On Saturday, August 16, Anne Flower and David Roche each ran spectacular races on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile to set new course information with occasions of 17:58:19 and 15:12:30, respectively.
Flower broke Ann Trason’s 31-year-old report of 18:06:24 by simply over eight minutes and completed second general within the race. It’s price noting that when Trason set her report in 1994, she additionally positioned second general within the race.
In the meantime, Roche repeated his victory from final 12 months and lowered his personal course report by simply over 14 minutes. Final 12 months, Roche broke Matt Carpenter’s 2005 course report by 16 minutes.
Anne Flower breaks Ann Trason’s 31-year-old course report. All photographs: Life Time
Each earlier report occasions stood for lengthy sufficient that they appeared unattainable, though many elites had tried. Whereas the course that Carpenter and Trason ran was slightly bit shorter, and by some accounts slightly bit simpler, the longevity of their information was a testomony to their unimaginable runs on the time.
Roche’s run final 12 months confirmed that any report, no matter how previous, might be damaged, and Flower solely reiterated the purpose this 12 months.
David Roche reaches the pink carpet in course report time on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile, for the second time in two years.
This will 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 Javelin 100k final fall, it seems that this was her first try on the 100-mile distance. She’s largely competed in smaller races within the 50k to 50-mile vary, the place she’s persistently been on the entrance of the sector. It additionally seems she has a sturdy historical past in street marathoning.
Flower took the race out shortly, operating because the second-place girl and simply outdoors of the highest 10 general till the Outward Sure assist station, 23.5 miles in. From there, she took the lead within the ladies’s race and steadily moved up within the discipline general, discovering herself in third on the primary traverse of Hope Go. 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 general, and set the ladies’s course report.
Anne Flower on her technique to a brand new ladies’s course report.
Roche ran on the entrance of the race from the beginning and was a minute forward of his earlier report tempo 90 minutes into the occasion. He was solely three minutes up on his previous report 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 will need to 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 report.
The Leadville 100 Mile out-and-back course is thought for its excessive elevation, fairly runnable trails, and the double traverse of Hope Go, one on both sides 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 Go at an elevation of 12,600, and the route takes in about 14,400 toes of climbing.
