When Courtney Dauwalter crossed the finish line of the 2023 Western States 100 in a course record-setting time of 15:29, she made a powerful statement: women’s ultrarunning has leveled up. In this month’s column, I make that same statement, but less powerfully. I’ll use graphs instead of world-class athleticism. Rolling into this past June, our plan at iRunFar was to use the July edition of this Running the Numbers column to launch a multi-part series featuring remarkable mountain running, ultrarunning, and trail running performances that can be better appreciated with quantitative data. In the wake of the Western States 100, a natural theme emerged for this article: the increasing competitiveness of women’s ultrarunning. It’s a trend that many of us are already tracking and discussing, so let’s use a selection of data to add another layer to these discussions. Find the full story at the link in bio. . . . #ultrarunning #WS100 #WesternStatesEnduranceRun #mountainrunning #ultramaratho...