Life Time has confirmed the Leadville Trail 100 Run will go ahead as scheduled on 22 August, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether the Willow Fire would claim one of ultrarunning's most storied hundred-milers. Organisers said they have been given the green light to proceed with the remainder of their 2026 summer race series, though the course itself will look markedly different from previous years.
The change is forced by a US Forest Service closure order covering the Willow Fire area, in effect from 7 July to 30 September, which rules out use of the race's traditional Sugarloaf and Powerline sections. Race organisers say they are finalising a reroute and securing the necessary permits, with an official course map expected within days. The fire has already claimed other events on the local calendar outright: the Silver Rush 50 running and mountain-bike races were cancelled entirely, and the neighbouring Ouray 100 was called off in a separate decision tied to the Gold Mountain Fire further south.
Leadville joins Hardrock as the second marquee Colorado ultra to survive a summer marked by fire and drought across the San Juan and Sawatch ranges. Hardrock's organisers reached their decision to proceed through a strict air-quality matrix built around Environmental Protection Agency monitoring stations, ultimately sending roughly 150 runners out from Silverton earlier this month. Leadville's path to a green light has instead run through the slower process of forest-service permitting and route redesign, a reminder that wildfire now shapes not just whether Rocky Mountain ultras happen but how their courses are built.
The town of Leadville has additional reasons to want its signature race to proceed. Local businesses have described a difficult tourism season, and race weekend traditionally brings one of the biggest single economic boosts of the year to Lake County. With Silver Rush gone from the calendar, the Trail 100 Run and its mountain-bike counterpart carry even more weight for a community leaning on the race series to offset a slow summer.
For entrants, the immediate task is adjusting training and pacing plans for a course they have not yet seen in full. Organisers have promised the spirit of the race — its climbs over Hope Pass, its high-altitude grind above 10,000 feet, and its famous "Race Across the Sky" ethos — will remain intact even as specific sections change. With the reroute due for release imminently, runners now have roughly five weeks to study the new course before the gun goes off in Leadville on 22 August.