Top 25 Most Inspirational Women Ultra Runners of 2025

By Henry Howard

It’s a mom’s world, and we’re just living in it. Or so it seemed, as I compiled this year’s list of the Top 25 Most Inspirational Women Ultra Runners of 2025.

This past year was packed with memorable moments in women’s trail and ultra running. Among them were a new course record at the Leadville 100; a victory by a new mom who stopped three times to breastfeed her infant; a return to prominence by a runner who suffered a broken leg just two years earlier; and more.

The athletes who achieved those successes are among those who I’m honoring in my eighth annual most inspirational ultra runners list of the year. Or rather, make that lists.

Just as in the past few years, the 2025 ultra running list is actually two — one for the most inspirational males and another for the most inspiring females. Nonbinary runners will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Once again, nonbinary runner Riley Brady is on my list. Since Brady was born female, I thought it was best to place them in this category and they agreed.

The men’s 2025 list of inspirational ultra runners will be published in a few days.

For previous versions, check out last year’s most inspirational women ultra runners here and click here for the men’s most inspirational list. The 2023 honorees for women ultra runners are here and the most inspirational on the men’s side is at this link. The 2022 compilation is here, the 2021 list here, the 2020 version here, this one from 2019 and the first installment in 2018.

And now on to the Top 25 Most Inspirational Women Ultra Runners of 2025 in alphabetical order:

1.     Careth Arnold: The 35-year-old mom became the first American to win the grueling 95-Mile TDS race even as her quads “went out” with 30 miles to go. She made it look relatively easy, navigating 29,527 feet of elevation gain. Arnold won what many consider to be one of the hardest UTMB events, finishing in 22 hours, 58 minutes, and 52 seconds — 85 minutes ahead of Hélène Dassy of Belgium. And Arnold is among the top women at the 2026 Hardrock Endurance Run. Buckle up, that is going to be a fast and fun race.

2.     Katie Asmuth: Perhaps no other elite runner has had more ups and downs the past few years, than this multi-time top 10 finisher at Western States. After coming back from another injury Asmuth won the 100K at Javelina Jundred. Per her usual cheerful outlook, she celebrated but then quickly moved on to celebrating others. Her post on Instagram: “@javelinajundred 100k champ! 🥇female, 2nd overall I’m really proud of that effort💥 Massive shoutout to the other women racing HARD out there- special 💓 to @corinne_shalvoyage for pushing me all day. Competing is a gift- and let’s just say- I looked over my shoulder umpteen times thinking she was there. Corinne- I loved that that person was you 🥹💪 TWO MOMS IN TOP 5 OVERALL!! LFG! 🔥”

3.     Amelia Boone: She was nominated for this list by an online friend who wrote, “… especially given her writing last year on hiatus from ultra running and then this year heading into/following up on HiLo.” Boone dealt with an injury throughout 2024, following her second-place finish at Cascade Crest 100. She healed and came back strong this past year, first winning the North Fork 50K and later completing the 100-miler at High Lonesome (HiLo), nearly two years to the day after that injury. Her SubStack post on her recovery, the race and her weight journey is well worth a read.

4.     Riley Brady: The nonbinary athlete had another strong year with three marquee victories. They won Black Canyon 100K, Quad Rock 50 and Run Rabbit Run 100. While Brady has not been able to find success — yet — at Western States, they are on the start list at Black Canyon again, with a Golden Ticket on the line. After their breakout race at the 2022 Javelina Jundred, we had a great conversation about Brady’s performance, nonbinary athletes and more. Much, if not all of the conversation, is still highly relevant today. You can find it here.

5.     Lotti Brinks: During the Canyons-UTM race weekend this year, I had the opportunity to meet and run with Brinks. She is as nice an individual as she is a talented runner. We were there as part of HOKA’s unveiling of its Mafate X trail shoes. But the conversations and interactions felt more personal than a business meetup. As an athlete, Brinks had a good year, winning the Desert Rats 100K, taking sixth at CCC and finishing in the top 10 at UTMB’s Tarawera 100K. While she seems to focus on the 100K distance, it would be great to see her take another shot at Western States, where she placed 15^th in 2024.

6.     Stephanie Case After a three-year break from racing, new mom Stephanie Case paused three times during the challenging Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 100K to breastfeed her six-month-old daughter, Pepper. Case not only finished the race; she won. “Well that was a surprise,” Case wrote on Instagram. “I WON?!?” At age 43, she also finished fifth at Hardrock. But what is more notable is that her finishing time was almost exactly an hour faster than when she placed second at Hardrock in 2022. That’s an impressive display of mom strength.

7.     Alyssa Clark: During 2025, Clark took first place at HURT, about an hour faster than her win in 2023, and placed second at UTMB Lavaredo 120K. For Clark and many others on this list, their recognition is not simply based on results. I have had the pleasure to interview her a few times (most recently here) and she is truly a fan of the sport, supports others and leads by example whether she is at the front or middle of the pack. 

