Meet Eszter Horanyi. She is an incredible person, to put it lightly. I heard about her when she was on her way to a second-place finish at the Ouray 100 Mile in 2017. Someone said she was a legend in the bikepacking world, and I wondered: Who is this lady who is also really good at ultrarunning?
Over the years, Eszter has become not only someone I look up to, but an amazing friend willing to go the distance for just about anyone. And she is always up for any adventure. A couple years ago, she showcased her endurance skillset by snagging the women’s unsupported Fastest Known Time for the Nolan’s 14 route in Colorado.
You’ll also see her work as an editor, writer, and photographer across the outdoor world, covering everything from races to bikepacking, packrafting, and fastpacking adventures. And you’ll never see her without a camera! Her hard work as a creative and as an endurance athlete of any sport is inspiring, to say the least. She’s now working full-time for iRunFar as its managing editor.
Without further ado, Eszter Horanyi:
Moonrise over the Grenadier range in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. All photos by Eszter Horanyi.
You like to take photos and you like to write. Where/how did your creative endeavors begin, and how have they evolved through your life and into a career?
I feel like this is one of those sneaky questions, because I can’t remember a life without taking photos and writing. Some of my earliest memories are squandering away rolls of film in my dad’s camera and spending hours writing page after page of stories as a little kid.
Back in the era of blogs in my college and graduate school years, I was the unofficial documenter and record-keeper of mountain bike and backcountry ski adventures of the motley crew of humans I lived with — seven people in a five-bedroom house in Boulder, Colorado. I paid $250 per month for my room, and it was the best of times. I wrote a lot and took photos of the (mis)adventures we all went on, but being in school for physics and engineering, I didn’t really consider writing or photography as a viable career path, even though, for the most part, I hated what I was studying and loved telling stories.
Eventually, I stopped being able to fake being a well-adjusted member of society, quit grad school, and moved to Crested Butte, Colorado, to be a ski bum. I was racing bikes — somewhat successfully — at the time and trying to make some sort of living writing about the racing world, but it took the better part of a decade to build up my writing and photography experience to the point of it being something I considered myself adept at. I banged my head against a lot of walls over the years.
Race photography provides its own set of challenges and learning. Joyce Njeru at the 2025 Broken Arrow Skyrace.
I’m still happy to admit that every time someone buys a photo from me or hires me for a photography job, I sit in disbelief for a second. I’m not sure if it’s the always-present impostor syndrome that refuses to believe someone values my photos, or just appreciating the position I’ve found myself in. I started by shooting photos of my friends in beautiful places, and somehow that turned into a career.
The same goes for writing and editing for iRunFar, and now having the very grown-up title of managing editor. I still sit down at my computer most mornings and ask myself (to the tune of the Talking Heads, of course): How did I get here?
B-roll photo of Meghan Hicks during the first photoshoot for iRunFar she ever hired me for in 2021.
Tell us about your love for endurance sports. You’ve bikepacked super-long distances, winning everything from the Tour Divide, the Arizona Trail Race, the Colorado Trail, the Iditarod Trail Invitational, to name just a few. What made you switch into ultrarunning, and how has that evolved into other adventures beyond racing? What gets you most excited these days? And if you could choose only one mode of transportation — bike, foot, or packraft — which would it be, and why?
I got burnt out on bikes!
I raced bikes for a good number of years, everything from stage races on road bikes to 45-second dual-slalom downhill events to cross-country mountain bikes to 24-hour races to cyclocross to bikepacking. Aside from BMX, if there was bike discipline to race, I probably tried it at least once. I somewhat accidentally discovered that I was really good at the long-distance stuff, especially the multi-day, self-supported bikepacking events, which were essentially contests of who could eat the most while riding, and who could best deal with the worst weather conditions/bikes breaking/everything going sideways. I was really good at eating a lot of snacks.
But health issues in 2013 forced an unplanned retirement from racing, and a four-month bike tour in 2014 left me not ever wanting to see a bike again. So I bought a pair of Altra Olympuses and promptly spent the next two years injured because I had no concept of zero-drop shoes. Or moderation. Running doesn’t reward stupidity in the same way that bikes do. The sheer fact that I stuck with running is a testament to my … stubbornness? Yeah, we’ll go with stubbornness.
Packrafting with Meghan Hicks in Utah.
But I immediately loved the places that my feet could take me that my bike couldn’t. Plus, going uphill is a lot easier when you’re not pushing a bike!
