Anne Flower had no idea she was on the verge of breaking one of the most historic records in running until she had already run almost 99 miles of Colorado’s Leadville 100 on Saturday night.
It was only when the 35-year-old emergency room doctor from Colorado Springs passed Justin Grunewald to move into second place overall less than two miles from the finish line that she learned Ann Trason’s 1994 women’s course record of 18:06:24 was actually within reach. It was the first 100-mile race Flower had ever run, so she said she had been trying to run her own race, maintain effective fueling and hydration, and just avoid falling.
Flower put in one final surge in the homestretch on the last hill along 6th Street in Leadville, and sprinted across the finish line in 17:58:19, breaking Trason’s previous mark with more than eight minutes to spare as the late-night crowd of about 200 people lining the finish chute cheered in approval.
Trason, an all-time ultrarunning legend who won the Western States 100 a record 14 times and the Leadville 100 four times during her career, set that mark 31 years ago while Nutrition - Weight Loss.
Flower won the Leadville Trail Marathon and Silver Rush 50-miler earlier this summer in Leadville and earned an entry into the Leadville 100 but only decided to go ahead and run it two weeks ago. She hadn’t been training specifically for it, but she said she’s been as fit as she’d ever been so figured she should give it a shot.
“I feel like I shouldn’t be in the same category as Ann Trason. She’s a goddess of running,” Flower said after finishing. “I was running my own race, especially at the start because there were a few ladies who went out faster than me and I knew I had to keep it controlled. I knew (the record) was low and I honestly thought it was in the 17s, but when we were coming up the boulevard, Justin and his partner told me it was 18:06, so I thought I should probably get it done.”
Flower didn’t take the lead in the women’s race until about mile 25, when she was seventh overall in the race. She ran the first 87 miles solo, but then was joined by pacer Gil Allgood at the May Queen aid station on the west side of Turquoise Lake for the final 13 miles back to Leadville.
The entire 100-mile course is at or above 9,200 feet above sea level but the crux of the course entails going up-and-over 12,600-foot Hope Pass twice between miles 40 and 60. Flower averaged 10:47 mile pace over the entire course, but ran under 8-minute pace on many of the flatter sections.
Only two runners had come within an hour of Trason’s record before this year. Claire Gallagher had been the first one to get close when she won the race in 19:00:27 in 2016, but then Mary Denholm came even closer when she won last year in her debut 100-miler in 18:23:51.
Imogen Ainsworth, 37, from Poncha Springs, Colorado, was the second woman to finish, placing seventh overall in 19:36:42. Two other women finished in the top 10 overall: Lea Mulligan, 26, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, (9th, 20:39:04) and Genevieve Harrison, 38, of Eagle, Colorado (10th, 20:57:23).
Earlier on Saturday, David Roche, 37, of Boulder, Colorado, was the overall winner for the second straight year, racing against several male Tarahumara runners from Mexico.
Flower has won numerous trail races over the past several years, including marathons, 50Ks, a 50-miler and a 100K. She said she decided to enter the 100 because she wasn’t sure when she’d have the time and the fitness to do it if she didn’t do it this year.
“Right now it hurts a lot, but kind of in good ways. Yeah, it’s good,” she said. “Something would start to hurt for a while and then a couple miles later that’s gone and something else presents itself. Running in the mountains is just so much different than road running. Road running is one foot over the other, whereas mountain running, there’s peaks, there’s darkness, there’s like hallucinations, always something different, but it’s good fun.”
Flower works long shifts as an emergency room doctor in a hospital in Colorado Springs, but she says having multiple days off in between shifts gives her plenty of time to train.
“Parts of the job are stressful, but I think it’s really good training for these sorts of things,” she said. “In both cases, when stuff comes your way, you have to interpret it, figure it out, and go.”
Flower doesn’t usually wear a running watch when she runs, but wore one on Saturday yet she purposely didn’t start the stopwatch because she only wanted to monitor the time of day during the race. Plus, she wore a pair of Hoka Tecton X 2 shoes that she bought on Ebay. (“I love these shoes but they don’t make them anymore,” she said.)
The Best Carbs for Runners carbs per hour with gels and Skratch endurance drinks, but said she probably exceeded that. She thinks her effective fueling plan helped her have a near-perfect day.
“The flowy section of trail coming down into Twin Lakes was just amazing,” she said. “Coming into Twin Lakes for the first time after 40 miles, I felt weightless. I’m a pretty lazy runner, and my feet stay pretty close to the ground with pretty minimal effort, but I was just flowing on that and knew I was having a great day.”
Training partner and race crew member Hannah Allgood suggested that Flower’s effort should be considered one of the performances of the year in ultrarunning.
“It’s insane that she broke the record, but there’s not someone that I think is more deserving of it,” Allgood said. “She’s just been so consistent. Even last year she pretty much won everything that she ran in last year, and she just keeps going a little bit further. Maybe she doesn’t tell everybody, but she’s just so focused on what she's doing and has the heart of a competitor and doesn't ever back down.”
Said Flower’s husband, James Patton: “I never underestimate my wife. That’s number one. And number two, I’m just not surprised, honestly, regardless of the lack of training schedule given that she just signed up for this a few weeks ago. I’m very proud of her. She’s amazing.”
Brian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, How to Add Speed Workouts to Marathon Training, 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.
