Singletrack
Singletrack is a podcast covering the professional trail and ultrarunning scene.
Singletrack
2026 Western States 100 Final Power Rankings
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode we share our final "power rankings" for both the men's and women's races. Stay tuned for additional, in-depth previews of both elite fields later this week.
Partners:
- Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order
- Norda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever made
- Raide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains
Norda is the official footwear partner of our 2026 Western States 100 coverage. All the rage this summer is the imminent release of their new model, the 055, the shoe that Rachel Entrakin wore start to finish en route to her course record victory at the Cocodona 250 earlier this year. Go check it out at NordaRun.com and make sure you are subscribed to their mailing list to get exclusive early access to the shoe. I've put a bunch of training miles in it. It's the real deal. We are back. It is Monday of Western States Week. This is the first in a series of preview shows through Wednesday evening, and this is our power rankings episode. I'll provide some context on that in just a second, but we haven't had a chance to properly introduce Leah Yingling into this year's coverage. Leah, how are you doing right now?
SPEAKER_01Hi guys, I am good. I'm happy to be here. This is what, year number four. So happy to be here on the sidelines again at Western States, not running myself. I think this might be a little bit more fun doing it this way.
SPEAKER_02Do you endorse the broken arrow triple crown? Should we do this next year?
SPEAKER_01Do I endorse it? Honestly, it's great training. I was telling a couple of people out there yesterday. I asked them like what they're training for, because I feel like people don't exactly do the triple crown just to do it. They're training for something. So it's great training stimulus. Don't know if I would endorse otherwise. I'm so sore today.
SPEAKER_02Well, uh probably a lot of the audience knows the context behind the power rankings, but we did our first one of these uh about seven weeks ago. This was Brett Horning's idea, and it received a lot of fanfare. There were people that just loved the concept, of course, in the comments on our choices. A lot of positive, a lot of negative feedback. You're sleeping on this person. How could you overlook this person, et cetera? But that's kind of the nature of this. One of the biggest bits of feedback we got was where's Leah?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was gonna say, Brett didn't give me the invite for the Power Rankings episode.
SPEAKER_04So I think that one was a very last minute late night. That was Finn's two buck chuck moment.
SPEAKER_02And we were just so stoked that Jim Walmsley was officially announced for being on this year's start line.
SPEAKER_04That's what started. It was an emergency podcast for just Jim being on the start line. And then it was like, well, maybe, you know, where do you place him in these power rankings?
SPEAKER_01These all sound like a lot of excuses, but we're doing right.
SPEAKER_02I'm about ready to invite you to this one. So again, Brett's idea, we wanted to do multiple of these. Eight weeks out was sort of like our first glimpse at the men's and the women's fields. A ton has changed since then. Anna Terasova is no longer in, Ann Flower is no longer in, Seth Ruling is out, and then of course, of the people that we've been discussing throughout the last two months, training has changed, momentum is here, it's not there, etc. So definitely time to revisit. I think I'll have Brett explain the concept of the power rankings, but I'll just say that this is not necessarily reflective of our fantasy pre-trail picks, which might have more bias and emotion behind them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think something that's important too, it's um this is separate from our preview episode in that like when we do our preview later on this week, we're going to be taking into consideration people who might DNF or something like that. We're just making our own bias predictions. This is more, as we've been discussing, objective database driven decisions.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, a little more analytical with the power rankings. I guess initially texted you about it. It was, I think Sidious Meg did one with the U.S. Marathoners. Yes. Maybe it was after Boston, and you know, they did the same thing and they got a lot of the same flack of like, oh, how could you do this with that? And you know, a lot of it is based off of recent race success or momentum training that we can see. There's been a lot of training YouTube content, so I've been looking at that as well because you can kind of gauge a little bit of training vibes from it. So, yeah, not so much more like you know, when we do our preview episodes, we preview the fields and then we talk about what we think will happen because we're basically just drawing up an imaginary story in our head, hoping that that's how it comes out. This is more breaking down who seems to be trending in the right directions leading up to Western States. So this is I guess this is the final of the power rankings before race day. And then I guess the idea is it would be fun to immediately do a 2027 power rankings after the race because we'd know who the top ten is coming back, and then that'll get us waiting for the next the first golden ticket race that starts. Start adding people to the field. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So given that there was such high demand for Leah, I think we should go through Leah's first and I'll explain how the episode's gonna work. We're gonna, Leah, we're gonna have you go through your rankings in rapid fire 10 to 1. So backwards. At the end of that, add in any commentary as you wish for any of those picks, and then Brett and I will weigh in with our own questions and comments, and then we'll go to Brett and then we'll go to May.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, basically, yeah, you you give your names, and then Finn and I get to roast your decision making.
