Monday, June 19, 2006

Western States runners, this Mai Tai is for you!

I wanted to give a shout out to all you Western States runners, and wish you the best of luck this Saturday. I'll be at a wedding in Hawaii, doing my best to follow the race via webcast in between Mai Tai's.

(Just 100.2 miles to the finish!)

The Auburn Journal noted that there will be 458 starters this year tackling the potentially record-high heat (see article here). Great quotes from Bev Abbs, Alan Abbs, Rena Schumann, and Mark Lantz. With Jurek sitting this one out, the top spot is up for grabs. Alan Abbs summed it up perfectly by saying "A lot of people are going to go out hard thinking this is going to be their year, but it's going to get hot, so we'll see what happens."

(How much do you love your sponsor? As much as Sunsweet's Meghan Arboghast?
Be sure to say 'hi' to Meghan when she passes you at States!)

I would especially like to say "break a leg" to the following Western States athletes/volunteers whom I've met in the last couple of years - Tim Tweitmeyer (going for #25!), John Ticer, Craig Thornley (#5!), Annette Bednosky, Bev and Alan Abbs, Dean Karnazes (#11!), Rena Schumann (#9!), Rick Gaston (#1!), Mark Lantz, Chase Duarte, Gordy Ainsleigh (#21!), Marty and Karyn Hoffman, Andy Jones-Wilkins, Chikara Omine, Kami Semick, Julie Fingar, Eric Blumenau, Graham Cooper, Don Lundell and Gillian Robinson (Go Zombies!), Betsy Nye, Whit Rambach, Greg Soderlund, the Klein's, Simon Mtuy, Catra Corbett (first ever double-Western States!), and the many, many others.

You've clocked your miles - now go out there and have a great race!

May the trail spirits be with you,

SD
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11 comments:

  1. 21st Century Mom6/19/2006 06:20:00 PM

    If you haven't read it you might want to take "Ultra Marathon Man" (the book, not the guy) with you on the plane. That way you can really feel the pain while you watch that webcast!

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  2. 21st Century Mom6/19/2006 06:21:00 PM

    oops - should have looked at your profile first.

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  3. Anonymous6/19/2006 07:04:00 PM

    Tell me that's not a TATTOO? How dedicated is that?

    You're lucky, Scott. Inov-8 is a much smaller logo. I expect to see it shaved into the back of your head for Tahoe Rim Trail.

    Nick

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  4. Anonymous6/19/2006 08:58:00 PM

    She's bringing all the supplies to Squaw Valley, too!
    WT

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  5. Olga6/20/2006 07:06:00 AM

    Meghan is awesome! May she speed in the heat with a buz-cut!

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  6. kate6/27/2006 03:25:00 PM

    Hi Scott..now that WS100 is over, would be interesting to see why so many had drops- DNF's. It was so hot last weekend- we were up at Tahoe, and I felt for the runners. Why did Tim T. and others make it and so many good runners not make it? Can you ask some of them what happened?

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  7. Rick Gaston6/27/2006 05:35:00 PM

    Thanks for the well wishes Scott. We needed it. It was brutal out there. For me personally it wasn't the heat that unraveled my race but the water on the course; the snow, puddles, mud and stream crossings. Moisture separated the duct tape from my feet and by mile 48 I had blisters, got worse and worse and by mile 70 I was no longer running the race I had envisioned. Persevered and finished but it was brutal. Pics on my blog.

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  8. Rick Gaston6/27/2006 06:13:00 PM

    P.S.
    I hope you had a great time in Hawaii. I spent part of my growing years there. Good places to run.

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  9. Anonymous6/27/2006 07:30:00 PM

    where is your blog, rick?

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  10. Rick Gaston6/27/2006 11:33:00 PM

    http://365ultra.blogspot.com/
    Funny, not sure why it's not displaying on my profile. hmm....

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  11. Anonymous6/28/2006 07:13:00 AM

    nice blog- I will read it, Rick. Bummer about WS. Have you tried Injinji socks? they work well...keep up the good work!

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