Western States 100 2018

(This is last year's post which has a link to the year before which I think has links to others, in case this is your first Race report and you don't understand what is happening!)


I'm not sure where to even start! It seems like the details are always the same - we drive to Auburn on Friday, stay at the Motel 6, head to Quarry Road, etc...

This year, Dad and I had the added adventure that he was trying the Keto diet and I was trying to stay mostly Vegan. It made eating out a challenge but one we happily accepted! For dinner we tried the Black Bear Diner. It is a chain with about 20 restaurants in CA. We'd seen billboards along our drive up the 99 and always considered it in Auburn but just never tried it. Well, we sure are glad we did! Dad had the best omelette ever (he said so!) and I can't remember what I ate!! I'm sure it was breakfast - french toast maybe?! But it was so good we went back there for breakfast!! Partly because the Denny's across the street from the Motel 6 was closed. Closed! Denny's don't close! I mean, permanent, weeds growing in the parking lot kind of closed! The guy at the Motel 6 said he didn't know what happened; it was just closed one day. Interesting! We really didn't mind going to the Black Bear again!!

We, of course, had plenty of time before we needed to head out to Quarry Road so we drove through town and stopped at the Auburn Running Company. I had been pondering a new hydration pack because I wanted more pockets, and more functional pockets. I tried this one on and took a pic so I could shop for it elsewhere. Then I decided that I would rather give my money to ARC so I bought it!! It is SO comfortable - hardly know I'm wearing it! And it has the fancy soft bottles. (Now that I've used it a couple times, I'll tell you I use one bottle for my Nuun electrolyte and the other pocket for my phone, with the extra bottle getting swapped out midrun, if I ever go that far).

We checked in at Net Control and drove off to Quarry Road. We were of course early and there well before the Aid Station folks. We set up a little but luckily not everything because we ended up moving once everyone was there. We listened for runners getting to the aid stations before us. Jim Walmsley was in the lead by quite a bit (it's a Job thing, go read the last two year's posts!). Once he left ALT (the station before us), I went up the trail to where the aid station used to be, about 3/4 of a mile, so I could radio back that he was on his way. THIS time, he was smiling, chatty, and all around looked like he was having a great day. I radioed and took off running after him. I wanted to see how much longer it took me! Now, it's downhill the entire way and I ran almost all of it - likely more than I would have if just out on a run. It took Jim SIX minutes. Me? twelve. Not bad!! Jim went on to win the race in a new course record of 14 and a half hours!! 

I have no idea when or why I took this! Looks like before anyone else got there though.

I really shouldn't have waited 2+ months to write this because I'm having trouble remembering much about the night! We saw a LOT of runners. Except for the hour between Jim and the next guy, we never really had more than 5 minutes between runners. Seriously, it was a steady stream of runners and pacers for HOURS. 

The Aid Station crew chose the 70's as their theme this year. Tie-dye tablecloths and t-shirts, weed (yes, really), and decent music. It was pretty much the same group as every year, plus a few newbies. Always fun to share the night with them. 

Dad and I packed up and drove home. He actually let me drive most of the way!! We got back to my house to see very happy puppies. My buddy Jacob had taken very good care of them! 

The only non-race excitement is that I spent most of the drive up trying to lock down a 4th reference for a job at Connections Academy. See the next post...