On June 21, Makena Morley, Tabor Hemming, and Tayler Peavey will all stand on the beginning line of the aggressive and money-rich 2026 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. A day prior, Zach Perrin, and presumably Erin Clark, can have raced the Damaged Arrow Skyrace 46k. Per week later, Adam Peterman will line up for the Western States 100 — an occasion he gained in 2022 — with Perrin as a pacer and Clark as a part of his crew. All six are elite path runners, and all six got here out of a magical time on the College of Colorado Boulder (CU) cross-country program within the mid-2010s.

Skilled path runners come from all totally different backgrounds — particularly as distances get longer — however this excessive focus of elites all rising from the identical CU Buffaloes program throughout the identical years is worthy of be aware. Whereas the CU working program has lengthy been recognized for producing profitable street and observe runners, together with Olympians Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn, Dathan Ritzenhein, Adam Goucher, and others, and different CU runners preceded this group in transitioning to the paths, together with Andy Wacker and Allie Avatar (née McLaughlin), this looks like the primary huge wave of path specialists to emerge from this system.

So what got here first? Did CU make future path runners, or did the longer term path runners all select CU?

CU Cross Nation within the Mid-2010s

One thing particular occurred on the 2018 NCAA Division I Cross Nation Nationwide Championships. “I noticed Dani [Jones] win after which seemed, and right here comes Makena. I seemed once more, and there’s Tabor, and Sage [Hurta-Klecker], after which Tayler. Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo. Each time I circled, it was one other Buffalo. I used to be overwhelmed.” Billy Nelson, the CU cross-country assistant coach from 2010 to 2022, beamed in his recollection of the race, held in Madison, Wisconsin. The CU girls gained the nationwide championships by 38 factors. They positioned six girls inside the highest 30 within the six-kilometer race.

Tabor Hemming working a cross-country race in CU colours. Picture courtesy of Tabor Hemming.

Nelson was part of a number of nationwide championships at CU, each as an athlete and as a coach, however referred to as the 2018 girls’s crew the perfect. “We gained the person title, gained the crew title, and had six girls end as All-People,” Nelson boasted, with a robust emphasis on the six. “I wasn’t shocked, wasn’t stunned. It was a dominant run. They did precisely what they wanted to do. They tucked in when they need to, confirmed grit after they wanted to, and pulled away within the final 800 [meters].” The CU girls have been so good that they might’ve gained the crew title even with out particular person winner Jones.

And now three of these CU cross-country All-People — Morley, Hemming (née Scholl), and Peavey (née Tuttle) — have all discovered their approach onto trails. Morley, who has run a 2:30 marathon, gained the 2026 Canyons 50k and the 2025 Kodiak 50k. Hemming was tenth on the 2023 Marathon du Mont-Blanc, has been within the high 5 on the Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k 3 times, and was within the high three on the Canyons 50k in 2025 and 2024. Peavey gained each the USATF Half Marathon Path Nationwide Championships and the USATF 50k Path Nationwide Championships in 2025.

Tabor Hemming on her method to taking third on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Jonathan Wyatt

It’s not simply these three, although. The CU cross-country groups of the late 2010s created a number of different profitable path runners.

Latest 2026 Canyons 50k third-placer Ryan Forsyth was on the 2018 NCAA Division I Cross Nation Nationwide Championships for CU too, ending eleventh within the males’s race. In 2017, Forsyth was 57th, and Peterman and Perrin have been 89th and 107th. In 2015, Clark was eleventh within the girls’s race, main the ladies to a second-place crew end.

CU Boulder Geography

Boulder, Colorado, doesn’t lack mountains, trails, or entry to the outside, options that drew most of the group to the college. Most got here from backgrounds that concerned many outside actions, not simply working.

Peterman, Perrin, and Morley all grew up in Montana. “I grew up in Missoula, simply such a candy place to develop up should you’re into working, biking, the river. After I was taking a look at schools, I didn’t even have a look at faculties in locations that I didn’t wish to reside,” Peterman stated. “Rising up in Missoula spoiled me.”

Makena Morley races on the observe for CU. Picture courtesy of Makena Morley.

