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.
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.]
Eszter Csillag Pre-2025 Western States 100 Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Meghan Hicks of iRunFar. I’m with Eszter Csillag. It’s a couple days before the 2025 Western States Endurance Run. Here we find ourselves in Olympic Valley again.
Eszter Csillag: Yeah. Nice to see you again.
iRunFar: Nice to see you, too. This is your third time here at Western States. You come back with two third place finishes. You have a relationship with this race and this place now, don’t you?
Csillag: Yeah. I love it. Yeah. I do have it. I think it’s not only the races, but also all the course recce that I did on the course. Like, they all adapt to my experience to the course.
iRunFar: Both of your third places were outstanding runs. Your second third place last year, you improved upon your time by something like 25 or 30 minutes. Ran a heck of a lot faster. What do you think about for this year? And what do you think of after having those two experiences, and being able to improve by such a big increment last year, what’s your maximum potential at this race?
Csillag: Well, to this one, we will know the answer on Saturday evening.
iRunFar: Yes, we will.
Csillag: So I’m not going to reply to that. But to the first one, interesting enough, I will say some numbers to put it into context. So in 2023, last year, I ran 25, 26 [minutes] faster than 2023. But last year, I had a low patch between Michigan Bluff and the river.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: I was not cooling myself down enough. Mm hmm. I had a hole in my socks. So I think the combination of the both, and that section, I was twenty minutes slower last year compared to 2023.
iRunFar: Oh, wow.
Csillag: Yeah. That is 40 km, that section, which is a big chunk if you think of a 160 km race. So definitely, I have that part as a goal to improve. And, I mean, in general, just having the experience on the course, the knowledge of the course, and, all in all, my goal is definitely to improve on what I did last year, and hopefully, that is going to happen on Saturday.
iRunFar: You talked about a place where you want to be able to improve yourself between last year and this year, but you’ve also had some phenomenal running over those two years on the course. When you look at other chunks of the course, what have you looked at and said to yourself, “Yeah. I nailed that. All I need to do is do that again and I’m good,” or when you look at your performances like, what’s in there where you’re like, “I’m really freaking proud of that. I want to do that again?”
Csillag: That’s a good question. I have never thought about that. I think because at the end, when you finish, it becomes one big experience. So it’s difficult to break it down, but for sure, I think last year, just racing from earlier on and not thinking how much is still ahead, paid off.
iRunFar: The idea of living in the moment or living section by section instead of imagining, well, it’s a long way to Auburn still.
Csillag: Yes. Or limiting yourself because you know how much is still to go. I think that was something that I’m proud of.
iRunFar: So you are Hungarian, but you live in Hong Kong, which is kind of a long way from the Sierra Nevada in California, yet you have been here lots of times to train and you perhaps know this course a lot better than maybe people who’ve been here more often or live closer. As you get to know the course more deeply, do you find yourself falling for it and coming to love its quirks and its uniqueness, or what’s your relationship with the course itself?
Csillag: I really like this course. I like the race. I like that it’s runnable. I like that the climbs are runnable. I do like the profile of the race. I do enjoy. So I think overall, without contextualizing with all the people who are involved in the race, I just like the course itself. Definitely, when I was running on the course alone, it’s a wild place to run, with the animals, and you know.
iRunFar: They seem to like you, too. They seem to find you when you’re out there.
Csillag: [laughs] And, yeah. So that’s, I think, makes this course quite interesting because you are much more connected to the nature. This is not on race day. And the race itself, I think, because the people who are involved in it are the same people who were involved with it for many years. And the volunteers, and especially my team, it’s almost the same team for the third year, with small changes. And that makes it so special, and it makes it feel like really a teamwork. So I think that atmosphere on race day gives a special flavor to the race, which I also like. It’s much smaller in scale, so I think it’s more possible to comprehend what it is.
iRunFar: I love that. One of the things I noticed about you in the last year is that you became a masters runner.
Csillag: [laughs] I got older!
iRunFar: It happens. But interestingly, last year the women’s masters record was set fifteen minutes or so behind you by Ida Nilssen. She’s back at the race. You’re now in the masters category. There are a couple other really quite strong masters runners: Heather Jackson, Johanna Antila from one of the Nordic countries, I’m really sorry Johanna. I think the masters women’s race is a race in its own race this year.
