Meghan Hicks

2 days ago | irunfar.com | Meghan Hicks

Coming back to the event for the fifth year in a row, Emily Hawgood (Zimbabwe, living in the U.S.) lines up for the 2025 Western States 100 knowing the course better than nearly anyone else in the field. In the following interview, Emily talks about what it’s like living in the area and getting to train on the course, her incremental improvements in the race year after year, what finish time she hopes to achieve this year, and her plans of potentially doubling up with UTMB later this summer.

2 days ago | irunfar.com | Meghan Hicks

Back to Olympic Valley, California, for the first time since 2011, when he won, Kilian Jornet comes to the 2025 Western States 100 knowing how much both he and the race have changed. In the following interview, Kilian talks about what brings him back to the race, how he’s able to balance all of the important things in his life while still racing at a high level, his thoughts on how the men’s field has changed, and how he thinks the race will play out on Saturday.

3 days ago | irunfar.com | Meghan Hicks

After two third-place finishes in the past two years at this event, Eszter Csillag of Hungary shows up at the 2025 Western States 100 with a lot of experience to draw on. In the following interview, Eszter talks about her prior experience at the event, why she loves the course and race so much, how she’s switched up her training in the lead-up to this weekend, and what a perfect day out on course would look like for her.

3 days ago | irunfar.com | Meghan Hicks

The highest-placed returning runner from the 2024 race, Rod Farvard is back at the 2025 Western States 100 and looking to improve on his second-place finish. In the following interview, Rod talks about his race last year, his advantage on the rest of the men’s field, how he thinks this year’s race will play out, some changes to his training leading up to the event, and what he thinks the winning time will be this year.

4 days ago | irunfar.com | Meghan Hicks

After more than a decade of shorter-distance ultrarunning, David Roche is debuting at the 2025 Western States 100 as one of the men’s favorites, courtesy of his course record-setting win at the 2024 Leadville 100 Mile. In this interview, conducted before the race from home, David talks about his training block leading up to the race, how his very public minor injury from a few months ago is doing, and if — among his science-based racing strategies — he still believes in the magic of race day.