100 x 100-milers

By Davy Crockett  Both a podcast episode and a full article (Listen an old 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 38 talented ultrarunners who had achieved 100 100 milers in organized races. Who are they? Recent News: Ronald Ross, age 68 in 2026, of Medina, Ohio, who finished his 100th race of at least 100 miles on March 29, 2026, at the Vernal Equinox 48 Hour Race in Batavia, Ohio. He became the 38th person in the world to reach this milestone. Ron started running in 1972 on his high school track and cross-country teams, where he set school records. He continued running competitively in college at West Point, where he started running marathons and began his military career. He ran on the Army Marathon team. He ran his first ultra in 1979 at the Lake Waramaug 50 in Connecticut and his first 100-miler in 1983 at Western States. He also dabbled in triathlons, and competed in the world triathlon championships in Nice, Frace, in 1985. After his military service in 1987, and settled in the Cleveland, Ohio area where he continued to run. He served 22 years in the Medina Police Department. Ron has finished nearly 300 ultras and over 200 marathons with a marathon PR of 2:38. He is very loyal to local races and has run the same ones repeatedly. In 2026, he planned to run his 40th Cleveland Marathon. Also, he plans to get his 30th finish at Mohican 100 two weeks later. He has also run every Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon and will run his 28th this year. As far as 100-miles go, Mohican is his longest streak. He also has 13 finishes at Burning River 100. In April 2026, Ron was 24th in the world for the longest 100-mile career, with 42 years and nine months. Now in his late 60s, keeping some running streaks going are common and longevity is fun to be a part of. He chooses his races carefully to make sure he can finish under cutoffs. He cross-trains with weightlifting, biking, and hiking. His Personal Records are: marathon 2:38, 50K 3:38:02, 50 miles 6:10:27, 100K 10:21:13, 100 miles 20:58:00. 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 count 100-mile races includes: An official race, overseen by a race director, where 100 miles (161 kms) or more is achieved within a 48-hour period. Results are found on ultrasignup.com, DUV database, or verified with a race director. 100 miles must be reached within the established cut-off time for the race. A race of more than 100 miles is counted as only one,