2026 Javelina Jundred Recap: Both Races Decided By Less Than 90 Seconds?!

We're back to recap the twenty twenty-six Havelina hundred. Amazing day of action. Lee, let's start with you. Your biggest takeaway from Saturday's race.

God. The three of us should never pick the same person to win.

Yeah, I feel like we messed something up. The curse lives on. I'm sorry, Jade.

Yeah, but no, more uh more seriously, I think it's a lesson I like to hear, uh, but it's not over till it's over. We saw some really awesome racing extremely late into 100 miles. And yeah, it just emphasizes to me that there's a lot of race tactics at play these days, but you really have to be racing all 100 miles of these races.

And I thought it was such exciting racing to follow along and kept me guessing the entire day. And I absolutely loved it.

What were the race tactics here? How would you describe them?

What do you think, Brett?

I was just going to say we did talk about this in the preview episode, how this particular race was a good one for keeping an eye on your competitors and using it as fuel to bridge big gaps. Because a lot of times in trail races, when someone's gone out of sight, they're out of mind. But it's hard to ever be out of sight and hav at Javelina.

And I think we saw that yesterday. Um what was your other question? Tactics. I I mean, we still very much saw the tactic of send it. We saw the tactic of show up or blow up. We saw the tactic of just veteran savvy, um, of like playing it's smart. And when you combine all of those things together, it makes for a really hard race to win because you can go out conservatively, but at the like you still kind of have to go like conservative, but still be around the course record somehow.

Like, how do you be a conservative but also around the course record? Um, which I guess happens when we have people who are not conservative and are going under the course record. So yeah, it was a it was a weird day. It was very weird.

It was a very weird day. And I I do feel like experience at this race kind of showed through in a lot of the performances. Like if you I think one of the overarching themes that I took away was there was a lot of people, and this was one of the storylines in our pre-race episode, a lot of people who are coming back for redemption from last year.

And you saw nearly every single person in that elite field who either DNF'd or blew up last year that was coming back, had a top five performance, which I thought was really cool.

Yeah, that is that is nice. I mean, that's gotta feel good to right the wrongs just the next year and kind of get that monkey off your back. Yeah, one thing I a question I want to throw both of your ways was I still don't know were the conditions fast yesterday?

What I gathered was rain, they were not necessarily fast. There was a lot of like rutted um little gullies forming on the trail. The rain kind of made it more humid than it would normally be. Uh, the way the athletes were treating the conditions, like everybody was still taking ice, ice bandanas. So I do think it was warm and humid.

Conditions underfoot were less than ideal. I don't think they were like super speedy conditions, but I actually don't think that they were bad.

Yeah, like what would you would you rather have 75 degrees and 80% humidity or 95 degrees and 15% humidity?

That one.

You'd rather have the hot and dry. Yeah.

I I would personally, but because I think humidity is well, I don't know, maybe the other way around, because I think more a higher percentage of people are bad in the humidity, but can actually like crush the heat with uh cooling strategies. But I think the humidity is actually kind of uh tricky to nail if you haven't experienced it yourself.

Yeah, that was the one thing that had me thinking that the conditions at times, maybe not overall, but maybe for like laps three and four or laps four going into the start of lap five for the leaders slowed things down, was occasionally when the sun would poke out at the clouds. It had to just feel like kind of just like yucky out there.

But the first two laps looked pretty nice, especially seeing the wet ground underfoot, but not mud sticking to the shoes. So, like that in a way would be pretty nice. Um I'd be curious what like the softer ground underneath does in regards to an energy cost or expense, because like softer ground absorbs more impact, saves the body, but it's also slower.

That's like another one of those. Like, would you rather have a slightly softer trail, not get as beat up, but you lose some energy? Or the really hard trail like you normally get. So that's why I keep going back and forth on like, were the conditions faster yesterday, or were they just different that ended up leading to similar times?

And then I maybe, maybe that all points towards like the question that we were entertaining in the preview, which I guess we all had, I wouldn't say concerns, we were just analyzing both start lists and thinking, okay, the maybe we're lacking a little bit of star power, and or this is going to be a race where like stars emerge that we start to recognize in future editions.

Um, do you guys feel like the times here yesterday? Rob running 1211, Noah 1212, Heather and Carla running 1348 and 49. Do you think it's fair to compare and to see to equate those times with what we saw last year?

Leah, you had a good point about that some of the times, especially on the ladies side with some of the returners.

Yeah. So what I thought was really interesting was um Heather Jackson has won this race previously. Devin Yanko has won this race twice previously. Uh Devin, interestingly, 11 years ago, won this race and ran 40 plus minutes faster um than she did that year and was fifth place this year in 2026. Heather Jackson ran considerably faster this year than the year that she won it.

We saw on the men's side Blake Slatinggren ran a PR on this course and was six places lower than when he earned his golden ticket here um just a few years ago. So I think as we've been saying with every single race, like people are getting faster, but those times don't mean anything because like those positions are getting worse, unfortunately.

But also fortunately, we're seeing, yeah, a lot more depth. And I think we especially saw that depth in the women's field um this year.

Yeah, you gotta uh you have to keep up with trailflation.

You do.

That's what it is. Like that was the exact like that proved trailflation right there. Like you can improve, but you have to improve greater than the rate that the rest of the sport is improving if you want to move up. Which um, yeah, it's it's it's a really interesting dynamic when you look at it that way.

Yeah, and I think um I was, I mean, we did not give Rob, uh Rob Moak, the winner of the Havelina 100, enough respect or tie airtime, I guess, on our preview.

