He won a 100-mile endurance race in the Sierra Nevada on his first try. What’s next?

Adam Peterman won the 2022 Western States Endurance Run this Saturday, coming in first across the finish line at Placer High School in his 100-mile debut.

Peterman, 26, hails from Missoula, Montana and has been trail-running for the past three years. He completed the race in 15 hours and and 13 minutes, but said that the possibility of winning was not on his mind until halfway through the race.

“Thinking about winning a 100-mile race just stressed me out to think about,” Peterman said. “In my mind, just running 100 miles was this big accomplishment. That was kind of my mindset going in, like, ‘Hey, I trained really hard and I know I’m a good runner. If I just run my own race, hopefully that shakes out to me finishing well.’”

The world’s oldest 100-mile trail race, the Western States Endurance Run begins in Olympic Valley, California and ends 100.2 miles later at Placer High School’s LeFebvre Stadium in Auburn. Runners climb more than 18,000 feet and descend more than 23,000 feet over the course of the route, according to the race’s website.

Runners pass through remote and rugged territory, according to the website, traveling through backwoods trails and fording the American River near the Rucky Chucky crossing.

Temperatures in Auburn peaked on Saturday at 101 degrees, but Peterman said he rarely felt overheated, noting that his team of supporters throughout the race had provided him enough water to stay cool and that he had prepared with a week of heat training in Arizona.

With the race over, Peterman has been catching up on sleep and plans to go camping with his girlfriend on their drive back to Montana over the next several days. He is already thinking ahead to next year’s Western States Endurance Run.

“The course record is (14 hours and 9 minutes) and that is just an amazing time,” Peterman said. “I’d love to try to go for it and run a faster time. I think that might be something I’m capable of, and I’d love to give it a shot.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 6:00 AM.