Why marathons aren't enough for Anne Flower | 2026 People to Watch

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Anne Flower, 35, emergency room doctor and ultrarunning record breaker

Anne Flower continues to push the limits of the ultrarunning world, even after setting two records in 2025.

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Her momentous year started on June 28 in Leadville, Colorado, where she won a trail marathon in four hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds. She returned to Leadville two more times, winning the Silver Rush 50-mile race on July 12 and claiming the Race Across the Sky 100-mile title while breaking a 31-year-old course record with a time of 17:59:19.

"Leadville is incredible. It's one of the coolest mining towns in Colorado. It's also very, very high," Flower said. "You start before sunrise so you get to watch the sun rise over the mountains and then you run all day long through different parts of town."

She finished the year by winning the Tunnel Hill 50-mile race in Vienna, Illinois, in a new 50-mile world record time of 5:18:57. The old record was set in 2024 by Courtney Olsen, also at the flat, fast course at Tunnel Hill.

Flower has done all this while working long hours as an emergency room doctor.

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"There are some weeks where it's much harder to train than others, but I try to keep it under 16 shifts a month, which gives me a good number of days for long adventures in the mountains when I'm not working," Flower said.

Who is Anne Flower?

The 2008 Anderson High School graduate currently lives in Colorado Springs and works as an emergency room doctor in the University of Colorado Health system.

Locally, she is perhaps most well known for being one of three female multi-time winners of the Flying Pig Marathon. Her 2016 victory in 2:55:46 was actually her first attempt at the 26.2-mile distance. She came back in 2019 and broke the tape in 2:49:17, one minute and nine seconds faster than eventual three-time champion Caitlin Keen.

Flower admitted that she was a better soccer player than a runner in high school, but living in the western U.S. has brought out her adventurous side. Her running career has taken off in the past decade because she "really likes getting to places that people can only get on feet."

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"It's definitely been an interesting trajectory. Even when road marathons were going well, I was so deep in medical training that running was never anything that I thought that I would either be very good at or have be something that was very important in my life," Flower said. "But I'm loving being good at it right now. It's a ton of fun and I'm super curious what I can do."

What ultramarathons are on Anne Flower's 2026 calendar?

Flower will be taking on the Black Canyon 100-kilometer race on Feb. 8-9 in Phoenix. If she completes the course in under 17 hours, she will qualify for the Western States 100-mile race in California, which she described as the Super Bowl of United States ultrarunning.

Black Canyon can also earn her qualification points toward Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, which takes place every August in Chamonix, France, and is considered the pinnacle of international ultramarathoning.

With the race taking place during one of the slower months of the calendar and an intermediate course difficulty, Flower expects a deep and talented field to show up.

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"It's a really good race for me in the sense that it's got some hills but it's very runnable. It's not a big high mountain race so it should be pretty fast," Flower said.

She is also planning on running the Canyons 100k in April, which runs along part of the Western States course.

Flower hasn't given the Flying Pig much thought lately but won't rule out a return to Cincinnati down the road. She said she could run it as a build-up to a longer race if it fits into her schedule.

"I'd love to run it again in some capacity, even if I'm not going for the win," Flower said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati native Anne Flower now a nationally-known ultrarunner