The latest edition of the Leadville 100 Mile has wrapped for 2022, leaving a host of ultrarunners with bragging rights and shiny new belt buckles for their efforts.
This event is among the most famous 100-mile trail races. Runners make their way through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at elevations starting at 9,200 feet all the way up to thin-aired high point of Hope Pass at 12,508 feet.
The extreme elevation and altitude make breathing difficult and add exponentially to the fatigue athletes feel as they make their way through the course.
The race has been a staple of the ultrarunning community since its inception in 1983. This year, the customary shotgun blast sounded on Saturday, August 20, 2022, at 4:00 a.m. local time. A slew of contenders from previous years left the starting line, including Clare Gallagher, who won the only previous Leadville 100 Mile she had run, in 2016, as well as Adrian Macdonald, last year’s men’s champion.
The Leadville 100 Mile trail race is known as the “Race Across the Sky.” It features elevations of more than 12,500 feet and sweeping views of the Colorado Rockies. Photo: Life Time
2022 Leadville 100 Mile Men’s Race
Adrian Macdonald turned heads in 2021 when he won the race as a first-time 100-mile competitor. It was clear from the start that Macdonald was primed for a repeat win if he could hold it together.
All of the top 10 runners stayed close together through the first few miles of the race.
But as mile 30 approached, gaps began to develop in the pack, and leaders emerged who would keep pace in front throughout the rest of the day.
At the halfway mark, Macdonald had found the front of the pack and edged out a nearly 15-minute lead over Tyler Andrews in second place. Other racers including JP Giblin, Ryan Kaiser, and Christopher Harrington also stood out in front.
That group kept its distance from the field for the remainder of the race. But Macdonald made consistent gains in the final quarter of the race that gave him a commanding lead coming into the finish. Macdonald crossed the finish line more than two hours before anyone else.
The race for the next three places stayed considerably tighter. Giblin finished second with Kaiser just about 14 minutes in tow. Andrews came through about 20 minutes later, followed by Harrington.
Adrian MacDonald takes the win at the 2022 Leadville 100 Mile. Photo: Life Time
2022 Leadville 100 Men’s Results
- Adrian Macdonald — 16:05:44
- JP Giblin — 18:07:50
- Ryan Kaiser — 18:21:21
- Tyler Andrews — 18:40:04
- Christopher Harrington — 18:45:08
2022 Leadville 100 Mile Women’s Race
Back in 2016, Boulder, Colorado’s Clare Gallagher threatened to reset the Leadville 100 Mile course record in her first-ever 100-mile race. This year she came back to Leadville for the first time since then — and won again.
Gallagher topped the women’s field after sparring intensely with Addie Bracy throughout much of the run.
Gallagher and Bracy were neck-and-neck at the first split, running at an 8:33 pace together with only nine seconds between them. The pair traded the lead for a couple of checkpoints, but Bracy managed to pull ahead to gain about a six-minute lead on Gallagher at the 50-mile mark.
Gallagher, however, used the next six miles to pull back time and pass Bracy early in the second half of the course. At the 56.5-mile mark, the coin had flipped, and Gallagher led Bracy by a roughly six-minute margin. After that, Bracy found herself unable to continue and dropped out of the race, leaving Gallagher with a dominant lead over the pack, which she held until the end.
Gallagher finished at 19:37:57, more than two hours ahead of her nearest chaser Alisyn Hummelberg.
Third- through fifth-place finishers Lindsey Herman, Roxanne Vogel, and Madeline Hirschfeld brought the women’s top five all in under 24 hours.
Clare Gallagher breaking the tape at the 2022 Leadville 100 Mile. Photo: Life Time
