100 x 100-milers

By Davy Crockett  Both a podcast episode and a full article (Listen to an old podcast episode too, with audio clips from some of the runners.)  Early history of 100-milers The sport of running 100 miles competitively has existed for multiple centuries. In the 1800s, the most prolific 100-mile runner was Frank Hart (1856-1908), a black runner from Boston, Massachusetts. He reached 100 miles in at least 85 of his races across his 25-year running career. Most of those races were six-day races where he usually ran far more than 300 miles. In the modern era, by the mid-1970s, running 100 miles in competition started to become more available to anyone. Before 1980, no one ran dozens of 100-milers during their running career, only a handful of 100s. Ultrarunning legend Ted Corbitt (1919-2007) ran fewer than ten 100-milers. By the end of 1999, a few prolific ultrarunners had piled up 100-mile race finishes. Richard and Sandra Brown of England were way out in front with 87 and 82, reaching 100 miles in both running and walking events. Ray Krolewicz of South Carolina was next with about 60 100-mile finishes to his name. Don Choi, the prolific multi-day runner from San Francisco, had more than 40 100-mile finishes but had retired from 100-mile running in 1997 at the age of 48. The world's greatest, Yiannis Kouros had an estimated 40 100-milers, most of them wins. As the decades passed, in 2026, there were 39 talented ultrarunners who had achieved 100 100 milers in organized races. Who are they? Recent News: Michael Ortiz, age 43, from Brooklyn, New York, finished his 100th race of at least 100 miles on July 26, 2026, at the Next Loop 100 in Roland, Arkansas. He became the 39th person in the world to reach this milestone. In addition, he accomplished finishing a 100-mile race in all 50 states.  He also proved that determined back-of-the-pack runners can achieve 100x100. Michael started running after his older brother, David Ortiz, died at the age of 29 after he was hit by multiple vehicles while riding his bicycle to work in San Diego in 2012. David was training for his first marathon at the time and never got a chance to run it. Michael ran the New York City Marathon in his honor. After David died, Michael realized that life is too short and unpredictable and made it a goal to live life to its fullest. He decided to run further and started ultrarunning in 2014. He finished his first 100-miler the following year. To push himself harder, Michael had a goal to complete 100 100-milers in 100 consecutive weeks in all 50 states, a challenge he called the Game of Hundos. This resulted in 43 official 100-mile finishes in 2019, and including unofficial 100s, he reached a streak of 69 weeks when the pandemic shutdown occurred. To continue, he set up a 40-foot track in his Brooklyn apartment and live-streamed 60 hours of running 13,200 loops around this track to complete 100 miles. He livestreamed his 100-mile runs for 9 more weeks (1,000 total miles in his living room) until the lockdown ended. After his Game of Hundos ended, Michael continued his journey to reach 100 official 100-mile finishes in order to join the 100x100 Club. Michael regularly competes in over 100 races per year, peaking at 128 recorded events in 2017 before focusing solely on 100s in late 2018. He lives bi-coastally, splitting his time equally each week between Los Angeles, where he works, and New York, where he lives. The 100x100 Club Determining how many 100-mile+ race finishes a person has is a hard task because there is no official list and no single database has a complete list of results. The criteria I and others in this "club" have used to count 100-mile races includes: An official race, overseen by a race director, where 100 miles (161 kms) or more is achieved within a 48-hour period. Results are found on ultrasignup.com, DUV database, or verified with a race director.