The fourteenth edition of the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile started in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Friday and is still on the mountain this morning. The race splits its field into two divisions that set off four hours apart: Tortoises at 9am Mountain Daylight Time, Hares at 1pm. The 50-mile race started from the Steamboat Springs ski area at 6am on Saturday.
Run Rabbit Run's reputation rests on its prize money, and it has been paying out longer than almost anyone in the sport. Each winner takes $20,000, with prize money paid seven places deep and $8,500 and $5,000 for second and third. There is a $1,000 prime for the first runner to the top of the opening climb, and entrants can pair up for a two-person team competition worth a further $5,000 on combined time.
The structure is what makes the race unusual. Hares have a 30-hour limit and Tortoises 36, but only Hares are eligible for the prize money, and Hares are not allowed pacers. That combination strips out the crewed, paced late-race management that shapes most American hundreds and leaves the closing fifty miles to be negotiated alone, in the dark, at altitude. Positions late in this race tend to be earned rather than assembled.
Jesse Rich returns as defending champion after winning in 17:42 last year, the fifth-fastest finish in race history and set in a night of rain, snow, wind and lightning. The next three men home in 2025 are all back, among them Ryan Sullivan, fourth last year, who won Colorado's High Lonesome 100 in July in that race's third-fastest time. Jennie Yeaman is the highest-placed returning woman from 2025, with Hannah Allgood and Lauren Puretz the obvious challengers; Allgood has finished inside the top ten at Western States in each of the past two years. The course records stand to Dave Stevens at 17:23, set in 2023, and Emilie Mann at 19:48 from 2024.
The wider interest is in what comes next. Organisers have announced winner's prizes of $100,000 for 2027 and 2028, a figure that would reset expectations for what a North American hundred can pay and will almost certainly reshape next year's entry list. For a race that has quietly paid well for more than a decade without chasing a global series, it is a substantial statement of intent.