SPEAKER_01Love this. I don't know if I want the invite to this actually.
SPEAKER_04And then we all do we all just take turns with this.
SPEAKER_01Okay, we're doing women and men allowed.
SPEAKER_02Let's actually do let's do uh women's first. Okay, and then we'll come back again in a circle for men. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Ten, Riley Brady, nine, Tara Dower, eight, Lottie Brinks, seven, Martina Monarchik, six, Caitlin Fielder, five, Ingvilde Kasperson, four, Marianne Hogan, three, Fuzia Zhang, second, Jennifer Lichter, first, Abby Hall.
SPEAKER_04Okay. First question. When you were creating your power rankings, what were some of the the pillars that you were uh leaning on when uh dissecting this group of names? Because yeah, of course it's it's we can we're only picking 10 for these. So there's there's people missing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Main pillar to start was prior success in last year's Western states. I think that's where I started with this. Um we have yeah, a nine of ten of last year's returning women in this year's western states. So um that was something that was an overarching theme. Another one was kind of that the acceleration of performances this year um and just the high, high value performances. So something that came to mind here was the like just burner that Jen Lichter's been on from Black Canyon to taking down Miao Miao at Gorge 50K, just these stellar races, course record performances. I think those were huge for me. Um, another thing I was taking into consideration were um people who might have had injuries in the past year that might have like bumped them down a little bit. Like, for example, I think I would have had Martina Milnarchik a bit higher if you were to ask me this power ranking back in the fall. Um, but she's been struggling with an injury a little bit this spring, but is coming back kind of in full force um in the last couple months here. So I think that might have bumped somebody like her down a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we really should have invited you to the first episode. So we we can because then we could have been talking about changes between the two. Yes. Um you know, one that we were kind of talking about was uh a tricky, tricky one with uh Tara Dower because she's doing the double, and we've seen some training like where's the emphasis or the main goals for these races? I can't quite tell. What do you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think she seems to be attacking both evenly right now. So for uh those who are listening and aren't familiar, Tara Dower is into both Hard Rock and Western states this year, and they are separated this year by two weeks, which is tricky because they're very different races. And Tara has recently um put in a good blockout on the Hard Rock course, and she has vocalized that she is indeed training heavily for both. So, and her training is reflecting that. Um, we saw Tara Dower earlier this spring with a really, really solid 50k at that same Gorge 50K that Jen Lichter had a stellar performance at. And I think Tara surprised a lot of people there. Um, and I think that's why she is indeed in my top 10 here. She had a hard race here at Western States last year, but I think she's showcasing this season, especially that she has some speed.
SPEAKER_02I have maybe two questions. Who was the athlete that you didn't include on this list that you wanted to? Who was like the first out?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Hannah Allgood. Um, so I think specifically for her, um, we talked in a previous episode today that a lot of people are Strava Dark uh this training block into Western states. Hannah Allgood is one of them. I know that she's throwing down. And if you are familiar with the body of work that Hannah's put together in the last year, she's been on this upward trajectory. She has a new coach. She's really all in. She's somebody that follows her training plan to a T. The one thing we don't know about Hannah this year is, you know, how that really translates to a longer race. She um ran a really solid like Sonoma 50K this year, and that's been about the only like evidence we have on paper of what she's doing and the outcome of that training. But I think I would have loved to have her on here if I could see her training, and then also she had one longer race I could reflect on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there I mean it's also hard when was it the entire women's top 10 is coming back? So how do you justify putting, you know, it's you you put someone new that didn't race last year in this top ten power rankings. We're bumping someone out. So there's I mean, there's like Fiona Pascal, Hau Ha, like not in your power, but kind of going back to what you said.
SPEAKER_01Well, Fiona's been struggling a little bit with an injury this block, so has done a lot of just like uphill running exclusively. So I think that was my logic there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And you've you've got Abby Hall remaining in the in the number one spot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You're gonna see a defending champion.
