“It’s complicated,” laughs Hans Troyer when asked about his relationship with the Black Canyon 100k.
When he lines up for the 2026 event this weekend, it won’t be like in 2024 when he was a newbie to ultrarunning with a self-admittedly inflated ego. And it won’t be like in 2025 when he was chasing a Western States 100 Golden Ticket, came down with the flu the day before, and couldn’t start. This year, with an automatic entry to this year’s Western States 100 already in hand, Troyer says, “I’m just so excited to race the Black Canyon 100k because I have no reason to be in it.”
Hans Troyer looking pleased with his eighth place at the 2025 Western States 100 that secured him a place in the 2026 race. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Whether he likes it or not, Troyer’s 2024 Black Canyon run will likely always be something he’s known for, regardless of what he goes on to do with his running career. He went out fast with Hayden Hawks and held on for nearly 50 miles before dropping back and finishing 10th. A few days later, he was admitted into the hospital with rhabdomyolysis, a condition caused by the shutdown of the kidneys as a result of muscle fiber breakdown and dehydration. He was severely ill and had to stay 12 days to recover. However difficult it was, this very public experience of flying too close to the sun so early in his elite running journey has clearly changed Troyer’s approach to running and, arguably, the trajectory of his career.
In what seems like a very brief time in the sport — just over two years — Troyer has now accumulated a wealth of successful running experience. From trying to walk away from running in 2023 after a successful collegiate running career to finding success in ultras to having a popular documentary created about his quest for a Western States Golden Ticket in 2025 to winning the 2025 JFK 50 Mile to signing with Hoka in 2026, Troyer has been on the fast track to the top and has no intention of slowing down.
And through it all, he’s found a way to stay true to himself, his approach to running, and his goals.
Hans Troyer winning the 2025 JFK 50 Mile. Photo: Greg Holder/H3 Photography
Growing Up Outside
Troyer grew up the middle child of three brothers in Newnan, Georgia, a place that he calls “cozy and fun.” The trio of brothers had fairly free rein to roam their parents’ 35-acre property as long as they stayed out of trouble. According to Troyer, “I have the type of parents who said, ‘We’re going to trust you until you give us a reason not to.’” The kids spent a lot of time outside riding mountain bikes and dirt bikes, going to the lake, jumping off bridges, and just being in the woods — for the most part, making good decisions.
While Troyer’s father had run cross country and track in high school, Troyer picked up the sport as a kid to stay in shape for football. He says, “I got faster for football, but I ended up loving track.” He continues, “It was kind of a love-at-first-sight thing where I was getting faster, making friends, and just having a dang good time doing it.”
Once he discovered the joy of doing long runs in the woods outside of practice, only ultimate frisbee could compete for his attention. When it came time to decide what to do after finishing high school, Troyer says, “My two college decisions were either to go to Kennesaw State University and play on their club ultimate frisbee team or to go to Augusta University and run.” Running won out.
A young Troyer initially had hopes of being a football player. Photos courtesy of Hans Troyer.
Troyer received a small scholarship for his first year at Augusta University, a Division 2 (D-II) school in Augusta, Georgia. To pay for that first year of school, he supplemented the scholarship with a student loan. But consistent running earned him scholarship increases, and by his junior year, his running scholarship covered his tuition. By the end of his collegiate running — which spanned five years during the COVID-19 pandemic — he was able to pay back his initial student loan and pocket a bit of money, in addition to what he was earning working at the local running shop. He says, “I didn’t start off as anything special, but I like to take the leadership role. So by the end of my five years, I would say I was the leader on the team, and I really liked doing that.”
Running for a D-II team afforded Troyer opportunities he wouldn’t have had at a bigger school. He says, “In D-II, I got to win some conference championships and go to nationals, and I just had fun.” The highlight came during track conference championships during his fifth year, when he says, “I was able to pull off the victory in the 3-kilometer steeplechase and the 10k. It was a crazy-cool double.” The team did well, winning the conference championships four times in a row starting in his second year and continuing on after he left the school. Troyer remarks sadly, “That streak just ended. They got seven in a row or something. They just lost this past year. So devastating.”
