By Davy Crockett 

Both a podcast episode and a full article

(Listen to the podcast episode too with audio clips from some of the runners.)

 Early history of 100-milers

The sport of running 100 miles competitively has existed for multiple centuries. In the 1800s, the most prolific 100-mile runner was Frank Hart (1856-1908), a black runner from Boston, Massachusetts. He reached 100 miles in at least 85 of his races across his 25-year running career. Most of those races were six-day races where he usually ran far more than 300 miles.

In the modern era, by the mid-1970s, running 100 miles in competition started to become more available to anyone. Before 1980, no one ran dozens of 100-milers during their running career, only a handful of 100s. Ultrarunning legend Ted Corbitt (1919-2007) ran fewer than ten 100-milers.

By the end of 1999, a few prolific ultrarunners had piled up 100-mile race finishes. Richard and Sandra Brown of England were way out in front with 87 and 82, reaching 100 miles in both running and walking events. Ray Krolewicz of South Carolina was next with about 60 100-mile finishes to his name. Don Choi, the prolific multi-day runner from San Francisco, had more than 40 100-mile finishes but had retired from 100-mile running in 1997 at the age of 48. The world's greatest, Yiannis Kouros had an estimated 40 100-milers, most of them wins. As the decades passed, in 2025, there were 36 talented ultrarunners who had achieved 100 100 milers in organized races. Who are they?

Recent News:

Jess Mullen

Jess Mullen, age 50, of Washington, finished her 100th race of at least 100 miles on September 22, 2025, at Ultra Fest in Easton, Washington, with 21:58. She became the 36th person in the world to reach that milestone. Growing up, Jess played many sports and started recreational running in college to stay in shape. In 2000, at the age of 25, she ran her first marathon and didn’t run another until 2005. In her younger life, she fought addiction, and now, almost 25 years sober, she really enjoys the chance to process life during her long runs. She learned about ultras and ran her first one in 2007. The further she went, the more she enjoyed running. In 2008, she finished her first 100-miler. Soon she started running a marathon or ultra nearly every week. The 100-miler became her favorite distance. Her 100-milers have been both in the mountains and also on flatter loop courses. By the time she reached 75 100-mile finishes, she set a firm goal to reach 100x100s, with a pace of 10-12 finishes per year.

For training, Jess has not followed rigid training programs. Instead, she just listens to her body and takes days off each week when needed. In races, she tries to handle whatever is thrown at her and adapt to come out as best she can. The less she looked at her watch, the better she did. She looks forward to the second half of races when she feels great and starts passing people. However, placement against others has not been important to her. But she has won about 30 of her 100-milers and has been the overall winner at least seven times.

She describes herself as a “well-balanced extremist.”  She makes running nearly her full-time job, works as a race director and volunteers a lot of her time. Her kind husband works to support them and also runs with her. She has finished Cascade Crest 100 seven times and is now the race director. In recent years, she has dabbled in multi-day races and reached 622 miles/1001 kms in ten days. She has finished at least 200 ultras, more than 100 marathons, and at least seven solo, informal runs of more than 100 miles. Her PRs include: 100 miles: 18:37:18, 24 hours: 116 miles, 48 hours: 168 miles, 6 days: 434 miles, marathon 3:38.

The 100x100 Club

Determining how many 100-mile+ race finishes a person has is a hard task because there is no official list and no single database has a complete list of results. The criteria I and others in this "club" have used to c...