8.     Ruth Croft: The talented ultra runner from New Zealand won the main UTMB race, becoming the first woman to achieve victory in each of the top three UTMB races. She also won the Tarawera 100K and a couple of other lesser-known UTMB races. Her consistency of landing on the podium, as seen in her UTMB results page, at these mountainous ultras is just as impressive as it is inspiring.  

9.     Courtney Dauwalter: Few runners would make this list in a year when they finished 10^th at UTMB and had a DNF at Cocodona. But most runners are not Courtney Dauwalter, who is the only athlete to be included each year on these lists. So why this year? Even though 2025 was a relative down year for Dauwalter — who did win the Lavaredo Ultra Trail 120K — she continues to inspire through her constant smile, support for the community and persevering through a tough year. After the DNF, she turned her focus to marathons where she just ran 2:38:55 at the California International Marathon, a couple of minutes off the Olympic Qualifying Standard and beating her previous best by almost exactly 11 minutes. She is signed up for Cocodona in May 2026 and Hardrock two months later, and I’m not betting against her in either race.

10.  Tara Dower: She followed up on her record-setting Appalachian Trail FKT in 2024, with a successful year including winning and setting the course record at the Javelina Jundred. She also won the Lake Sonoma 50-miler, took second at the Black Canyons 100K and set a new overall supported FKT at Vermont’s 272-mile Long Trail in 3 days, 18 hours, and 29 minutes. She had a disappointing Western States debut where she dropped out due to stomach issues. But thanks to her victory at Javelina, she earned a ticket back to Western States in 2026. After getting selected for Hardrock, will she try the double?

11.  Megan Eckert: She was mentioned by a couple of readers as a “miss” after the 2024 list came out. Fair point, she had a solid 2024 and backed that up with an impressive 2025. Just how impressive? Eckert ran the Snowdrop Ultra, a 55-hour race, which began in 2024 and ended in early 2025. She finished with 120 miles in what would be her fourth longest race of the year. Eckert also placed second in the 135-mile Badwater and accumulated 383 miles — a new women’s record — in Big Dog’s Backyard Ultra, second best among the women. And, of course, she set a new women’s six-day world record at the Six Days of France in May, running more than 40 miles farther than any woman before with 603.155 miles (970.685 kilometers).

12.  Rachel Entrekin: If there is such a thing as a 200-mile race specialist it must be Entrekin. She won Cocodona 250 for the second year in a row in 2025, beating her time a year earlier by 10 hours. And just four months later, she won the inaugural Mammoth, a 214-mile race through the Eastern Sierra, starting and finishing in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. Entrekin, who also won High Lonesome, is headed back to Cocodona in 2026. Will she continue her dominance, perhaps lowering the course record once again?

13.  Anne Flower: She decided on running the Leadville 100 about two weeks before the race, even though she had earned two automatic entries to the race thanks to winning both the 2025 Silver Rush 50 Mile and the 2025 Leadville Trail Marathon. Since running 100 miles was on her “Baby Bucket List,” — things to do before starting a family — she set a goal of finishing. Flowers finished, won the race and also broke Ann Trason’s  31-year-old course record by eight minutes with a time of 17:58:19. Flower, an emergency room doctor, is signed up for Black Canyon 100K in February. With Golden Tickets on the line, will we see her take on Western States next June?

14.  Kaylee Frederick: The 20-year-old college student placed 12th in a field of over 160 women at the International Association of Ultrarunners 24-Hour World Championship. Among U.S. runners, she finished second with 147 miles. Long distances are nothing new for Frederick, who became the youngest person ever to finish the Badwater 135 when she was 18 in 2023. Frederick, who also finished Badwater the past two years, has a unique spot in ultra running history as the youngest person to conquer the “world’s toughest footrace.”

15.  Kaytlyn Gerbin: She took a long hiatus due to pregnancy and a surgery that doctors warned would end her running as a professional athlete. In February of this year, she wrote on Instagram about the third and final surgery, “This procedure was a really big deal for me because it signified closing the chapter on a full year+ of hip rehab and recovery from a PAO surgery. To be where I’m at now, running and training pain-free with an updated hip and all the changes that come with a pregnancy, is huge.” Not only has she been able to return to running, she won Cascade Crest 100 in July and took fifth place two months later at Tor des Geants, a super challenging 330K race in France.

16.  Abby Hall: The 2025 Western States champion wasn’t even guaranteed a spot at the race until weeks before when she inherited a Golden Ticket after EmKay Sullivan deferred her entry. Two years ago, Hall suffered a broken leg during a training run that required surgery. That paused a strong set of podium finishes at races such as CCC (twice), Canyons 100K and others. Now Hall has the fourth-fastest finish among women in Western States history, and is returning in 2026. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

17.  Jacky Hunt-Broersma: What can’t she do? Hunt-Broersma, who started running after she lost a leg, recently completed the Great World Race, completing seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Last December, she announced plans for the race saying, “My next incredible challenge for 2025. In November I will be running 7 Marathons on 7 continents in 7 Days with team @30forfreedom. We are taking FREEDOM for trafficking victims around the world. Amazing cause and what an incredible experience and incredible challenge. So honored and grateful to be part of this.” And thanks to Hunt-Broersma, the other runners, the race organizers and 30 for Freedom, they surpassed $1 million in funds raised. That translates to 2,514 girls being rescued from trafficking.

