Just over three months after the women’s 100-mile world record was most recently lowered, American Ashley Paulson set a new mark on February 20, 2026, by running 12:19:34 at the Jackpot 100 Mile in Henderson, Nevada. The event, held just a handful of miles away from the Las Vegas strip, served as the USATF 100 Mile National Championships. Paulson beat the old women’s record, which was set at the 2025 Tunnel Hill 100 Mile by Caitriona Jennings of Ireland at 12:37:04, by more than 17 minutes.
American Ashley Paulson setting a women’s 100 mile world record at the 2026 Jackpot Ultra 100 Mile. Photo: Aravaipa Running/R21 Photography
Running around a 1.19-mile (1.91 kilometers) loop around the 31-acre pond at the center of Cornerstone Park, racers experienced cool temperatures throughout the day. The 8 a.m. start time saw calm conditions at the former gravel mine, with the wind picking up as the day wore on.
To break the previous record, Paulson would have to hold an average pace of 7:34 minutes per mile over the course of the 100 miles. She started the race aggressively, running splits hovering around 7 minutes per mile for about the first 20 miles. Although she still had a few laps at that pace over the following 25 miles, the majority were around 7:10 per mile. About halfway through the event, with about 6 hours on the clock, Paulson’s pace slowed significantly, and it seemed to just be a matter of seeing how much of the buffer she’d built — which was on the order of half an hour — would remain. Her pace hovered around 7:30-minute miles up until the 80-mile mark and then crept further up with a fifth of the distance left to cover. In the end, even as the buffer shrank by a little bit in the final miles, Paulson held on to set a new world record.
Ashley Paulson celebrating after setting a women’s 100 mile world record. Photo: Aravaipa Running/R21 Photography
This is the first world record for Paulson is perhaps best known for holding the women’s course record at the Badwater 135 Mile. She first set the record there in 2022, placing third overall, and then reset it the following year, shaving nearly 2.5 hours off her previous time and winning the event overall. Paulson is no stranger to the Jackpot course, having won the 100-mile event in 2024 but DNFing in 2025. She’s also won the 2025 Bigfoot 200 Mile — an event where she placed second in 2024. Additionally, she won the 2025 Zion 100 Mile and the 2023 Across the Years 100 Mile, and was ninth at the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile.
Coming into the Jackpot 100 Mile, Paulson had clearly stated her intention to go after the 100-mile world record in an Instagram post. The course is USATF-certified, and the record must be ratified by the International Association of Ultrarunners.
[Ashley Paulson served a six-month doping sanction in 2015 and 2016 due to a doping violation in triathlon for a positive test for ostarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM).]