Csillag: Yeah. I’m not racing the age category, but I think it’s good. It’s good that we have a few women who are running at a competitive level at this age. It’s just good for the sport and hopefully it’s something that is going to be normal, or be the norm in the future. On a personal level, I just don’t want to care about it, you know?
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: The only thing I care is my training, and my preparation, and the race day execution. But obviously, it’s not about denying my age, it’s just when I think about the age itself, I think there are a lot of social constraints that would come with it, and I just don’t want to take that, because I don’t resonate with that, and that’s why I think at the end of the day, it just doesn’t matter.
iRunFar: I love that. When a person podiums twice at a race like Western States, you know, you’ve had now two training builds toward two podium finishes, a faster time last year than the year before. There’s this interplay of thought like, “Do I try to replicate my training block because I did really good? Do I try to evolve my training for it, because you know, I want to evolve a tiny bit.” Tell us a little bit about your training block this time and how it’s compared to prior years.
Csillag: Yes. So we started the whole training from January onwards. This year, I changed. I didn’t run a marathon, which I did in the previous two years to get speed into my legs. I do still think of my 100k World Championship in December, that I did pull out, but I had a marathon distance that I run, being in second and then third place. So I think I finished the race with the speed in my legs, and I have that speed from the past. So the idea was just be much more trail specific this year. And with more volume at the beginning of the year, there was more elevation, thinking also of the UTMB, possibly later this year. And instead of the marathon, I run a 100k, the Buffalo Stampede in Australia. Yeah.
iRunFar: Okay. That’s why you went there.
Csillag: Yes. That was the idea. And that’s in time zone is quite similar to Hong Kong, and the course profile, and some part of the race was good preparation for Western States. But it was also a change in between the training block I did before, which was more UTMB specific, and then since then, it is more Western States specific. For sure, I run the biggest mileage since I’m running, in this period. So I had big weeks. I had a lot of runs. So the idea is that, you know, hopefully, the whole course, the tiredness will come out late as possible on the course. And I think that was the difference. I also tried to simplify things this year, because by the end of last year, I felt that I have just too, too much going on. And I have enough knowledge, and the people who are I’m working with, they are the expert of the their field, and I just need a few and work with them, and the rest we can figure it out. So this year, everything is just much more simple.
iRunFar: Okay.
Csillag: And, quite focused. So I ended up not sharing a lot of my trainings, and yeah. I was not very social.
iRunFar: You were focused.
Csillag: But, yeah, the idea was to focus and trying to cut out the noise. So, all in all, I think the buildup was quite different. Which sometimes was mentally, you know, it’s challenging because you are used to something and now it’s all different, and where this training block or this preparation is taking me. But all in all, I’m happy with how it went.
iRunFar: I think you spent more time in America training this year than your other two years. I guess that’s a combination of being here in this area on the course, and then training at the Grand Canyon and in Flagstaff in the altitude and the heat there?
Csillag: Yes. The weather there is so extreme. Yes. This year, I came out earlier. I don’t think the previous years I would have been able to do it, because now I had the familiarity with the course, with the area. And I had one of my crew, Chris, who lives in Reno, and he was helping me while I was running on the course alone. So it was really good to be out there alone and run the sections. And after that, I flew to Flagstaff, which was again something new to me, because in the past two years, I stayed in Tahoe.
iRunFar: Oh, okay.
Csillag: And then I was either running in and near the lake or going down on the course.
iRunFar: Got it.
Csillag: Flagstaff at definitely higher in altitude. And also you have the Grand Canyon and Sedona and all the trails in Flagstaff. It’s a really interesting place to train and to be, and I came back here on Monday.
iRunFar: Okay. Final question for you, and you can answer this as abstractly or as tangibly as you like. Saturday, what does your best day look like?
Csillag: Embracing the imperfection.
iRunFar: I love it. That’s perfect. Embracing the imperfections.
Csillag: Yeah.
iRunFar: Best of luck to you on your third journey from Olympic Valley to Auburn, and best of luck to you in embracing the imperfections.
Csillag: Thank you. Thank you, Meghan.
