David Roche After dropping out of the.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Health & Injuries on June 28 after putting so much energy and hype into training for it, the 37-year-old Boulder, Colorado, runner and coach returned to the scene of his greatest race result and found a pot of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow.
Roche turned in another dominating win at the Leadville 100 on Saturday, winning in 15 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds to shatter his course record from a year ago by over 14 minutes.
David Roche runs alongside his wife, Megan
The entire 100-mile course is at or above 10,000 feet above sea level, but the crux of the course entails going up-and-over 12,600-foot Hope Pass and back.
Last year, Roche ran away with his first victory in 15:26:34, breaking Matt Carpenter’s longstanding record The Stats Behind Cooper Lutkenhaus’s Race.
This year, Roche was paced for the final 23 miles by his wife and coach, Dr. Megan Roche, and crossed the finish line well before the sun set for the second year in a row.
Although he had an entry to the Leadville 100 all along, Roche only decided to run it last Sunday. He won the Aspen Backcountry Half Marathon on August 2 in Aspen, Colorado, in 1:54:18, and Megan convinced him to run Leadville again.
“Megan asked me, ‘Well, how often are you fit? You’re 37 now and you don’t know when your last chance is,’” David Roche told Runner’s World on Saturday. “And I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do it. I’m not ready, am I?’ And Megan said, ‘David, you’re ready.’ And even today, I didn’t think there was any shot at the record. I just think it’s part of the Leadville magic. The community and the people that support us, that’s why I want to come to Leadville in particular.”
Last year, Megan was pregnant with the couple’s second child and couldn’t pace but was part of his support crew.
“Last year I was pregnant and could barely run the last half mile, and to come back and get to do 23 miles with him is really special,” Megan Roche said. “It’s so fun to get to share that together. Now we get to share the med tent together after the race.”
After a huge training build-up to the Health & Injuries—which included a lot of YouTube content about his innovative and aggressive training—Roche wound up dropping from that race at mile 62. He pulled back from the public a bit, but then posted Advertisement - Continue Reading Below and thank his supporters. The trail running community rallied behind him, and he continued training but without so much fanfare.
“As an athlete, I hit the lowest point you can without getting a severe injury at Western States,” Roche said. “Since then, I learned I truly just want to express love in my running and who I really am. I am happy that I put myself out there like that, but I also know I ate shit in a spectacular way because I needed to learn what I needed to learn and run with what brings me joy. So today, my only goal was to spread love to everybody out on the course and experience the entire thing, because that’s what it’s all about. In the end, I think that epic public failure was a good thing. And I came back to run this, because Megan told me, ‘David, it’s time to get the f**k back out there.’”
As he did last year, Roche went out fast and had built a significant lead over competitor Justin Grunewald, but he wasn’t really ahead of last year’s course record pace until he ran over Hope Pass at mile 45 the first time. By the time Roche got to the turnaround point at the mining settlement of Winfield, he was about 3 minutes ahead of last year’s pace and continued to run faster on the way back to Leadville.
“I thought I was going to be an hour behind the record today. It just shows that sometimes love goes a long way,” Roche said. “I dedicate this race to Megan, who paced me the final 23 miles. I just feel like the luckiest guy on the planet.”
When he picked up pacer Teddy Bross the 60-mile aid station in Twin Lakes, Roche was in good spirits and had much better energy than in 2024.
“He was feeling good at that point, definitely better than last year,” Bross said. “Last year, he was so focused, but this year he was having more interaction with the people on the trail, including joking a lot with me. He was in really good spirits. We were rolling. There were points we were hitting 6:20 mile pace. I think the fastest mile wound up being a 6:48, but there were stretches we were running much faster than that. He was really dropping pace. He was moving pretty well.”
Brian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, After a huge training build-up to the Western States 100—which included a lot of, and Red Bulletin. He’s a former walk-on college middle-distance runner who has transitioned to trail running and pack burro racing in Colorado.