SPEAKER_01I know that I was going back and forth on this one because we said we were looking back like one year to Western States, and I I was kind of stressing past success here at the race in the last year. Um, I don't know if Abby's resume of results this past year is as strong as some of the other people who are in the power rankings, but it's hard to bypass a Western States winner as of last year.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I feel like you get a lot of points towards this power rankings when you are the one who previously won the race.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And I think uh I'm sure we'll get into it with some of your power rankings as well, but uh the training block that Abby Hall has put in. I mean, nobody, maybe Jen Lecter, we don't really see all of Jen Lecter's training, but I don't believe there's anybody in the field that's put in the number of six to seven hour runs that Abby Hall has. So if Abby was fit and ran a winning time last year, I think she's equally, if not more, fit this year. So hard to look past that.
SPEAKER_02Uh let's let's go through yours. Rapid fire. Okay. Precision fuel and hydration is the official nutrition partner of our 2026 Western States 100 coverage. And guess what? They've got a new watermelon flavor of their chews launching this Tuesday or Chews Day, as they're calling it, June 23rd. If you've utilized their original or mint and lemon flavored chews before, you'll probably be stoked. I received a sample a few weeks back. The taste is great. The watermelon is there, and it's kind of like a chewy, jolly rancher sensation. Same as always, each packet contains two chews efficiently, delivering 15 grams of carbs each. They've got a high carb to weight ratio, making them a great choice when you need to travel light. They contain no artificial ingredients, they're vegan and gluten-free, and batch tested for anti-doping. And again, they taste amazing. And to celebrate the launch, Precision is going to be at Trailcom with a watermelon stall by the Precision Fuel and Hydration stage in the Event Village. And then they're going to be supporting their athletes all weekend out there on the Broken Arrow and Western States courses. If you want to try these out for yourself, head over to their website, pick up a pack, and please use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next order. Thanks to Precision for making this content possible.
SPEAKER_04Women's power rankings. Oh yeah, that was another one who was absent from yours.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So just I I I forgot now. I'm looking. Eight, Fiona Pascal, seven, Martina Wynarchuk, six, Tara Dower, five, Ingvild Kasperson, four, Fuzia Zhang, three, Marianne Hogan, two, Jen Lichter, one, Abby Hall. Talk about what changed for you between our last episode and now. So previously I did not have I don't think I had Molly or Lottie in my top ten, but seeing how seeing Molly's training before Black Canyon, like how well she still raised Black Canyon, her training block since Black Canyon has looked significantly better and more just Western states tuned. Now that there's also that race result, it seems like the momentum is on Molly's side, so that's why she's going over similar with Lottie in in like the gorge, uh the recent gorge result, and then you know, the the Hoka training camp, and it just sounded like there was like pretty good training vibes across the board. So that was the main reason for a couple of them moving up.
SPEAKER_03It was first out for you.
SPEAKER_04See, this is where we need to do a better job with the uh the older graphics. That's not in there now. But I mean a lot of are there is there more StravaDark women than men this year? I think so. Because I I struggled more making an exact top ten with the power angles because I had to lean more into recent race results than just training that I could see. Yeah. So it then I, you know, I I would say I guess in my top seven have all started Western States before. Oh, wait, no, not Jen Lichter. She's the only one out who has who is gonna be a rookie. Um but yeah, I mean seven of my top ten. Eight of my top ten Lotties run Western States. So it's like leaning kind of into that experience.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I don't think either of you had Martina Monarchik in your power rankings last go around, and you got a lot of flack for that. Yes. From I think a lot of the Euro fans as well. Yes. Uh talk about how Martina has ended up back in your top ten.
SPEAKER_04That might have just been like purely pitchforks and like angry mob. Uh because it yeah, we we've been joking around like these power rankers are just like it's just the episode where we choose which group of fans we're gonna kiss off. So it's like, all right, all right, I'm putting I'm putting Martina back in because there's a lot of people really believe in her. But then when you actually break down, I I just didn't do a good enough job of like really looking into the nitty-gritty of some of the race results. And the other thing too that I hadn't really taken into account last time was the reason why she didn't finish Western States last year is something that could potentially be pretty easy, easily fixed, you know, with heat issues. Like if we get the cooling down and it's not just a fitness thing, that seems like one of the like lower hanging fruit for a potential huge improvement.
