Articles by John Trent

Memories at the Pony Express 100

If you think hard enough, you can feel the footsteps and hear the voices of all the races you’ve ever run. They become like a thin veil between the ambition of youth and the perspective of age. The problem, of cours...

Making History on the Tahoe Rim Trail

In late June and through the middle of July, the Tahoe Rim Trail’s 171-mile FKTs were battered by a bevy of runners that included Fran Zelenitz (women’s unsupported FKT on June 27), Helen Pelster (lowered Zelenitz’s unsu...

Chris Martinez: One Final Race

He had only been gone a few weeks. But when Amanda Espinoza-Martinez spoke of her late husband, Chris, it’s obvious his guiding spirit still remained.“He was so good at leading people,” Amanda says of Chris, who died on...

Bighorn 100: A Difficult Decision

The Bighorn Trail Run is in Michelle Maneval’s blood. There are few things in her life, other than her family, that she’s had a longer or more intimate association with than the endurance races which have been held witho...

Western States: A Ritual to Remember

My routine hasn’t varied much over the past few years. Once another Western States has been put to bed and those who have worked so hard in putting on the race have all hugged one last time, I take one final look over my...

Laura Chancellor's 100-Mile Journey

On the climb out of Robinson Flat, a little after 30 miles into the Western States Endurance Run, you can usually spot those who will finish and those who will not.What usually matters is the look in their eyes. Some loo...

100 Miles And A Cancer Diagnosis

He was just like any other first-time, 100-mile runner. The adventure of soaring into the unknown and testing one’s limits had come crashing down a little past the halfway point. Fifty-five miles into the Mountain Lakes...

Maggie Guterl: Achieving The Unachievable

There was only one thing left for Maggie Guterl to do, and that was to run.She was wrapped up in the middle of a strange gathering of runners in someone’s backyard. To call it a competition several months later, now that...

Ones to Watch in 2020

2019 will always be remembered as one of the watershed years in our sport. New records and standards of performance were established at some of our most enduring events (Jim Walmsley’s course record at Western States) by...

We've Been Waiting for You

When you get old, you lose things. From your dreams of youth to the passing of friends you haven’t seen in decades, each day you grow older can be a gentle or a stark reminder of what you once were. As I stood on the sta...

The Voices of Wasatch

Prior to the start of the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run, before the headlamps of 300 starters quietly snaked their way up the mountainside at East Mountain Wilderness Park in Kaysville, Utah, I left our group stan...

How Anton Krupicka’s DNF Helped Transform Ultrarunning

He lived in Leadville during that long-ago summer of 2009, out of the back of his white Chevy S-10 pickup, which he affectionately called, “The Roost.”Anton Krupicka was focused on a simple task: run faster than anyone h...

An Ending and a New Beginning

The alignment seems almost uncanny, now that Andrea Abel has finished the Western States Endurance Run.Her late husband, Jeff, ran Western States in 2005 and finished in 29:24. Andrea finished this year in 29:27.Jeff fin...

Western States

Even if it was cool by Western States standards, the compelling severity of what lay before him was on the mind of Jim Walmsley as he walked slowly to the start of his fourth Western States Endurance Run.Talk in the days...

Nikki Kimball: Always a Runner

We all face crucial decisions throughout our lives. The one facing Nikki Kimball last fall was the most important she would ever make regarding her running.A left tibia injury from a snowshoe race in 2016 had escalated d...

Tim Tollefson

In the summer of 2018 near his home in Mammoth Lakes, California, Tim Tollefson had been preparing with uncommon focus for the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in Chamonix, France.After finishing third in both of his pre...

Giving Life to the Bighorn

It was close to 100 degrees as we neared the bottom of the Tongue River Canyon. Tongue River Road led us toward Scott Park and the finish line in Dayton, Wyoming. It was a long, flat stretch of dirt road surrounded by fi...

Devon Yanko

Devon Yanko was racing for victory at the Leadville 100 on Aug. 19, 2017. Each mile that day was about stepping outside her competitive cocoon. She would later write in her blog, “I savored the moment. I ran this race in...

Diana Fitzpatrick: Breaking 24 at Western States

Diana Fitzpatrick has run many races, including qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials three times, finishing among the top 10 women twice at the Western States Endurance Run, and outright winning the le...

Changing of the Guard

Beginning with my DNF at mile 85 of the Wasatch Front 100-miler in September 2017, the Wasatch Front has inhabited my mind in the most obsessive of ways. I was haunted by my experience because I loved so much about it...