Megan Kimmel, the Colorado-born skyrunner who broke a 37-year-old Pikes Peak Marathon record and won races on three continents, has died at the age of 45. The International Skyrunning Federation announced her death on Instagram on June 15, 2026. No cause of death has been made public.
“An extraordinary athlete and true skyrunner whose legacy will live on,” the federation wrote in its tribute.
Kimmel was born in Denver in 1980 and raced professionally for ASICS and later Salomon. She broke through internationally in 2014 with a silver medal at the Skyrunning World Championships in Chamonix, France. Skyrunning is a discipline held at elevations of 6,600 feet or higher, on courses that meet specific steepness requirements.
In 2015 she won the Dolomites SkyRace in Italy with a course record of 2:25:57. That same year she took the Matterhorn Ultraks in Switzerland and The Rut in Montana, won her first Skyrunner World Series title, finished second at Sierre-Zinal, and won The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships in San Francisco. She captured the Migu Run Skyrunner World Series again in 2016 with wins at Livigno SkyMarathon, Matterhorn Ultraks, Limone Extreme, and The Rut. In 2017 and again in 2019, she won the Yading Skyrun in western China.
Her most celebrated American result came in 2018 at the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado, a course that climbs to 14,115 feet. Kimmel finished in 4:15:06, breaking a women’s record set by Lynn Bjorklund in 1981 that had stood for 37 years.
“I didn’t expect it, but I also didn’t rule it out because if there’s one thing I’m really good at, it’s performing at altitude,” Kimmel said at the finish line, according to the Spanish sports outlet Marca. “I knew what the race record was, but I didn’t think it was possible. I simply kept a healthy pace because I didn’t know who was behind me.”
The following year she finished third at the Transvulcania Ultramarathon in the Canary Islands behind Ragna Debats and Anne-Lise Rousset, took a podium spot at Japan’s Mount Awa SkyRace, and won the Broken Arrow 52K in California. She wore the Team USA jersey at the World Mountain Running Championships at least three times during her career, and was on the U.S. women’s team that took bronze in 2009.
Kimmel retired from professional racing during the COVID-19 pandemic. She had long made her home in Silverton, Colorado, and most recently lived in nearby Ridgway. iRunFar’s Meghan Hicks wrote that the San Juan Mountains “will feel vacant without the larger-than-life, straight-talking, takes-no-bullshit Megan Kimmel.”
Friends, fans, and fellow runners have flooded social media with messages of condolence since the news broke. Her family has not released information about memorial arrangements. Kimmel’s name now joins the short list of American women who have shaped global mountain and ultrarunning, alongside a sport that is itself making a return to the U.S. this year.
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