On Saturday, August 16, Anne Flower and David Roche each ran spectacular races on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile to set new course data with instances of 17:58:19 and 15:12:30, respectively.
Flower broke Ann Trason’s 31-year-old file of 18:06:24 by simply over eight minutes and completed second total within the race. It’s value noting that when Trason set her file in 1994, she additionally positioned second total within the race.
In the meantime, Roche repeated his victory from final 12 months and lowered his personal course file by simply over 14 minutes. Final 12 months, Roche broke Matt Carpenter’s 2005 course file by 16 minutes.
Each earlier file instances stood for lengthy sufficient that they appeared unattainable, regardless that many elites had tried. Whereas the course that Carpenter and Trason ran was somewhat bit shorter, and by some accounts somewhat bit simpler, the longevity of their data was a testomony to their unimaginable runs on the time.
Roche’s run final 12 months confirmed that any file, no matter how previous, may be damaged, and Flower solely reiterated the purpose this 12 months.
David Roche reaches the pink carpet in course file time on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile, for the second time in two years.
This could solely be thought of a breakout efficiency by 35-year-old Flower. Whereas she gained the Silver Rush 50 Mile earlier this 12 months and the Javelina 100k final fall, it seems that this was her first try on the 100-mile distance. She’s principally competed in smaller races within the 50k to 50-mile vary, the place she’s persistently been on the entrance of the sphere. It additionally seems she has a sturdy historical past in street marathoning.
Flower took the race out rapidly, operating because the second-place lady and simply exterior of the highest 10 total till the Outward Certain support station, 23.5 miles in. From there, she took the lead within the ladies’s race and steadily moved up within the area total, discovering herself in third on the primary traverse of Hope Cross. She was constant within the second half, the place many individuals wrestle, and completed sturdy to overhaul all however the wining man within the last miles. This allowed her to take the ladies’s win, end second total, and set the ladies’s course file.
Anne Flower on her solution to a brand new ladies’s course file.
Roche ran on the entrance of the race from the beginning and was a minute forward of his earlier file tempo 90 minutes into the occasion. He was solely three minutes up on his previous file 50 miles in on the turnaround at Winfield, however he closed a lot sooner this 12 months, making up 11 minutes on his splits from 2024 within the second half of the race. This should have felt like a little bit of redemption for Roche, who dropped out of the 2025 Western States 100 earlier this 12 months with abdomen points simply previous the midway level.
David Roche within the early miles of setting a brand new males’s course file.
The Leadville 100 Mile out-and-back course is understood for its excessive elevation, moderately runnable trails, and the double traverse of Hope Cross, one on either side of the midway level. There are a number of punchy climbs sprinkled all through the course, and traditionally, many falter within the again half of the occasion because the miles, altitude, and fatigue construct up. The occasion begins and ends within the city of Leadville, which is the very best included metropolis within the nation, sitting at 10,154 toes. The race course tops out at Hope Cross at an elevation of 12,600, and the route takes in about 14,400 toes of climbing.
