Where Do The Best Ultra Runners Live?

by Chase Parnell — November 3, 2019

Okay, so I went back through the annals of Ultra Running Magazine’s Ultra Runner of the Year (UROY) rankings and extracted all the names from the men’s and women’s top ten lists from the last five years (2013-2018). Then I looked up where each UROY is living NOW. Nothing creepy, I simply looked up the names on UltraSignup to see where they are currently living based on their most recent race result. And I may or may not have visited a few Linkedin profiles. Wait, these people do more than run?

I chose a five year look-back because beyond that I was getting into some names that are pretty checked out of the sport and their current residence was becoming less and less relevant if we want to know where the top runners are living today. 

And just to be clear, I’m no statistician. These are rudimentary graphs and I’m sure my sample sizes aren’t big enough and there are likely other types of charts that could better represent the data, but you’ll get the gist and that’s all I’m really aiming to achieve here. So please, don’t get your panties in a bunch, this is strictly entertainment, not science.

Below each graph I summarize the findings and at the end I include a few interesting take-aways as well as the raw data to chew on. 

Here we go: 

When all the UROY winners were tallied up, it was a close race, but Colorado took top honors with 13 UROYs. California was second with 11, Oregon came in a close behind with 10, Arizona with 7, Montana and Utah with 3, Virginia, Florida, and Vermont each have 2. The rest (not included in the graph) had one. Does this surprise anyone? 

My initial reaction was, well, of course a state like California is close to the top because its population is so huge. So for that reason, I created the following graph to show how many UROYs there are per one million residents within their respective states. For example, California has 11 UROYs living there and roughly 39.56 million residents, so I took 11/39.56 to arrive at .27 UROYs per one million residents. 

The UROY density turned out to be greatest within the Green Mountain State, Vermont. Montana was a close second and Oregon maintained its position of 3rd.  

Take from this one what you will. Thirteen UROYs in the east, fifty in the west. The bias against the “beast coast” has been discussed ad nauseam in articles and forums since the beginning of time, so I won’t drag you all through that again.

Psyche. I will a little bit.

For me, I think it’s pretty obvious that the voters (as do I) revere your average mountain ultra of the west over even the most popular ultras of the east. For one reason or another, there just isn’t an east coast equivalent to a Western States, Hardrock or Leadville. There just isn’t. I’ve heard great things about Vermont, Massanutten, Old Dominion, and the Georgia Death Race, but you don’t see elite ultra runners from the west flocking out east for races like easterners flock out west (with a few exceptions of course).

So if the revered courses are out west and they are the races that capture the voters’ hearts and minds, easterners are forced to travel out here if they want to make a good run at the UROY rankings. But similar to how it’s generally difficult for American runners to go to Europe and perform well, it’s also difficult for an east coaster to come to the west and consistently race well on terrain they aren’t accustomed to and typically at higher elevations. And likewise, somebody who lives and trains in Telluride is going to have a tough time winning the Vermont 100.

This partiality towards western mountain races comes into play as an X-factor, almost a subconscious element to the voting process. AJW, in an iRunFar article from December 14, 2018, stated, “Some observers over the years have asked if I have any inherent biases in my process such as weighing trail runs more heavily than road or track runs or 100-mile races over shorter-distance races. In truth, I don’t have any explicit biases. However, in my rankings of certain events, I may use some subjective judgement that could be seen as a bias and I suspect that other voters do so, as well. That subjective judgement, or ‘gut test,’ is typically the last stage in my ranking and in those cases I may move an athlete to a different place solely on gut feeling.” I think popularity and likability of the particular athlete also has to play a role, even if only a minor one.

So yes, I don’t see it as any secret that this whole subjective element definitely plays into the westerners favor and is responsible for at least some of the 13 to 50 UROY disparity.

Okay, enough said. 

Here’s a quick visual for all the towns that have 2+ UROYs living there now. No real shockers there. Shout out to my home place, Bend, Oregon.

I’ll note that I think in a few years from now, Bozeman is going to be higher on this list. Jeff Browning recently uprooted from Logan, Utah and headed north to Bozeman and it appears Dakota Jones is living there too? Although he seems to be fairly transient so we’ll see. I think with what Mike Wolfe is doing with his Mountain Project gym, the Bozeman community is galvanizing and becoming a bit more of a hub for MUT athletes. Nikki Kimball has been holding it down in Bozeman for a long time as well.

