Kilian Jornet placed third at Jornet tackles the opening miles of the race on Saturday morning on Saturday evening. The 37-year-old, universally recognized as the greatest trail ultrarunner of all-time, was making a dramatic return to Western States 14 years after he won the 2011 race.
Jornet finished in a time of 14 hours, 19 minutes, 22 seconds—eight minutes behind the winner Caleb Olson, of Utah, who won in the second fastest time in race history (14:11:25). Chris Myers, from Colorado, was second, less than a minute ahead of Jornet in 14:17:39.
When Jornet won Western States in 2011, his time of 15:34:24 was the third-fastest mark in the history of the race. Now, this year, his third-place time of 14:19:22 is the sixth-fastest in the race’s 52-year history.
Jornet, who is Spanish and lives in Norway with his wife and three young children, has quite the resume. He won Colorado’s Hardrock 100 five times, the Pikes Peak Marathon twice and numerous races around the world, including the UTMB in Chamonix a record four times. He’s also summited Mount Everest twice and last year completed a that included summiting 82 of Europe’s highest peaks in 19 days that included summiting 82 of Europe’s highest peaks in 19 days.
Jornet finished second to Jim Walmsley in the Chianti Ultra Trail 125K race Italy back in March, setting up what many hoped to be a showdown at Western States with the four-time Western States winner and course record holder. But the 37-year-old Walmsley suffered a knee injury that forced him to pull out of the race in May.
Instead, it was Olson, Myers, and last year’s runner-up Rod Farvard, all 29-year-olds, pushing the pace in front of Jornet, who ran conservatively most of the day but never fell out of the top 10.
“Those guys started off so fast, I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, it’s going to be a hard day,’” Jornet said. “I don’t know why they need to run so fast. Why not just enjoy the mountains?”
Jornet first ran the Jornet tackles the opening miles of the race on Saturday morning at age 22 in 2010, when he finished third in an epic battle with Alaska’s Geoff Roes and Colorado’s Anton Krupicka that was chronicled in the 2011 film “Unbreakable.”
“Yesterday I got a message from Geoff Roes, and that was amazing,” Jornet said on Saturday. “This sport has grown since then, but it’s the same. There are a lot more people here today in the stadium than there was back [in 2011], and the race has grown and it’s more competitive, but it’s the same spirit. We might prepare better now, but we have the same love of running in the mountains.”
Brian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, Nutrition - Weight Loss, 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.