Troyer during his years running for Augusta University. Photos courtesy of Hans Troyer.
Discovering Distance
Even with his successful collegiate running career, Troyer didn’t seriously consider professional running after graduation. “I actually had what I considered at the time as a realistic attitude when I knew that running post-college competitively didn’t really exist for me because I wasn’t that fast.”
Instead of chasing running dreams, Troyer decided to see what life was like without running. He’d been running seriously for eight years and says, “I didn’t even know what life was like without training all the time. So, I took pretty much a month off.”
The result? “I did not like it.”
Troyer climbs during the 2025 Western States 100. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
With a newfound understanding of what running meant to him, Troyer did what is logical for anyone who’s just taken a month off from the sport, moved back home after college, and has not found a real job yet. He says, “I woke up on the morning of July 5 in Georgia, so hot as can be. And I just ran 50 miles with no training.” He fueled with Goldfish, Gatorade, and Mountain Dew, and says, “I remember my legs cramping, and it just being super difficult because I had no idea what I was doing.”
But the day ignited something in Troyer. “In a time when nothing was seemingly going my way, I had just run 50 miles. I found it so valuable, even though it served no real purpose. It was just pure, intrinsic motivation.”
Troyer started training again.
Getting into Ultras
With little concept of what an ultra actually entailed, Troyer admits to having some misconceptions early on. Learning that the average pace for winning Western States at the time hovered around 8:45 minutes per mile, he says, “I was like, ‘That’s not even that hard.’ I had no idea.” He read Scott Jurek’s “Eat and Run,” Kilian Jornet’s “Run or Die,” and David Goggins’ “Can’t Hurt Me.” He raced the FATS 50k in Georgia, and despite suffering from leg cramps in the final six miles because he “didn’t know anything about hydration or nutrition,” he managed to set a course record. Just over a month later, he set another course record at the Mental Health 50k in his hometown of Newnan.
Troyer says a friend — who is now is agent — told him, “Those times are good, but unfortunately nobody really cares. You’re not getting any eyes on you from stuff like that.” He suggested that Troyer sign up for the Bandera 100k and see what happened. Troyer says, “It was the first time I was hearing that maybe I should get eyes on what I’m doing.”
Troyer during his 2024 Bandera 100k run. Photo: Jesse Ellis/Let’s Wander Photography
Troyer still thought it would be a highly competitive Golden Ticket race, an event in Western States’ Golden Ticket series where top finishers earn Western States entries, not realizing it had been removed from that year’s list. “I remember standing on the starting line, terrified because I had never run 100k, but also looking around and not knowing who was professional and who wasn’t.” Troyer took it out fast, won the event, and for the following three days, believed he’d broken Jim Walmsley’s course record until the race organization circled back and told him that the course had changed, so his record would come with an asterisk.
Asterisk or not, the running world took notice, and Troyer was hooked, saying, “After Bandera is when I really dove into the competitive side of things and became a true fan of the sport.”
A Black Canyon 100k Relationship
Coming off his win at the 2024 Bandera 100k in January of that year, Troyer signed up for the Black Canyon 100k the next month, saying, “I didn’t even know what Black Canyon was when I first signed up. I just did it because I got the opportunity to, and they told me it was a Golden Ticket race and there would be a lot of big-time competition there.” He signed up three weeks before the event.
There had been some hype about his run at Bandera, and he says, “I remember thinking that I was still being humble, but looking back on it, that small bit of media attention I got inflated my ego a good bit. And of course, it only took one person to say, ‘This kid could be the next Jim Walmsley.’” The comment stuck in his head. Headed into Black Canyon, he says, “I remember thinking, I’m unstoppable. No one can beat me. I’m about to go crazy.” Now, with nearly two years of hindsight on the event, Troyer can laugh at the situation, “I thought I had some sort of special ability, which now I think is hilarious. I knew nothing about the sport. I had a big ego, and that’s probably what got me into trouble.”
