The Adventure List · Adventure route
Grand Slam of Ultrarunning
Western States in late June. Vermont 100 in July. Leadville in August. Wasatch Front in September. Four hundred-mile races in ten weeks, and fewer than twenty people usually finish all four in a year.
- Races
- 4 hundred milers
- Window
- ~10 weeks
- Total
- 400+ miles
- Total climbing
- ~60,000 ft
- Finishers
- Usually under 20 per year
- The gate
- Western States lottery
The Grand Slam is the oldest recognised multi-race challenge in American ultrarunning and it remains the benchmark. The four races are deliberately different: Western States is hot canyons, Vermont is rolling green farmland and horses, Leadville is altitude, and Wasatch is steep Utah mountain. Doing them well requires four different kinds of fitness inside ten weeks.
There are also alternative slams. The Last Great Race and various regional slams exist, and a growing number of runners construct their own. But the original four remain the one people mean.
How to get in
- LotteryWestern States is the bottleneck
You cannot plan a Grand Slam. You get drawn for Western States, and then you decide whether this is the year. Everything else in the Slam is gettable with planning; Western States is a one-percent lottery.
- Time qualifierGet into the other three
Vermont 100 has its own lottery or registration depending on the year, Leadville has a December lottery with no qualifier requirement plus the Race Series route, and Wasatch Front 100 runs a lottery with a volunteer and service component. All three are considerably more accessible than Western States.
Ten weeks, four races
| Race | When | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Western States 100 | Late June | Start |
| Vermont 100 | Mid-July | ~3 weeks |
| Leadville Trail 100 | Mid-August | ~4 weeks |
| Wasatch Front 100 | Early September | ~3 weeks |
- Run every race slower than you could. The Slam is finished by people who gave up their times, not by people who raced.
- Feet and GI are the two failure points. Both are cumulative.
- Do essentially no training between races. Walk, eat, sleep, and get to the next start line intact.
- Altitude before Leadville. Arrive early or accept a hard day.
- Have a crew who's in for the summer, not for one weekend.
Questions runners actually ask
What is the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning?
Finishing Western States 100, Vermont 100, Leadville Trail 100, and Wasatch Front 100 in the same summer, roughly ten weeks. Usually fewer than twenty people complete it in a year.
How do I get into all four races?
Western States is the bottleneck, with a lottery around one percent for first-year applicants. The other three are far more accessible, so most people build the Slam plan only after being drawn for Western States.
Go to the source
Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.
If this is your kind of thing
Want a coach for this one? Grand Slam of Ultrarunning rewards a plan more than it rewards enthusiasm. We match you with a RunRace USA coach who has taken runners to this kind of goal before, for $99 a month.
Need the races in between? The hard part of a big year is everything else on the calendar: the qualifier, the tune-up, the long run with a bib on.