Adventures in Onionism

I ran the 50th Western States Endurance Run June 24-25 in a disappointing 28:54.  I mean, 50 years ago a guy ran a horse race, and 47 times since then a footrace of similar distance has been held. (There was one fire cancellation and one COVID cancellation.) So it's kind of the 48th running in the 50th year, but whatever. By disappointing I mean it took me longer than 24 hours, and it took me longer than the 25:30 it took me when I did it 10 years ago. (And by 10 years ago I mean 10 years, not eight, though I believe I applied eight times in those 10 years, having not bothered to apply in 2014, and if I remember correctly, COVID meant they rolled over 2020 without a new lottery.) I trained hard and consistently from early March through May 20, going as far as hiring an online coach. That seemed to work well, until it didn't. I hurt my hamstring running the Silver State 50K (more on that in my previous post ) and babied my hamstring for the final five weeks prior to Western Stat...

Lottery season is upon us. I've gone through different mental phases in the past 9 months or so since I knew I'd be moving to DC. At first, I decided I would survive mentally by becoming fast again. Once upon a time (2004 or so) I was sort of fast, and I ran a 3:00:23 marathon, and those 23 seconds annoy me, especially since I could have broken 3 had I not enjoyed myself too much from mile 24 to 25. I had ~15 minutes for the last 2.2, but the first mile of that was probably my slowest mile of the entire day, and I couldn't make it up in the last 1.2. To get fast again, I would have to run more road, do track workouts, and I probably couldn't bring George along, since he wants to stop and pee all the time. Somehow, I thought this was what I'd want to do in DC, because if trails suck or are nonexistent, then I have to run road, and if I run road, then I might as well do it fast to get it over with. After thinking that for a few months, I started thinking that ma...

From the official race photographer, maybe? Facchino Photography. Crazy expensive, as usual, but there are some good shots , including me crossing the finish line. Speaking of the finish line, here's a brief clip of video after crossing the finish line via Ashley. Unfortunately she stopped it before the dry heaving (and you'll have to forgive the vertical video ). But you can still get the sense I didn't want people bugging me.

Glenn Tachiyama got a couple photos of me during States. Here and here . Unfortunately it looks like I was walking in one of them. Based on who I'm pictured with, I think this was between Devil's Thumb and Michigan Bluff, but it's hard to tell. h/t ZG for finding the photos.

Luis Escobar posted his photo of me at the finish line. It's here , public on fb. I was not kissing the track, I was dry heaving. Also, here's mile 30 to 96 of the race from my GPS.

I finished the Western States 100 yesterday. It may have been the best run of my life; it was certainly the most enjoyable 100-mile race. Here are way more details than you could ever want. It was really hot. I knew that going in. I ran as a pacer from mile 62 at Foresthill to the river at mile 78 in 2005, and I fastpacked the course on a hot Labor Day weekend in 2008, and posted this report . The route I took then was different in a few sections, and I saw places at different times of day, but it was vaguely helpful to be a little familiar with the course, and to know how hot it could get. After the fastpacking, I didn't really love the course, and wasn't hugely interested in running the race. The best, and only above treeline, scenery comes in the first 4 miles, and then you're on hard dirt or gravel roads much of the rest of the way. But after the race, I'm a convert. I went up to Tahoe on Thursday to turn in my drop bags and attend an info meeting early Fri...

It will be sunny on race day. None of this unseasonably cool nonsense.

Silver buckle or vomit a lot trying.

Sure, I can go wander around some slot canyons with gf after a decent 100-miler, but I couldn't do this: