KODIAK ULTRA MARATHONS HISTORY: FROM A BIG BEAR LOCAL RACE TO A UTMB WORLD SERIES MAJOR
The Kodiak Ultra Marathons started in 2013 as a locally organized 100-mile race around Big Bear Lake, California, and within a decade it had become the UTMB World Series stop for the American West, with a 100-mile course record of 16:22:08 and a start list that now includes some of the fastest mountain runners in the country. The 2026 edition begins on Friday, October 9, with the 100-mile race starting at 1:00 p.m. from the Rim Nordic Ski Area.
This is how a small race in the San Bernardino Mountains turned into a major on the international calendar.
Big Bear and the Name
Big Bear Lake sits at roughly 7,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains, about two hours east of Los Angeles. The valley takes its name from the 19th-century rancheros who climbed into the mountains and found it full of bears. The grizzlies were gone by 1906, but the name stayed, and the race adopted the Kodiak label as a nod to the biggest bears of all.
The town is a ski resort in winter and a mountain-biking and hiking base in summer. That combination of altitude, trail access and a compact village center made it a natural host for a trail race that could start and finish on the main street.
The Founding Years
The race was started in 2013 by Paul Romero, a local adventurer and racer, and Matt Smith took over the event from its second year. The first edition was won by Garry Harrington and Jeri Ginsburg.
In those early editions the 100-mile race started on a Friday evening in August from Big Bear Village, the town's main street, rather than the ski area used today. The 2019 race, the seventh, began at 6:00 p.m. and drew more than 550 registered runners across the 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K distances.
Organizers expected about 2,000 people in town for the weekend and staged a beer garden, food and sponsor booths at the start and finish in the village. Proceeds went to local organizations including Bear Valley Search and Rescue, the Big Bear Valley Trails Foundation and the Big Bear Middle School, and the event was coordinated by volunteers from the search and rescue team and the local trail council.
The winners of that era were regional runners rather than national names. Michael Jiminez won in 2014, Christophe Sigel in 2015, Miguel Lara in 2016, Ruperto Romero in 2017 and Elan Lieber in 2018. Rachel Ragona won the women's race in 2015 and again in 2017, the only runner to win the 100-mile twice in the race's first decade alongside Tony Torres.
The women's race in the same period went to Gratianne Daum in 2014, Suzanna Bon in 2016, Daniela Seyler in 2018 and Maria Rivera in 2019. Winning times for the women ranged from Ragona's 23:53:00 in 2017 to Rivera's 28:05:53 two years later, a reflection of small fields on a course where the second night was spent above 7,000 feet.
The 2020 edition was cancelled because of the pandemic. When the race returned in 2021, Torres won in 19:35:56 and Jian Springer took the women's race in 25:30:43.
Joining the UTMB World Series
The turning point came when the race joined the UTMB World Series, the global circuit that feeds the finals in Chamonix each August. Kodiak joined the series in its early seasons, and by 2025 it held the status of a UTMB World Series Major, which carries a larger allocation of Running Stones and direct access to the finals for top finishers.
The race now runs in October rather than August, and the program has expanded to five distances: 100 miles, 100 kilometers, 50 kilometers, 21 kilometers and 10 kilometers. The 100-mile race also serves as a qualifier for the Western States 100, with finishers under 36 hours eligible for that lottery.
Torres won again in 2022 in 20:20:14, the first edition under the UTMB banner. Andi Ramer won the 2022 women's race in 31:04:33.
Membership of the series changed what a finish at Kodiak was worth. The top three men and women in the 100-mile, 100-kilometer, 50-kilometer and 21-kilometer races gain automatic entry to UTMB, CCC and OCC respectively, and every finisher collects Running Stones toward the Chamonix lottery. The 100-mile allocation rose from four stones in 2024 to eight in 2026 as the race moved up to Major status.
