At the beginning of this Thanksgiving week, I have too many blessings to be thankful for and appreciative of to list, but one rises above the others for very different and personal reasons. Family, friends, good health and fortune aside, I am humbled, thrilled and excited to be chosen to run in the 2015 Western States 100 Endurance Run, representing the Peachstone (Cal 2) Aid Station. As fate or destiny would have it, I landed among this special group of volunteers working this tiny oasis of an aid station on the trail a few years ago. I was not expecting to stay long, but my pacing job ended prematurely as my runner dropped out there due to injury. Being stranded, I ended up changing gears and helping out with things through the night and then assisted with the breakdown and equipment load-out until dawn. I made some new friends, shared a few laughs and felt good afterward that I had helped out, even for just a short while. Needless to say, I was pretty speechless when I received an email offering me their aid station entry as an alternate since their designated runners werent ready or did not have a qualifying race as required. This reality is starting to sink in finally and get very real now that the race lottery is a couple weeks away and the excitement builds for those hoping to be drawn December 6th and included as one of the 370 or so participants in the big show. I have always considered and thought of a designated/auto entry from an aid station as an an extremely high honor, very different than the normal path as a lottery selection. The aid station designation represents the volunteers, many hours of work and their investment in such a great event, even if vicariously. Along with that honor is the larger responsibility and commitment as their representative to run smartly and safely while exhibiting the sportsmanship and the purity associated with the sport of ultra running. Finishing the race has a higher purpose and responsibility than risking a faster race time and/or a DNF because it is so personal for others to have their horse in the race finish. Arriving in Squaw Valley next June, healthy, properly trained and prepared will be my pre-requisite for a successful start, while a well planned, realistic and tactical race plan will require patience, constant focus, disciplined execution and perseverance from me as well as I make my way to the finish line in Auburn. So, while I will be carrying the Peachstone Aid Station banner, I will also have so many of you I call friend along for the ride during the many hours and miles of training on the streets or through the mountains between now and next summer. All of you have helped prepare me for this next challenge, some without ever running a step, while others have quite literally pushed and pulled me along on the roads and trails to this point. So get ready for the training and fun as things start to get interesting. Heres a short video tour for some of you that are new to my craziness of late and our upcoming voyage together. Here we go... https://youtube/watch?v=Rkv3ekELGnQ
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 21:40:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015