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When Jenn Lichter crossed the finish line at the Western States Endurance Race last weekend - arguably the premier 100 mile trail race in the US - all I could think was how strong she looked.

Then I started digging into her background, and I discovered Lichter’s strength on the trails is barely half the story.

Jenn Lichter’s childhood was far from orthodox. She is originally from Bogota, the capital of Colombia. Her birth father was caught up in the business of the drug cartels and her mother was an addict.

When she was 9, Lichter and her two siblings - older brother Harold (then 11) and younger sister Kim (then 7) - were adopted by an American couple, and moved to La Crosse Wisconsin, population 52,000.

She began running seriously in college, but not before working her way through an eating disorder serious enough to put her in hospital. But before I delve more deeply into her backstory, let’s first focus on what she achieved last weekend, because it was monumental in its own right.

Western States was Lichter’s first crack at the 100-mile distance and she’s only run one 100k race, finishing as first female at the Black Canyon 100k in February. So winning with so little long distance experience was impressive.

Winning and breaking the course record, set in 2023 by Courtney Dauwalter, felt transcendental. Why? Well, firstly in my opinion Dauwalter is both the GOAT and the Queen of trail running. That Western States record-breaking run - has been described by good judges as one of the greatest ultra trail runs of all time.

Dauwalter didn’t just break the record in 2023, she smashed it into tiny bits, take 1 hour 17 minutes off the previous mark, which Brit Ellie Greenwood had held for 11 years. And now Lichter has broken it. That’s some achievement!

Of course, performances at a race like Western States are heavily weather dependent, because it can get incredibly hot, and this year’s conditions were pretty much perfect. But it would be churlish indeed to use that to talk down Lichter’s feat, especially given Dauwalter’s record was also set on a cooler-than-average day.

Lichter took the lead shortly before the half-way point of the race, and was never headed. For the record, Riley Brady was second in 15:42:14 and Marianne Hogan third in 15:51:44. [Yes, there was a men’s race too and yes, it was also pretty amazing, but I’ll get to that (briefly) later.]

Humble beginnings

To say Lichter has come a long way would be something of an understatement. She told Dylan Bowman on The Freetrail Podcast that she lived in an orphanage in Bogota from the age of 5 until she was adopted. Life was pretty sketchy.

“Colombia was really bad … the cartels were pretty bad,” she says. “It was kind of dangerous to live there. Our birth parents were pretty much involved in the cartel business.

“My birth dad was shot when I was like 2 years old ... And my birth mom, she was pretty young. I think she was about 16 years old when she had my brother. She was about 18 when she had me and then a few years later, she had my sister.”

Lichter says her mother was an addict, and couldn’t cope with three kids. “She would go through episodes of getting high and forgetting about her children.” Eventually, Lichter and her siblings were found on the streets, and taken into care.

Initially, the plan was for the children to be returned to their mother, but she wasn’t able to get her life together enough to care for three young children. So ultimately Lichter, her brother and sister were sent to an orphanage and were eventually adopted.

“It was very exciting for us to come to this new country and have this sense of freedom,” she says. The children spoke no English, but despite this, the early years of her transition to life in the US was like “riding a high” for Lichter.

But there were challenges too. Lichter’s relationship with her adoptive mother was “rough”, even though her new mother was taking great care of her. She says she battled with guilt. “How do I love this new Mum when I still have one back in Colombia?”

Lichter says she felt she had a lack of control in her life. “That led to this whole journey of an eating disorder, actually, in high school … I was diagnosed anorexic,” she says.

“It got so bad, I was an in-patient in a hospital.” Her illness started when Lichter began processing what had happened. “All through high school, and even a little bit through college, I dealt with this eating disorder, which was really just the root cause of trying to find something in my life that I could control,” she says.

“Now I’m 29 [she’s turned 30 since the interview] and looking at everything that I went through … I’m happy I went through it because it’s part of what makes me who I am.” Shortly before the interview with Bowman, recorded last August, Lichter found out her birth mother had died decades ago.

Her brother Harold broke the news to her over Facetime from Colombia, where he’d been digging into their past. “I just remember, we were silent for, it felt like an eternity, but probably only a minute or two. And then I just started crying … the crying that happens and you have no control over it - there’s no warning,” she says.

“And then my brother, he’s on the other side of this Facetime. And he’s like, ‘I get it. Like, that was me too.’ I didn’t realise I was holding this grief. I thought I was okay because our life was so great and we have such great parents.

“And I was like, ‘No Harold, this is good because it means we loved her so unconditionally.’ In a way, I viewed it as: ‘I forgive you. It wasn’t your fault. It was just the lemons you were handed in life.

“‘Unfortunately they were pretty rotten and you did what you could. And if it wasn’t for your sacrifice, we wouldn’t be where we are.’” Lichter says running helped with the grief.

“I grieved for three or four days. And most of that grief happened while I was out running, actually. I was running, and I would cry … But it was healing too because it felt like I don’t have to feel so guilty about these Mums that I love so much, because I remember when I was like 10 years old, I would have dreams of having to choose between them.”

A childhood forged in those circumstances has made Lichter the formidible athlete she is. “I think it’s created this determination - if I do something, I want to do it full-heartedly. And I think that comes from the desire of, like, this is something I can control.

“I’m going to control it and I’m going to do it in the best way that I can. For me, sport has been that outlet. I can control the athlete that I want to be. I can control how much I try in training. I can control how much I try in racing.”

All that has made her a tough competitor. “I truly believe that I am one of those people that I will suffer until I pass out. That’s the way that I am.”

Would you take her on?

(Special mention must also go to Holly Ranson who finished 15th woman and 35th overall in 17:46:45 to be the first of eight Australian finishers. What an epic effort.)

The men ran too…

For those of you “here for the men’s race”, well it was pretty epic too. Ahead of time I was mostly looking forward to seeing the sport’s two big guns - Kilian Jornet and Jim Walmsley - go head to head.

But both came into the race battling injuries, and both DNFed. That had no impact on the drama though. The men’s winner - Vincent Bouillard - broke Walmsley’s course record.

And so did second placed Francesco Puppi. And Ryan Montgomery in third, along with Thomas Cardin, who was fourth. So yes, this was another very, very fast race.

Bouillard really announced himself on the elite trail running stage by winning Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc, arguably the biggest 100 mile trail race in Europe, and possibly the world.

At the time he wasn’t a pro runner - he worked on the design team at footwear company Hoka. He’s still part of the team there, albeit on a part-time basis these days. Last weekend he became just the seventh person in history to complete the Western States-UTMB double.

For a long time it looked like Puppi might win the race, in his first tilt at the 100 mile distance. But Bouillard was able to finish stronger. Puppi has been excelling at the 100k distance for the past three or four years, so he was expected to do well.

It could have been even better for the Italian but for a disrupted build-up. He dislocated a shoulder in February this year, then broke his wrist in March.

Special shout out to fan favourite Zach Miller, who produced a sprint finish in coming fifth. It was also his debut at the 100 mile distance. In typical Zach Miller fashion, he was back at the race precinct on the Sunday.

He often hands out home-made donuts, made in the campervan he drives to races, to passers-by the day after a big race, but this year he opted for popsicles. That’s just one of the reasons he’s a fan favourite.

Upcoming Events

There are way too many events for me to list everything that’s happening around the country, but here is a selection of upcoming races (with a bias towards South East Queensland).

The Running Calendar website is a great source if you want a comprehensive understanding of what’s available around the country.