Bouillard's 16:22:08
The 2023 race rewrote the record book. Vincent Bouillard of France won the 100-mile in 16:22:08, taking more than three hours off the previous course record, and Claire Bannwarth, also of France, won the women's race in 21:10:28, likewise a record by a wide margin.
Bouillard was little known outside France at the time. The following August he won UTMB in Chamonix, and his Kodiak run is now read as the first sign of what was coming.
Sam Wood won the 2024 race in 18:24:08 and Kristina Chang won the women's race in 21:15:24, five minutes outside Bannwarth's mark. In 2025, Hayden Hawks won in 16:40:37, the second-fastest time in the race's history, and Lin Chen of China set a new women's course record of 19:31:17.
Chen's time cut more than an hour and a half from Bannwarth's record and moved the women's mark inside 20 hours for the first time. Her run would have won the men's race outright in every edition before 2016. The 2025 race was also the first in which both winners finished inside 20 hours, a measure of how far the front of the field has moved since the August editions of the previous decade.
The Course
The 100-mile route is a single loop around the entire Big Bear Valley. The 2026 course measures 161.4 kilometers with 4,876 meters of climbing, and the cutoff is 36 hours. Much of the running takes place above 7,000 feet.
The opening third heads out along the North Shore of Big Bear Lake on singletrack through pine forest, with views back across the reservoir. From there the course moves into Holcomb Valley at around 7,500 feet, where it picks up a section of the Pacific Crest Trail across open meadow and chaparral.
The defining climb comes near the midpoint. Runners cross Deadman's Ridge and then ascend Sugarloaf Mountain, which at 9,995 feet is one of the highest peaks in the San Bernardino range and the high point of the course. The summit comes a little past the halfway point, and the descent that follows drops runners toward the valley floor.
The southeastern section of the loop passes Baldwin Lake, a dry alkali lake bed, and moves into high desert terrain with Joshua trees. It is the lowest and most exposed part of the route, and daytime heat there can be a factor even in October.
The final quarter climbs back into the pine zone above Bear Mountain and Snow Summit before descending Knickerbocker Road into Big Bear Lake for the finish. There are 15 checkpoints along the way, from Aspen Glen at 10.7 kilometers through Camp Whittle, Doble Camp, Burns Canyon and two visits to Sugarloaf aid, to Grandview at 154.8 kilometers.
The longest stretches without aid, roughly 17 kilometers each, come between Champion and Snow Valley in the first quarter and between Green Valley and Camp Whittle before the Pacific Crest Trail section. Because the 100-mile starts at 1:00 p.m., the front of the field reaches Sugarloaf late in the evening and most runners climb it in the dark.
The course requires runners to carry two liters of water when leaving the Champion, Green Valley and first Sugarloaf aid stations, and the mandatory kit includes two headlamps, a hooded weatherproof jacket and a phone. The 100-kilometer race starts on the Saturday morning and covers the second half of the loop, with its own 18-hour limit for Western States qualification.
The Race Today
Kodiak now sits in the top tier of the UTMB system below the finals in Chamonix, and elite entry to the 100-mile requires a UTMB Index above 800 for men and 650 for women. The weekend draws runners chasing Running Stones for the Chamonix lottery as well as locals who ran the race when it was an August event with a few hundred entrants.
Entry to the 100-mile for non-elite runners costs $349, and the race has a minimum age of 18 for the three longest distances. The weekend has become a three-day festival in the village, with the 50-kilometer, 21-kilometer and 10-kilometer races filling out the Saturday program after the 100-kilometer start.
The records to beat on October 9, 2026, are Bouillard's 16:22:08 and Chen's 19:31:17. Hawks' 16:40:37 in 2025 shows how close the men's mark is to falling on a fast day, and the women's record has now been broken in two of the last three editions.
The 2026 routes were still awaiting final United States Forest Service approval as of race publication, so minor adjustments before race day are possible. The core of the course, the loop of the valley with Sugarloaf at its heart, has not changed.