Articles by John Trent
Jan Vleck (left) with Nick Bassett at the finish line of the 2025 Western States Endurance Run. Gary Wang Jan Vleck expected a finish at the Western States Endurance Run to feel pretty much just like it did when he succ...
Abby Hall crests a ridge on her way to the escarpment at mile 4 of the 2025 Western States Endurance Run. Esther Ramos | Let's Wander Productions For Western States women’s champion Abby Hall, the 2025 event will long b...
Riley Brady will tell you that one of the “least interesting” things about them is that they identify as non-binary. A few days before their record-smashing victory at Black Canyon.
The author talks with his daughter Katie during the Bighorn 100. courtesy author Voices from the past often surface when you least expect them t...
Over the past couple of years, in-demand ultrarunning photographer, Mike McMonagle has had an opportunity to view the sport through a memorable lens. His work often takes us an extra step closer. “I can’t even imagine do...
Brian runs on the trails in his home state of Washington. Courtesy Brian Morrison The biggest prize Brian Morrison could ever possess greets him every morning: his family – wife, Andrea, and two children...
Jeff Kozak, who lives in Bishop, California, got a message in July 2014 that Krissy Moehl and Jenn Shelton needed some company during their John Muir Trail FKT attempt. Kozak pretty much dropped everything he was doin...
The author finishes the final mile of the San Diego 100 with friend and previous race director, Scotty Mills. Howie Stern If there was ever a moment in my life where I’ve felt all of my 60 years, thi...
We all know how fleeting the passage of time can be and each year, turn to Western States to see how a poignant journey can remind us there will be moments of transcendence and grace. Time can be shaken and shattered...
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from “Second Sunrise: Five Decades of History at the Western States Endurance Run,” by UR columnist and longtime Western States Board of Trustees member John Trent (Broad Boo...
Austrheim Smith runs to a win at Western States in 1982. Courtesy Bjorg Austrheim-Smith Bjorg Austrheim-Smith is 80 years old. Her time as an ultrarunner reaches far enough back into th...
When you consider where Tim Tollefson was at the start of 2022 and where he is today, things look a little different. He would be the first to tell you that the past year hasn’t been without its challeng...
Street signs at Michigan Bluff and Gorman Ranch Road survived but the wooden post that held them was burned by the Mosquito Fire. John Trent Earlier this year, the sun had set but the sky was still...
Author John Trent traverses the Alexander Ridge section of Wasatch. Lauren Watson I first ran Wasatch in 2017 and didn’t finish, calling it quits at the Pot Hollow aid stat...
Far too often, we look at champions as if they are made from a sinewy type of steel. When they win, it is because they are far different than any of us – more talented, mentally tougher and physically stronger, filled...
Chuck Eidenschink answered the knock at the door of his Portland home while he was putting on a pair of overalls. It was January 2021 and Scott LaPlante was in the middle of planning out his summer as he was going to a...
Nick Bassett has reached a point in life where practically every answer to any question he’s asked usually turns into a story. You can’t blame him for that. When you’re 77 years old and completed nearly 200 ultrama...
Small towns throughout the country usually have a heart and soul center that runs right through the 50-yard line of their high school football stadiums. Every Friday night during the fall, the gathering at the loc...
“My journey to run this race began as a young kid. I always saw runners participating in these races and I always saw how miserable they looked. However, the looks on their faces when they finish these races have draw...
Looking back now, Rachel Spaulding realizes that over the past few years, there have been brief conversational moments, chance occurrences during races and the sheer centrifugal force of a pandemic—all of which have alte...
We had made a pact, my youngest daughter and I, not long after Katie finished the Wasatch Front 100-Mile Endurance Run in September 2019. Watching the finishers of that year’s Grand Slam of Ultrarunning honored durin...
Beth Pascall crossed the finish line of the 2021 Western States Endurance Run in 17:10:42, placing first woman and seventh overall. Her time was the second-fastest women’s finish in Western States history. Le...
Emily Hawgood crosses the finish line of the Canyons 100K holding the flag of Zimbabwe, her native country. Scott Rokis Emily Hawgood has felt an intimate connection with a race, a trail and the racin...
From one end of the pandemic to the other, Anita Ortiz has had a lot of highs and lows as a runner. On February 13, 2021, she was released by her doctor who gave her the OK to begin running again. This good news se...
Cody Lind has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Dr. Robert Lind and his father, Paul Lind, for almost his entire life. When Cody was boy, he would join his grandfather in the family’s camper parked at th...
Mark Richtman was perhaps the greatest age group runner ultrarunning has ever seen and certainly one of the greatest endurance athletes of his time.
The young woman was in last place at the Kokanee Trail Runs. She walked into our aid station that morning with her pink long-sleeve shirt tied tightly around her waist.
With each passing year, it’s a race we know we shouldn’t be running. But often, against our better judgment, knowing full well the runner we were last year, or 10 years ago, or 20 years ago could be far different from who we are today, we run it anyway.
I hadn’t trained much that spring in preparation for the 2010 Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run. I had spent more time sitting in a chair next to a hospice bed that had been set up in the living room of Mom’s condominium. She was dying from colon cancer.
When the physical blow finally fell, and a new sort of running reality had set in, both Chris Jones and Jean Pommier did not know what was happening, or what was next. So much of their existence was ruled by yearly racing calendars overflowing with races. They raced the way others breathe – with a frequency that was needed, and filled them with life.
The father had always been old school and a bit old-fashioned. He was a man who could easily handle both a stethoscope and a shotgun, his life shaped by time tending patients in emergency rooms in Roseville, California, and in caring for horse riders, and then for runners, on the Western States Trail.