The 2025 edition of the Hardrock 100 had all the ingredients for an unforgettable race, record-breaking performances, a stacked international field, and the harsh beauty of the Colorado high country. But a tragic turn early on made this year’s event unforgettable for a far more sobering reason.
One of the 146 registered runners died in the early miles of the race, casting a pall over what would otherwise have been a weekend of celebration in Silverton.
Race organizers have not yet released details about the runner’s identity or the circumstances surrounding their death. But as the field pressed forward over the snow-packed passes and brutal climbs of the San Juan Mountains, many ran with heavy hearts.
Still, the race continued. And at the front, Ludovic Pommeret and Katie Schide delivered two unforgettable performances, one a commanding title defense, the other a debut that rewrote the record books.
Pommeret, who turns 50 later this month, took the men’s win in 22 hours, 21 minutes, and 53 seconds, becoming one of the few back-to-back winners in Hardrock history. The French ultrarunner first won the race last year in the clockwise direction, setting a course record in the process.
He took the lead just before the 30-mile mark and never looked back, gradually widening the gap on countryman Mathieu Blanchard. With pacing help from Jim Walmsley, Pommeret floated over the most treacherous terrain of the course and ran the second-fastest counter-clockwise time in Hardrock history, behind only François D’Haene’s 2021 run of 21:45:50.
Blanchard would finish over an hour later in second place, with Germain Grangier, Pommeret’s fellow Frenchman and Schide’s partner, rounding out the podium.
But it was Schide who left the most indelible mark on the women’s race. Making her first appearance at Hardrock, the UTMB and Canyons 100K champion lived up to the pre-race buzz and then some. She led by nearly 30 minutes just 20 miles in and had built more than an hour’s cushion at the halfway point.
The only real question by then wasn’t whether she’d win, it was whether she’d break Courtney Dauwalter’s record of 26:14:08, set just two years ago.
Schide, who lives in France and holds a PhD in geology, had spent weeks scouting the course, even injuring her knee in a training fall. But she stayed composed all day and night, and by the time she left the final aid station at mile 94.7, she was ahead of Dauwalter’s split by about ten minutes.
She held strong to the finish, crossing the line in 25:50:23, a new all-time record for the race in either direction, and the first sub-26 hour finish by a woman.
The performance placed her sixth overall. David Ayala and Zach Miller were the only men to finish between her and her partner Grangier, who was third.
France, fittingly, swept the men’s podium, and Schide, though racing under the U.S. flag, continues to represent her adopted home country with dominance on the international stage.
It should have been a day defined solely by performances like these, moments of endurance and grace at altitude. Instead, it was a day marked by both triumph and loss.
Hardrock has always been a race defined by extremes, of terrain, of effort, of emotion. This year was no different. But it also served as a stark reminder that in the high mountains, even the best-prepared athletes are never fully in control.
Organizers have not announced any changes to future race protocols, but tributes to the fallen runner are expected in the coming days. For now, the 2025 Hardrock 100 will be remembered for the records that fell, and for the reminder that every finish line is hard-won, and never guaranteed.
