Canada’s Marianne Hogan repeated her third-place finish from 2022 at the 2025 Western States 100. In the following interview, Marianne talks about an injury that flared up during the early miles of the race that made it harder to enjoy some of the running, how she reacted to learning that she and the other lead women were running under course record pace in the early hours, where her motivation and focus were in the closing miles of the race, and how she’s going to enjoy the moment before starting to think about next year.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2025 Western States 100 results article.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Marianne Hogan Post-2025 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Marianne Hogan. It’s the day after your third-place finish at the 2025 Western States 100. Well, hello, Marianne.
Hogan: Hello.
iRunFar: We meet again.
Hogan: Yes, and we’re sitting down. That’s a good start.
iRunFar: Hopefully this will be a conscious interview this time.
Hogan: Yeah, exactly.
iRunFar: A little faint during your interview after your third-place finish in 2022.
Hogan: Yeah, yeah. A long time ago now it feels like.
iRunFar: Yeah, long time ago, but same feelings.
Hogan: Yeah.
iRunFar: This is a really hard a hundred-miler.
Hogan: Yeah, it is actually. The heat will really get to you. I feel like it almost gets you worse the next day. It’s weird, I guess. I don’t know.
iRunFar: Yeah, you have to run all day in the heat, and then you have to come back to get your award the next day in the heat. No air conditioning, sitting.
Hogan: It feels like heat training, when heat training should be done.
iRunFar: You should be in a cool pool right now.
Hogan: Exactly.
iRunFar: This third-place finish did not come easy to you yesterday.
Hogan: No, it was a really tough day, actually. It’s hard to describe exactly why, but from the get-go, I just felt really off. I had a lot of pains in my body that came up really quickly. I had been dealing with some things at the end of my training block and was hoping that I would have enough time to recover during taper, but they came back really quickly in the race. And so, that made it really hard for me to enjoy some free kilometers. For me, I like to describe Western States as a lot of free miles, I guess, a lot of downhill. But, yeah, I was struggling a lot out there and it made a lot of the race very difficult.
iRunFar: So, you said you had some stuff in your training block that came up early. Was this little niggles and aches and pains and stuff, or—
Hogan: Yeah. At the end of my training block, my sciatic nerve acted up. It was just pulling on a lot of different things. It was just … Yeah, it came up very suddenly and very intensively. I was hoping that the taper would wind it down, but it didn’t quite get there.
iRunFar: That’s too bad.
Hogan: So, I was a little worried, and I guess my worries got confirmed somewhere up in the high country.
iRunFar: When the sciatica decided to present itself again.
Hogan: Yeah, exactly.
iRunFar: Yeah. We listened to you say at the finish line last night that it just takes the enjoyment out of the early miles that are supposed to be beautiful and free and early and fresh.
Hogan: Yeah, and it’s a lot of the things that I love about ultras. I usually disconnect from any type of competition. For me, running, I enjoy running a lot. Yesterday, unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of enjoyment, just because my body was hurting and I really didn’t feel well. So I don’t know. It’s interesting because when I crossed the finish line, I was just so happy that I made it, that I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to make it to the finish line because I don’t really know how I got there yesterday.
iRunFar: The universe somehow delivered you there.
Hogan: Yeah, I was like, Whoa, okay. I’ll take it.
iRunFar: Well, more maybe your fierce resilience and determination and all the … Yeah, just what you’ve built up through your career of doing these long and hard things delivered you there, whether you’re aware of it or not.
Hogan: Yeah, I guess so. I think the team has a lot to do with it, too. I think Western States is also very, very special because your team has such a big impact on you. There’s a lot of aid stations. You have pacers. So it’s really hard to … Not that you would want to give up, but it’s really hard to give up when you have such a big team around you. I’m a very team-oriented person, so I definitely owe my finish to my entire team that was out there for me.
iRunFar: I love that. The women’s race dynamic was really interesting from start to finish. I mean how did it feel from your perspective? Were you aware of all the dynamics and the coming and going of the women around you?
Hogan: Not really. Like I said, I was just struggling so much in the beginning that I didn’t really know what was happening. Then I think I got to Dusty Corners and I was told that we were all running faster than course record. I was like—
iRunFar: And you had no awareness of that.
Hogan: Yeah. I was like, Okay, well, I guess we’re not doing that bad. So, no, because I didn’t really … I saw them for a little while in the high country. There was, I think, four women ahead of me. Then I started feeling really bad and I didn’t see them again for a little while. Then when I got to the aid station, they told me that they really weren’t that far from me and I was like, Huh. Okay, that’s interesting. I was like I guess I’ll keep going and see where this takes me.
iRunFar: It’s funny when you’re feeling so bad, but you’re still in it.
Hogan: Yeah. It’s a good feeling, though, I guess. It’s a relief. It’s kind of like a, Okay, I’ve got to keep going.
iRunFar: Later in the race, when you were more firmly cemented in the podium position, or you’d been there for a while, you must have known that, that you’re running in third now.
