Built by Women, for Women: SHEastern States 2026
- Ben Mazur
- May 26
- 11 min read
For this edition of Rocksylvania Dispatch, I’m stepping aside and handing the writing reins to Nicole Werner — co-founder of SHEastern States Weekend, 2022 Eastern States 100 finisher, and founder of Linva Consulting and Coaching.
Nicole reflects on this year’s SHEastern States: a deliberately created space for women to come together on the legendary Eastern States course and discover what happens when challenge, community, and shared purpose intersect. Through hard climbs, shared miles, and mutual support, runners met the terrain on their own terms while building camaraderie rooted in encouragement, resilience, and the understanding that no one gets left behind.
Built by Women, for Women: SHEastern States 2026
A Weekend on the Eastern States Course That Changed Everything
By Nicole Werner
It was Friday night at Ponderosa Lodge. Tired legs everywhere, warm dinner finished, and the stories had started. The good ones. The kind that comes out when everyone in the room has been through something together. I was sitting there on crutches.
A stress fracture had sidelined me two weeks before what was supposed to be my next hundred-miler. I’d shown up anyway, same as I’d planned: to volunteer, to run the show alongside my co-founder and Eastern States 100 Race Director Jade Oakes, our logistics guru Janice Hartkorn, and 12 experienced trail guides. The plan was the same, but the context was completely different. Instead of tapering, I was watching other women move through mountains I’d trained for, from the only seat available to me.
Turns out that was exactly where I needed to be.
Then Nora started talking. Earlier that day, on the Friday run, less than halfway through a 13-mile stretch, the group had paused at the top of a steep climb. Exposed, gravelly, the kind of rare Eastern States section that feels like a fire road before the trail pulls you back in. And standing there, Nora said the thing out loud she’d been carrying.
“Who am I to be out here. To think I can tackle a race like Eastern States.” — Nora, SHEastern runner
She is registered for World’s End 100K, chasing the Triple Crown, and she asked if anyone else was in it too - would anyone suffer alongside her? There were no takers. Everyone was either volunteering or racing elsewhere in the series.
That’s when Maggie moved.
She started by banishing the negative self-doubts out loud. Then she laid her hands on Nora’s head and spoke directly to what Nora was afraid of:
“You WILL succeed at World’s End and accomplish the Triple Crown and Blacklist. I speak this into existence.” — Maggie, SHEastern runner
Nora called it an exorcism. The room didn’t argue.
What stuck with Nora wasn’t just the words. It was what the moment meant: the self-doubt going out, something else coming in. The support and encouragement of women who knew that fear because they’d carried it themselves.
Here’s what made the room go quiet: while Nora was saying all of that, Maggie was standing there remembering how scared she’d been before her own first World’s End 100K in 2024. She knew that fear from the inside. The year before, at SHEastern States, Maggie was the one who struggled, who had to rebuild her confidence on these very trails before she could show up the way she showed up for Nora. The woman casting out the doubt had, not long ago, been drowning in it.
The very next weekend after SHEastern, history was being made in Arizona. At the 2026 Cocodona 250, Rachel Entrekin became the first woman ever to win a 250-mile race outright. Not the women’s division, the whole field. She finished in 56:09:48, breaking the overall course record by more than two hours and shaving seven hours off her own time from the year before. Remarkable doesn’t quite cover it.
Ann Trason, the female pioneer of ultrarunning, was on Instagram doing her hysterical “Coke and Donuts” commentary series. Long after the leaders had finished, she was still watching runners come in, and she said something I haven’t been able to shake:
“Sometimes you get the finish line. Sometimes you get the truth.” — Ann Trason, Trail Running Pioneer & Ultrarunning Champion
SHEastern States is a truth weekend. Full stop.
HOW WE GOT HERE
In 2023, I had an idea and Jade breathed it into life. Take the Eastern States 100 course, 103 miles through Pennsylvania’s Wilds, more than 20,000 feet of climbing, some of the most demanding trails on the East Coast and create a space for women to get their feet on it. Not race it, no time goals or competition, just feel it. The burn of the climbs, the flow of the descents, the roots and rocks and stream crossings under the gorgeous canopy, and the particular way your legs (and honestly your whole self) feel at the end of a day when you did something genuinely hard.
Jade brought it to ESTEA, the Eastern States Trail-Endurance Alliance that stewards these trails and manages the race, whose support made the weekend financially accessible. A community of women made it real: volunteers, trail leaders, educators, organizers who believe more women should be on these mountains. That’s still the model. Built by women, for women, in every sense of both words.