We didn't we didn't give many airtime. I know I think he got zilled.

Um, but like he didn't come out of the woodwork surprisingly. Like he had a great performance at Big Alta 100K this year. He'd been at Havelena before having a DNF just last year, had just an exceptional, well-executed race out there um just yesterday. I think I was a little surprised with how close he was to Will Murray's course record being just over a minute off of that time.

That's so impressive.

That's really fast.

Brent made a good point in one of our offline conversations, just like he kind of would have expected the women to also be that close to course record time if we saw on the men's side. Um, Rob, who like we didn't even discuss in our preview episode. And then we had like a a lot of people we did discuss um in that podium position in the women's field, not really come close to Terra's course record.

So it was just interesting. Yeah, I think it either goes to show how strong Terra's course record is on this course, um, or perhaps how much more space maybe the men's course record has to go down. I'm not sure.

Yeah, that's a good point. We were pretty pretty spot on with the predicted women's times. And I was I was slow. I pr I was I predicted slower for the men's time. So they were faster than than I was expecting.

Brett, you said 1350 for the women and the winning time was 1348.29. That's pretty dead on. That was all right.

Go me. Put that put that point down for next year.

For next year's episode.

For next year, yeah. Um Yeah, so um yeah, a minute, a minute off of Will's course record. When it was interesting too, because like it seemed like the last few years, like or that that year, last year, that seemed like such an like out of this world run in terms of like how much he broke the old course record by, blah, blah, blah.

Is it just one of those things where it's like you see it happen and then all of a sudden it just becomes super doable?

I think so. And I also think we're seeing people just know what their fitness is when they're lining up for races like this. I'm thinking of people, especially with experience on the course or somebody who might have had a prior DNF here. I think they're going in knowing exactly what they can run and how they can run it.

I'm just thinking of um Rob, for example. Like he seemed to have known, like he even made a comment at earlier this year, like, I'm going to get a golden ticket this year. And he knew coming into Havelena, like, I'm so confident in myself. I know what I can do here. And I think whether it's that self-belief or truly knowing like what your fitness is to a T, I think that combo is extremely helpful.

And I think we saw kind of a lot of that this year.

I think there is a lot of weight that goes into that like extreme sense of self-belief and then channeling that into motivation out there on race day. Um, like, yeah, for Rob, you know, DNF last year. And then I, of course, after yesterday, I went back and looked at all of his training on Strava and was like, shit.

Yeah. Looking back on it, I'm like, hindsight's 2020, you know. I'm like, oh yeah, he was really fit going into this, and his training looked great and it was super consistent. But there was a lot of uh Strava titles and uh, you know, little writings in there where it was kind of like that, where it's like, I'm gonna nail it this year.

Like I'm, you know, crossing more T's, dotting more I's, and I'm proving it right here. It's just like I'm in the sauna, you know, five, six days a week. I'm getting all these long runs. You know, he actually got the slightly more humid late summer, fall training block over in Michigan. So yeah, he he gave himself the best opportunity to to align all those stars, and then and then it happened.

And yeah, I think he looking back on it, was perhaps maybe one of the more motivated people to get a golden ticket and icing on the cake because it was also a win.

Thanks to Norda, the official footwear partner of the show. Norda makes my favorite trail running shoes in the game. If you were able to watch our short film on my fast pack of the Whites 100 in New Hampshire earlier this summer, you'll notice that I wore the 055 on days two, three, and four. I totally trusted to handle some of the gnarliest terrain really in the world.

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You all know by now that I'm gearing up for the California International Marathon in about six weeks. Nutrition is absolutely a make or break component of having an ideal day out there. I've been using Precision's Fuel and Hydration Planner, which is totally free on their website to tinker with plans, especially as I've been training the gut during workouts and long runs to handle higher carb intakes.

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Similar to Norda making my favorite footwear, precision by far makes my favorite sports nutrition in the sport. Go check it out. Three things here. First, now that I think about it, we had a bunch of inbound to our Instagram about Rob, one of them being Well, I don't have access to your Instagram, so no, no, this is this this this is all this is all to your point.

But the first thing is uh people were saying in relation to the weather, uh, point for Rob training in Minnesota, great place to train with humidity. He gets he got very acquainted with humidity this summer. Number two, Brett, your point earlier, it I think it's called the banister effect. Like Roger, Roger Bannister, where it's like it's uh, and I have it right here, the psychological phenomenon where a goal or physical limit previously thought to be impossible suddenly becomes achievable and gets replicated by others once someone else proves it can be done.

Simple as that, apparently. I forgot my third point, but those two, and uh okay, actually, third point here. I gotta read this to you guys because I was going down the Rob rabbit hole after this victory. Uh, I guess we did talk about it in our chat group earlier today. Shout out uh AidStation Fireball for this, but he pulled up a post from July 8th on Rob's Instagram where I guess he's reflecting on 10 years of living in Minnesota.

But at the end of this post, he says, quote, I've got big goals this fall and I'm feeling ready to lock into a big training cycle. I am going to get a golden ticket at Javelina. I am going to stand on the start line of Western next June as a pro ultrarunner. It's time to live my dreams, end quote. That's cool.

Pretty cool that at the very beginning of this training block for Javelina, he put it right out there and uh promises made, promises kept.

unknown Yeah.

Shot called.