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The Data:

2018 Ultra Runners of the Year:

• Courtney Dauwalter – Golden, Colorado
• Jim Walmsley – Flagstaff, Arizona
• Camille Heron – Warr Acres, Oklahoma Alamosa, Colorado
• Jeff Browning – Bozeman, Montana
• Darcy Piceu – Boulder, Colorado
• Rob Krar – Flagstaff, Arizona
• Dylan Bowman – Portland, Oregon 
• Kelly Wolf – Telluride, Colorado
• Kaytlyn Gerbin – Issaquah, Washington
• Hayden Hawks – Cedar City, Utah
• Jason Schlarb – Durango, Colorado
• Keely Henninger – Portland, Oregon
• Amanda Basham – North Logan, Utah
• Zach Bitter – Phoenix, Arizona
• Mark Hammond – Millcreek, Utah 
• Sabrina Stanley – Silverton, Colorado
• Katie Schide – Switzerland (International)
• Mario Mendoza – Bend, Oregon
• Jared Hazen – Flagstaff, Arizona
• Kaci Lickteig – Omaha, Nebraska

2017 Ultra Runners of the Year (not already included above):

• Tim Freriks – Flagstaff, Arizona
• Magdalena Boulet – Berkeley, California
• Claire Gallagher – Boulder, Colorado
• Cat Bradley – Nederland, Colorado
• Olivier Leblond – Arlington, Virginia
• Kathleen Cusick – Indian Harbour Beach, Florida
• Yiou Wang – Kentfield, California
• Alex Nichols – Old Colorado City, Colorado
• Gina Slaby – Callaway, Maryland
• Avery Collins – Silverton, Colorado
• Patrick Reagan – Savannah, Georgia 
• Katalin Nagy – Nassau, Bahamas (International)

2016 Ultra Runners of the Year (not already included above):

• Zach Miller – Manitou Springs, Colorado
• Caroline Boller – Solvang, California
• Ian Sharman – Bend, Oregon
• Devon Yanko – San Anselmo, California
• Amy Sproston – Bend, Oregon
• Brian Rusiecki – South Deerfield, Massachusetts
• Tim Tollefson – Mammoth Lakes, California
• Pam Smith – Salem, Oregon
• Andrew Miller – Corvallis, Oregon
• Pete Kostelnick – Brunswick, Ohio

2015 Ultra Runners of the Year (not already included above):

• David Laney – Portland, Oregon
• Stephanie Howe – Bend, Oregon
• Seth Swanson – Missoula, Montana
• Nicole Bitter (Studer) – Phoenix, Arizona
• Aliza Lapierre – Williston, Vermont
• Ellie Greenwood – North Vancouver, BC (International)
• Joe Fejes – Columbia, South Carolina
• Bob Shebest – Winsor, California 
• Bethany Patterson – Richmond, Virginia

2014 Ultra Runners of the Year (not already included above):

• Max King – Bend, Oregon 
• Rory Bosio – Truckee, California
• Sage Canaday – Boulder, Colorado
• Larisa Dannis – Manchester, New Hampshire
• Traci Falbo – Jeffersonville, Indiana
• Emily Harrison – Flagstaff, Arizona
• Alex Varner – Mill Valley, California
• Nikki Kimball – Bozeman, Montana

2013 Ultra Runners of the Year (not already included above):

• Michele Yates – Conifer, Colorado
• Jon Olsen – Modesto California
• Meghan Laws – Cool, California
• Cassie Scallon – Santa Barbara, California
• Connie Gardner – Medina, Ohio
• Nick Clark – Fort Collins, Colorado
• Mike Morton – Lithia, Florida

Final Notes.

• I find it hard to comprehend that neither Dakota Jones, Mike Wolfe, nor Mike Foote have cracked the top 10 rankings in the last five years.
• There wasn’t a single Californian UROY in 2018. Blip in the radar or trend of elites migrating to other places?
• The State of Washington had only ONE UROY (Katelyn Gerbin) in the last five years, while essentially all the other states in the west had many. For a state of its size, population, and abundance of trail communities, what’s up with that? 
• Who do I have to lobby to get a UROY vote? What is the criteria to become a voter? I know a peon like me can’t get one but maybe someday. #lifegoals.

As a bit of a day dreamer, I’m constantly looking at other states and mountain towns and thinking about what life would be like there. I’m definitely guilty of thinking the grass is often greener on the other side. If I only lived in X, I’d be able to train Y and accomplish Z. If this tells us anything, it’s that you can become extremely fast in a variety of environments; one of the hottest female ultra runners in the sport, Kaci Lickteig, excels in mountain ultras but lives and trains in Omaha, Nebraska! All in all, it’s interesting to see where the best decide to lay their roots down and make a home.

Hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to post your comments, concerns, critiques, questions, or rants in the comment section below.

 

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