Morley echoed the sentiment. “Anybody who goes to highschool at Colorado,” she paused, “It’s outdoors. You’re within the mountains.” Nelson, the previous assistant coach, excitedly remembered his runners: “Makena, Adam, they have been geared to lengthy distances, they usually’ve acquired that Montana perspective, grit.” He then famous of Hemming: “She grew up on a ranch doing farm chores. She was profitable at working. That’s fairly distinctive. She was excellent from a difficult place.” Hemming stated matter-of-factly: “You’ve acquired to take a look at the place everybody was from. I feel it’s the place all of us grew up. We didn’t all simply run metropolis streets rising up.”

Clark grew up in Eugene, Oregon, and transferring to Boulder for school meant buying and selling TrackTown USA for SingletrackTown USA. Nonetheless, her sentiment was the identical because the others. “The placement of the college makes a distinction. Being in Boulder mattered to me. These are the forms of people who find themselves taken with mountain life and have a tendency to reside or keep in a spot that has good path entry,” Clark shared. “I grew up backpacking, appreciated snowboarding, did a variety of that with my household.  My highschool would all the time do a cross-country camp every fall close to Bend with a variety of path working. I actually appreciated that and assume I gravitated to Boulder due to that.”

Makena Morley, the 2025 The Rut VK girls’s winner. Picture: The Rut/Anastasia Wilde

“All of them,” Nelson answered when requested who he recruited, after which defined what he seemed for. “Elevation, quick instances at elevation, down-to-earth guys.” He provides that Peterman and Perrin have been already good associates. “We wished expertise, however the place is the expertise, and the way does it match with our tradition?” Boulder’s geography attracted sure forms of runners, and people runners created the tradition that embraced trails and the outside.

Path Working Influences

Every member of the group had a special preliminary introduction to path working and ultrarunning. “Doing ultras appeared not possible to me, however one in every of my assistant coaches in highschool was Mike Foote [three-time Hardrock 100 runner-up], so I used to be uncovered to it early. Generally I’d do path runs with him,” Peterman stated of his pre-CU years.

Perrin famous the path affect of residing in Boulder: “There have been simply so many professionals within the space, on trails, like Scott Jurek, Sage [Canaday].”

The path affect got here from inside the CU program as effectively, primarily from Wacker, who raced for the crew from 2007 to 2011. Nelson recalled, “Andy Wacker first branched out to the paths,” and Hemming remembers Wacker recruiting others to hitch him. “He contacted a variety of us post-collegiately, saying, ‘Hey, have you ever ever considered doing these items?’” Hemming underscored that Wacker contacted everybody, making an attempt to get them to think about path working.

Andy Wacker (proper) and Hayden Hawks working the 2019 Chuckanut 50k. Picture: Tad Davis

Hemming was already a two-time member of the USATF U18 Mountain Working Staff whereas in highschool. She recalled that the crew’s preliminary response to path working was lukewarm. “I feel everybody thought it was a joke, if I’m being sincere,” she laughed. “Why would you run trails should you might run quick on the observe?”

Nelson additionally referred to as out Mandy Ortiz as one other early crew inspiration. Ortiz was on the CU cross-country crew between 2013 and 2016, simply after she’d gained the junior race on the 2013 World Mountain Working Championship in Krynica-Zdrój, Poland. Oritz continues to race on the path to this present day.

And the runners of the mid-2010s weren’t the primary CU cross-country graduates to seek out their approach onto the paths. Avatar completed fifth on the 2009 NCAA Division I Cross Nation Nationwide Championships as a freshman and later gained the World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race in 2022. Two-time Pikes Peak Marathon winner Seth Demoor was on that 2009 CU crew, too.

Allie Avatar on her method to successful the 2022 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks

Native Space Coaching

Everybody smiled on the reminiscence of the crew’s Sunday lengthy runs. The 15 to twenty miles on Sundays have been the spotlight of the week.

“We have been a high-volume cardio program. We had 4 or 5 long term places above 8,000 toes. That’s uncommon for a D1 program,” Nelson defined, after which listed out Magnolia Highway, Rollinsville, Gold Hill, Switzerland Path, and Sourdough Path as their common run choices.

Makena Morley leads Erin Clark whereas racing on the observe for CU. Picture courtesy of Makena Morley.

“Gold Hill, Magnolia, that’s 8,000 toes, and also you’d acquire a pair thousand toes on a run,” Perrin stated of the routes that served as a precursor to his ultrarunning. “It’s not likely a path, however actually hilly. I by no means considered elevation acquire again then, nevertheless it was like ‘Wow, it is a onerous route.’”