Troyer with only a few miles left of the 2025 Western States 100. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The story of Troyer’s 2024 Black Canyon run is quite well-known. After running his heart out for the lead, he fell back late to finish 10th and ended up hospitalized with a severe case of rhabdomyolysis. His 12-day hospital stay allowed for plenty of time for reflection.
A New Approach to Running
If the Troyer before the 2024 Black Canyon 100k was someone who believed, “I’m just going to train harder and run harder than everybody,” then the one that came out of the hospital was much different. “After those races and the extended hospital stay and then the build back into running, I realized that was super unsustainable. And that forced me into a different role where I’m very detail oriented.” Troyer started working with David Roche as his coach, had his sweat rate tested, and, perhaps most importantly, began dialing in his nutrition and hydration for ultras.
The following year of Troyer’s life is well documented in the film “The Kid,” which follows him on his quest to return to the 2025 Black Canyon 100k to try to earn a Western States Golden Ticket. It’s the ultimate hero’s journey storyline that couldn’t have been scripted better. The protagonist, Troyer, is beaten down by the 2024 Black Canyon 100k, only to return for redemption in 2025, only to fall ill with the flu the day before the race and can’t start. Undeterred, he refocuses and signs up for the Canyons 100k, the last Golden Ticket race of the season, where he finishes second to earn his coveted entry to Western States. The film has 1.8 million views on YouTube as of February 2026.
Troyer taking second at the 2025 Canyons by UTMB 100k. Photo: Jacob Banta
It was a rollercoaster of a spring racing season for Troyer, but with a year’s more life experience under his belt, including his brush with rhabdomyolysis, the media attention after earning the Golden Ticket didn’t get to him quite as much.
After the Canyons 100k, he returned home to Georgia to an overgrown lawn. Looking at it, he says, “I was like, You’ve got to be kidding me. And so with my torn-up quads, I mowed the grass one afternoon. I remember just thinking, I don’t know what I expected this to be, but I am still the exact same person that I was a week ago, before this Golden Ticket.” He developed the mantra, “The grass still grows, and I still mow it.”
Nine weeks later, Troyer returned to California to race Western States. He finished eighth in his debut at the event, securing his spot for the 2026 race, as each year’s top-10 finishers are awarded with entries for the next year.
The Future
Troyer isn’t shy about talking about his goals for the future. He wants to win Western States and UTMB someday. He wants to do well on the world’s biggest stages. He says, “I consider myself a showman. I really like to put on a show with my racing, and outside of racing. It’s fun to me.”
The Black Canyon 100k may not be the biggest stage in the world, and for Troyer, there isn’t even the pressure of trying to earn a Western States Golden Ticket with a top placing. For Troyer, “It’s personal now.”
It’s only been two years since Troyer’s first attempt at the race, and a lot has changed. He’s established himself as a top runner in the sport. He recently changed shoe sponsors. He works with a coach and knows his sweat rate. He hydrates and takes in nutrition while racing.
Troyer, always the showman, waves to fans at the Rucky Chucky river crossing during the 2025 Western States 100. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
With bigger events on the 2026 calendar, including Western States in June and CCC in September, Troyer is lining up for the Black Canyon 100k with only intrinsic motivations in mind, much like when he first ran 50 miles on that hot day in Georgia, fueled by Goldfish crackers, Gatorade, and Mountain Dew.
He says, “I want to try and win, of course, but I think it’s going to be fun to run some of the later sections of the course and just laugh at myself when I remember how I felt two years ago running it, when I was quite literally dying and just running my heart out.”
“It’s going to be a cool, full-circle moment.” Troyer pauses and adds, “Unless something bad happens.” But even if something does go wrong, Troyer will just add it to his growing list of lessons learned in the sport and keep moving forward toward his goals.
Call for Comments
- Have you watched “The Kid” on YouTube? What did you think?
- Do you have a fun Hans Troyer story you could share?