SPEAKER_02Should I go through mine? Let's hear them. In 10, Tara Dower, nine, Caitlin Fielder, eight, Martina Milnarchik, nine, uh seven, Ingild Kasperson, six, Fiona Pascal, five, Marianne Hogan, four, Fuzia Zhang, three, Abby Hall, two, Lottie Brinks, one Jen Lichter. And in terms of changes from last time, I have Lottie moving up a bunch. I think she was in sixth or seventh last time. She's now two. I've added Fiona Pascal despite some of those injury concerns. I think that fifth place last year, running 1740 X was really impressive. Um, Riley drops for me. Riley has been Strava Dark, so it's it's been hard for me to gauge uh their progress. And I want to also acknowledge sort of prior Western states experience and success and didn't want to overlook Fiona's fifth place here last year. Tara is still on the top ten for me, but drops a bunch. And I think I'm just in this moment concerned about the split focus with hard rock. And I think it's tough to balance two totally different races in this era of the sport.
SPEAKER_04And you've you've got Jen as your number one in the power rankings going into Western States.
SPEAKER_01I think okay. Can I have a question? The first question for me is um what leads you to place Lottie above last year's Western States winner?
SPEAKER_03I put a lot of stock in CCC.
SPEAKER_02And actually this makes it challenging because Abby Hall is one of the most decorated runners at CCC of our generation. Two podiums there. But Lottie's done it that sixth place that sixth place last year was, I think, maybe the most competitive women's race ever. So I put a lot of stock in that race. And then I think a lot of people, even people outside this room, put a lot of stock in the Gorge course record performance that she just put up this spring. And I also know that she's coming into this race really healthy. So it was, and I know Abby is too. I mean, this is this is where it's so tough. Like, I think Abby has had like such a joy-filled training block year over year, like some of these benchmarks, like she's improved enormously at Black Canyon. This year's Black Canyon was, I think, 25 minutes faster than the previous years. So both are coming in with like the big Mo. But um I think it was like a coin flip for me. Truly a coin flip. I I I think I feel the least secure about my 2-3 there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And how did you did you say why you justified Jen Lichter's number one?
SPEAKER_03I just think Jen Lichter is the best trailrunner in our sport right now.
SPEAKER_02And I think I think she's done a lot of specific training for Western states in the last three months. And I think there's been other athletes on both in both fields who have had to have a learning curve in terms of like the training load to get ready for this. And I think she has embraced like the hundred-mile hat. So I think we're gonna see just another seamless transition like we did from you know, the ruts and the speed goats and the broken arrows of the world to Black Canyon. I think we're gonna see another transition here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I guess I mean between the three of us, we have her no worse than second in our power rankings. And yeah, I think I think for me, a lot of that comes from the the Black Canyon performance and then how well it seemed like she's uh taken Black Canyon and just moved that into Western State training. Because she's had some awesome training vlogs out there on YouTube, so it's not all just like hearsay, like you can go watch some of the runs that Jen's done and how dialed she seems to be.
SPEAKER_02And um yeah, that's that's good enough for me to have her way up there in the power rankings. I think I'm the only one that has Ingvilde in their top ten.
SPEAKER_04Uh I did. Yeah, okay. I'm sorry. I moved Ingrid.
SPEAKER_02Cut cut.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, I mean that that Keanti was really good. It was great.
