Ruthie Loffi hung up her bib at mile 50 of the Rocky Raccoon 100 in 2018. Amid tears and disappointment, Ruthie had an epiphany about a nagging worry that had consumed her most of her life. It took this DNF (which Ruthie loves to refer to as Did Not Fail) to realize that not trying was far worse than failure itself.

As 2020 begins, I look back with gratitude to the year 2010—a decade that began with darkness and confusion, and ended with hope.

What initially drew Chattanooga, TN, ultrarunner Seth Ruhling into the ultrarunning community nearly a decade ago, was the allure of a finisher’s sweatshirt that told the world he ran 40 miles in one day.

Paramount to any race day achievements for Kate is to keep her running lighthearted and adventurous. “There are a lot of longer trails I want to start running on without a clock and a race bib next year. I have plans to do a little more fastpacking too, but the most important part of all of this is making sure it’s always fun.”

In the fall of 2014, Maribel Dichard felt herself hitting rock bottom. Outwardly, she had it all. A successful career, loving marriage and two healthy children. However, she also had a drinking problem, “I hit a point where I realized my kids could see it.” That evening, she took her last drink and quickly discovered running.

If you’ve been running ultras for the past few years, there’s a good chance you’ve picked up a BOCO hat. The Boulder, Colorado-based company designs custom hats for endurance athletes that are constructed with moisture-wicking fabrics and technical innovation.

Prior to volunteering at White River 50 in 2017, Gus Gibbs’ perception of ultrarunners was that they were beyond “crazy,” but unbeknownst to him on that summer day in late July, the madness instantly became appealing. Fast forward to March 2018 and he found himself on the rainy start line of Way Too Cool for his first 50k.

In 2017, Vin Framularo’s marathon plans were derailed when a snowboarding accident sent him to the emergency room with a broken back. Now he has a ritual that he follows each time he toes the starting line of a race. “I tell whomever is around me, guys, the hardest part of the race is over.”

After dabbling in half marathons during college and running two road marathons in 2018, Sacramento native and former basketball player Melissa Flores hasn’t looked back since being introduced to the trails by a friend in Santa Barbara.

“My life was pretty much gymnastics and school. We worked out in the gym 20-30 hours per week.” After a string of injuries in high school and her gymnastics days behind her, Meghan had a big void to fill. Her dad was a marathon runner, which intrigued Meghan, and at the age of 18, she decided to join him for a run.

When Rod Farvard crossed the finish line last fall at the Cuyamaca 100K in Julian, California, not only had he just finished his first 100k (his third ultramarathon), won the race and set a new course record in the process, but he thought he’d just punched his ticket to the 2019 Western States Endurance Run. Quite literally a dream come true for this 23-year-old from San Francisco.

By 2001, his life was spiraling out of control. Jon tried to commit suicide by taking a bottle of sleeping pills. “I fell asleep and woke up a couple days later in the hospital. The doctor said, ‘You should believe in God, because you shouldn’t be alive.’” It was a major turning point in his life.

Ruperto Romero had won the AC100 again, this time at 55 years old, long past the age ultrarunners are expected to remain competitive. As I looked at Ruperto, wrapped in the Mexican flag and swarmed by cameras and adoring fans, I smiled to myself. After everything I’d seen him accomplish outside the spotlight, he was finally receiving the recognition he deserved.

Laura Farrell has broken barriers in the sport of ultrarunning. Her real legacy, however, began with a vision she had in the mid-1980’s. Nearly 40 years later, she has dramatically impacted thousands of lives.

In 2001, Jacky discovered a lump on her leg. One week after her diagnosis, she was in surgery having her leg amputated. “Looking back now, it sounds really weird but I’m kind of glad it happened. It puts life in perspective, you appreciate things more. I just think I’m a better person because of what happened.”

Pam Chapman Markle entered the world of ultramarathoning in 2011 at age 55. As a certified registered nurse anesthetist for over 35 years, she had been working with a physician who encouraged her to sign up for an ultra.

Sharon Knorr was quiet and reserved as a child growing up in Marietta, Georgia. Early on, after receiving discouraging advice from her doctor who suggested that she not run due to her asthma, she decided she wouldn’t be held back.

Thomas Torres’s first 5k race was in the middle of the ocean. To be more specific, it was on the deck of an aircraft carrier while serving in the US Navy.

Now retired from skiing and the arduous training that came with it, a thought lingered in Hugh’s mind from his old training days: “I felt like I did better the longer the distance was… maybe it was something I should explore.” It turned out Hugh’s intuition was right – and ultrarunning was the perfect match.

A decade ago, at 42, Kami Semick reached the pinnacle of ultrarunning. She won every race she entered in 2009, including two world championship events in the 100K and 50K, and earned UltraRunning’s Ultrarunner of the Year title for the second year in a row. But five years later, she called it quits and disappeared from the sport.

Running came into Lulu Martinez’s life exactly when she needed it. Growing up in Mexico, Lulu was not sporty. “I actually failed PE class. I graduated with honors, but not in PE. I was never a person who enjoyed any physical activity whatsoever.”

On the eve of Matt Klein’s first Vermont 100-mile race in July 2014, he found himself in tears. He had come a long way since his darkest days nearly a decade earlier.

At age 60, this distance running veteran and former monk has lived a rare and impressive journey, holds many Canadian national records, and has logged over 42,000 ultramarathon racing miles in his career.

As with many ultrarunner origin stories, Brandon Miller’s running career started as a cross country speed demon in his home town of Barrie, Ontario. After high school, as he began a demanding college course load in Mechanical Engineering at Queens University in Ontario, priorities shifted and running took a far second to his studies.

The only woman to have finished the California Triple Crown of ultrarunning.

The emergence of Pamela Chapman Markle as a prolific runner of 100-mile races is as sudden and surprising as it is unlikely. Pamela never ran in a foot race of any distance before the age of 55; not even a 5k.