I think something else that's cool about Rob's win is uh he's coached by Amanda Basham. I think we see a lot of these like top athletes being coached by like different umbrella organizations uh in recent years. And I just really loved seeing like his partnership with Amanda over several years. And I think there's something to be said about those longer-term coaching, coach athlete partnerships.

And yeah, huge props to Amanda too on um getting him to the finish line in first place.

That's awesome. Yeah. Okay, actually, Brett, before we get deeper into these men's women's fields, I never asked you for, and maybe you've already talked about it, but what was your biggest takeaway from Javelina? Or one of them?

My biggest, biggest takeaway. Oh well, okay, so it was like it's kind of a two-parter. It was midway through the race. My big takeaway was, oh my gosh, Des Linden is about to make a mockery of our sport. Like, she's about to come in, and of course, it's like, well, look at look at her pedigree, look at her career.

I'm like, but yeah, but you got to look at like recent trail results. Like Marathon DeSab's a really hard race, nothing like Javelina. Black Canyon, she just ran in and kind of looked like a fun run. Why would I possibly think she's now all of a sudden going to be like world-class trail runner, nailing, you know, the nuances of Javelina.

And then all of a sudden, here she is on lap two, taking the lead, just looking smooth as butter, and then just extending it to like five minutes on lap three. I'm like, well, guess that's that for. But then it was, I mean, it was a bummer to see because then she came in at the end of lap three and went to the goo tent where she was getting crude and everything, and uh she went inside down, did a shoe change.

I don't know if she actually ended up changing her shoes, but that's that's irrelevant. My like uh like like slight red flag meters were gone because it seemed like she sat in the aid station in her chair for like just a little bit too long to look like a conservative tactical move. And then as soon as she jogged out of the aid station again, she immediately started limping and it was like, oh, damn.

And that's one of the hard parts about this loop is like if you hurt something that's a a climbing, uh like a climbing muscle, you won't notice it for a long time because it's what all downhill or flat from Jackass Junction to the start-finish area. And it seemed like that was kind of the case with Des.

Um and I was I was a hundred percent confin convinced she was not going to finish the race. Um, but I was just reading her Instagram right up when she was like she also did. She said she like paused her watch and saved it at 100K. But then her and Magda like just started walking again and things started loosening up and um started jogging again and then and then finished.

And so then my other big take was like, dude, Des Des does have that ultra grit. Um I I I was just never sure because like we to I mean we debate this all the time on like will the elite marathoners just easily be able to come over and race ultra marathons. And it was like for a minute it was, oh yes.

And then it was nope, definitely not. And then seeing Dez go and grind out two more laps to just finish it, I was like, Des has got that. So that was one of my big takeaways. And I would love to see like what kind of uh reach impact Des being in that race uh did for like viewership for for this live stream.

Because I know Finn, I'm sure you've got some interesting live stream numbers, and I I like, I mean, I've I feel like sh her being in that race and especially making it really exciting had to have contributed to that.

Yeah, that day one stream so far has over 100,000 views, 30% year-over-year growth, really interesting. It does seem like each of the years there's always a few notables that you know drive their own fan bases independent of the race. I I wasn't following the live chat as much, so I'm not sure if I mean, did Des have her own emoji?

You know, she didn't have her own emoji, but uh you she definitely had her her own followers. I felt like there were a lot of people in the live chat that said like they've never tuned into an ultra before, but they're here for Des.

Okay.

Which I think is really cool and speaks to kind of that outreach of across across borders and sports.

There was a moment in when she was leading, you know, in between lap two and three there, where especially with the incoming bad weather, I thought that we were gonna see the trail version of the 2018 Boston Marathon.

You know, that's what it felt like.

I mean it it really felt like that.

As far as Javelina goes, that was 2018 Boston weather. It was just sideways rain and 40 degrees.

But here's the other thing. I and this is a great topic for us to dive into on the on the women's side of things. You know, Des is now in her early 40s, and I actually think that there's plenty of time for her to continue investing in this to get it right. I mean, this entire women's podium was a master's podium.

Heather Jackson, Carla Molinero, Katie Azmuth are all 40 plus. Carla's 46, I think. So um really cool that you can be in the masters category and still uh literally dominating a podium at a golden ticket race.

Yeah. Yeah. I really hope that one, Des doesn't have any like lingering injuries from this race. And two, that she tries another one of these again sometime soon. Because it was, it was really exciting. And, you know, it's it's I think it's having someone like Des in a race, it's good for the sport. It it it makes everyone like up their game, elevate their game.

You know, like we talk about that with the, we've talked about that with the Courtney effect, where it's like if you know Courtney's on the start line, you have to show up with your A game if you want to have any chance of success there. And I can't help but think that like moving forward, if if you're gonna be racing Deslendon in a trail race, you're like, oh shit, I I gotta be, I gotta be firing on all cylinders if I want a chance here.

Yeah, and something I do think that's cool. And Brett brought this up, I think, during the race when we were chatting this weekend. Like you get the ultra experience in a hundred miles, and you often can go through the ups, the downs, the troubleshooting. So I am really happy that Des tackled a hundred miles and completed a hundred miles because I think there's so much that you get to experience out there that.

There's really no other way to experience it other than going through the trials and tribulations that are mile 20, mile 40, mile 60, mile 80, making your way to 100. Like you can't replicate so much of this in training. So I do think the experience that Des gained was extremely valuable if she does want to tackle a race like this or like really dial in a race like this in the future.

Totally. Yeah. There's there's only so much you can replicate in the training. And like you only get the only way to get to mile 80, like fatigue level mentally is to go race for 80 miles of a hundred miler.