SPEAKER_03I mean when you just look at who who Ingvilde you know was competing, racing against, beating how those people have raced. Yeah. It's like, well, Courtney's done pretty good at Western States.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Uh let's wash the machine this. I'll give you I'll give you my men's picks, and then we'll go to Bretton and Leah to close. In tenth, I have Anthony Costales, ninth, Francesco Pupi, eight, Zach Miller, seven, Adam Peterman, six, Hayden Hawks, five, Jeff McGavro, four, Dan Jones, three, Hans Troyer, two, Killian Jordanette, one, Jim Walmsley. In terms of changes, Francesco has moved down quite a bit for me. Purely, it's the Achilles issue that I learned about in our interview last week that adds to sort of an unfortunate string of injuries. The other ones aren't as concerning as it pertains to running and lining up for this race, but a little bit of a concern there, and there's so much talent on the start line. I moved him down. Hans moves up purely because he is fit and there are no injury concerns that we're aware of. Dan Jones moves up for the same reason as Hans for me. I'm adding Jeff McGavro and I'm dropping Canyon. There's really no reason to drop Canyon. I've just heard so much in recent weeks about what Jeff is doing through interviews, through his Substack. He is StravaDark, which is tough, but just the hearsay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Raid Research is the official equipment and apparel partner of our 2026 Western States 100 coverage. You've definitely heard me talk about their LF5L Vest launch and their trail tech shorts in the past. And yes, they are both already sold out, but they're going to be restocked in early July. So make sure that you are subscribed to their mailing list so you don't miss the update. And other news, Raid has many new summer trail products set to release later this week. They are relaunching their first running tee. That's going to be followed by an ultralight Anorak Rain Shell, women's cargo crop top, and a very exciting women's specific belt in the first half of July. So again, join their mailing list so you don't miss a beat. Other than that, if you are listening to this during the week of TrailCon and in the area, Raid is going to have a booth there. So go say hello. Thanks again to Raid for supporting our coverage this week. Go check out all of their products at raidresearch.com. And if you end up buying anything at checkout, please let them know that the folks at Single Track sent you.
SPEAKER_01Okay. First question. You have Hayden Hawks above Adam Peterman on this power ranking. Explain.
SPEAKER_02Explain yourself. Uh the endorsement from his peers. There we heard it from Hans last night. I actually think I mentioned three names. I was like, besides besides Hayden, Jim, Killian, who should we be focusing on for this year's men's field? And he's like, you mentioned him, but think keep thinking about Hayden. I think this is his year. And I've heard that off the record from many other peers in the field. And I've kind of like, we've always wondered, will Hayden win this race? He's won all the big hundred K's in our sport. Uh I know he cares deeply about Western states, and it seems like his peers think that like this is as good a year as any. So I feel good about his stock.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, I've watched all of his uh training videos that have come out, and yeah, he he's running with a level of confidence that I feel like when we've seen that, it was like when he destroys people at CCC. Um it just yeah, it just comes down to like whether will that can that convert over to the full hundred miles of Western States?
SPEAKER_02It was like talking with Lottie earlier. She's like, I figured out the 100k distance. Now I'm curious about 100 miles. I feel like Hayden has that figured out too, right? And yeah, he's this has been his. I would say he's got the 100k figured out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay, let me let me f let me flip back to your your man's rankings. Um was Hans always in your three before?
SPEAKER_02Hans Hans has moved up. I think he was four last time, and Poopy was three. Okay.
SPEAKER_04So Poopy actually dropped down quite a bit. Did Hans move up because of Twisted Fork 30k?
SPEAKER_01Sounds like some bias to me.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think one of the interesting things this year that we've been tracking, and again, I'd we I don't know the exact stats here, but it feels like there have been less people from like the original start line that have dropped out pre-race. I think we've lost we've lost like three key people, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not a ton. I mean, women are we talking women and men?
SPEAKER_02Women and men.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Eden Nielsen, Anna Terasova, yeah, Sylvia, but she got then replaced by Locke. Anne Flower. Anne Flower. And then Seth ruling.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so five, David Sinclair. David Sinclair. That's like five or six feels low to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, usually we get some race week ones. I guess David Sinclair is the closest thing to race week.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he was a few days ago. So I think just the fact that and but I do think there's there are a lot of people on the start line who ha are nursing at least minor injuries. And Hans is distinguished because he's fresh.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And that seems pretty normal where people come in a little bit banged up. Yeah. That happens a lot of time with championship season in the track world because you have a whole long track season, you have to qualify for the team, and then finally, by the time you make it to the Olympics, you're you've done 35 races at that point. Um, so then sometimes, yeah, it does come down to who was able to keep their legs the freshest while still absorbing that necessary amount of training. Did you have Zach Miller in yours last time? Or was it just me who had him absent? I had him in. Okay.
SPEAKER_02I had I had so much trauma from our Canyons preview. Never again. I still left him out.
