After finishing third in 2022, Marianne Hogan of Canada is back at the start line of the 2025 Western States 100 after a bit of a hiatus from the race. In the following interview, Marianne talks about why she wanted to return to this event, how having more experience at the 100-mile distance is going to help, and how she’s changed as an ultrarunner over her career.
To learn more about who’s racing, check out our women’s and men’s previews before following our live race coverage on race day.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Marianne Hogan Pre-2025 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Marianne Hogan before the 2025 Western States 100. How are you, Marianne?
Marianne Hogan: I’m great. How are you?
iRunFar: Alright. Welcome back to Olympic Valley.
Hogan: Thanks. It’s really a pleasure to be here.
iRunFar: Yeah. You’ve been here before in 2022.
Hogan: Yeah.
iRunFar: And you were third. What brings you back to the race?
Hogan: I mean, I was hoping to be back in ’23, but I got injured and had to give up my spot, I guess.
iRunFar: Mm hmm.
Hogan: And I had been wanting to come back ever since. I decided to play it safe last year in going straight to UTMB, no Western States, but this year I was kind of getting the pull of Western States again and wanting to make that happen.
iRunFar: Yeah. How is that? Like, because those are two very different races that you obviously like both. How do you balance wanting to do a flatter, but more runnable faster race, versus UTMB some years?
Hogan: Yeah. It’s interesting because to me they’re not that different.
iRunFar: Okay.
Hogan: I feel like they’re both pretty runnable races. I understand that at UTMB you do a lot more hiking, but there’s a lot of runnable downhills, which is what I really enjoy. So, I feel like I get my share of that at Western and my share of that at UTMB. I guess, it’s also the only two 100 milers that I’ve ever done. So maybe one of these years, I’ll have to branch out and do another one. But, yeah, I guess for me, they’re both very exciting. The ambiance is really different at both of them, but it’s just I have kind of unfinished business at both of them so I kind of keep wanting to come back.
iRunFar: Yeah. And you’re obviously very good at both of them. You’ve had a lot of podium finishes between the two races. Speaking of UTMB, last year you were third there and you’ve been second there before, but you ran a lot faster last year. How do you weigh, like, do you build confidence from running faster even if you’re one position further back, or how do you weigh such an outcome?
Hogan: Yeah, I feel like my goal in ’24 last year at UTMB was to race longer and ’22 when I raced it, I got injured at Champex-Lac and kind of just walked my way to the finish line. This time I wanted to race longer, and it ended up kind of having to have to walk not quite as close to Champex, but yeah, I guess I raced a little while longer, but my body kind of broke down before I made it to the finish line. So, I think every year brings confidence also just in terms of experience.
iRunFar: Mm hmm.
Hogan: I think that there’s something to be said as every 100-mile you do, I think your body kind of recognizes that this is more something that you do, and it is better to get used to it because you’re going to have it do it anyway. So, I’m hoping that having an extra 100-mile under my belt or two extra 100-miles under my belt since I’ve done Western will come in handy this time around too.
iRunFar: Right on. Well, I’m going to jump ahead to a question in my mind then because, like, it’s just about ten years since you started ultrarunning.
Hogan: Mm hmm.
iRunFar: You know, have you grown as an ultrarunner and what has that added to your life?
Hogan: It’s added a lot. I think I’m at a point in my life where ultrarunning is really at the center of it, and I think that’s really where I want it to be. I feel lucky that I’m able to kind of live off ultrarunning. I don’t see it so much as a pressure, but more as an opportunity to have a good few years, and I feel like I have an amazing time. I love running, and I love running with people, and I feel like ultrarunning gives me both of those things. And I also have the opportunity to travel a lot with it and meet amazing people, and so I feel very privileged to be able to do that on a day-to-day basis, and racing is kind of just the icing on the cake.
iRunFar: Right on, and how have you grown as an ultrarunner? How have you progressed in this field?
Hogan: [laughs] I’ve progressed a lot, but I’ve also kept what, like, core, to myself in the sense of like, even if there’s a lot more structure now to trail running and ultrarunning, I feel like I’m still not someone who can strategically plan 100 miles. I’m more of a feeling kind of runner, and I always have been. And that’s why I go out and run my own race, and I don’t really pay attention to what’s going on around me. And I’ve always done that, and I think that I will continue to do that till the end. I hope I will. But I think I’ve been able to better manage outside of competition. So anything that has to do with, I guess, managing my training and my recovery.
iRunFar: Yeah.
Hogan: Something that has improved drastically and I have become maybe, not maybe, I have definitely become more methodic in my training methods, I guess.
iRunFar: Yeah. And then so on either side, what have you changed? Like, has there been a big lesson? You’ve improved it, but what might that look like?
Hogan: Well, when I first started ultrarunning, I was definitely on a feeling basis for training as well, and I was all about saying yes to any kind of plans that was thrown my way, which really worked for a while, but then I would overdo it, and maybe not show up in the best possible shape on race day and often overdo it in terms of potentially getting injured.
iRunFar: Mm hmm.
Hogan: So now I’m much more methodical just to make sure that I don’t get as injured, and I see it as beneficial too for my overall happiness because when I’m not injured and I run every day, it makes a big difference for me. I still am able to stay happy when I’m injured, but I feel like my happiness goes through the roof and I’m able to exercise and I’m trying to keep it that way and I feel like it’s a better approach for sure.
iRunFar: Right on. Well, you’re back here at Western States and a lot of top women come back to this race year-after-year, and Emily Hawgood’s one of them.
Hogan: Yeah.
iRunFar: And you and she raced at Canyons 100k, what was that battle and race like?
Hogan: It was really fun. Again, I was just racing through feeling, but I ended up running a lot with Emily. We yo-yoed quite a bit, and it was really fun. I think that that makes the race really interesting, as much for the spectators as for us. It’s like, you turn a corner, she’s there, then she gets away, and then you come back, and it’s really fun. And I honestly was not expecting to be so close to Emily. I had an injury that kept me from running most of… I only started running again in March.
iRunFar: Mm hmm.
Hogan: I was kind of giving Canyons a shot to see if I could get a [golden] ticket, but wasn’t fully believing it. And I was also very happy that I was able to do that, and I had a great time running with Emily for sure.
iRunFar: Right on. And have you had a healthy training block since Canyons?
Hogan: Yeah, I have! And it’s been good. I’m happy that I was able to get Canyons in. It’s a build up for Western for sure. I think that there’s no better race prep because a lot of the Canyons course goes on the Western States course so I thought that was really good and I was able to recover fairly quickly. I remember wanting to run very quickly after the race, which is always a good sign, and I am very happy with the block that I put forward. I spent a lot of my time in Auburn actually.
iRunFar: Okay.
Hogan: So, I was running with, with Fu-Zhao [Xiang], and a lot of other runners who came through. So that was a lot of fun too.
iRunFar: So, this year is really interesting in the women’s field because it kind of feels wide open. There’s a ton of really talented women in a deep field, but it’s wide open. So, you’re training with Fu-Zhao, you race with Emily, like, what’s it going to be like on race day being around all these other fast women?
Hogan: [laughs] Yeah, well for me again it doesn’t really change much, because I just kind of run how I feel, and sometimes I find myself at the front of the field, sometimes I find myself more towards the end, and I just keep going and hope that I will find myself more towards the front, perhaps towards the end of the race, but I just plan to have a good time and give the race a good justice, I guess.
iRunFar: Awesome. Well, have fun out there and good luck.
Hogan: Thank you!