“I feel it’s crucial to have velocity in path, velocity endurance. I did a variety of threshold coaching [in college], and I nonetheless preserve that going and assume that’s been tremendous useful,” Hemming stated. “At CU, you discovered tips on how to run whenever you have been drained. We did so many onerous classes back-to-back, and I feel that lends itself effectively to trails. While you’re 50 kilometers into one thing, it’s like, ‘This looks like every week of coaching.’”

Peterman echoed the identical thought. “How you’re feeling in a path race jogs my memory of how I felt doing Magnolia Highway, that type of run,” he stated of the elevation and energy. “A staple at Colorado was doing lengthy runs and a mid-week medium-distance run, all the time at six-minute [per mile] tempo, or low six-minute tempo. It was 12 to fifteen [miles] for the lads and 12 to 13 for the ladies. I carried that over to path and located that to be actually, actually good. For years, the one exercise I’d do was a medium-distance run: 90 minutes at six-minute tempo. I’d change the terrain to make it more durable, however that was my exercise for 4 years.”

Tayler Peavey, the 2025 Twisted Fork Path Competition 15k girls’s winner. Picture: Emily Cameron

“The idea of that also holds true,” Clark agreed. “The concept was to run on the high of Zone 2. That was the purpose, however to be lifelike, we have been all the time ending up in Zone 3.” Clark noticed the exercise switch simply to trails: “The identical thought — whether or not working on the identical tempo and staying on the high of Zone 2 or working that kind of effort however on trails for 45, 60, or 90 minutes — that’s the kind of effort you may find yourself with for a 50k or 100k race.”

Morley remembers the coaching plans put ahead by head coach Mark Wetmore and affiliate head coach Heather Burroughs with a smile: “Mark and Heather’s coaching was a variety of grit and energy, a lot energy. Not essentially the most scientific, simply actually gritty coaching. I am going again to a few of that now as a path runner.”

CU Working Tradition

There was extra to life in school than simply working. “Escape on Friday after carry, camp on Friday evening, have Saturday to simply hand around in the mountains, be again in Boulder able to go on Sunday,” Hemming remembered of the crew’s collective outdoor mindset.

She grew wistful at a higher reminiscence of the crew dynamics. “We made some extent as a girls’s crew, as soon as every week, to all get collectively and make dinner, discuss different stuff. We have been really associates, which was actually particular.” Pressed for the dinner particulars, Hemming answered instantly. “Hamburgers, that’s the ranch lady in me. A very good do-it-yourself sourdough bun, black angus beef from a ranch, possibly some sauteed mushrooms.”

Tabor Hemming en path to successful the 2022 USATF Mountain Working Championships on the Whiteface Skyrace. Picture: Michael Scott

Peterman camped usually, too, however recalled a freshman end-of-year misadventure alongside the 25-mile traverse of the peaks on the outskirts of Boulder as a spotlight of his time at CU. “I used to be simply wanting on the Boulder Skyline all yr, and I had a day without work. It should’ve been finals week. I hiked that in sandals with one water bottle.” He admits that it went sideways. “Dude, it was so unhealthy! I needed to get picked up.”

Lifelong Relationships

A decade later, the CU runners nonetheless discuss concerning the crew and one another with fondness. Generally, they solely see one another when lining up for races. Othertimes, as with the upcoming Western States 100, they crew and tempo one another. Within the case of Perrin and Morley, they’ve ended up as each companions and teammates, whereas Clark and Peterman are on account of marry later this yr. And when the circumstances come collectively, typically a bunch of them may even practice collectively.

Adam Peterman (proper) with Erin Clark after her seventh-place CCC end in 2022. Picture: Collin Schultz

Clark, who lives in Missoula with Peterman, is blissful that the friendships have endured, and appreciates that Perrin and Morley ended up close by: “Zach and Makena have been in Bozeman for just a few years, three-and-a-half hours away. Within the final month, they’ve moved to Missoula, and we see them at the least 4 instances per week. We’ve been coaching quite a bit collectively, and it’s been actually, actually cool to coach collectively once more. It feels full circle.”

Adam Peterman and Erin Clark collectively within the mountains. Picture courtesy of Adam Peterman.