“In that first year, we had no idea if anyone would sign up. But we built it and they came. And they continue to come, while we continue to build.” — Jade Oakes, co-Race Director, Eastern States 100 and co-founder, SHEastern States
This year’s routes were entirely new. Participants covered more than 50 miles during the weekend, a night run, moving through Aid Stations 3 through 5, 7 through 10, and the stretch from Aid Station 14 through the finish. HOKA brought shoes for the women to try on the trails and headlamps to light up the Thursday night trail run. ESTEA covered lodging for all participants for the full weekend, a deliberate choice to reduce financial barriers and keep the focus where it belongs: on the experience, the trails, and each other.
FEELING THE COURSE
I know these trails. I ran Eastern States in 2022 and have spent years adventuring with friends and “finding truth”. The muscle memory of those climbs is specific and physical. I can feel certain sections in my legs just thinking about them. I remember being stopped by a noisy coiled rattler blocking the trail after climbing out of Hyner during a hot training run. One year the moths climbing out slate run left a coating of dust on our faces and the knife grass was so high between Blackwell and Skytop I was left with hives so angry that I declared I was never coming back. During the race at Blackwell, my young daughter whispered in my ear with conviction what I knew was impossible, “Keep going mom, you’re in second and can catch her.” Watching other women move through terrain I know that well in my heart, body, and soul, from the ground, on crutches, is a strange experience. Clarifying, too.
This year we had multiple Eastern States podium finishers either volunteering or participating in SHEastern, including Justyna Wilson, who took the overall win in 2022 and 2025 and has raced ES100 three times – we are all hoping this year will make four. More than ten women who’d run the full course were there, alongside others who had paced, crewed, or volunteered. All of us came back for the same reason: to make sure more women get to feel what we feel out there.
The terrain earns that loyalty. The ridge traverses in the Aid Station 7 through 10 section deliver views that show up exactly when your legs are questioning everything. The steep technical descents require full presence. You cannot zone out on Eastern States trail, which means for a few hours, nothing else exists. For a lot of participants, that enforced presence is actually the point.
The distance is real. The climbing is real. None of it gets softened because it’s a supported weekend. The context just changes how you meet it.
WHAT HAPPENS OUT THERE
Trail guide volunteer Rhiannon led one of the group runs this year. On these trails, individual success becomes collective. Nobody planned it that way. It’s just what happens.
“A runner who fully planned to drop after 13.4 miles decided she could do it. Julia ran her longest run to date, and we celebrated in the woods along the trail as a group. All of these moments of fully embodied collective support across the group made it memorable and valuable for everyone.” — Rhiannon, SHEastern States trail guide
Julia was that runner. She’d signed up for the weekend with a plan to stop at 13.4 miles. Reasonable, given her experience on the trails up until now. And then somewhere out there, with a group of women around her who weren’t going to let the day end early without a conversation about it, she kept going. Her longest run ever.
“Saturday was my longest run of my life, and I got to complete that run with women that have done 100-mile races. There wasn’t a moment that I felt intimidated or less than. I left the weekend feeling so grounded, calm and refreshed (mentally — not my legs, those are not refreshed LOL).” — Julia, SHEastern States 2026 runner
Celebrated in the woods, not at a finish line. That’s the thing.
Rhiannon’s group also did something on the final day I haven’t stopped thinking about. Coming down Panther Run, they staged a visualization for the women registered for ES100: volunteers calling out fake bib numbers and hometowns as runners crossed the field toward the pavilion. A rehearsal for a moment still months away for some of them. They ran through it laughing. They also ran through it like they meant it.
“Showing the women the trails I love, being part of their experience on them, being part of their journey doing hard things, setting big goals, and helping them realize they’re capable of so much more.” — SHEastern States volunteer
HOME BASE
After a long day on trail, everyone comes back to Ponderosa Lodge. A true wooded retreat of 235 wooded acres, nine bedrooms, five bathrooms, a commercial kitchen, a fireplace. Enough shared space that the conversations kept going long after the runs ended. Jade, Janice, the trail guides and I held the logistics so no one else had to think about them.
“How simple you made it for us to go through the weekend without thinking. The logistics were ON POINT! Also, I realized that I didn’t do a single dish all weekend… I mean just everything was taken care of.” — SHEastern States 2026 participant
That’s the goal. Themed aid stations, a MacGyver clinic to trick out your pack, nutrition and pacing and crewing workshops, evening storytelling. This year 35 race directors from across the US donated entries to a raffle. All of it adds up to a weekend that feels effortless because a lot of people worked hard to make it that way.