Hogan: Yes and no because I only got into third place just before Pointed Rocks. So nothing was in cement for sure.
iRunFar: I guess, but you were close to—
Hogan: I was.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Hogan: I think I got fourth somewhere in between Forest … Actually, at Foresthill, I think I got fourth.
iRunFar: Yeah, okay. So, it was back and forth there for a while, or you were close to podium position and then—
Hogan: Well, I think from Foresthill, I was … Fu-Zhao [Xiang] was the one in front of me, and I wasn’t closing in on her. I was thinking, yeah, Fu-Zhao was a hard one to close on. And so, yeah, I guess I was just running scared of the people behind me as opposed to who’s ahead of me.
iRunFar: Oh, that’s interesting.
Hogan: Yeah. Then eventually the narrative changed, because when I got to Green Gate, I was told that I think Ida [Nilsson] was struggling a little bit, or that’s what I was told at least. And so, then it became, Okay, well, now let’s start looking forward and see what we can do, and that’s what I tried to do.
iRunFar: Got it. And so, then you found her somewhere around Pointed Rocks.
Hogan: Yeah, exactly.
iRunFar: Got it. What was it like then?
Hogan: Well, yeah, it was very interesting, because, as I mentioned to you earlier, I got sick. I felt … Yeah, I think that the heat got me and I was sick multiple times throughout the course. Whenever I would overheat, I would get sick again. And so, in all of that section, even when it’s getting cooler, as soon as I didn’t have any ice in me, I was overheating and then I felt incredibly sick and I kept … So it was really difficult. Then when we finally saw her, I think I was surprised that I was catching her on the uphill, because I didn’t feel like I was moving so well. I mean when you’re at Pointed Rocks, I guess it’s all hands on deck. You’ve got to give it your best.
iRunFar: Just put that pedal down and see what happens.
Hogan: Yeah. I was like, Okay, well, I think we’re going to … Yeah, so my pacer was like, “Okay. We’ve got to accelerate here,” and I just followed blindly. Then we got to Pointed Rocks and Mathieu [Blanchard] hopped back in as my pacer. It was very interesting because he was just … Again, for him, Mathieu kept encouraging me to look forward and not backwards. And so, he was like, “Okay. Well Fu-Zhao was six minutes away. Let’s try to get her,” and in my head, I was like, he’s a little crazy, but I was like, “Okay, we’ll see what we can do.” It was fun. I think that that’s probably something that I’ll cherish forever, running through that downhill and then suffering my way up to Robie Point.
iRunFar: Up to Robie Point. This is such a cool finish line here. Like evening, lots of people in the stands, just a very celebratory atmosphere, all the top finishers hanging around. What did it feel like to cross the finish line for the second time in third place in this race?
Hogan: Yeah, it was very special because, like I said, it was a surprise to me. I almost … Yeah, I still can’t believe how that happened. And so, I think there is something really special about running around the track and having your crew there with you. I feel like that’s something … That’s my favorite part of Western States is being able to have your crew run you in from Robie Point. You’re not done with the race, but you’re already recapping what happened. I was getting emotional with them and they were like, “Okay. We’ll wait for the finish line before we get emotional.”
iRunFar: Hold your stuff together.
Hogan: But I think it’s so cool. Then you cross the finish line, and I feel like Western States has a very family feel to it. If you return, you get really friendly with your competitors. I think the staff of Western States is unbelievable and I think we’re able to spend some quality time with them and get to know them, and that’s what I really enjoy. So it feels like you’re running home even if I’m not at all from Auburn, California, but that’s how I feel when I run around that track.
iRunFar: You said off camera that you want to be able to celebrate what you’ve done and what you put together, but then there’s that thing in you that makes you feel like you want to chase betterment. Is there both of those feelings in you today?
Hogan: Yeah, I think I’ve learned from my previous results that I really don’t want to immediately dwell on the things that I want to improve because I feel like we work so hard … Like all through our life as an ultrarunner, we work so hard to hit these podiums at these big races, and then we end up getting a podium and we’re disappointed because we’re third and not first, which I think is a little silly and I think we need to … Even if I wish that I had a better day out there, I need to celebrate the fact that I pushed through, I suffered, and I made it to the finish line in third. That’s, I guess, the feelings that I want to have in these exact moments.
But of course when I’ll stop recovering, I think I’ll start thinking about things that I could have done differently as much in the block leading up to the race as on race day or anything like that. But I don’t want to dwell. I want to take a few days to cherish these moments and not just be disappointed, because I feel like that would be just a waste of our lives as ultrarunners.
iRunFar: This race does do a little bit of that future temptation because they dangle that W3 right in front of you the minute you cross the finish line.
Hogan: Yeah. Well, it’s funny because my pacer, he had paced me in 2022. Before we caught Ida, I said, “We’re coming back next year, by the way,” and he was like, “Okay, but let’s get you to the finish line.”
iRunFar: “Can you just do this race first?”
Hogan: Yeah. I was like, “Okay, we’re coming back.” So, yeah, I think that I have a pull towards it. It’s hard to describe, but I think it’s the energy around this race that makes us all want to come back in.
iRunFar: Congratulations on your third-place finish at the 2025 Western States.
Hogan: Thank you.
iRunFar: I guess that’s a celebrate what you have done and see you next year.
Hogan: Yeah, I guess it is. Thank you.
iRunFar: Thank you.
