Adam Peterman and Riley Brady won the 2026 Canyons by UTMB 100K on Saturday in Auburn, California, headlining a Western States Endurance Run qualifier that distributed six Golden Tickets and produced the second-fastest women's time ever recorded on the new course. Peterman, the 2022 Western States champion returning from a long injury layoff, took his second Canyons 100K title in a controlled tactical run; Brady, racing the distance for the third time, won in 9:41:09 to confirm a return to peak form ahead of a planned Hardrock 100 build.
The men's race split apart on the long climb out of Forest Hill, where Peterman, Drew Holmen and Sam Hawks worked together through 70 km before Peterman pulled away in the final 12 km of single-track. He crossed the line in 8:34, ahead of Holmen and Hawks in second and third — both also Golden-Ticket-qualifying positions on the day's three-deep men's allocation. Behind the podium, the British contingent of Tom Owens and Jonathan Albon ran fourth and fifth, with Albon's first 100 km in his return season the most notable performance after the leaders. The men's race lacked the depth of last year's Mount Marathon-flavoured field but compensated with a fast, dry surface and almost no wind on the exposed ridges.
The women's race was the more compelling of the two. Brady opened a small but durable gap on Careth Arnold by the marathon mark and never relinquished the lead, but Arnold ran the kind of front-end half that puts pressure on a leader for the final two hours. Sarah Allaben, who arrived in Auburn carrying CCC ambitions for August, surged through a chase pack of three on the closing 10 km to finish third, with Sarah Humble and Ellaney Matarese fourth and fifth. The Western States ticket allocation in the women's race went sideways after Arnold and Allaben both publicly passed on theirs — Arnold to focus on Hardrock, Allaben to commit to CCC — meaning the third, fourth and fifth tickets fell to Brady, Humble and Matarese.
The companion 50-miler, run on Saturday in tandem with the 100K, produced a course record from men's winner Lucas Oberle, who broke the tape in 6:17:53. Leah Fechko took the women's race in 7:39:38 and crossed the line in fourth overall — a strong day at the front of a 110-finisher field, in which the depth at the back of the women's top-10 surprised observers more than the leaders. Both 50-mile distances at Canyons have grown in the field-quality stakes over the last three years, and Saturday's results suggest the race is now functioning as more than a Western States feeder.
The wider Western States picture is, as ever, the lens that gives Canyons its meaning. With six new Golden Ticket holders confirmed and Black Canyon's allocation locked in February, the 2026 Western States start list at Olympic Valley on 27 June is now effectively complete bar withdrawals. Peterman's name on that line, in particular, alters the men's race calculus considerably; the 2022 winner did not run last year and arrived at Canyons with a tempered build, but Saturday's controlled win — a closing 12 km in 1:48 on tired legs — is the strongest statement he has made since the injury that cost him 2023 and 2024.