An “Accidential” Leadville 100 Mile Record: A Conversation with Anne Flower

Anne Flower didn’t absolutely decide to operating the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile till about two weeks earlier than the occasion. She had by no means run 100 miles earlier than and was nervous about getting injured or having to take a very long time off from operating afterward to recuperate. However, she’d earned an computerized entry into the race — twice — earlier in the summertime by profitable each the 2025 Silver Rush 50 Mile and the 2025 Leadville Path Marathon, and operating 100 miles was on what she calls her “Child Bucket Checklist,” issues to do earlier than beginning a household.

Flower signed up for the race with the easy aim of ending. Her attain aim was to complete earlier than it bought too late into the night time, and he or she says the dream aim was to complete within the prime 10, perhaps on the rostrum, if every part went effectively.

Because the operating world is aware of effectively by now, Flower broke Ann Trason’s 31-year-old course document by simply over eight minutes with a time of 17:58:19 and completed second general on the race.

In an ultrarunning world highlighted by elite athletes focusing a complete 12 months’s effort on a single race and dealing with a group of pros to extract each ounce of efficiency from their physique and thoughts on race day, Flower appears to be the Kind B persona who exhibits as much as begin strains with a “let’s see what occurs” angle.

She works full-time as an emergency room physician in Colorado Springs, Colorado, doesn’t practice with a coach, chooses her races based mostly on thrilling geographies and locations to go to, and has minimal motivation to pursue operating in any type of full-time, skilled method. She ran Leadville in a pair of discontinued Hoka Tecton X 2 footwear that she purchased off eBay, and is at some extent in her life the place she has the angle to know that there are issues way more necessary to her than operating.

No matter how Flower continues to pursue the game, her win at Leadville was historic, and her method to operating and racing is fascinatingly far out of the norm for performances of that caliber.

Draw of the Outside

Flower grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, with soccer as her ardour. She performed on journey groups from age six and says that she was adequate that taking part in in faculty would have been a viable path ahead. There was only one small difficulty: All all through her childhood years, Flower’s dad and mom, who have been academics, would take the household for holidays out west. She says, “They’d pack us within the van and we might go Silverton, Ouray, Telluride, Jackson Gap, that type of factor, tenting and doing all of that type of stuff.” She developed a love for the outside at an early age and admits, “I actually wished to be a ski bum.”

Sadly, faculty sports activities scholarships and actions comparable to snowboarding don’t combine effectively, one thing Flower realized round her junior 12 months of highschool. She stopped taking part in membership soccer and began to search for “some profession the place I may ski, bike, do outdoorsy issues perhaps through the week and never a lot on the weekends.”

Flower along with her household throughout a summer season tenting journey.

That want landed her in faculty in Denver, Colorado, the place she admits, “I didn’t know the proximity between Denver and the true Entrance Vary mountains. I assumed that I used to be going to get this very mountainous expertise, which I did. I simply needed to go away each weekend to get that.” Her profession selection was emergency medication, largely because of the shift scheduling, which might afford her loads of time to play within the mountains. Of the profession, she says, “It’s probably the most thrilling 5 minutes of each specialty. You get to do all of the cool stuff after which not a lot the follow-up.”

After ending faculty in Denver, Flower ended up at Ohio College for medical college. Whereas there, in 2016, she ran her first street marathon, saying, “I assumed it was actually enjoyable. It was good to have an enormous aim.” Two years later, she certified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. She’s nonchalant about operating the Trials, saying, “It was unbelievable. However I used to be simply watching and having fun with whereas I used to be technically operating it as effectively. However I don’t suppose I completed within the prime 40 or 50, and that was fantastic.”

Turning to Ultras

In 2019, for her thirtieth birthday, Flower signed up for the Lifeless Horse Extremely 50 Mile in Moab, Utah. She says, “I really like Moab. It’s certainly one of my happiest locations.” Wanting to place in an enormous operating effort in a spot near her coronary heart, and understanding that she’d completed street marathons earlier than, she says, “I assumed I’d have the ability to do a minimum of 30 or 40 miles.”

Flower received the race by greater than 20 minutes. She was dwelling in Kentucky on the time, doing her medical residency, and he or she says, “The one individuals who cared have been the individuals who have been at that race.” She goes on to say, “I wished to maintain racing, however actually for me it was getting to chill locations and having a very huge, adventurous day. Successful and stuff was cool, but it surely’s not like I used to be doing it for the money prizes or the notoriety or something like that.”

Anne Flower atop the 2023 Lifeless Horse Extremely 50k girls’s podium (l-to-r): 2. Giselle Slotboom, 1. Anne Flower, and three. Genevieve Lillis. Photograph: Mad Moose Occasions

Flower continued to race ultras, racking up a string of spectacular outcomes together with wins on the 2021 Crested Butte Extremely 55k, 2022 Pikes Peak Extremely 50k, 2024 Javelina 100k, and most lately, the 2025 Leadville Path Marathon and 2025 Silver Rush 50 Mile. The races she selected, together with many extra in Moab through the years, have been an excellent excuse to go to locations she beloved.

Whereas many runners discovering success within the extremely world would take into account placing the remainder of their lives on maintain to pursue athletics, Flower was dedicated to her personal path. She says, “I actually wished to do emergency medication. I landed the residency I wished, and as soon as I used to be lastly allowed to be a part of the membership of emergency medication, there was no approach I used to be going to present that away for one thing like operating.”

