It’s a really numerous, all-terrain line-up this week. The Valencia 10k highway race was maybe probably the most aggressive race for path runners on the weekend, and on the far different finish, the long-haul Winter Backbone Race is underway.
Winter Backbone Race – Pennine Means, United Kingdom
The 268-mile Winter Backbone Race began on Sunday, January 11. It’s a one-way, continuous problem in excessive climate alongside the Pennine Means. There was heavy snow, ice, rain, and wind within the days main as much as the race.
This can be a lengthy one, and so it’s actually early. Final yr’s males’s race was received in 82 hours, and the first-place lady accomplished the journey in 87 hours.
On the time of this writing on Sunday, Eugeni Roselló Solé (Spain) leads the boys, and Johanna Antila (Finland) is in entrance of the ladies’s race.
Monitoring.
In the meantime, the Winter Backbone Challenger South, a 108-mile race from Edale to Hawes alongside the southern portion of the Pennine Means route, noticed extreme climate result in a course change. Jack Scott, the 2025 Winter Backbone Race winner, led the sphere by way of snow, ice, and sleet to win in 25:10. Sarah Web page received for the ladies in 29:03 with a 13-mile lead over the following lady.
Full outcomes.
Sarah Web page, the 2026 Winter Backbone Challenger South ladies’s winner. Picture: The Backbone Race
Jack Scott, the 2026 Winter Backbone Challenger South males’s winner. Picture: The Backbone Race
Valencia 10k – Valencia, Spain
That is so quick. The 218th-place man ran 30:00, wow. Fairly just a few path runners got here to Valencia for quick instances.
Third on the 2025 Path World Championships Brief Path contest, Andreu Blanes (Spain) ripped a 27:47 dash. That was solely good for twenty ninth in opposition to the world-class highway discipline. Golden Path World Collection runner Joey Hadorn (Switzerland) was fifty fifth in 28:20.
Within the ladies’s race, Tereza Hrochová (Czech Republic) was 14th in 31:05, and that was a brand new Czech nationwide file. Oria Liaci (Switzerland) was thirty fifth in 32:13. Hrochová raced the 2025 Path World Championships Brief Path contest, and Liaci doubled at that very same occasion with the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill and Up and Down races. Sara Alonso (Spain) was in Valencia too and completed 58th in 33:00, and Rosa Lara (Spain) was 74th in 33:34. Dominika Stelmach (Poland) stepped means down in distance and completed in 34:40.
Full outcomes.
Bandera – Bandera, Texas
Jared Rothlauf was a runaway winner within the males’s 100k in 8:54. He was over an hour higher than everybody else. Anneke Durkan topped the ladies’s group in 11:08.
Jared Rothlauf, the 2026 Bandera 100k males’s winner. Picture: Misty Wong/@misty.dawns
Anneke Durkan, the 2026 Bandera 100k ladies’s winner. Picture: Misty Wong/@misty.dawns
Benjamin Melisi received the boys’s 50k in 4:15, however 2020 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Molly Seidel received for the ladies and was first general in 4:09, in her extremely debut. The course has modified some over time however it seems that the previous occasion file was Melanie Fryar’s 4:24 end in 2012.
Full outcomes.
Benjamin Melisi, the 2026 Bandera 50k males’s winner. Picture: Misty Wong/@misty.dawns
Molly Seidel, the 2026 Bandera 50k ladies’s winner. Picture: Misty Wong/@misty.dawns
Extra Races and Runs
Egmond Half Marathon – Egmond, The Netherlands
Getting back from long-term damage, Nienke Brinkman (The Netherlands) was third in 1:11:28. Full outcomes.
Oman Desert Marathon – Bidiyah, Oman
The five-stage race totals 165k (102 miles) of self-supported sand dune working. On the time of this writing, with two phases within the books, Mohammed El Morabity and Rachid El Morabity (Morocco) lead the boys with 5:59 and 6:28 on the clock, and Aziza El Amrany (Morocco) and Aziza Raji (Morocco) are atop the ladies’s rankings with 8:29 and 9:07 elapsed. Full outcomes.
Bridle Trails Winter Path Operating Pageant – Kirkland, Washington
At Bridle Trails State Park, Aaron Haugen and Brittany Kealy received the 50k race in 3:49 and three:52. Full outcomes.
