{"id":10538,"date":"2017-01-02T07:59:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T15:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=10538"},"modified":"2025-11-20T19:18:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:18:27","slug":"changing-course-clare-gallagher-leadville-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/run\/changing-course-clare-gallagher-leadville-100","title":{"rendered":"The 100-Mile Eating Contest With a Little Bit of Running"},"content":{"rendered":"

It turned out that ultrarunning wasn\u2019t a diversion from a viable career. It was a career.<\/p>\n

Clare Gallagher shocked the ultrarunning world in August when she came out of nowhere to win the women\u2019s division of the Leadville Trail 100 Run. Not only did she crush her first 100-miler, she posted the second-fastest women\u2019s time in the 33-year history of the race: a blistering 19 hours, 27 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"Clare<\/p>\n

Clare Gallagher comes from a competitive family. \u201cIt\u2019s not like my parents instigated it\u2014they\u2019re really low-key,\u201d says the 25-year-old from Boulder, Colorado. \u201cBut we can\u2019t even play some board games.\u201d<\/p>\n

When \u201cThe Settlers of Catan\u201d comes out, the games get heated. Her middle brother, Eric, is in training to become a Green Beret and oldest brother, Scott, is in law school to become a public defender. Her mother, Ann, is a third-grade teacher and her father, Mike, runs an insurance company. Both of her maternal grandparents are surgeons. \u201cWe have a high-performing family,\u201d Eric says. \u201cThere are high expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it was particularly gut-wrenching when Clare realized she wasn\u2019t meant to be a doctor. She always thought she\u2019d go to medical school, just like her grandparents. But two weeks into an organic chemistry course at University of Colorado, Boulder, last summer, \u201cI felt like, \u2018Oh crap! This isn\u2019t my true path,\u2019\u201d she says. So she quit in order to focus on ultra-distance running.<\/p>\n

\"Clare<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really afraid to tell my parents and my grandparents,\u201d Clare says. She gave up a serious career trajectory for a niche sport that favors athletes in their thirties and even forties who\u2019ve developed the mental toughness to keep going for 100 miles.<\/p>\n

Clare shined as a four-sport high-school athlete in the Denver area, but spent her college running career at Princeton plagued by injury. Still, she published her thesis on juvenile coral survival in the journal Coral Reefs and even started a swim program for K\u201312 students in Thailand, where she taught English after college. \u201cShe\u2019s always been goal driven,\u201d her brother Scott says. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a thing she hasn\u2019t churned away at ferociously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ultrarunning idea didn\u2019t come out of nowhere. Clare had started running again in Thailand, reigniting her love of the sport. In 2014 she entered\u2014and won\u2014the inaugural Thailand Ultramarathon 80K. But she still couldn\u2019t shake the idea that she was supposed to become a doctor. After she dropped the organic chemistry class in Boulder, she wasn\u2019t sure how to tell her family.<\/p>\n

\"Clare<\/p>\n

They finally had the talk. Her grandfather told her, \u201cWe still love you and are proud of you, whatever you decide to do.\u201d Less than a month later, Clare was on the Leadville Trail. To those who don\u2019t know her well, the win was a surprise. Despite her competitive nature, Clare is a happy-go-lucky person who entered the race on short notice. But to those who know her best, the win wasn\u2019t surprising at all. \u201cShe is a super-granola, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants type person when it comes to a lot of things,\u201d Eric says. \u201cBut she\u2019s fiercely competitive.\u201d Case in point: the race-day plan she made for her Leadville crew mapped everything minutely, including the exact aid station at which they should ask her about chafing. \u201cWhen the gun goes off,\u201d says Clare, \u201cI lose the carefree attitude and get intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the payoff for following her heart has been huge. \u201cOne race and my life totally changed,\u201d Clare says. \u201cIf I continue to run well like this, I can use it as a platform to travel and to talk about the things I really care about: climate change, philanthropy, the environment and trail conservation. All because people care about how I finish in running races!\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out Clare’s training and eating tips below:<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

For trail running tips and gear check out REI.com and don’t forget to opt outside.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It turned out that ultrarunning wasn\u2019t a diversion from a viable career. It was a career. Clare Gallagher shocked the ultrarunning world in August when she came out of nowhere to win the women\u2019s division of the Leadville Trail 100 Run. Not only did she crush her first 100-miler, she posted the second-fastest women\u2019s time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1481,733,709,359,136,468,651],"internal-tag":[1676],"class_list":["post-10538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-run","tag-clare-gallagher","tag-co-op-cinema","tag-outside-everyday","tag-run","tag-trail-running","tag-ultrarunning","tag-women","post_format-video","internal-tag-pre-redirect-run"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/run\/changing-course-clare-gallagher-leadville-100","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"The 100-Mile Eating Contest With a Little Bit of Running","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/run\/changing-course-clare-gallagher-leadville-100","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/run\/changing-course-clare-gallagher-leadville-100"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/NGK-clare-final-13.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/NGK-clare-final-13.jpg?fit=1500%2C1001"},"articleSection":"Run","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Angela Crampton"}],"creator":["Angela Crampton"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["clare gallagher","co-op cinema","outside everyday","run","trail-running","ultrarunning","women"],"dateCreated":"2017-01-02T15:59:17Z","datePublished":"2017-01-02T15:59:17Z","dateModified":"2025-11-21T03:18:27Z"},"rendered":"