After profitable the Leadville Path Marathon and Silver Rush 50 Mile earlier this summer season, each of which provided coveted computerized entries to the Leadville 100 Mile, Flower nonetheless wasn’t sure she wished to tackle the 100-mile distance. She says, “I’d finished 100 kilometers on the finish of final 12 months, and I assumed that might be so long as I wished to go. I really like 50ks. I believe they’re a incredible distance. They’re a lot enjoyable, however you’re not damaged, and a few days later, you possibly can run once more.”

The 2025 Leadville 100 Mile girls’s podium (left to proper): 3. Lea Mulligan, 1. Anne Flower, 2. Imogen Ainsworth.

Flower had heard too many tales of individuals operating 100 miles after which not desirous to run once more for a very long time afterward. She laughs when she says, “I didn’t wish to dislike the game as a result of I had tried too onerous.” Her greatest concern? Getting damage and never with the ability to run for the remainder of the 12 months.

Nonetheless, the draw of the Leadville 100 Mile proved to be too sturdy, and after feeling match after a summer season of operating, she signed up.

The vast majority of her coaching consisted of 1 or two longer runs every week in Cheyenne Canyon or on Pikes Peak, each close to her dwelling in Colorado Springs. Different instances, she accompanied her pals, who had coaches and structured coaching, on their exercises. On days that she labored, it’s was a 40-minute street run earlier than her shift to assist her get centered for the day.

Working Leadville

Flower says that she doesn’t get nervous earlier than races by conserving the entire scenario in perspective, saying, “I can cease at any time. It’s not that dangerous.” She realizes the shortage of nerves is a little bit of an anomaly. “I do suppose that there’s some superpower in that.” She had an AirBnB in Leadville the night time earlier than the race that she left at 3:45 a.m. earlier than the 4 a.m. begin, walked to the beginning line, and didn’t enable herself any time to let nerves creep in.

She says she began conservatively, particularly over the rocks and roots round Turquoise Lake within the early miles of the race. Flower handed the race chief, Katie Asmuth, round mile 23, however says, “I handed her when she needed to go use the restroom, so I assumed for positive she’d be again any minute. I knew there have been different quick girls behind me, so I wasn’t anticipating to be there lengthy.”

Anne Flower on her strategy to a brand new girls’s course document on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile. Photograph: Life Time

However Flower was having a day. She says, “Popping out of Outward Certain, there’s this actually flowy aspen tree part earlier than you get to Twin Lakes at mile 40 that was simply pleasant. It was probably the most comfy operating. The climate was nice. The aspens are turning. It was simply stunning.”

Her race plan was to run to Hope Move in “50k-style,” hike over the go, after which, “hopefully have the ability to run dwelling.”

If Flower’s crew, which consisted of her accomplice, in addition to Hannah Allgood and Gil Allgood, knew she was forward of document splits, they didn’t inform her. She says, “My crew is fairly good. They have been telling me, ‘You’re doing superior. Maintain shifting. You’re trying sturdy. You’re shifting. Simply preserve going.’”

Flower picked up Gil as a pacer at mile 87 and says having somebody to speak to was an enormous increase. She says, “We have been shifting quick. He was pushing me to run quicker, and my physique felt fairly good.” About two miles from the end, Flower handed Justin Grunewald and his pacer, Kyle Pietari. Flower says that it was Pietari who checked out his watch and defined that Trason’s course document was inside her attain, saying, “It’s a must to go now. Quick.”

Anne Flower along with her pacer Gil Allgood descending Powerline street.

Flower says, “I really like the final mile of most races. I don’t know if I’m simply so glad for it to be finished or I’m so excited to get to the end, however there have been only a few races, even once I’m having a horrible race, that the final mile, I can’t pull out some vitality from someplace.” Crossing the road in 17:58:19 was a end result that few, not to mention Flower herself, would have predicted.

Of the end, she says, “It was so cool. It was so electrical. There have been lights in every single place. I may see my pals and every part like that. It was phenomenal. I believe it’s nonetheless sinking in.”

When requested if something went unsuitable throughout her run, Flower pauses to ponder. “My shoe was rubbing a few instances, and so I ended and retied my footwear.”

The Leadville Aftermath

Flower went straight again to work in her emergency room after the race earlier than taking a little bit of day off to go to Scotland along with her accomplice, a visit that was on his “Child Bucket Checklist.” She doesn’t have any huge plans for the remainder of the summer season, or for her racing subsequent 12 months, however is approaching it with the identical informal outlook as she at all times has.

When requested if she thinks her newfound prominence within the operating world would change how she’s seen at races, she laughs, “I’m not anxious about that.”

She does know that she desires to start out a household, however doesn’t see having youngsters as one thing that can cease her from exhibiting as much as begin strains. She says, “Ideally, we get pregnant a couple of times, be good with that, then I’d undoubtedly wish to do the Hardrock 100. I’m very interested in Hardrock. Give me the large Colorado mountain races.”

She goes on to say, “I’d like to stack up in opposition to people who find themselves actually, actually quick simply to see what that’s like.”

Anne Flower celebrates her win on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile with race administrators Ken Chlouber and Merilee Maupin.

However so far as chasing sponsorship offers within the short-term, Flower says, “I simply don’t know the place that matches in my life proper now.” She says, “I wish to run endlessly, however I’m not going to be by accident profitable races for a very long time. I see that there’s stuff that’s perhaps extra long-term that I must be specializing in.”

Unintentional or not, Flower’s win at Leadville shall be remembered for a very long time as one which confirmed that maybe one doesn’t want a hyper-regimented plan, long-term objectives, and excellent preparation to seek out success within the sport.

Anne Flower breaks Ann Trason’s 31-year-old course document on the 2025 Leadville 100 Mile. Photograph: Life Time

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