Uh just quickly summarizing this women's race, many lead changes from start to finish. Elleny and Katie leading out lap one, Des taking over in lap two, Carla taking over in lap three. Uh obviously major, major theatrics on the final lap. I got reports, and I don't know if you guys can confirm this, but in the last 10 miles, Heather was averaging seven-ish minute pace.

Carla was averaging eight-ish minute pace, both of which are incredible on lap five. But that's enough of a differential for Heather to overtake extremely late. Thoughts on just like how this all played out?

It was so fun to follow, and it seemed even quite confusing to follow for uh the live stream commentary and bike cam team out there. So if you weren't following along, um there was a bike cam following Carla in around like the last mile or so. And they were calling Carla in as F1, like she's gonna be well, like we're curious where Heather's at, but this is our F1 of Havilina hundred.

And then as Carla's approaching headquarters, Heather Jackson zooms past the studio and they call out, we have Heather Jackson in headquarters. We had the camera on Carla at that exact moment. We knew that Carla wasn't in headquarters yet. So that meant that Heather had passed and made it a late pass with like a mile to go to overtake Carla in that final mile.

Heather finishes, Carla then finishes. And to be honest, it almost looked like Carla thought that she had won the race because I don't even think the bike cam knew that the person that they got passed by in that like last mile or two was Heather Jackson because I think they would have followed them um otherwise.

So I think everybody was pretty shocked and looked elated, but man, it was definitely theatrics. And I want to know, like, I mean, Heather won this race previously, like we discussed, but she ran the last 15 miles like over 20 minutes faster than she did when she won the race. And I just I wish I was in Heather's body to experience what that was like for her out there.

I feel like Heather ran. I mean, this seems like it, this is the most calculated and like strategically sound 100 miler that she's ever raced. Um yeah, did did you see that they actually had the bike um Cam in for an interview in the studio like a couple minutes after the finish? And he was basically like, Yeah, Heather went by and was going so fast, like it just didn't even register in my brain that it would it was like F1 in the race or like an overtake.

Um which yeah, it's it's it's dark, it's hard uh to properly identify people, but I feel like this happens every year at Havelina. Like I'm just gonna say it, like it's this is not the first time this has happened. It happened with what Ryan Montgomery like two years ago. Um I don't know. I just feel like there's gotta be a little bit like there's gotta be like a post-race technical meeting where we can figure out how to properly ID some of these runners because the racing is getting denser, it's getting closer.

You know, Western states has run into these same problems with like finish line interviews, people coming in, yeah, the racing getting close, like the old school logistics of runners coming in, like you know, the a 15-minute gap between first and second place is now winning by a landslide. It used to be that used to be kind of a close race.

Like it's we saw both men's and women's races were separated by a minute. Yeah. 87 seconds, 55 seconds. That's the new standard. Like that's how ultra running is evolving. It's going to be like that more and more often. And we got to figure out how to have the right contingencies in place to properly call in the finishes.

You know, it's fortunate that the, you know, the leaders come right by the studio, or else it would have gotten totally missed. But at the same time, we only got to, as fans, know that Heather was officially going to win the race for a grand total of like 29 seconds. And then and then it was, and then Carla came in.

Yeah.

And the men's side was a little bit better. You actually um they did catch basically that pass on the live stream. Um, but even then there was still a little confusion. They were like, the bike's going around Noah and Noah's pacer. And then is that right?

Yeah, because if you're leading a race or you think you're leading a race and you get passed by somebody when you're M1, that means you're getting passed. Whereas, like if the women's leader is somewhere like in the mix of the field when they get passed, that could also be somebody like in the men's race, especially within when there's pacers out there.

Yeah, so I think at the very least, like a timing mat one mile out from the finish. There is a timing mat like as they're entering headquarters where they still have to run almost like a quarter mile once they're in there, but we need a timing mat like a mile out.

Timing mat would be awesome. Another thing that's that I'm taking this from like the USATF championship book, which like they've done this in trail. It's annoying as hell. And this is people are not gonna like this. We need front and rear bibs. Oh yeah. Because then you would immediately we wouldn't immediately know who is who because all the like road racing, the cameras are in front of the runners.

Like we watch a New York City Marathon this morning. The lead cameras are all in front of the runners. You see the front of the bib, you see the faces and everything. Um, like uh yeah, Maddie was when we were watching online, she was like, wait, that's Des. I've never seen her like running, I've never seen her from behind because every time I've ever watched her on TV, it's from the front.

Brooks needs to print their logos on the back of their singlet. Because they're like, That's a great idea. All the airtime is from behind. So I was like, well, if we need ID the runners, the bib should be on the back. So that's a great point. Yeah. I think that's a great point. It's a crappy answer because no one wants to wear a bib on the back of their pack or their shirt or whatever.

But it would be nice for it would be an easy fix for runner identification.

You know what's cool is actually uh Aerovipa does this for Coca-Dona, which I think is great. Um, and it's because they anticipate in in these multi-day races the changing out of packs and gear and shirts so much they they actually give in your pack of pickup bags those um clippable waistbands that you can put the uh the bib on.

And actually, which one thing that's great about those is it's very easy to just like rotate it around your hips so you can kind of wear it. And they actually give you two bibs too, which is cool. Um, because they also anticipate possibly losing a bib or whatever, transitioning out. So you could either wear one on your back at all times or you could have like a bib on the front and the back.