WHAT THE MIX PRODUCES
SHEastern draws women across the full experience spectrum. First-time aspiring ultra runners alongside women who’ve paced friends through hundreds of miles and some who’ve dabbled on urban gravel paths. That mix isn’t accidental. It’s the whole point.
“I went into this weekend with the goal to make friends and enjoy the trails and every run I was smiling ear to ear, having the best time. I made friends that I’ll have for a lifetime and can’t wait to enjoy more miles and smiles with these ladies!” — SHEastern States 2026 runner
Something shifts in a room full of tired women who’ve been through something together. The guard comes down. The real conversations start. Where people actually are in their running, their lives, their sense of what they’re capable of. You can’t schedule that. You can only create the conditions for it.
I watched that happen all weekend - in the cab of the van on the way to a trailhead, around the dinner table at Ponderosa, on a ridge with views that make you stop walking for a second whether you planned to or not. Women who arrived as strangers left as something else entirely.
“Seriously one of the best weekends of my life. I drove home crying happy tears in awe of the entire experience.” — SHEastern States 2026 runner
Maggie and Nora are what that looks like in practice. Two women, different histories on this course, one moment on a Pennsylvania mountain where Maggie gave Nora something she’d had to find the hard way herself. That’s the loop closing. That’s why people come back.
At the end of the weekend, Maggie walked over and pulled an ES100 2027 entry off the wall. She signed up. The woman who struggled here last year, who showed up this year to hold someone else up, is going back to do the hundred. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
HOKA’s investment in SHEastern goes beyond a logo on a banner. Colleen Moffatt, who is on the marketing team for HOKA has been on this course. She was the ES100 2023 women’s 2nd place finisher. She gets it and so does HOKA, “Trail running and racing aren’t equally accessible to everyone, and putting more women on trail, not just inspiring them to want it someday, is worth HOKA investing in.” SHEastern is one place that investment becomes real.
WHAT IT MEANS FROM CRUTCHES
On the last night, after the cabin stories had wound down and we gathered for a small team debrief, one of our volunteers, Erica stopped and said something I wasn’t expecting.
“I just want to recognize how grateful I am for this group of women who has an idea, says yes, and brings it to life. That’s rare and we’re it.” — Erica Gaffney, SHEastern States volunteer
Erica finished ES100 in 2022 and 2025 and she’s been involved with supporting and shaping SHEastern since it was just an idea. Our conversation on the trails is where these nuggets of ideas ignite and start to turn into reality. Moving through the trails side by side sharing your hopes, dreams, fears, and joy lasts more than a weekend and means more than a buckle – even an Eastern States 00 buckle.
“What started as a hopeful idea has grown into something far bigger than we imagined. SHEastern States has evolved into more than a training weekend. It’s a community, a confidence builder, and one of those rare moments in life where you know you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.” — Jade Oakes, co-Race Director, Eastern States 100 and co-founder, SHEastern States
Jade has been in it from the beginning. She knows what it took to get here, the early uncertainty, the logistics that nearly broke us, the moment year one when we realized it was actually working. Hearing her say that lands differently when you know the whole arc.
I don’t entirely know what to do with that when you’re on crutches, a week out from a race you spent six months training for that you won’t be running, watching other women move through mountains you’ve raced and loved. It’s a lot of things at once. Pride, grief, gratitude, the particular ache of knowing exactly how good that trail feels under your feet when you can’t feel it.
But watching instead of running meant I actually saw it. Really saw it. Maggie doing an exorcism on a gravel hill. Julia deciding she wasn’t done at 13.4 miles. Women finding something in themselves on climbs they didn’t know they could finish. A group running through a fake finish line in a field and meaning every step of it.
SHEastern States was built on a simple belief: these trails have something to offer women beyond a race result. That getting your feet on this dirt, feeling the burn of the climbs, the flow of the descents, the rocks and roots and stream crossings, and making it to the end of a day knowing it was hard, but you did it, is worth building a whole weekend around. Our bonds run dirt deep.
Turns out it’s worth watching, too.
Ann Trason was right. Sometimes you get the finish line.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky enough to be in the right room, on the right mountain, with the right women, you get the truth.
[Learn more at easternstates100.com/sheastern]
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