Ann Trason

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Ann Trason (born August 30, 1960) is an American ultramarathon runner from Auburn, California. [1] She set 20 world records during her career and is considered to be the most successful female ultrarunner of all time. [2] [3]

Contents

Life

Trason was a top runner in high school, but a knee injury kept her from competing in college and injuries plagued her throughout her running career including not finishing her first two entries to the Western States 100. [4] [2] [5]

Trason's ultra career began when she entered the 1985 American River 50 Miler at age 24 [2] and both won and set a course record. She returned 8 years later and dropped her time by an hour to establish the 6:09 female course record that still stands.[ citation needed ]. Trason's Western States career began in 1987, but was not able to finish it until 1989 when she was first female finisher. [6] She has won Western States 14 times in all, most recently in 2003. [2] She held the women's division course record for 18 years (17:37:51, set in 1994) until it was broken by Ellie Greenwood in 2012. [7]

Trason appears in Christopher McDougall's accounts of the Leadville Trail 100 in the 1990s in his 2009 book, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Her time of 18:06:24 in the 1994 Leadville is the women's course record. [8]

In both 1996 and 1997 Trason performed the "double" of winning the Western States 100 just 12 days after winning the 56-mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa.

Trason and her ex-husband and training partner Carl Andersen co-directed the Dick Collins Firetrails 50 from 2000 through 2010. [9] Trason set the female course record on the Firetrails 50 the one time she ran it, in 1987. [6]

After a decade away from running, Trason returned to the sport as crew and an occasional racer in 2013. [4] She was a multi-year UltraRunner of the Year, and in 2020, she was inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. [10] [1] [11]

Course records

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References

  1. 1 2 Pecoraro, Nick (11 January 2021). "A class of her own: Hall of Fame comes knocking for Western States legend Trason". goldcountrymedia.com. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Legends of the Trail". Trail Runner Magazine. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  3. ↑ "IAU Records Table" (PDF). International Association of Ultrarunners. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  4. 1 2 Homer, Jill (2015-02-20). "Pushing through the pain: ultrarunner Ann Trason makes a quiet comeback". the Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  5. ↑ Austin Murphy (July 25, 1994). "Hot on the Trail". Sports Illustrated .
  6. 1 2 Sarah Lavender Smith (January 10, 2009). "Catching Up with Ultra Legend Ann Trason" . Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run Course Records". wser.org. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  8. ↑ Erin Strout (May 25, 2015). "A Running Life: Ann Trason". Runner's World . Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  9. ↑ Hicks, Meghan (2014-02-05). "Ann Trason: The Pioneer Returns". iRunFar. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  10. ↑ "American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame". ultrarunninghistory.com. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  11. ↑ "UltraRunners of the year - historical". Ultrarunning Magazine. 2014-12-26. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  12. ↑ Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Alfred A. Knopfe, New York, 2009
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