I mean, maybe they start handing out that clippable waistbelt to all their races, especially the higher profile golden ticket ones.

Yeah, because it would just it would be it would elevate the viewer experience if like, you know, if if there just wasn't as much of a delay when identifying runners or or less guessing.

Also, thanks to John G, the official apparel partner of the show. Two things here. First, it's finally getting colder here in Salt Lake City, at least in the early mornings and evenings. I am starting to turn to warmer layering on my runs, specifically John G's Merino repeat long sleeve and their Rover Merino hoodie.

Check out both pieces at johngy.com forward slash singletrack and let them know that we sent you at checkout. The other piece here is they were a big partner supporting a short film that we made earlier this summer about my four-day fast pack of the White Mountains 100 section of the Appalachian Trail up in northern New Hampshire.

Go check that out at the Single Track YouTube channel. It would not have been possible without Johngy. Thank you so much to their content team for the investment. Also, Raid Research, the official equipment partner of the show. Yes, I am in full-on training mode for the California International Marathon in early December, but excuse me, I am still taking Raid with me on many of my runs, specifically their LF2L belt.

It has really come in handy on my weekend long runs where I need to carry all of my nutrition for two and a half, sometimes three hour stretches, but I also want to do so comfortably. And this belt is great for that. It has 1,150 milliliters of hydration carrying capacity. I can fit a bunch of gels in there.

Uh, my phone, almost no bounce, without feeling like I'm overloaded. I get the miles in at the paces that I need. It's pretty awesome. Go check it out at raidresearch.com. If you've purchased anything, let them know that we sent you. Yeah, and as one final uh point here, I would encourage viewers and listeners to actually go check out the historical results on Ultra Sign Up for Javelina.

To your point, Brett and Leah, your point. It's it's been remarkable how rapidly the performances at this event have professionalized, even in just 10 years. Like I went back because I mean, yeah, these two finishes were so ridiculously close. I had to go back and look to see if there's any precedent.

And there really isn't. I mean, last year it was like what, seven or eight minutes on the men's side. It was massive on the women's side because Taro had like an otherworldly performance. But even in years before, it'd be like it'd be like Pat Regan running 1330 and then second place is like 1415 and Camille running 1403 or whatever, and second place running 15, you know, and like yeah, there's plenty of time to reset after a winner in those scenarios, but there's no time here.

And I think the Western States example is great too. Like it the the I mean, obviously I love the post-race interviews, but it um having to watch them like pause or reset or you know, forget about it for 15 minutes while like a whole horde of you know middle of the top 10 runners come in is is is here to stay for sure.

Yeah, it's and yeah, it's just and that's just part of the advancements and great problems experiments. Yeah, it's a great problem because it means the racing's getting more fun, it's getting more competitive. But yeah, these are just like these types of struggles and challenges, they're not going to go away.

Like so that's just like like that's just how that's just how it's gonna be.

I have two open questions. Actually, I have sort of the same similar open question for both Heather and Carla. I guess first for Carla, I would be if we ever have a chance to talk with her, I would love to know if she was proactively changing her race strategy this year over last year.

Yeah, I think um I think I think she was from what I've read online a little bit. It does appear like she went out five minutes uh slower this year on lap one and was still five minutes slower. Um, I think like close to yeah, mile 40, um, mile 40, mile 50. I think she was getting closer to that split, but like she ran her first 50 miles more conservative than she did last year.

And she eventually ended up DNFing last year, I think, um, right, probably 76 mile 80 timeframe. Um, so I think that was really cool to see her gain that experience, which was her 100-mile debut last year, ended up in a DNF, take that this year and apply it to a race that probably had slightly more challenging conditions.

And I mean, I think she nailed it. I'm sure she would have loved to knock it past in the last mile, but for somebody who is completing 100 miles for the first time to run one of the fastest times in Havelena history, that's gotta feel really good and satisfying, especially after the DNF last year.

So there was one moment on the live stream, maybe it couldn't have been more than like five or 10 minutes from from both Heather and Carla's finish where Carla's being followed by the bike cam. Heather had gone by at that moment. And Heather did or not Heather, Carla flashed a two behind her. And I'm curious if that was her trying to signal to the bike cam that she's in second place.

Oh because it almost looked like a very purposeful, like like I'm in like I'm in second. I thought I was too fast, too furious. Maybe. Maybe she definitely was not dressed up as Vin Diesel. Um props to Carla for rocking the awesome like bikini shirt. That was a great costume. Um because yeah, there was some like questioning on like do like Carla and her crew like celebrated big at the finish.

But I think first or second, like finishing your first hundred miler, getting a golden ticket, running that well, like that seems worthy of a big celebration, too.

Totally.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I do think um, I think Carla's unsponsored. She was one of the runners that Hoka had picked up um years ago, I think when they were doing the the 100K uh world record attempt, and they um are really investing in in the road space. And Carla's been known on the roads for years, like 50k world champion on the roads.

Um, but she isn't unsponsored. And I think we saw Hoka on the women's side at least dominate the majority of the podium with Heather Jackson in first, Katie Yasmith in third. But um, yeah, would have would have been neat to see a full a full Hoka uh sleep at the podium there. Um but yeah, Carla is unsponsored.

So I'm curious to see if that will stay that way uh through 2027 Western States.

Staying true to her um kind of success on the roads, Carla was rocking like the ASICs, like Metafuji uh is like the edge or sky, um, but like their like full-blown road marathon super shoe. Dang. Is the whole race.

Is Asics the biggest winner of this weekend?