I made a few bids at running racing early on and made some of my best running friends at the Ouray Ultras events, and somehow managed an unsupported fastest known time on Nolan’s 14 in 2023 because all my running friends were in Europe for UTMB and I needed some sort of distraction in my life, but I think I’ve settled into the non-competitive side of sports quite happily these days.
Shooting photos at the Ouray 100 Mile is easier than running it.
I really love the big adventures that combine a lot of skill sets, whether that’s packrafting and foot travel, running and scrambling, bikes and running up peaks, bikes and packrafts, whatever.
Making me choose between bikes, feet, and packrafts is kind of like asking me to choose between mountains and deserts. I couldn’t imagine my life without all of them!
Multisport outings, like a five-day bike and packraft loop around the Lake Powell and Escalante, Utah area, are the best. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Tell us a little bit about your life, moving to the U.S. when you were two and how your upbringing helped you persevere in both life and work?
I think in a lot of ways, I’m a pretty classic first-generation immigrant with all the emotional issues that come along with that. My parents migrated to the U.S. from Hungary in 1984, so during the Soviet occupation and the height of communism.
They definitely instilled (whether intentionally or not) the notion of doing your best at whatever you’re doing, and trying to be the best at whatever you’re doing, which on one hand, has made me a hard worker and someone who keeps trying to get better and better at my craft(s), but on the other hand, I have no patience for myself when I mess something up. Which — I know — isn’t healthy.
Taking photos during the 2021 Colorado Trail Race bikepacking event in the very early days of trying to make it as a photographer.
But I think I have a very visceral understanding that had my parents not immigrated, I would never have been presented with all the opportunities that I’ve had, and so I feel a bit of a responsibility to myself to make the most of what I’ve got.
Who are some of the influences that have inspired you to chase big goals, whether in work, in life, creatively, or athletically?
Eddie Clark is an amazing cycling photographer who was on hand to photograph a lot of the bikepacking races I did. When I first started doing paid photography gigs, I went to him for advice, and my mantra whenever I had a camera in my hand was, “What would Eddie do?”
Athletically, I love the people doing creative projects in the mountains. Justin Simoni, with his 14ers by Bike project and then Colorado Centennials by Bike project, was a huge inspiration in combining two sports I love in a self-supported style that I’ve always appreciated. Joe Grant and his under-the-radar romps around the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Hannah Green for her all-around badassery, but especially the Sangres traverse and her Grand Canyon traverse.
Hannah Green playing model for a gear photoshoot. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Meghan Hicks, iRunFar’s Editor in Chief, has probably believed in me as a writer/editor/photographer as well as a human and adventure partner more than anyone else on this planet. I admire the shit out of that woman for everything she does, and she’s taught me more about the crafts of writing and editing, as well as backcountry travel and being a good human, than anyone else in my life.
If you could go back in time and give young Eszter some advice, what would it be?
You’ll get to exactly where you want to go, it’s just not going to look at all how you expect it to.
Meghan Hicks stands on a ridgeline on a moody morning outside of Silverton, Colorado. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Since you have a stake in documenting the world of ultrarunning, if you could see any change happen, what would you like to see?
I’d love to figure out a way to tell the stories of people putting together creative runs/projects. There’s so much focus on racing and gear, which are very easily understandable and digestible way to talk about running, but there are so many people doing really interesting non-racing things that aren’t getting any attention. How do we tell those stories?
If you could write a story about or photograph any one person, subject, or topic right now, what or who would it be? It doesn’t have to be running related!
Ian Evans. Ian, along with his wife Jane Evans, started up the running shop, Kinisi Running, in Wanaka, New Zealand, about a year and a half ago. I somewhat accidentally stumbled into their world just as it was opening, and it’s the first place that I’ve really felt like I’ve been “home” in the running world. I think what he’s built is amazing, and I feel a huge amount of gratitude for having become part of that family.
Adventure photos of friends was how it all started, and hopefully will never stop. Adventuring with Lorna Hill, New Zealand summer, 2025. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
And my favorite question, if you could be a tree what kind of tree would you be?
A New Zealand Mountain beech tree. They live right at treeline in the New Zealand mountains in really spectacular locations on unbelievably steep slopes, and they have these super-shallow root systems that intertwine with all the roots of the trees around them. The whole forest essentially holds itself up on these mountains by virtue of being interconnected. And I think there’s a metaphor to be found in that somewhere.
