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After watching the first 20-odd finishers cross the finish line of the 2025 Western States 100 in Auburn, California, I drove across town and crawled into my hotel bed, falling asleep just after midnight. I had been following the race for almost twenty hours and was a dehydrated shell of myself, but instead of sleeping in, I made sure to set my alarm for the most magical part of the race: Golden Hour.
From 10 to 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, the bleachers, sidelines, and infield at the Placer High School track fill with thousands of spectators—multiples more than when the winners cross the line the evening before—to cheer the final finishers of the country’s most prestigious ultra. The energy is electric as runners summon their last reserves to get to the line before the 30-hour cutoff.
To be clear, nearly all Golden Hour finishers aren’t professional athletes. They’re committed age groupers who got into the race through the lottery. They have full-time jobs, families, and busy lives outside of training. And they have been running, shuffling, and hiking across the dusty and disgustingly hot Sierra (temperatures rose to 99 degrees this year) for almost thirty hours, non-stop. In the final quarter mile of the 100-mile race, runners enter the track and are greeted by loud howls from fervent fans.
This phenomenon represents something increasingly rare in modern athletics: a celebration of human grit, beyond the trappings of manufactured drama seen in professional sports. Golden Hour delivers raw, unscripted emotion as ordinary people complete something extraordinary. It shows that sports can still be more than championships, fame, and money, revealing the willpower of individuals and camaraderie in all of us. Golden Hour is the best hour in running because it embodies the soul of ultrarunning, supporting those who have been out on the course the longest, rather than those who cover it the fastest—and I hope it never dies.
Starting at sunrise, the energy at the finish begins to crescendo, peaking during Golden Hour. Here, Sierra DeGroff of Las Vegas, Nevada, finishes solo, while others cross the line with a pacer or support crew.
Positioned on the final corner, a drum group from Sacramento Taiko Dan performs during Golden Hour, adding to the electric atmosphere of the stadium.
Mark Valites from Hamburg, New York, finishes Western States as rows of photographers capture the moment. Despite being the 249th person to cross the line, the crowd erupts loudly for him.
As the clock ticks over 29:30, more and more fans continue to fill the bleachers, collectively offering every finisher a loud standing ovation.
Spectators line both sides of the track, helping bring runners to the finish line. Here, Daniel Cirstoveanu from Bucharest, Romania, rounds the final corner toward the finish.
Supported by raucous cheers from the crowd, Nate Lewis from Vancouver, Washington, flanked by his support crew, finishes with just 26 minutes to spare.
Clad in Hawaiian shirts, Carrie Meng from Flagler Beach, Florida, surrounded by her support crew finishes Western States, as the energy around the track continues to build.
With an emphatic celebratory scream, Colin Anderson from Glasgow, Great Britain, finishes Western States, surrounded by his family.
Running his final few steps of the race, Carter Duerksen from Reno, Nevada, high fives the crowd, on his way to the finish.
Lee Dunstall from Pevensey, Great Britain, becomes 272nd person to cross the line, helped to the finish by his pacer and support crew.
Margaret Branick-Abilla from Half Moon Bay, California, is the second to last finisher of the 2025 edition of the race, crossing the line with just four minutes to spare.
The crowd, realizing that there won’t be many finishers left, gets even louder, hoping to cheer just a few more people to get to the finish before the rest are officially categorized as DNF. For the first time this year, the first unofficial finisher, Neeraj Egbert from Louisville Kentucky, earned a “Golden Hour” Ticket into the 2026 Western States 100.
The final finisher of Western States, Tatsuro Aoyama from Tokyo, Japan, crosses the line and collapses on the track, before being helped to the medical tent by race staff.
In this year’s race, 64 runners crossed the finish line during Golden Hour, before the clock hits thirty hours and the race officially ends, with a serene stillness washing over the crowd.