SPEAKER_04You just doubled down. Oh no, I had him in 10. I found my old my old picks. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, give us your rankings. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Jeez Louise, now I gotta find my new picks. I really just need a computer. You need to get an iPhone. Yeah. I just have all my screenshots in a different folder from anyways. I found them. 10. Zach Miller. 9, Will Murray, 8, Francesco Puppy, 7, Dan Jones, 6, Hans Troyer, 5, Hayden Hawks, 4, Jeff McGavro, 3, Adam Peterman, 2, Killian Jornette, 1, Jim Walmsley. Okay. I guess the one thing we haven't brought up yet is how you so at least you and I both have Jim as the number one off of no data other than he's starting the race. Some hearsay though. Yeah, but like no training bits, no tune-up races.
SPEAKER_01I feel like this is where our argument falls apart.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I know, but then it that just comes down to like we're looking at w historical western states experience, and I guess the other thing is like when Jim seems healthy enough to start a race, like he's looking to win it. And he's been he's been good at winning western states.
SPEAKER_02Has he ever also been more fresh coming into Western states?
SPEAKER_04I don't know. I mean, was it a two years ago? He definitely was not. Yeah. Um like he was pretty banged up and he still ran his second fastest time and won the race. So it's like I don't I don't think 2024 Jim could win this year's race. But he wanted in and he got in. So he must be thinking he's better than 2024, Jim. Um, let's see. Will Murray is a new addition to my uh power rankings.
SPEAKER_01Is that because you're pacing him?
SPEAKER_04No. No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01What if it was?
SPEAKER_04It's because I'm looking at his Strava and he's he did a nice little training camp in Missoula with people like Adam Peterman, Jeff McGavro. They were throwing, they were just putting up monster runs, and Will has been putting up monster training volume. And if I was in his shoes, if anyone's in his shoes and you're putting up the training that he is that with that level of consistency, you'd have to be thinking you're landing in the top ten if you have uh a decent day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So you have Adam and Jeff and three and four. What prevented you from putting Will, you know, up there at number five?
SPEAKER_04Mostly the experience part. Um, like Will basically has done nearly two Western States training blocks um with last year. He just didn't get to race it last year, and there's so much value in racing it. Um, you know, I'm sure he's learned he's got a great coach. I'm sure he's talked to Adam and Jeff about a lot of things, but there's just something that, in my opinion, is a little bit different than just experiencing it.
SPEAKER_02Do you think he I guess the the one thing working against him is environmental, it's the fact that he's from Bellingham, Washington. And this would be he'd be I think he'd be the first athlete in quite a while to to be based in a place that's not at altitude, in Western states.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there hasn't been a non-C like a non-altitude guy in a in a minute. I mean, like Adam is I would I wouldn't call Adam an altitude guy being a Missoula. That's like three thousand feet. That's true, yeah. Missoula kind of breaks it three thousand feet. Yeah. Um but in the la if you take the last decade, most of it's been it's not pill battle. Yeah, so I don't know. There's pros and cons. Um, you know, if you can just safely make make it through that first 50k, um, then it then it doesn't become as big of an issue.
SPEAKER_01Other than the pitchforks, what has moved Zach Miller into your top 10?
SPEAKER_04Again, his his training block has looked really good since Canyons. Um I was curious because he's had some injury problems where he does a race and then gets kind of beat up. And like, you know, maybe we're only looking one good race a year or two, maybe is Western States too close to Canyons. He's it doesn't seem like Canyons injured him in any way. So then we start looking at some of the running he's been doing. He did a little stint back up at altitude. Uh, it seems like a lot of what he's been putting on Strava is very Western states focused and specific. A lot of structured workouts, not just big days in the mountains, although there have still been a few. Um large volume. It all looks like great Western states training, and that is what it it looked like that before Canyons, but I didn't fully buy into it because it's like, well, that's that it's been so long since Zach raced at that high of a level. Now he already has, and he seemed like he bounced back from it well, so that's why he's moved up into my power rankings.
SPEAKER_01I like that.
SPEAKER_03Should we close with the closet? Yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, we got 10 Dan Jones, nine, Hayden Hawks, eighth, Anthony Costales, seven, Francesco Poopy, six, Hans Troyer, fifth, Thomas Cardin, fourth, Zach Miller, three, Adam Peterman, two, Killian Jornett, one, Jim Walmsley. So I will say, I just even glancing at my top ten power ranking, this feels heavily weighted towards race results as of this year. Okay. With the exception of Jim Walmsley and kind of Killian in some ways, too. Did you say Hans? I did. I have him in sixth.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Who's the first one out for you? Who was the one that was on the chopping block?
