It’s been my experience that the shorter the period of time between finishing a race and writing the report the more effective in capturing the essence of the event. Since the
WSER I’
ve been balancing recovery with our family vacation to Yosemite, San Fran, Redwood Forest, Crater Lake, Oregon Coast, Mt
Ranier and Seattle.,,so I took notes the day after
WS which have now disappeared somehow on our travels, so here we go. There’s just no way around it, this is a long race report.
We arrived at Squaw Valley on Thursday and settled in at the Squaw Valley Lodge which is a stone’s throw to the
pre-race activities and starting line. Amie’s aunt and uncle welcomed her and the girls for the night to their place on Lake Tahoe affording me the luxury of a peaceful night’s sleep.
WSER is steep in ultra running history and is the 100 miler that attracts some of the best around to compete against one another. I decided months ago that I
wouldn’t let the hype of the event be a distraction, but to use it in my favor. After all, regardless of the popularity of the event I still had to be prepared to traverse 100 miles across the Sierra
Nevadas. Friday morning I decided to soak in the atmosphere at picturesque Squaw Valley while checking in, going through the standard
pre race medical check, picking up some sweet swag and finalizing drop bags for delivery. At 1:30 I attended the mandatory
pre-race meeting, delivered by Tim
Twietmeyer, 5 time winner of the race. Per tradition, the top 10 men and women runners were brought front and center and introduced. Between my daily cup of coffee, the energy of the meeting, and the anticipation of the race, I think I had enough energy to carry me 100 miles.
After issues with connecting flights, my pacer from CT,
Steve Nelson, arrived just prior to Amie and the kids. Steve was excited to be at Squaw and part of the event. I gave Steve a tour of the starting area, Olympic village, etc..before a pizza dinner with the crew. The kids quickly gave their approval of Steve after meeting him for the first time by awarding him “cool” status.
My goals and plan for the race: I went in confident that if I could manage the heat, only two things could prevent me from finishing within the 30 hour cut off time, 1. Injury, 2. Deviating from my nutrition plan and putting myself in a deficit that I
couldn’t climb out of. My plan was to move well early before the heat of the day would naturally slow me down. Focus on what I’d need heading into aid stations, get what I needed quickly, and get out. The goal was to move at a controlled pace, take what the day would give me, and hope that this would put me in a position to finish in less than 24 hours.
Saturday morning Amie and I headed over to the start area, took some pictures, and met up with Steve who introduced me to Michelle Roy from Massachusetts. After some brief comments by Tim
Tweitmeyer and Gordy
Ainsleigh we counted down from 10 and we were off and running.
2 comments:
Wow! Awesome race report! My dad forwarded it to me...I love the another east coast person comment. Congratulations! We were cheering for "Tolland" from our computers watching the live feed!
Julie Jakoboski
Post is preaty good…It was interesting to read it..beautiful fotos...I like them very much...Thank's author for that:)
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