I mean, yeah, because Rob, yeah, you texted me this. You're like, dude, Rob won in the MetaFuji Trail 2, which now the Metafuji Trail 2 has a UTMB win and a Javelina win in the same. That is versatility right there.

That's cool. Yeah.

I uh I I think this is a way too obvious prediction, but I am gonna go ahead and my stone cold lock for free agent season is Rob to ASICs.

Well, A6, he's already an ASICs ambassador.

Yeah, he's now gonna be an ASICs professional elevated. They they need I have to imagine they are looking for a credible, in addition to Ben Diemon, who obviously is you almost think of him more as a European. They, I'm sure they're trying to build their trail credibility in the US and they need a top-tier person, and Rob is a no-brainer.

As is Carla. I could I could see Rob and Carla being two signings this this winter for them.

Yeah, Fasics is trying to expand the trail. Well, I don't know how Carla helps expand a U.S. trail.

That's true. Sorry.

Would still be a good signing, nonetheless. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I was trying to figure out what uh what Noah Dusso was wearing it. Kind of looked like a Mount of Coast M1, but I never really got a good good eye on it.

Um I'm gonna I'm gonna rip through some final notes here on the women's side before the men's discussion. So notable DNFs, Elleny Matarisi, Imogen Ainsworth, uh prediction accountability. Leah and Brett, you guys were both really close with Heather. You had you both had Heather in second, and it was it looked like it was gonna be that way with you know three miles to go, but that changed.

Uh I had Katie Asmuth locked in third. Shout out to Katie, who's had a great golden ticket racing season. Yeah.

Um is uh one of two people in this field who were have two uh missing it by one one ticket this year. So she missed the ticket by one spot at Tarwara this year. Uh Kenwellow on the men's side also missed it by one one spot at Canyons, and then again here as well.

Are are Heather and Carla both locked for Western? I missed this.

I just referenced the Western States website and it says pending for all of them right now, but I'm pretty sure all four of these people are taking their tickets.

Yeah, Carla seemed pretty pumped about it. And Heather in her Post race interview with MK at the finish. MK was like, Are you taking or taking? And Heather kind of said, like, it wasn't on my mind, but how could you not? Yeah. So isn't Heather also signed up for Cocodona?

See, I want her to do I want her to go back to Kokodona, but I want let's see a Cocoa States double.

Let's make let's make that a thing. Like like a kind like low-key make it a thing, like the ultimate flex.

Very last thing here before the men's field, this is actually a 100k. Shout out to Cassandra DeWinter, who set a new 100K course record by over 29 minutes, run 744.01. And when she crossed the finish line, I heard one of the commentators, and I don't know if this is verified, but they said that a woman has been on the overall 100k podium every year at Havelina for the last 10 years.

Yeah.

That's cool. Is that true, Leah?

I I believe so. And I wonder if part of it the reason is like the 100 mile does attract a large portion of like the heavy and like deep competition. But I think in recent years we've seen like Lottie Brinks, Anna Loudoun, Katie Azmuth last year, um, like Jane Mouse, Ann Flower, like so many big, like strong women uh just show up and completely crash the men's podium, which I think is awesome to see.

I wonder if this is the first time a woman has won it outright.

Aero Vipe is getting good at doing that with their races where they have the premiere race, but then their like secondary distance also gets legit. Um, like Black Canyon.

That's like UTMB, right? That's like UTMB status in the US.

unknown Yeah.

Yeah. I think something that was cool about Cassandra's performance too is it was only eight minutes off the Canadian women's 100K record. So I feel like if Cassandra really wanted to go hit the roads with this, which I think she she's come largely from the roads, I think running in the 230s in the marathon, low 230s.

Um, I think she could definitely take a lot of time off of the Canadian 100K road record.

Mensfield here, Rob Mulkey wins in 12, 1130, Noah Dusso in second, Ken Huah Luo in third. Uh early chaos here. I'm going to summarize this quickly. Uh very much unknown. Taylor Hit led into rattlesnake on loop one. And Brett, you and I were talking about this at a previous Logrun archives, the idea of who can just ahead of a race, if they know they're going to go for it, go talk with a brand and get sponsored for the first loop of Pavelina.

Taylor Hitt could have done that. And I'm sure he would have had five to ten thousand eyeballs on him for the first hour. It'd been some impressions.

It would have been some impressions.

Ultimately, it's Cade Michael who leads through loop one. I think he was a, and maybe even two. I think he was a few minutes ahead of the course record. Ultimately drops. Noah takes leader on loop three or on Jackass three, is mostly under course record into loop five. I think Rob was in the middle of the top ten for most of the middle of the race.

Five minutes back on loop five from Noah, passes Noah after Jackass five. He closed five plus minutes in that stretch. Your thoughts here. Again, this was ridiculously close racing. I thought I thought Noah had it in the bag. It was wild to see Rob overtake.

For sure. Yeah. Rob Rob gets the lasagna award for this race. Like absolutely.

Moved in silence.

Yeah. That's like I think, yeah, I'm gonna make that a recurring thing for post-race recaps is who gets the lasagna award.

Real G's move in silence like lasagna. Yeah.

Oh my god. I think something that like stood out to me there is like if I'm somebody running Havelena, like it's probably not great to be leading at the end of loop one. Something that Are Vebra and Mountain Out posted this year was they would post the top five men and women at the end of every lap and like what the lap split was.

