The 2022 Western States Endurance Run, the granddaddy of American ultramarathons, begins tomorrow (June 25) at 5:00 a.m. PDT. 384 runners, ranging from 21 to 67, will attempt 100.2 miles with 41,060 feet of elevation change. Anyone else planning to follow it?
Some interesting stories in this race. I’ll be paying attention to Jim Howard, who first raced WSER in 1978 and won it in 1983, and will attempt to finish again, at the age of 67. Got to root for the grandmaster athletes!
Neither of last year’s champions have entered this year, which means this will be the first time in three years that the men’s champion will not be named Jim Walmsley. Last year’s runner up on the women’s side, Ruth Croft, ran a blazing time that just wasn’t quite fast enough to overtake winner Beth Pascall. But with Pascall and two other top ten finishers out, this might be Croft’s year. On the other hand, Camille Herron is probably looking to redeem her finish from last year, when she ran hard for most of the race, but hit a wall and struggled to finish 26th. Last year’s race had three women in the top ten overall finishers and 10 in the top 21, (including the Pixie Ninja Kaci Lickteig, who’s a favorite of mine), so it will be interesting to see if the women continue to make up ground on the men.
On the men’s side, I dunno. Jared Hazen will be back, two years after running the second-fastest time in race history. As will Tim Tollefson, last year’s runner-up Tyler Green, and one of Walmsley’s Coconino Cowboy training partners, Hayden Hawks. Meh, I got no idea - I’m always more intrigued by the women’s race.
I’ll follow along with the www.irunfar.com coverage, of course. But honestly, I’m a little more excited for the Hardrock 100 next month - François D’haene will be trying to defend his title against Kilian Jornet, which ought to make for a hell of a race. On the women’s side, we’ll see Courtney Dauwalter, who’s just a machine on the trails. Darcy Piceu, as well.
Past experience tells me there aren’t many ultra fans on SDMB, but I’m throwing it out there if anyone’s interested.