Ruth Croft and Hugo Deck won the longest Diagonale des Fous yet on Réunion, where Britain’s Tom Evans finished seventh and Ireland’s Emma Stuart was fourth woman. In Millau, Martyna Młynarczyk set a women’s course record at the Grand Trail des Templiers, and Britain’s Hugh Chatfield and Anna Llewellyn both finished in the top ten.
Australia’s Annabel Hepworth completed the Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile Race. Charlotte Fisher was third woman at the Salomon Cappadocia Ultra-Trail. Courtney Dauwalter confirmed she is heading back to the California International Marathon in search of an Olympic Trials qualifying time.
Croft and Deck Win Diagonale des Fous as Britain’s Evans Finishes Seventh
The 2026 Diagonale des Fous started from Ravine Blanche in Saint-Pierre at 22:00 on Thursday 15 October. It crossed Réunion from south to north to finish in Saint-Denis. The organisers set the course at 180km (112 miles) with 10,200m of ascent, with a 66-hour cutoff, a cap of 3,000 runners and poles banned outright. The route covers narrow trails, rocky ridges, ravines and river crossings. This year’s course was the race’s longest, after changes to ease traffic congestion around Cilaos.
New Zealand’s Ruth Croft led the women’s race from start to finish. She won in 27:13:23, more than an hour clear of Alyssa Clark (USA, 28:26:53), with France’s Agathe Bes third in 29:05:19. Croft has now won Western States, UTMB and the Diagonale des Fous, leaving Hardrock as the only one of the four that has escaped her. Courtney Dauwalter and Katie Schide are the only women to have won all four. Ireland’s Emma Stuart finished fourth in 30:35:28.
France’s Hugo Deck took the men’s lead for good after around 115km and won in 22:54:19. Robin Juillaguet (France) finished nearly an hour back in 23:51:54, and Jérôme Vanderschaeghe (Belgium) was third in 24:10:35. Deck has won at least four races this year.
Tom Evans, a pre-race favourite, finished seventh in 26:21. He had been running fourth at Grand Place, 107.6km into the race.
The Bourbon Trail, the standout among the sister races, ran for 106km with 6,200m of climbing:
- Women: Camille Guy, 17:35, just 11 seconds ahead of Marlène Cugnet, with Victoria Devouge third in 17:49
- Men: Alexandre Depeche, 13:49, ahead of Simon Bulloz (14:14) and Kevin Largo (14:41)
Młynarczyk Sets Grand Trail des Templiers Record as Puppi Wins and Britain’s Chatfield and Llewellyn Make Top Tens
The Grand Trail des Templiers started in Millau at 05:10 on Sunday 18 October. The 80.4km loop gains 3,429m as it passes through the Grands Causses Regional Natural Park and its limestone plateaus, forests, gorges and canyons. Though much of the route is runnable, the latter half features technical terrain, including steep climbs and descents around Le Cade and La Pouncho in the final 11km. Winners took €10,000 each.
Poland’s Martyna Młynarczyk led the women’s race throughout and finished in 7:41:18, taking just over a minute off Caitlin Fielder’s 2024 record of 7:42:24. France’s Alexandra Cassan-Ferrier closed the gap over the final climbs and descents but finished second in 7:46:22. Audrey Tanguy (France) was third in 7:51:05.
Italy’s Francesco Puppi won the men’s race in 6:32:20, finishing a second short of the course record set by Britain’s Jon Albon in 2021. Puppi was more than three minutes behind Dimitri Morel-Jean at around 59km. He cut that to under 30 seconds by Massebiau at 69km, then passed the Frenchman on the climb towards Le Cade. Morel-Jean was second in 6:39:27, and Benjamin Roubiol (France) third in 6:44:09.
