Black Canyon Ultras 100k goes to Seth Ruhling and Riley Brady in Arizona with course records. A race of 100 km, +1600 m brought huge competitiveness in an excellent day to race fast and enjoy the course

Seth Ruhling and Riley Brady win Black Canyon Ultras 2025 establishing new course records! We enjoyed incredibly competitive races: three men in 11 seconds, four women in less than 5 minutes

Black Canyon Ultras was once again a spectacular showcase of the best American trail running. The fast trails and beautiful Arizona landscape gives the event a unique and distinctive character. Black Canyon Ultras has become one of the most important races on the North American calendar and with around 2000 runners taking the start it shows the popularity of the event.

In a fast-paced race, starting in Spring Valley and finishing near New River, the race follows the Black Canyon Trail for a hundred kilometres – specifically 100.9 Km with 1600 metres of elevation. In the past, in perfect conditions, the race has delivered the record times of 7:20:28 by Matt Daniels and 8:38:38 by Kaci Lickteig, both in 2019. The forecast all week was for an ideal cool morning for running but as the afternoon approached it could reach 25ºC, which for those not acclimated to heat would create an additional challenge.

First kilometres: A charge into battle

Mayer High School was the starting point and there were, among the men, Júpiter Carera (Mexico, Craft), second in 2024, and his brother Juan Carera (Mexico, Buff), Eli Hemming (United States, Adidas Terrex), winner of the Black Canyon 2024 60 Km race, Seth Ruhling (United States, The North Face), Blake Slattengren (United States, Brooks) and Will Murray (United States). Among the women, Heather Jackson (USA, Hoka), last year’s leader for much of the race, Tara Dower (USA, Altra), Riley Brady (USA) and Lin Chen (China, Adidas Terrex), winner at Hong Kong 100 last year, stood out. And, as is often the case, there were plenty of other podium contenders and even more surprises to come.

A good initial trail allowed the formation of groups in both categories. Among the men, +30 were in the leading group the first kilometres, apart from those mentioned above, the following should be added the Americans Will Murray, Jordan Bramblett and Joe McConaughy (Brooks) and the additional women on the charge were the Americans Emkay Sullivan (Craft), Shea Aquilano and Erin Clark (Nike).

As the runners get to a third of the way through at Hidden Treasure, the men’s leaders were Eli Hemming and Seth Ruhling but with a big single line of 8-10 people behind, still too early and too close to predict a result. Riley Brady, Tara Dower and Emkay Sullivan, were the provisional podium and as per the men’s race, highly competitive and too close to call at this point

Canyon ranch, the halfway mark

Deep Canyon Ranch marks the end of the downhill running and the halfway point of the race, where the elevation kicks in and those who have tried too hard to keep up can be found out. Later, in Black Canyon City (mile 37.7, km 60,7) in the men’s race Eli Hemming and Seth Ruhling leaded and just a couple of minutes separated them, less than 2 minutes behind was Will Murray, another 2 minute gap to Jordan Bramblett and two more to Joe McConaughy (USA, Brooks) and Gavin Prior (USA). Aid stations were pure Formula 1 pit stops.

Among the women, the leading positions at Black Canyon City were Riley Brady and Tara Dower, 2 minutes behind, Emkay Sullivan was third at 7 minutes behind and Lin Chen seconds after Emkay, currently competing for the final podium place were also Heather Jackson and Shea Aquilano.

Seth Ruhling wins convincingly at Black Canyon Ultras

Eli Hemming lost the fight with Seth and quickly lost ground, leaving Seth to take the lead on his own.. The pace of Seth Ruhling seemed unmatchable, he looked strong, concentrated, and ran with good technique. With no drop in performance, the victory seemed to be his, and the live streaming showed the clear gap. Seth Ruhling crossed the finish line in 7:24:55 to win Black Canyon Ultras 2025, possibly the biggest victory of his career to date, establishing a new course record. A solid race against strong competition making him worthy of appearing on many favourite lists in the future. Coming through in second was Will Murray just 2 minutes behind Seth and just 5 minutes later the podium was completed by Joe McConaughy.

Eli Hemming was finally fourth losing the podium for a minute. Canhua Luo (China, Kailas Fuga) grabbed an excellent 5th while Elliot Cardin (Canada, Norda) was 6th in 7:48. Gavin Prior is 7th and the incredible finish of Canyon Woodward (USA, Patagonia), Blake Slattengren and Ferdinand Airault (France, Aravaipa Racing Team) was in 11 seconds!

Riley Brady dominates

Pace was not misleading, nor were their gait and posture: Riley Brady seemed the strongest and fatigue looked unlikely. Behind Tara Dower and Emkay Sullivan kept the race interesting. But it was becoming increasingly clear that victory was not going to escape Riley Brady: the Emery Henderson Trailhead finish line saw them cross the line in 8 hours, 16 minutes and 18 seconds, the best way to start the season. This is a new course record!

Second place went to Tara Dower in 8:25:08 and third to Emkray Sullivam with 8:48:50 and less than 2 minutes behind Lin Chen. Abby Hall is 5th two more minutes back and Shea Aquilano 6th even less. Four women in less than 5 minutes. What-a- race!

Full results and streaming re-play

Black Canyon Ultras: Full Results

Black Canyon Ultras: Streaming

Black Canyon Ultras 2025 Photos by org.