18.  Heather Jackson: While 2025 was a down year performance wise, Jackson is still figuring out the sport after transitioning from a pro triathlete career. In 2024, she nailed top 10 finishes at two of the sport’s most competitive races — seventh at Western States and fifth at CCC — as well as taking fifth place at Unbound, the world’s largest gravel bike race. In 2025, Jackson did finish fourth at the Canyons 50K but dropped at Western States, like she did during her debut there two years earlier. Right now, Western is not on her race calendar, however she is on the list for Cocodona in 2026. When I interviewed her for this story as part of the 2025 Canyons race, I was taken about how she defines success in the sport. “Success is not about the results or the races even,” she says. “Even in just the last three years, it’s been about the friends we’ve made and the memories made in the training, the races, the travel, things like that. I get to race and it’s a privilege. But for me, success is just having enjoyed this journey every single step of the way and making the most of every single day.”

19.  Libby Jones: Even though Jones is no longer able to run, I selected her for her contributions to the sport. Jones, guru of The Active Joe, puts on trail and ultra races that uplift the community. I featured her as part of my ongoing series on race directors earlier this year. She was profiled due to how she has incorporated inclusivity into races, been a welcoming force to runners of all skillsets and more. I was blown away by how well her races were organized, the kindness of volunteers and more when I ran her Dinosaur Valley 100K this year.

20.  Junko Kazukawa: She is a two-time breast cancer survivor, two-time Leadwoman and Grand Slam of Ultra running finisher. She was also the first person to complete the Leadville series and the grand slam in a single year. And now, at age 62, she is not slowing down. In fact, this past September she completed her third 330K Tor des Geants, improving her finish each time, taking off more than six hours from the 2023 race to this past year. This interview on Zoe Rom’s Trailhead podcast is incredibly inspiring and informative.

21.  Melissa Londry: Another race director who I featured this year as part of my ongoing series on RDs. Londry is as kind as she is passionate about the sport and seeks to welcome everyone into it. A prime example is the Damascus Festival of Miles, a race she created and directs, as a way to support the community after it was hit hard by severe weather. “We’re truly making this a festival, not just a race,” she said before the race debut. “I can’t wait to see the community come alive through this event! We hope to have a successful first year and expand to a 24-hour option next year.” I can attest to how well the event was put on and how fun it was in this recap of my 3-hour race.

22.  Sally McRae: It’s a rarity when a runner makes this list without completing an ultra during the calendar year. But McRae is no ordinary human or ultra runner. She has spent a good deal of 2025 getting a severe knee injury diagnosed and treated. But that’s her story, and she is very open about it on her must-listen podcast that she does with her husband, Eddie. While she recovers, she is also encouraging others via the podcast, her social media channels and during visits to run clubs. Here’s sending all the positive vibes to McRae for a successful comeback in 2026 — when she is on the start lists for the Long Haul 100 in January and Cocodona in May. 

23.  Megan Roche: What isn’t she able to do? Roche is an incredible athlete with multiple doctorate degrees and is leading a research project about woman ultra runners. And most importantly she is the mother to two young boys. She has also recovered from serious health issues and recently had back to back breakout victories at the Quad Dipsea, and the 50-mile Run Rabbit Run, nailing one of the fastest times ever, 8:21:51. Her husband, David, wrote afterward: “To me, that’s the least important part of the story. She gave birth to Ollie Hope on Dec. 26, 2024, by emergency C-section. In the heat of the moment when doctors feared the worst, she responded just like she did at aid stations. Calm, cool and fiery. Her watch said that she only had 15 seconds of stoppage time in the 50 mile. That same decisiveness might have saved both Ollie and herself. But that’s also not the most important part of the story.” 

24.  Katie Schide: An American who lives in France won the Hardrock Endurance Run this past summer, after pulling off the Western-UTMB double last year. In 2025, Schide — among the best women ultra runners — also won the Madeira Ultra Trail 100-miler and the 82K distance at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. Her Hardrock time set the course record as she became the first woman to finish under 26 hours (25:50:23). Along with Courtney Dauwalter, Tara Dower and others, Schide is returning to Hardrock in 2026 in what could be the most competitive women’s race in its history.

25.  Stephanie Turner: There may not be a better way to conclude this list than to give a shoutout to this inspirational ultra runner and race director. I highlighted Turner in my race director series because of her personal journey. After a life-threatening mountain biking accident in November 2020, “she wanted to build something to pass down to my daughter in case anything happened to me.” While she doesn’t race as often as she used to, she uplifts the community as an RD for the Hare Mountain 100, which offers other races and is planning a 200-miler.

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