Western States 100

I grew up in a small town with great history, and one thing that Auburn, CA holds as of utmost importance is our reputation of being the "Endurance Capitol of the World", a nickname we earned from hosting the finish lines of the Tevis Cup and the Western States 100 Endurance Run. Both of these races involve traversing the mountain trails from Squaw Valley to Auburn, the Tevis Cup by horse and the Western States by foot. Growing up my family occasionally drove out to the canyon overlook to watch the horses come up to their last checkpoint before the finish line, but never did we do the same for runners. This year, after being into running for nearly two years, I finally made it to the finish line of Western States to watch the first (and last) runners cross the finish line.

A little historical background on the Western States 100 and why it's such a big deal. WS is the oldest and most prestigious 100 mile trail run. It was stared in 1974 when Gordy Ainsleigh decided that he was going to run alongside the horses during the Tevis Cup, which he did in less than 24 hours. Since then, lots of people jump at the opportunity to run 100 miles in less than 30 hours, and the race now has a qualification and lottery process for registration. If you finish the race in under 24 hours you get the coveted silver belt buckle. Finish in under 30 but more than 24, bronze belt buckle.

The finish line!

After being involved in the running community more in the past two years, I was ecstatic that I was able to be at home that weekend and I specifically blocked out my late evening and morning to be at the finish line (on my high school track) to watch both the winners and the last runners come in. Using a combination of Twitter updates and the race's live tracker, I was able to keep tabs on the front runners throughout the day (the race starts at 5am). At 6:30pm we headed over to the high school because all afternoon the lead runner, Jim Walmsley had been pushing the course record, and with 15 miles to go was still on track to beat the 14:46 course record by at least 10 minutes. Unfortunately, upon our arrival at the high school track there was an announcement over the speaker that Walmsley had taken a wrong turn, which had set him off course by almost 2 miles. While I was sad that I wouldn't get to see the record broken, we did get to see Andrew Miller become the youngest ever winner of Western States at 20 years old. What an inspiration!

Andrew Miller, finishing strong

Just as inspiring was coming back to the finish line around 10:30am to watch the last half hour of finishers before the 30 hour cutoff. I can't even remote imagine running for 30 hours straight. It was heartbreaking to see people fall short of the 30 hour finish time, but they never gave up!!!

It was such an inspiring weekend, and it has me itching to get more involved with Western States. I still have zero desire to push myself through 100 miles, but I'm intrigued by the idea of pacing a runner or working on their crew, or maybe just volunteering at an aid station!

Had to get a shot of my high school