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's a good question here. Um let me glance. Oh, Jeff, Jeff McGabbro.
SPEAKER_03Oh, no Jeff.
SPEAKER_01No Jeff. That's an interesting. Yeah, that was interesting too. I am putting a lot of stock in his semi-lackluster Keanti race.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it wasn't his best. Wasn't his best. Other people were better. Correct. And that's why you've got uh Thomas Carter.
SPEAKER_01Yes, because I'm looking at this list and nearly everybody Francesco hasn't had a a great showing this year. He had a decent Keanti. He had a decent Keanti, but nothing like of huge distance this year to really reflect where his fitness is at.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I've got the men's list pulled up here on Ultra Sign Up, and I'm just gonna name a couple names I don't think any of us have mentioned. Tracen Knopp, Jesh, Jesh Ren Small, Jordan Bramblett, Vonsant, Von Sant, Jupiter.
SPEAKER_01You mentioned you have Kenyon off, he's not in any of our lawyers.
SPEAKER_02Jacob Banta, Ryan Montgomery, Hiroki Kai.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's pretty insane. We might, gosh, we're gonna have to make our power rankings bigger. I don't think so. We have to go 20 deep.
SPEAKER_02It just goes for the audience, it just goes to show like it's impossible to make these top tens without leaving off people that it is extremely tough to leave off.
SPEAKER_04Let's talk about Killian, because he's also kind of breaking the analytics here. Powered by AWS. I'll just say on football games all the time. But Killian's last race wasn't very good.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_04But we still have him as number two to Jim.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think these are called power rankings for a reason. Like Jim and Killian just hold so much power.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like off-the-couch fitness is good enough for a podium at Western State.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think that's why they break the analytics here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that was, and that's been my back and forth debate this whole time. Is so it's last year Killian got third. He own if he had another mile, he might have gotten Chris. He it sounded like he had a cold and was a little bit beat up in training because he's had this knee thing for half of his life, but he still did that. So he was able to do the training and fit, but he came in kind of beat up and still raced as well. Is that better or worse than Killian now coming into the race, slightly under trained, but like Hans, feeling fresh and having no pain?
SPEAKER_03That's an age-old question there.
SPEAKER_04We'll ask him tomorrow. I we will ask him tomorrow. I lean towards this version of Killian being better because he has so many years of just of running. Like he's not gonna forget how to be good. Well, and I I saw him running yesterday. But how did it look? Great. Because we were watching the 23k live stream, and Joyce is running across the very top. She crossed the ladder, and there's that little plateau before it starts dropping down. Killian was running next to her, just like filming on his phone, hopping across the rocks on the side of the trail, not even looking. I don't know how that works. Maybe he's got like you could never halibut, like amazing peripheral vision, but like his head was fully turned, and there's just like bolts, he's just jumping across them. And then I saw him coming down the fire road because he ran all the way down. I I would have never guessed that there was a knee issue. So I'm like, okay, you're not dropping in my power rankings.
SPEAKER_02So this is it. This has been our uh five days out final edition of the power rankings, although I guess we will revisit a new list post-Western states, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, we'll do the first version of the 2027.
SPEAKER_02And I think we'll make our fantasy free trail picks during our women's preview tomorrow and our men's preview Wednesday.
SPEAKER_04Wednesday, yeah. And then that that gets to be more a little bit analytic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you can like roast us on those episodes. These power rankings.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, these are the power rankings. These are just data. Like that's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_01This is just data.
SPEAKER_02But it's it's Monday, June 22nd. We're gonna put out a carousel post on Instagram on our Run Single Track account with Brett's picks, Leah's picks, my picks all displayed. Drop a note in the comments. Did we miss Banta? Did we miss uh Bonsant, etc.? Uh hi and Hannah Allgun. It's all fun.
SPEAKER_04You're also more than welcome to comment about who you uh how you why you agreed with us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, tell us why you agree with us.
SPEAKER_04You can agree with us too. Where are the agreers in the comments?
SPEAKER_03They're so quiet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Thank you, Leah, for adding credibility to our power.
SPEAKER_03Always.