And I went back to reference like who was the top five at in lap one, who was the top five lap two, et cetera. And yeah, I mean, like at the end of lap one, it was Cade Michael and John Rainier both leading, and they were both eventual DNFs. And then I think on the women's side too, um, Ellen E was up there in that like one-two position, eventual DNF.

So I think if you're returning to Havelina, it might just be might you might just wanna do it like Carla and Heather and people like Rob and Raj uh did and just, you know, sit back on that loop one and let everybody else do the work and just follow along.

Yeah, you gotta gotta pump the brakes a little bit on lap lap one and lap two. That's That's what I'm learning.

So Rob's backstory, he DNF'd here last year. He finished 16th at Western in 25 off a single lottery ticket, which is wild. Second at the Big Alta 100K earlier this year. Fantastic. I think the most interesting one of the most interesting pieces about Rob is he actually took four and a half years off of running.

So I guess apparently he ran a 6330 OTQ in the half marathon back in 2016. So super into the road scene.

So that's that's where it is. That's that explains everything. He's really good at running.

Then he takes four and a half years off from the sport. I think his costume was the best. He raced as a vampire because he was quote unquote out for blood. I like that. And obviously the IG, the IG post from July, but yeah, 6330 in 2016. Okay. He was probably wearing like the Skechers Go Meb Racer. What was he even wearing?

Yeah, maybe some like ASICs hyper speeds. But um no, that's it, that's actually really interesting because as far as like ultra china shows, I thought maybe this would and I guess this still it does count. Like this is Rob's breakout race from an ultra standpoint. But it it makes a little bit more sense knowing that he has trained at a high level on the roads, at least, and has gathered three years of ultramarathon experience.

Because I think his first uh ultra-stand up result is 2023. And I I forget if I said uh texted this to you guys or not, but at least according to ultra-center, this is his first win on the trails. Which that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

So he hasn't practiced winning. No, he had to learn how to win, at least on the trails. Um crammed for the with 63 half speed, he's definitely won some road races. But like that's um, you know, we talk about how hard it is to win a race, not only because you have to run really fast, but you have to make the conscious decision to like pass into first place and be like, I am now the one, you know, breaking the trail.

I am the one who's setting the tone. And like, I mean, I guess how how long did Rob lead for?

Like I was about to say, that's why you put it off as long as you can, and then just do it in the last.

Yeah, sitting sitting and kicking. Sitting and kicking is back. My style of ultrarunning that I've always been wanting to see is finally here at Javelina.

Like the Warren Gregory OCC.

Yes, it's a dog for 98 miles and then just blast the last two. Um but yeah, it is I thought it is just really interesting that this was his first win. And it is at Havelina, massive stage, golden ticket. And yeah, you know, we've talked about this before. On like if you win a golden ticket race, you've got that top ten western states potential.

I feel like he's he's he's now Rob's on my radar for Western states for sure.

I know, and I wonder if you know Ultrarunning as a whole will feel about Rob as they did about Will Murray whenever he kind of made a splash on the scene. Like I almost feel like a lot of people are like, oh, we need to see Will do one more thing before we have confidence in him at Western States. Like, do you guys feel like we need to see Rob do one more thing before you're putting him in your top 10 predictions for Western Saints next year?

I would I would like to see another. I don't think it needs to be a hundred miler or anything like that, but I would I would like to just see a high level of execution at another ultra marathon like this spring. Um I mean, it's hard. It's not impossible, but it's hard to just go from a big A race like Javelina, uh what is Western States eight months away to into another big A race, which the stage of Western states is just I guess Rob at least has the sp experience of starting that race and knowing what that start line is like and how nervous it is and like just all the pent-up anxiety um of like the check-in and all that stuff.

Um but it's it's just hard to go and lay down that same level of execution. So I I would like to see another just another like kind of high, like a just a competitive race result.

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I would say they definitely have demonstrated that they're clutch because it's it's it's a high enough stakes environment. There's a fairly sophisticated big live stream. There's big crowds as far as fanfare goes, in-person at ultra events, solid fields. And I, you know, I mean, just looking at last year, the two representatives from Halloween Canyon and Will, you know, ran 1445 and 1523 respectively, and ran similar times to Noah and Rob here.

So I think I think that's a good floor to to to base themselves off.

Yeah, Rob did say in his post-race interview that he he like, you know, didn't really mind not getting mentioned in some of the pre-race stuff. Um because he's our pre-race stuff. Well, no, I think all the Mountain Outpost pre-race stuff he didn't get much love either. That's true. So he's like, I didn't mind like flying under the radar, you know, just going in with without those additional expectations, and then I can just go and prove it.

Um part of you know, the the dream of a professional ultrarunner and having elite performances on the elite stage is being able to perform at the high level now with the expectations layered on. So like that's just an added level of pressure that I know is like not a tangible thing. But when it's there and it adds, you know, extra weight to the race, that does make the the execution harder.

So um, yeah, I'm excited to see how he handles just the next level of you know becoming an elite in our sport because this is the first step that you need to take. And now that he's got it, he's ready for the next step.

Maybe one thing to his favorite is he's not young. I wouldn't say he's 35 years old. So like I maybe that's a good place in life to to come across success and to process it. And maybe you're better off with a target on your back then than you are when you're 25.

unknown Yeah.

Well, he's probably got that. He's probably got like like ultra running age in his legs, might be younger than 35, but like running maturity. Not wisdom, but that would be.

This is not his first big result in in the sport. A couple I distinctly remember his fifth place finish at Black Cannon a few years back, which was really impressive.

