You’re Doing What?

November 16th, 2008 Posted in Introduction

For the uninitiated, a few comments on exactly what this is all about.  I like to run long trail races, called ultra runs, which take place on mountain trails.  (I know, it’s a really defective gene :-).  Ultras usually are distances of 50K (31 miles) and longer.  The Western States is a 100 mile trail run (WS) commencing at the base of Squaw Valley, CA (near Lake Tahoe) and terminating in Auburn, CA, tracing much of the original pony express trail through old mining towns like Deadwood, Michigan Bluff, Robinson’s Flat and Last Chance.

The scenery is breathtaking and the terrain rugged.  WS travels through four canyons, paralleling the American River.  There is 43,000′ of vertical (up and down) and since the race runs in late June, the heat is usually a factor (100-120 degrees). To give you some perspective, the graph below shows a comparison of the Boston Marathon course overlaid on top of the WS altitude profile.

Since I’ve had the privilege of running both events, I can attest to the accuracy of this chart!

The run will last up to 30 continuous hours.  We run through the night, in the dark, forge a river, yadda, yadda.  Consider it an adventure.  To even get into WS you must run a 50 mile race in a qualifying time of 11 hours and then get picked in a lottery.  The chances of me getting picked this year was 20%.  Thus, as you’ll read below, I took this as a “lucky signal” and headed for Vegas.

WS runs on June 27th.  This blog will chronicle my preparation and thoughts along the way.