Hans Troyer and Jennifer Lichter break both Black Canyon 100K course records
Troyer ran 7:20:00 and Lichter 7:57:05 on the desert trail north of Phoenix; Molly Seidel was fourth in her 100K debut and took a Western States Golden Ticket.
Photograph: the Black Canyon Trail in Arizona, the ground the 100K is run on, by the Bureau of Land Management, public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Black Canyon 100K starts on a high school track in Mayer, Arizona, at 7 a.m. and finishes 62 miles later at the Emery Henderson Trailhead outside Phoenix. Fifty-five of those miles are on the Black Canyon National Recreation Trail, a net-downhill first half and most of the 7,000 feet of climbing in the second. Just over 900 runners started on Saturday, and both course records went.
Hans Troyer led from the start and ran 7:20:00, under Seth Ruhling's 7:24:55 from last year. Anthony Costales, the 2023 winner, was second in 7:24:32, also inside the old record, and Tracen Knopp third in 7:26:45. Canyon Woodward and Jordan Bramblett followed.
Molly Seidel, a month after winning the Bandera 50K outright, led the women through the mile 19 aid station in 2:09. By mile 32 she was fourth, about four minutes down on Jennifer Lichter, and that is how it finished. Lichter held off a late charge from Anne Flower to win in 7:57:05; Flower was also under eight hours in second. Riley Brady's 2025 record was 8:16:18, and Tara Dower, third in 8:11:46, beat it too. Seidel was fourth in 8:25:13 and Abby Hall fifth.
Black Canyon is a Golden Ticket race for the Western States 100. Costales, Knopp and Bramblett took the men's tickets, with Troyer and Woodward already in. Lichter and Flower took two of the women's, and because Dower was already entered, the third rolled down to Seidel. A crowd-sourced prize purse, matched by organiser Aravaipa Running, came to more than $16,000.
In the 50K, Ruhling ran 3:16:29, a course record, and Jane Maus won the women's race in 3:47:04.
Sources: iRunFar; UltraSignup; iRunFar.
