I survived the Western States 100 mile race from Squaw Valley near lake Tahoe to Auburn Washington.
Todd Ragsdale and Esther came with in my folks' camper-van. They were my crew, meeting me at 4 places along the route with fresh socks and tapioca pudding. They were also my pacers for the last 38 miles, which actually was quite a blessing. Todd can talk the paint off the wall, which helped the miles go by.
I tried not to get worn out too fast, but still started feeling poorly just 2/5th the way into the race. Before this I would have thought 13:45 per mile was pretty lame, but there was a lot of uphill (18,000') and I didn't/couldn't go fast on the downhill (23,000').
Bev Abbs and a bunch of other people passed me. But on the other hand, a bunch of really good runners didn't finish. I was 46th of the 238 finishers and 400 starters. I don't know if or when I'd do this race again. I've been going easy on the running since then, but I'm looking at doing Where's Waldo 100k on Aug 22nd.
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5 comments:
Are we going to see pictures from the top of Adams and Rainier?
i can't imagine. so you ran in the mountains for over 20 hrs straight?
WOOT! Go DAD!
Adams and Rainier pictures are on olsenrefuge.blogspot.com.
I walked the uphills, but yes, I only stopped to water the bushes and at some aid stations to eat soup and patch up blisters.
Wow! You're amazing! You ran so far the color on your shorts couldn't keep up. If it weren't for the green bushes, I'd swear that was a black and white photo.
Since many of us live (and exercise) vicariously through you, we just have to say, "Keep on running".
- Mike
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