Aaron Kubala has won the 2026 Tahoe 200 Endurance Run, completing the 200-mile loop around Lake Tahoe in 2 days, 0 hours and 22 minutes. Mika Thewes, a familiar name at this race, finished second overall and first among women in 2 days, 3 hours and 15 minutes, adding another Tahoe 200 title to her résumé.
The race began on the morning of Friday, June 12, in Homewood, California, on the west shore of Lake Tahoe at roughly 6,234 feet of elevation. Runners followed a single loop course built around the Tahoe Rim Trail, with detours through aspen meadows, granite passes and high ridgelines that look down on the lake. Organized by Destination Trail, the Tahoe 200 bills itself as the first and only 200-mile single-loop mountain trail race in the United States. Total climbing tops 35,000 feet, and total elevation change is more than 70,000 feet.
A two-horse race for the overall win
Kubala was not the fastest out of the gate. At the first checkpoint, M005 Water Stop Turnaround, several runners had already moved ahead. He climbed steadily through Heavenly at mile 10, Armstrong Pass at mile 26 and Sierra at Tahoe at mile 52, sitting in the lead pack but not yet at the front.
By Tahoe City at mile 130, the race had narrowed. Kubala passed through in 1 day, 0 hours and 36 minutes. Thewes was right with him at 1 day, 2 hours and 7 minutes. From there, the two pulled clear of the field.
Kubala reached the Spooner Summit aid station at mile 182 in 1 day, 19 hours and 31 minutes, and crossed the line at mile 200 in 2:00:22. Thewes finished about three hours back. Her time is being noted as the second-fastest women’s mark ever recorded on the Tahoe 200 course, per UltraRunning Magazine’s weekend recap.
Brody Chisholm took third overall and second among men in 2 days, 7 hours and 32 minutes. Chisholm ran a fast early section, hitting Heavenly in 1 hour and 2 minutes, the quickest split through that checkpoint among the eventual top finishers, before settling into a more measured pace through the back half of the course.
The women’s podium
Behind Thewes, Ashley Paulson took second among women in 2 days, 11 hours and 46 minutes, finishing fifth overall. Paulson is a former professional triathlete and a two-time winner of the Badwater 135. Earlier in 2025 she lowered the women’s 100-mile treadmill world record to 12:47:10 inside the Boston Marathon Expo. Tahoe was the opening leg of her Triple Crown of 200s bid, which also includes the Bigfoot 200 and the Moab 240.
Malina Lorring rounded out the women’s podium in 2 days, 12 hours and 22 minutes, good for seventh overall. Heidi Allan, Jessica Schiller and Tina Ormuz also finished inside two and a half days.
The men’s top ten was tightly packed after the leaders. Dennis Boic came in fourth overall in 2 days, 11 hours; Jonathan Frentzel was sixth in 2 days, 12 hours and 6 minutes; and a group of seven men — Josh Coleman, Nathan Hannemann, Greg Zaney, Jameson Henkle, Nick Allen, Rolando Mendoza and Hunter Olson — all finished within about 90 minutes of one another.
Why this race matters
The Tahoe 200 sits in an unusual corner of ultrarunning. It is long enough that the front of the field is racing for more than two full days without meaningful sleep, but its altitude rarely climbs above 9,000 feet, which makes it more approachable than mountain 200-milers in Colorado or Washington. The 200-mile distance has grown quickly over the past decade, with Destination Trail’s Triple Crown — Bigfoot, Tahoe and Moab — driving much of the interest. If you are new to the distance, Marathon Handbook’s ultimate ultramarathon training guide is a good starting point.
Race elapsed time at the close of the third day was just under 72 hours, with finishers still moving through the late-mile aid stations. The cutoff for official finishers is 100 hours.
For Kubala, the win is among the biggest results of his career. For Thewes, it is another chapter in what is becoming one of the deepest 200-mile résumés in the sport — the kind of consistency that earns runners a place on any list of the best ultramarathon runners in the world today. Full splits and tracker data remain available on the Tahoe 200 live tracking page.
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