She won an Olympic bronze medal on the world’s biggest stage — and then she nearly quit in the dark, wrapped in a sleeping bag at mile 94 of her first-ever 100-mile race.
Molly Seidel, the Tokyo Olympic marathon bronze medalist, just completed one of the most grueling debut ultramarathon performances in recent memory at the Western States Endurance Run — and the story of how she got to that finish line is nothing short of extraordinary.
The 31-year-old crossed the line at Placer High School in Auburn, California early Sunday morning, clocking 24 hours, 29 minutes, and 27 seconds to complete all 100 miles.
What happened in between the start gun and that final lap of the track is the kind of story that reminds you why endurance sport captures hearts the way it does.
Jump to:
From the Olympics to the Mountains
Seidel only made the switch to trail running last summer — a timeline that makes her Western States entry feel almost audacious in retrospect.
In a short stretch of time, she racked up a 50K win in Texas, a fourth-place finish at the Black Canyon Ultras 100K, and a third-place result at the Canyons Endurance Runs 50K. That 100K performance earned her a coveted golden ticket into Western States.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Progress came fast. But 100 miles in the Sierra Nevada is an entirely different beast.
A Promising Start That Quickly Unraveled
The race launched at 5 a.m. Saturday from the base of Palisades Tahoe ski resort in Olympic Valley. Seidel attacked the early miles with characteristic aggression, cresting the 8,750-foot summit of Emigrant Pass in fourth place among women.
By mile 24.4, she had drifted back to 10th — sitting roughly three minutes off the lead pack. She clawed her way back to eighth by mile 47.8.
Then the wheels came off entirely.
Seidel hobbled into the Michigan Bluff aid station at mile 55.7 just after 2 p.m. Her feet were in such bad shape that her crew struggled to even remove her shoes. She had also fallen dangerously behind on nutrition, skimping on the gels and liquid carbohydrates her body desperately needed.
When she finally left that aid station 14 minutes later, she had dropped 10 places. The seven-mile climb to Foresthill took her almost three hours.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Her coach, Cliff Pittman, was candid about what went wrong.
She got behind on fueling, and that was a rookie mistake, and the chafing was something she never had to deal with before. We were at the 10-hour mark of running and we were in uncharted territory. She had never run that long before. So from that point on, she wasn’t going to be running fast. It was more about, ‘let’s just get to the finish.’
She Had Already Decided to Quit
Foresthill was supposed to be the end. Seidel had mentally committed to dropping out.
What changed her mind wasn’t a surge of athletic willpower — it was the people around her.
I had been fully planning on dropping out at Foresthill, but seeing the team and everybody really rallying for me was amazing. They were in it for the long haul and stuck with me through the entire night.
She pressed on with pacer Alyssa Clark, grinding through 18 miles at roughly 12-minute pace. At the 78-mile Rucky Chucky crossing, she waded through the American River at 8:24 p.m. — almost the exact moment women’s winner Jenn Lichter was crossing the finish line nearly 80 miles away.
That detail alone puts the scale of this race into perspective.
A Hypothermia Scare in the Dead of Night
Things got genuinely scary before dawn. By 2:25 a.m., at the Pointed Rocks aid station just 5.7 miles from the finish, Seidel was showing signs of hypothermia and one of her knees had become unstable.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Medical staff wrapped her knee. Her crew bundled her into a sleeping bag with hot water bottles.
Pittman kept the decision in her hands, refusing to push her either way.
She was having the full ultra experience, for sure. I kept saying, ‘this is your decision. I support you either way, no matter what you choose, I’m behind you.’ And after a few hours, she just said, ‘Let’s get it done,’ and she throws off the sleeping bags, puts on her shoes, and takes off running.
A second pacer, Jessa Hanson, joined her for the final four-mile stretch of trail. Her entire crew walked the last mile to the track alongside her.
Then Seidel ran the final meters alone — pulled off her sweatshirt, twirled it above her head, and crossed the line.
A Hard Lesson, But Not the Last Chapter
Seidel finished 28th among women and 141st overall, more than nine hours behind Lichter, who shattered the course record with a jaw-dropping 15:28:05.
None of that seemed to dim Seidel’s perspective on what the day meant.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
I feel like it’s been such a steep learning curve with all of this. It has been a really, really fast ramp up and I still have a lot to learn. So this was definitely a hard lesson to learn, but I’m grateful that I was able to stick through and still finish the race.
Recovery comes first — Seidel has the OCC 50K in Chamonix, France on her radar for late August — but she’s already set her sights on returning to Western States next year.
Given what she endured across 24-plus hours of racing on zero prior experience at this distance, the ultra world would be wise to take that seriously.