Two British runners finished in the top ten:
- Hugh Chatfield: eighth man, 6:57:17
- Anna Llewellyn: tenth woman, 8:20:02
The Festival des Templiers ran 18 races for around 13,000 runners from 45 nations. Other winners included:
- Endurance Trail des Templiers (102km): Marine Quintard, 10:46, and Yannick Noël, 9:16
- Marathon des Causses (34km): Tove Alexandersson, 2:42, and Martin Nilsson, 2:31
Courtney Dauwalter Returns to CIM for an Olympic Trials Bid
Courtney Dauwalter will race the California International Marathon in Sacramento on 6 December. She is chasing the 2:37:00 women’s qualifying standard for the 2028 US Olympic Marathon Trials. Last December she ran 2:38:55 on the same course, 1 minute 55 seconds outside the mark. She went through halfway in 1:18:33, three seconds behind qualifying pace, then slowed to 1:20:22 for the second half. That came nine weeks after a 2:49:54 at the Twin Cities Marathon.
Dauwalter, 41, laid out the plan in an interview with Runner’s World. She said running with last year’s pack of women chasing the standard had drawn her back:
I’ve never run in a pack like that, and being part of it last year was really, really beautiful. It’s insane what you can do in a pack like that versus what you could do by yourself.
Her 2026 trail season included second at the Cocodona 250 in May and a fourth Hardrock 100 win in July. She then dropped out of UTMB at around 50 miles (80km) in late August because of lingering fatigue. She told the magazine that last year’s build was about learning to hold faster paces, take gels at speed and get through aid stations without losing contact with the pack. She has since moved from Leadville, at about 10,000ft (3,050m), down to Buena Vista at about 7,900ft (2,400m), and may drop lower still for some faster sessions.
CIM is a point-to-point road course from the Folsom foothills to the California State Capitol. Its rolling hills give way to a flat finish, with 111.5m of net descent. The Trials take place in St. Louis on 25 March 2028, where three women and three men will be selected for the Los Angeles Olympics.
If I have the opportunity to take part in the Olympic Trials, I mean, of course I would want to be there
Annabel Hepworth Completes the Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile Race
Australia’s Annabel Hepworth, 53, finished the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race on Sunday 18 October in 49 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds. She was the first woman and fourth finisher overall this year. The organisers said she is only the 12th woman ever to complete the race and the fourth-fastest in its history. Only Tsai Wen-Ya (Taiwan, 45 days 12:28:44), Kaneenika Janakova (Slovakia, 48 days 14:24:10) and Surasa Mairer (Austria, 49 days 07:52:01) have been quicker.
The 3,100 miles (4,989km) are run around a single block of roughly 0.55 miles in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Running is allowed from 06:00 to midnight, and finishing within the 52-day limit takes about 59.6 miles (95.9km) a day. Hepworth reached 500 miles in 7 days 10:29:38 and 1,000 miles in 15 days 07:44:50. The organisers believe several of her intermediate times from 1,500 miles onwards are Australian bests.
It was her third attempt. She withdrew after 2,185 miles in 2024, then entered in 2025 but was injured shortly before the start. Italy’s Andrea Marcato won the race for a seventh consecutive year.
Salomon Cappadocia Ultra-Trail: Fisher Third Woman
The Salomon Cappadocia Ultra-Trail ran on 16 and 17 October around Ürgüp in central Turkey, with around 3,000 runners from 78 countries. The flagship 119km CUT started at 07:00 on 17 October with around 3,730m of ascent and a 24-hour cutoff. It runs mostly along hiking trails and over rocky terrain through Cappadocia’s hills and valleys, with ten checkpoints and a mid-race base back in Ürgüp.
England’s Charlotte Fisher finished ninth overall and third woman in the CUT, behind Tuğçe Karakaya and Beyza Güzel. The winners across the weekend were:
- CUT (119km): Tuğçe Karakaya and Vasilii Korytkin (Russia)
- CMT (63km): Antonina Lushina and Aleksei Beresnev (Russia)
- CST (38km): Elif Gökçe Avcı Ataman and Halil Yaşın
- Mini Trail (14km): Liudmila Sapronenkova (Russia) and Can Ayaz
Header Image: Festival des Templiers, Greg Alric
