All eyes have been on the 2026 Western States 100 lottery on December 6, 2025, because the 11,328 runners within the pool — up from 9,993 from final yr — eagerly waited to see if their identify could be one of many 254 names drawn to fill out the 369-person discipline of the enduring 100-mile race from Olympic Valley to Auburn, California. There have been 93,003 tickets within the lottery, and you may learn extra concerning the numbers behind the lottery course of in our in-depth evaluation of the 2024 lottery.
Arguably one of the aggressive lotteries for one of the aggressive races on the ultrarunning calendar, many runners wait years to have the prospect to run throughout California’s Sierra Nevada mountains on the historic path. The route, with its 18,000 toes of climbing and 22,000 toes of descending, takes in every little thing from excessive alpine terrain within the first 30 miles to the deep and scorchingly sizzling canyons of the center part of the race, to the ultimate quick and runnable miles resulting in the Placer Excessive College observe. Recognized for its warmth, the race is usually one among attrition and ice.
Runners ready for the beginning of the 2025 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Whereas non-elite runners must take their probabilities within the lottery system, the entrance ends of the fields are usually dominated by these with computerized entries, together with the top-10 finishers from the earlier yr and people who’d excelled at one of many six Golden Ticket Races, the place the highest two or three finishers obtain a coveted entry to the large dance.
On this article, we run by the highest runners presently on the entry checklist for the 2026 Western States 100, and we’ll proceed updating this text because the calendar rolls by the remaining Golden Ticket Races.
You may take a look at all of the runners who have been fortunate sufficient to achieve entry by the lotteryin addition to a present entrants checklist with everybody presently planning on toeing the road.
Ladies’s High-10 Returnees for the 2026 Western States 100
As all the time, the top-10 ladies from the 2025 race have been invited to return. On this case, each single one among them has elected to come back again for one more crack on the course, and if final yr’s race is any indication, it’s going to be tight and quick racing once more in 2026.
- Abby Corridor – 16:37:16 (post-race interview)
- Fu-Zhao Xiang (China) – 16:47:09 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Marianne Hogan (Canada) – 16:50:58 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Ida Nilsson (Sweden) – 17:00:48
- Fiona Pascall (UK) – 17:21:52
- Hau Ha (Vietnam) – 17:23:47
- Hannah Allgood – 17:39:02
- Caitlin Fielder (New Zealand) – 17:47:26
- Keely Henninger – 17:57:24
- Emily Hawgood (Zimbabwe) – 18:11:05 (pre-race interview)
Abby Corridor at Purple Star Ridge (mile 15) on her solution to profitable the 2025 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Males’s High-10 Returnees for the 2026 Western States 100
In contrast to the ladies’s race, the place the entire high 10 from 2025 are planning on returning, each Caleb Olson and Chris Myerswho have been first and second final yr, will concentrate on different pursuits in 2026 and received’t return to Olympic Valley. Peter Fraňo (Slovakia) has additionally opted out. It will depart the entrance of the sphere vast open with Kilian Jornet (Spain) as the highest returning finisher from 2025.
Caleb Olson – 14:11:25(post-race interview)Chris Myers – 14:17:39(post-race interview)- Kilian Jornet (Spain) – 14:19:22 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Jeff Mogavero – 14:30:11
- Dan Jones (New Zealand) – 14:36:17 (pre-race interview)
- Seth Ruhling – 14:59:36
- Ryan Montgomery – 15:54:29
- Hans Troyer – 16:06:52
Peter Fraňo (Slovakia) – 16:10:44- Lean Meals (Japan) – 16:22:46
Kilian Jornet, who positioned third in 2025 and received the occasion in 2011, is the highest returning runner for the 2026 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Golden Ticket Races Entrants to the 2026 Western States 100
Oftentimes, the race to get into Western States 100 feels as aggressive because the race itself, with runners having six alternatives within the yr main as much as the occasion to safe their entry as a part of the Western States 100 Golden Ticket Races. Three of the races — CCC, Black Canyon 100kand Canyons 100k — award the highest three women and men computerized spots, and the opposite three races — Javelina 100 Mile, Journey 100kand Chianti Extremely Path 120k — every hand out two spots to each the women and men.
If a runner in a Golden Ticket Races spot is already entered within the race, declines the spot, or is in any other case ineligible, the Golden Ticket rolls right down to the following finisher, all the way in which to fifth place within the races the place two spots are awarded and seventh place within the races the place three spots are on the road.
