this race that you keep coming back to, too. What’s the draw?
McLaughlin: What is it? Yeah. Like I said, it was so special my first year doing the Triple Crown. It was just a euphoric weekend. And then I got Harley a few months after that race and then she came the next year and finished with me, and it was just again another euphoric experience. And yeah, just the people. I love the course. I love the village. It is growing in such an awesome way, but this year with it like, you know, I mean I start to feel old when I’m like, oh, I don’t know if I like it as much. There’s like too much, like, too many people and things going on, but I know with,
iRunFar: My sweet, sweet race is growing up. Becoming a teenager.
McLaughlin: [laughs] Absolutely. Totally. But I couldn’t be happier for the race directors. They’ve been so supportive and sweet to me since day one and yeah. And it’s a special place. Northern California is always fun to visit and I don’t have a direct answer, but it is. It’s one of my staples. That and Pikes Peak and probably the Moab Trail Marathon are probably my top three. Like, honestly, I like it more than, way more than UTMB.
iRunFar: Yeah.
McLaughlin: You know? And the UTMB is so special in its own way, but these are, I feel more at home at these races.
iRunFar: They’re just different.
McLaughlin: Yeah.
iRunFar: Yeah. So let’s talk about this weekend specifically. Tomorrow’s race is the Ascent.
McLaughlin: Yes.
iRunFar: It’s a Mountain Running World Cup race, but maybe more importantly, it’s a qualifier for Team USA in the uphill discipline to represent the U.S. at the world championships this fall. I’m sure you’re here to chase after a team spot.
McLaughlin: Absolutely. I made the classic team three weeks ago, and I was having hip issues and almost didn’t race. And my fiance Dylan was like, he’d remind me, he’s like, well, you have Broken Arrow. The uphill is your favorite. And in that moment, I’m like, no, I like the classic. And then, and then after that race, everything went well and stuff, but now I’m like, wait, no. The VK is my favorite.
iRunFar: I changed my mind again.
McLaughlin: I know. But I’m oddly nervous. The course is shortened because of wind. It’s two miles, which is so short. And I love to train on the incline, which is only a mile. And so I have that, like, 20-minute training block of, like, just going hard for twenty minutes, but I just think I don’t have quite the like, leg power of a lot of the girls. Like, I think they have, they might have some speed on me.
iRunFar: TBD.
McLaughlin: I have mixed feelings about the shorter course, but also because my hip kind of bothers me, I’m like, oh, shorter is better there. And Dylan’s going to be able to ride his bike to the top. There’s a lot of pros and then the actual race, like, oh, it’s going to be fast.
iRunFar: An extra long warm up tomorrow morning.
McLaughlin: Absolutely. Yes.
iRunFar: The shorter the race the longer the warm up.
McLaughlin: Totally. I don’t warm up for 50ks really, but like a VK, yes.
iRunFar: You have, triple crowned Broken Arrow before.
McLaughlin: Yes.
iRunFar: And multiple times you’ve done both the Ascent, had a day off, and then also done the 23k on Sunday, which is what you’re doing this weekend. The 23k is, for the second time, a really interesting race in that they’re combining the Mountain Running World Cup and Golden Trail World Series together.
McLaughlin: Yes.
iRunFar: So it’s just combining talent and combining competition. Plus there’s a bunch of like, national level type runners from around the U.S. and Canada who are joining the event too. Are you, I guess what I’m trying to say is, like, the 23k is going to be pretty damn competitive on Sunday, but like, tomorrow, are you going to be thinking only of tomorrow?
McLaughlin: No. Yeah. Great question. Because like, I do think about it a little bit because I noticed, especially this year, there’s a handful I feel like a couple years ago, that’s what everyone did. You do the VK and 23k. If you’re not doing the triple crown, or if you either do those two or the 50k. And so, I noticed this year there’s a lot of people not doing the VK.
iRunFar: They’re like, oh, you guys are rested.
McLaughlin: Yeah. And so like but honestly, like, no. This is what I do. I do the VK and that, like, if I’m a little. I did notice one year, it was 2022. It was windy. Even we did go all the way to the top, but the tram was closed because it was windy, so we had to walk down. Oh. And that four mile walk down, like, I mean, we’re all athletes. We can do it. But,
iRunFar: You got destroyed by it.
McLaughlin: I feel like I remember thinking during the 23k, I just was like, sore in weird spots and I’m like, I think that was having to walk down. And so we’re going to have to walk down tomorrow. It’s only half the distance, but I might try to convince someone to ride a bike up for me so I can ride back down. [laughs]
iRunFar: So you can just cruise down and rest your legs.
McLaughlin: Yeah. I mean, it sounds so lazy, but I’ve learned. I’m like, I why would I do the same thing that I know I felt from before? But, yeah. I almost feel better doing both. I feel like tomorrow kind of breaks the nerves.
iRunFar: Yeah. Oh, that’s a good way to,
McLaughlin: And to come back to your point that it’s Golden Trail World Series, when I found that out, Golden Trail World Series is another one of my like, I just think the short distance, the competition, I, yeah. I just think it’s so cool that Broken Arrow got it, as a U.S. race. And I think of UTMB. If UTMB is the Olympics of our sport, the Golden Trail Series is the X Games.
iRunFar: Ooh. Nice metaphor.
McLaughlin: Yeah. And that pumps me up so much, just because I love running. I love trail running. But if I could have been like, really good at like, free skiing or something, I like, I think that would have been more, yeah. Just more cooler. And then seeing where shorter trail distance running has gone. It’s so technical, it’s so intense. It’s wild, and I think Golden Trail Series has done a really good job of showcasing that, and making it even cooler, and so to have my two favorite things combined is really special. And yeah, I want to rip the 23k, but we’ll see. Yeah. We’ll see.
iRunFar: I think that’s a great place to end it. All of your favorites combined into Sunday’s race.
McLaughlin: Absolutely. Yeah.
iRunFar: Best of luck to you tomorrow at the Ascent. Best of luck on Sunday.
McLaughlin: Thank you.
iRunFar: Best of luck in your bid for a second spot on team USA at the world champs.
McLaughlin: Thank you.