I thought you were gonna say his fourth place finish at the Twisted Fork 68k two years ago.

Dude, uh the path to golden Tegasavliner runs through Twisted Fork. Um, but a really interesting guy, uh Cowgill member, I think affiliated with like Joe McConaughey, Blake Slattengren, that whole crew of crushers up there in Seattle. Structural engineer at Blue Origin, working on liquid rocket engines, aka My Boys Wicked Smoot.

Um, he also skipped wearing a costume this year because his Freddy Krueger outfit was chafing him in 2025. So he went no costume.

I know that's fair.

Yeah.

Um yeah, I feel like Noah's been on the cusp for a I remember like in one of our episodes back when he was uh fifth place at Black Canyon in 2023. I think we called him a random baller back then. And I remember on the live stream wearing his like Cal Print shorts, we're like, who is this guy? And I mean, we've we've had him high in our predictions over the years.

He's lined up at several golden ticket races since then, and it's been really cool to see him put it together at Havelena and to take like the lead as confidently as he did when he did it. And I've loved to also see like the support that Blake and Noah seem to have for each other out there, like just thrilled that a golden ticket is coming home uh to their home base out in Washington uh once again, too.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, the Cowgill Collective is they seem like a good, a good group. Like it's yeah, it's it's believable. Like I I believe, I believe the camaraderie. Cool, calm, collected. Cowgill.

Yeah, it looks like uh Noah lined up at Cascade Crest just this past summer.

Second.

Yeah, so pretty, pretty great result there. And I I do feel like just stacking hundred-mile results and finishes that is helpful for Western states. Sometimes I think a lot of people get into you know, racing like Havilina, Western States, those two races whenever they're good at them. And I think having a variety of experience at 100 miles in the mountains, not in the mountains, all of it helps.

And I was just telling somebody today, I feel like that's why Ryan Montgomery has had such great success at Western States in uh this past years. He's just had this variety of 100 mile experience. So I love to see uh somebody like Noah coming into Western States next year with not just the Havelina on the resume, but you know, some of these um older mountain hunters out west.

Slight side tangent. Ryan Montgomery, 223 this morning at the New York City Marathon, winning the non-binary division in a fan. Non-binary course record. You do 223 in route to like 24-hour uh training. That's pretty legit. That's pretty fast.

He's lining up at CIM next, I believe.

So I wonder if you're controlling if you're controlling a 223. Your 100-mile pace is gonna feel or two hundred mile pace is going to feel very few miscellaneous notes here before maybe a final question or two for you guys.

Notable DNFs on the men's side, Cole Watson, John Rainier, Jordan Bramblett, DJ Fox, Cade Michael, Mikey Mitchell, who again, like people got so creative with their costumes. Mikey ran in a maid costume to quote unquote clean up the competition. Incredible. Incredible. Um our picks, Brett, you had Luo in third, spot on.

Leah had him on the podium winning, but you know, had him on the podium. That's great. My entire podium was busted. I was terrible. My percentage just went way down after this, after this year.

I think it was already done low.

It was it was already pretty low. Golden tickets. Are Rob and are Rob and Noah confirmed? Rob must be because you talked about wanting it. Rob for sure.

Noah looked pretty palmed.

Yeah.

Okay. Last thing here before we go. Um this was from our Instagram question box. Uh, someone wrote the men's field seemed like a quote unquote real new generation moment in the sport. Noah Dusso, Rob Mulkey, Jacob Banta, etc. Valid. Does this make up for the lack of known, verifiable superstars that we reflected on in the preview?

What do you guys think? Starting with you.

I mean, I I mean, I guess, because like if the superstars want to still claim to be more super and more star, they gotta show up and race. They didn't. And then Rob and Noah went and ran these baller times. So as far as I'm concerned, like that is the stratosphere that they are in now. Until I see otherwise, because no one else proved them wrong.

I don't know. And then and then like on the I mean, I guess that was mostly about the men's side, but then it's like Heather Heather Jackson's just a baller. She's always been. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It just makes me think back to Kenyon Woodward asking you like last year, Brett, like, have I done enough yet? He's like, Am I an aviator?

Oh, yes. It's like, am I an aviator now? It's like two golden tickets in a row. I'm like, yeah, yeah.

That's good.

Yep, that's good enough. Leah, any final thoughts to me before we go?

Man, I'm just inspired. I love to see these redemption arcs. I think we saw a lot of that this weekend. And yeah, it feels good. And I feel like it feels good for a lot of people in the sport who are coming off a race that was challenging for them or maybe challenge them in a different way and they're feeling like they need to redeem themselves.

Like, first, I would say, like, you don't always need to redeem yourself. Sometimes I feel like that leads to uh not too great of results and probably digs a hole. But really cool to see just like these one-year projects, people coming back and nailing it the second time. And then I guess second thought is love to see a Katie Asmuth and Canhualo uh golden tickets later on this season.

I think we always talk about this, like the people who missed out on a ticket by just a little here. Are we gonna see them at Black Canyon? Are we gonna see them at Taroera, Chianti? Excited to see where like the rest of this field shows up again if they do uh seek out a golden ticket.

And us three, we will reconvene, I believe, in about five weeks to do our annual Ultrarunner, Trail Runner year and review episode. So my only request to you two is let's just start to think about uh 2026, the year that was. I can't believe we're already talking about it, but uh we'll be back for that.

Thank you both so much.

2026 Javelina Jundred Recap: Both Races Decided By Less Than 90 Seconds?!

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