The final hours before the 2026 Western States Endurance Run are upon Olympic Valley, where roughly 370 runners will gather beneath the Palisades at 5am on Saturday for the start of the world's oldest 100-mile trail race. The course climbs out of the valley and traces a net-downhill line to the finish at Placer High School in Auburn, covering just over 100 miles with around 18,000 feet of ascent and more than 22,000 feet of descent. After a week of build-up, taper and last-minute weather watching, the talking is almost done.
The men's field is headlined by four-time champion and course-record holder Jim Walmsley, who returns to the trail he has defined more than any other runner of his generation. He is far from unchallenged. Adam Peterman, the 2022 winner, is back and reportedly in strong form, while Kilian Jornet, third here last year, lines up chasing an improbable victory more than a decade on from his 2011 win. Italy's Francesco Puppi steps up to the 100-mile distance for the first time and arrives with enough pedigree to be taken seriously as a contender rather than a curiosity.
The women's race is equally loaded, with nine of last year's top ten expected to return. Defending champion Abby Hall heads the start list alongside two-time runner-up Fu-Zhao Xiang, who has come agonisingly close in recent editions. The newcomers carry genuine threat too: 2020 Olympic marathon bronze medallist Molly Seidel makes her Western States debut, while Black Canyon 100k course-record holder Jennifer Lichter brings the kind of front-running speed that can reshape a race early. By common consent the women's field is the strongest the event has ever produced.
Conditions, as ever, loom over every prediction. The canyons between Foresthill and the American River have a long history of turning the middle of the race into a furnace, and how the leaders manage core temperature through the hottest hours will likely decide as much as raw fitness. The crews and pacers who pick runners up at Foresthill and ferry them through the night to the river crossing know that Western States is rarely won in the first fifty miles, but it is often lost there.
For all the depth on both start lists, the race retains its essential character: a long day and night in the High Sierra where patience is rewarded and ambition is punished. Live coverage will follow the leaders from the Escarpment climb to the Placer High track, but the wider story of Western States has always been the hundreds chasing the 24-hour silver buckle and the 30-hour cut-off. On Saturday morning, the deepest field in the run's history will find out what the mountains have in store.