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.
To learn more about who’s racing, check out our women’s and men’s previews before following our live race coverage on race day.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Emily Hawgood Pre-2025 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Emily Hawgood. It’s a couple days before the 2025 Western States Endurance Run. Here we find ourselves again, Emily.
Emily Hawgood: Yeah. I’m so excited.
iRunFar: We were talking off camera. You literally just arrived to Olympic Valley. Western States is a repeat event for you. Does it feel a little bit like coming home or coming to something familiar?
Hawgood: Yeah. For sure. Like, way more at home here this year and all my people are here. I’m so excited! And kind of knowing the ropes and what’s going on and yeah. Getting excited to see all the athletes out, and the course looks amazing right now. I mean, just from what I’ve seen driving in.
iRunFar: Amazing. Yeah. But to be fair, you live down on the other end of the course, so you’ve seen plenty of miles of the Western States Trail in the last couple of months of training.
Hawgood: Yep. Yeah. Everything but the first 30 [miles].
iRunFar: Everything but the first 30.
Hawgood: Mm hmm.
iRunFar: So, here to Robinson Flat will be fresh for you on Saturday.
Hawgood: Yep.
iRunFar: I love that.
Hawgood: Yeah. Me, too. And it’s exciting. You said the wildflowers are beautiful out there.
iRunFar: I think you guys are going to enjoy the first 30.
Hawgood: Yay!
iRunFar: So let’s talk a little bit about your trajectory at Western States. You seem to have this thing of improving somewhere on the order of 45 minutes to an hour every single year you do this race. To what do you attribute that incremental improvement, significant improvement, and also no bobbles in there. Like, you’ve just, upward trajectory every time you’ve raced.
Hawgood: Yeah. I mean, going back to core things, just the consistency in training, my strength coach and my running coach, Pat McCurry in Poland, we just do the daily things daily. And I really attribute it to that. And just showing up every day to do the little things. And, I mean, specifically on this course, it’s very weather-dependent. And we’ve just had those years where it has got cooler as the years have gone on, or we’ve had snow, and you know, those sort of things. So there are a few factors in my favor. Yeah.
iRunFar: You ran 16:48 here last year, which up until two years ago, was the course record for this race. And if we follow the same Emily Hawgood trajectory, we’re running something like sixteen hours this year.
Hawgood: That’s the goal.
iRunFar: Alright. There it is. You answered my next question. Because you have these years worth of data on the course, and these years worth of training logs leading up to it, do you actually have a good idea on paper of how much you’ve been able to progress from last year to this year, and a roadmap of what this year looks like for you?
Hawgood: So last year coming in, we really did kind of dive deep into the numbers and details and came up with a road map. Like, had time goals for all the stops and everything. But this year, actually, which is super nice with Paul, we do it different every single year. And this year, nope. Like, I haven’t really looked at the details. Obviously, I know the trail really well, so I have general ideas of what times I run in training and things like that. But then also leaving it to the trail conditions, and what the day brings, and the race, and the athletes. Like, so that you don’t get stuck, and you don’t get in your own head and take yourself out of the race if you don’t hit a split, or feel as good on a section that you want to. There’s lots of give and take on sections, too, so you could make up time here, but then potentially put yourself in the hole for later, or the other way around. So, I’m kind of excited this year to not have specific splits, just to kind of run by feel, and kind of have my game plan, but not be time-limited.
iRunFar: Not in the numbers.
Hawgood: Yeah, exactly.
iRunFar: What’s interesting for me is in a race like this, where there is that repetition and all of that data, the runner part of the brain wants to sort of tap into that. But at the end of the day, like you said, you’re racing the people around you, and who knows what’s going to happen there.
Hawgood: Yep.
iRunFar: And your racing conditions. And as we get closer to race day, we’re honing in on a little bit hotter than average type of year. So maybe a little bit more difficult conditions than we’ve seen in the last couple of years.
Hawgood: Yeah. Exactly. And that’s why my two best rules for stepping up to any start line: I respect the mountains and what conditions they bring, and then have full respect for all the athletes. They’ve put in just as much training as you have, and they’re as prepared to get on the start line and give it everything.
iRunFar: Beautiful. You’ve talked about the sort of incremental, or just showing up for the daily work, all of the details of your training as part of what explains your trajectory through time. You must have some thoughts though about things that have happened out on the race course or the relationship you’ve developed with the course itself in terms of, like, “Oh, that spot, I love that spot,” so it’s really easy to run through there. Or, “Oh, that spot, that’s been tricky for me a couple times. I’m going to think harder about getting that section right.” Do you have any of those thoughts running through your mind?
Hawgood: Yeah. For sure. I think, like you said, you get to know it better, you get to form better relationships with it, like in training, but then specifically on race day and knowing kind of how you’re feeling coming into a point, and then sometimes also dictating how you’re going to run a section or things like that. Or what’s happened in the past, like, how can you flip the switch. But also for me, and I’ve said it multiple times, I know the people out there, and I know who’s going to be at each aid station, and every year, it gets more and more exciting as I get to know more people and where they’re going to be, and I can just break the course up into little segments. Like, “Oh, I’m going to run to, you know, I’m going to run to Mary. I’m going to run to Scott. I’m going to run to Matt.” I know the aid stations and stuff, but they also become kind of crew spots without crew, your dedicated crew, but family or something.
iRunFar: People you know who are going to be in different spots at different times.
Hawgood: Yep.
iRunFar: One of the benefits to repeating a race and one of the benefits to being a local.
Hawgood: Yep. Exactly.
iRunFar: Okay. So we were talking off camera, and you said you were keen for the Western States UTMB double again. So that’s on your horizon a couple months out. Do you think about that type of thing on game day at all, or is on Western States day, is it just Western States in your mind?
Hawgood: Just Western States. Yeah. Because, I mean, stepping up for the double, that’s very dependent on what happens on race day and how recovery goes. I’m not going to put myself in the hole just to make a big double like that happen.
iRunFar: So it’s a thing that can happen if the body allows it.
Hawgood: Yeah. Yeah.
iRunFar: Last question for you. What does your own best day look like for Emily Hawgood in 2025?
Hawgood: Yeah. I think I just want to show up with that joy that we just saw when the puppy was running around, and just be very present. It’s my passion out there, and I was thinking about this on the way up. Like, what does that mean to have something be your passion? And it means being curious and enthusiastic, and present. And so those are the three things I want to take into this weekend.
iRunFar: The curiosity part, I really like that because at the end of the day, that’s kind of why we do ultrarunning, is that the answers aren’t written, are they?
Hawgood: Exactly. We have no idea.
iRunFar: Although if the past informs the future for you, it means incremental progress and almost always with a great smile.
Hawgood: Awesome. I hope so.
iRunFar: See you out there. Best of luck.
Hawgood: Thank you so much.
iRunFar: At Western States [a dog runs by in the background.] I love that we have a dog that keeps coming back. I feel like that that’s your personality in a nutshell. [laughs]
Hawgood: [laughs] Captured.
iRunFar: There we go. Interview sorted.
Hawgood: Yeah. If I can bring that much joy, it’ll be a great day.
iRunFar: Well, I mean, you do carry a lot of joy with you when you run. You’re one of the smiley, consistently smiliest runners that we get to watch out there.
Hawgood: [laughs] Thank you.