Listed here are those that’ve obtained Golden Tickets for 2026 up to now:
Ladies
- Addie Bracy – Javelina 100 Mile
- Tara Dower – Javelina 100 Mile
- Martyna Młynarczyk (Poland) – CCC
- Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) – CCC
- Anna Tarasova (Spain) – CCC
Males
- Arnaud Bonin (France) – CCC (pending)
- Will Murray – Javelina 100 Mile
- Francesco Puppi (Italy) – CCC
- David Sinclair – CCC
- Canyon Woodward – Javelina 100 Mile
Tara Dower coaching for final yr’s Western States 100 at residence in Durango, Colorado. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Right here is the complete Golden Ticket Races schedule:
- August 29, 2025 – CCC (France, Italy, Switzerland)
- October 25, 2025 – Javelina 100 Mile (Arizona, U.S.)
- February 14, 2026 – Black Canyon 100k (Arizona, U.S.)
- February 14, 2026 – Tarawera 100k (New Zealand)
- March 21, 2026 – Chianti Extremely Path 120k (Italy)
- April 25, 2026 – Canyons 100k (California, U.S.)
Quick Runners With Different Computerized Entries to the 2026 Western States 100
Along with incomes an computerized entry by a top-10 end or the Golden Ticket Races, a handful of speedy runners acquire a spot within the race by auto-entry strategies. There are some quick women and men who’ve earned a spot by this pipeline, and we’ve listed the way in which they secured their spot, if we all know.
Ladies
- Amy Cameron – seventh 2025 Javelina 100 Mile; 2nd 2025 Miwok 100k
- Katherina laan (Sponsor) – 1st 2025 Cuyamaca 100k; 1st 2024 Cascade Crest 100 Mile; 2nd 2024 & 2023 HURT 100 Mile; 1st 2022 San Diego 100 Mile
- Jenelle Potvin – 1st 2021 Tahoe Rim Path 100 Mile; 2nd 2021 Silver State 50 Mile
- Marilee Woyth – eighth 2025 & 4th 2022 Run the Rut 28k; fifth 2024 Loopy Mountain 100 Mile
Males
- Jeff Browning (Sponsor) – 4th 2024 Excessive Lonesome 100 Mile; 2nd 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile
- Jupiter Carera (Mexico) – seventh 2025 Canyons 100k; 2nd 2024 Black Canyon 100k
- Coree Woltering (Sponsor) – 1st 2023 Lake Sonoma Marathon; ninth 2021 Bandera 50k; 2020 Ice Age Path FKT
Jupiter Carera operating throughout the 2024 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
High Lottery Entrants for the 2026 Western States 100
As a part of the December 6 lottery, 254 names have been drawn. Of them, the next might be in competition on the entrance of the sphere.
Ladies
- Charissa Kenny – sixth 2025 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile; 1st 2024 Bighorn 100 Mile
- Sarah Ostaszewski – third 2025 & 1st 2023 Cocodona 250 Mile; third 2024 Excessive Lonesome 100 Mile; 1st 2024 Merciless Jewel 100 Mile
Males
- Buck Blankenship – third 2024 Mogollon Monster 100 Mile; third 2022 Merciless Jewel 100 Mile; sixth 2021 Tushars 100k
- Zachary Garner – 2nd 2025 & 1st 2023 Bear 100 Mile; seventh 2025 & fifth 2023 Speedgoat 50k; 1st 2024 Path Andorra 110k
- Justin Grunewald – 2nd 2025 Leadville 100 Mile; 2nd 2024 Tarawera 100k; third 2023 Canyons 100k
- Thomas Hanlon – 2nd 2025 Vermont 100 Mile; seventeenth 2025 JFK 50 Mile
- Luke Jay – fifth 2025, 2nd 2022 & 1st 2019 Excessive Lonesome 100 Mile; tenth 2024 Hardrock 100
- John Kelly – 3-time Barkley Marathons Finisher (2024, 2023 & 2017); eleventh 2022 Hardrock 100
High Waitlist Entrants for the 2026 Western States 100
Yearly, many runners on the unique begin checklist drop out earlier than the beginning date. This yr, 75 runners have been put onto the waitlist, and plenty of could have a superb probability of racing. The next are some quick people presently on the waitlist.
Males
- Ted Bross – sixth 2024 Wasatch 100 Mile; 4th 2024 Bighorn 100 Mile; third 2023 Merciless Jewel 100 Mile
- Jimmy Elam – 1st 2025 Cascade Crest 100 Mile; 2nd 2023 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile; 1st 2023 Excessive Lonesome 100 Mile
- Kris Tyson – 2nd 2025 Loopy Mountain 100 Mile; 4th 2025 Jemez 50 Mile
Name for Feedback
- Have been you one of many hopefuls within the lottery this yr? Did you get in?
- Who’re your high picks to contend on the entrance of the races in 2026?
