Leadville Trail 100 race guide

Key dates for 2027

The race and lottery dates are confirmed. The 2027 price, schedule and course will follow.

1. 1 November 2026
   Deferral registration opens

   For runners who deferred from 2026. It closes on 15 November.

2. 24 November 2026
   Life Time member places open

   10 a.m. Mountain Time, first come, first served.

3. 1 December 2026
   Lottery opens

   Camp + Entry and Lead Challenge registration opens the same day.

4. 15 December 2026
   Lottery closes
5. 6 January 2027
   Lottery results

   The rules also mention notification on 7 January.

6. 21 August 2027
   Race day

   4 a.m. start in 2026. The 30-hour cutoff is 10 a.m. on Sunday.

Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

How to get a place

There is no qualifying standard. Most runners enter the free lottery between 1 and 15 December 2026, with one application each; you are charged only if you are drawn. Making a donation does not improve your chances. The race does not publish its lottery odds or how many places it draws.

The 2026 fee was $495 plus a processing fee. Entries cannot be refunded or transferred. You can defer once to the next year, but you have to re-register in November and pay the full fee again. Deployed military and pregnant or postpartum runners can defer or get a refund at no cost.

• How race entry systems work

The course

The race starts in town at about 10,200 feet and heads out past Turquoise Lake, over Sugarloaf and the Powerline section to Outward Bound, then along the Colorado Trail to Twin Lakes. After a river crossing comes the big climb to Hope Pass, then the descent to the turnaround at Winfield. Then you do it all in reverse, climbing Hope Pass again with about 50 miles in your legs.

Most of it is on forest trails, with some mountain roads. In 2026 the Willow Fire closed Hagerman Pass Road, Sugarloaf and Powerline, so the race looped around Turquoise Lake instead, with about 2,100 feet less climbing.

• Follow the 100-mile training plan

Aid stations and cutoffs

Cutoffs run on gun time from the 4 a.m. start, while buckles are based on your chip time. You must reach each station by its cutoff to stay in the race. The Winfield cutoff is 6 p.m., 14 hours after the start.

• Plan your splits in the pace planner
• Understand ultra cutoffs

From the 2025 race on the usual course. The 2026 race used a different route around the Willow Fire, and the 2027 course and cutoffs had not been published. Pipeline is a crew point only, at miles 26.8 and 72.7, and is not the same place as Half Pipe. Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

Crew, pacers and drop bags

Crews can only help at official crew points: Outward Bound, Pipeline and Twin Lakes, each passed twice, plus Mayqueen on the way back in 2025. Crews reach Twin Lakes by shuttle from Outward Bound. Crewing anywhere else can get you disqualified. Since 2021 there has been no crew, pacing or spectating at Winfield.

Pacers can join at Twin Lakes on the way back, about 62 miles in. You can have any number of pacers but only one at a time until mile 99. Unusually, pacers may carry food and kit for you, though they may not push, pull or carry you.

In 2026 there were drop bags at Turquoise Lake Dam, Outward Bound, Half Pipe, Twin Lakes and Winfield. They must be clear plastic bags.

• Crew and drop bags

Records and results

Both records fell in 2025. David Roche ran 15:12:30, beating his own 2024 record, and Anne Flower ran 17:58:19 and finished second overall. That broke Ann Trason's 18:06:24 from 1994, which had lasted 31 years. In 2026, on the shorter-climbing reroute, Adrian Macdonald won for the third time and McKendree Hickory won in her first 100.

Roughly half the field finishes: 53% in 2025 and about 47% in 2021. In 2026, 387 runners finished, 119 of them under 25 hours. Eric Pence holds the record for most finishes, with 31.

• Official results

Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

History

Leadville was a silver-mining town, and when the Climax Mine closed in the 1980s its unemployment rate became the highest in the country. Ken Chlouber, a local miner, and Merilee Maupin started the race in 1983 to bring visitors and their money to town. Forty-five runners started that first race and 10 finished.

In 1993 and 1994 Rarámuri runners from Mexico's Copper Canyon won the race. Juan Herrera won in 1994 in a record 17:30:42, and those races later featured in the book Born to Run. Life Time bought the Leadville Race Series in 2010.

The Lead Challenge

Formerly called Leadman and Leadwoman, the Lead Challenge strings together five running and mountain-bike races covering 282.4 miles: the Leadville Trail Marathon on 26 June, the Silver Rush 50 run or bike on 10 or 11 July, the Leadville 100 mountain-bike race on 14 August, the Leadville 10K on 15 August and the 100-mile run on 21 August 2027. It cost $1,600 in 2026. In 2026, 41 of 130 starters finished all five.

Running for good at Leadville

The founders set up the Leadville Trail 100 Legacy Foundation, which gives $3,000 to every Lake County High School graduate going on to further education. It had awarded more than $1.12 million in scholarships by 2024. Each year the DreamChaser starts two and a half hours behind the field and raises money for every runner they pass: in 2026 Pat Cade passed 628 runners and raised more than $90,000.

• Charity entries

Getting there

Leadville is about 100 miles west of Denver. Runners park at set lots in town and walk or take a shuttle to the start. There is a mandatory athlete meeting and in-person packet pickup with photo ID on the Friday. Primitive camping on public land is allowed if you follow fire rules.

Questions people ask