Avalon Profit 50 – Avalon, California
On Catalina Island, Michael Ruf and Catherine LeClair received the 50 miler in 6:22 and seven:38, and Cody Poskin and Stefanie Kuhfusz had been tops within the 50k in 3:36 and 4:38. Full outcomes.
Saint Croix Winter Extremely – Hinckley, Minnesota
The in a single day on-snow 40-mile race by way of Saint Croix State Park requires that racers carry all their important survival gear by way of the chilly Minnesota evening. Scott Wopata and Bri Meyer received in 6:02 and eight:56. Full outcomes.
Scott Wopata, the 2026 Saint Croix Winter Extremely males’s winner. Picture courtesy of the race.
Bri Meyer, the 2026 Saint Croix Winter Extremely ladies’s winner. Picture courtesy of the race.
No Fingers 50k – Auburn, California
Race winners David Pillard and Lena Wirth got here by way of in 4:58 and 6:27. Jacob Banta scored a brand new 35k course file in 2:32, and Emily Hawgood received for the ladies in 3:16. Full outcomes.
San Tan Scramble 50k – Queen Creek, Arizona
On the San Tan Mountain Regional Park, John Raneri and Taylor Kaser received in 3:40 and 5:13. Full outcomes.
Houston Marathon and Half Marathon – Houston, Texas
The flat and quick races had nice climate, and some ties to path working. Within the males’s marathon, Cal Neff was a pacer and completed in 2:26:12. He’s in subsequent month’s Black Canyon 100k. Courtney Olsen was eleventh within the ladies’s marathon in 2:35:39, and that’s a U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials qualifying time! Olsen went by way of midway in 1:18:18 after which ran a damaging cut up.
Occasional path runner Sam Chelanga completed the boys’s half marathon in 1:05:54. Allie Ostrander ran 1:10:11 for 18th place within the ladies’s half marathon. By ending in beneath 1:12:00, the run will get Ostrander into the U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials, too.
(In 2023, Ostrander was suspended for 4 months after testing constructive for canrenone, a metabolite of spironolactone, after it was decided that she mistakenly took the drug with out first acquiring a World Anti-Doping Company Therapeutic Use Exemption.)
Full outcomes.
World Cross Nation Championships – Tallahassee, Florida
Rispa Cherop (Uganda) was sixth on the World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race final yr, and she or he was sixth right here too. Cherop completed the senior ladies’s 10k race in 32:52 in sixth place individually, and as a part of the third-place group. Full outcomes.
USATF Membership Cross Nation Championships – Tallahassee, Florida
A day after the World Cross Nation Championships, the USATF Membership Cross Nation Championships had been held on the identical course. It appears to be like like path runners may’ve been completely absent from the open males’s 10k, however Laurel Moyer went 22:14 for thirty eighth within the open ladies’s 6k, and Eric Blake ran 34:23 to complete fifteenth within the masters males’s 10k. Renee Metivier was second in 22:02 within the masters ladies’s 6k race, too. Full outcomes.
Disney Marathon – Orlando, Florida
Previous Lake Sonoma 50 Mile winner Brittany Charboneau received the ladies’s marathon in 2:54. Full outcomes.
Frozen Sasquatch 50k – Charleston, West Virginia
Will Ross (proper), the 2026 Frozen Sasquatch 50k males’s winner. Picture courtesy of the race.
Leslie Starnes (left), the 2026 Frozen Sasquatch 50k ladies’s winner. Picture courtesy of the race.
Name for Feedback
I’ve misplaced observe of the years, however I do know that this weekend —Bandera weekend — is my TWIR anniversary, and I’m blissful to maintain it going!
Whether or not the Valencia 10k, World Cross Nation Championships, or Houston Marathon, or wherever else, are there different unfastened path working, mountain working, or ultrarunning ties you’ll be able to level out?
The “UltraRunning Journal” North American Ultrarunner of the 12 months rankings are rolling out. I’m a voter, and in wanting again, I do know I positively didn’t get my poll proper. My query is: Who’s going to be the largest snub? It appears to be like like Courtney Olsen goes to be left exterior of the highest 10. In 2025, she was ninth on the Comrades Marathon, broke a longstanding North American 100k file, and received the USATF 50k Highway Nationwide Championships. I feel that every one ought to’ve been sufficient for a top-10 end in UROY. Charlie Lawrence had an analogous resume, too, with that very same USATF 50k Highway Nationwide Championships win, a fast-but-unofficial 100k run in Italy, and a brand new North American 100k file, however it seems that he’s additionally going be ignored of the highest 10.
