Western States

Running from Demons and Chasing a Dream 

Finally getting my chance to run the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run was a dream come true.  After patiently acquiring race qualifiers and painfully enduring the lottery seven straight years, finally I was to get my chance in 2019.  I have watched the live Facebook feed of the lottery every year and I will admit that it has been a painful exercise given my level of commitment to the race.  Finally, on December 1, 2018 Kynan Matz pulled out my name from the hat.  I was ecstatic! 

Around the end of December, I kicked off my training cycle for Western States.  Six plus months is a long time to train for one race, but I was super excited and focused.  I didn’t do – or plan to do – a tremendous amount of volume (I can’t handle what I once did), but my focus for the training block was consistency and elevation gain/loss.  I can honestly say that this is the most fun and enjoyment that I have ever had training for a race.  Most weekends I was able to get together with a combo of friends: Lucas Warner, Tom Wood, and Joel Wolpert.  This was a nice change from my normal solo status.  From December 29 until June 11, I simply made sure I got in a long run of 20-30 miles and focused my other runs on getting in as much vertical as possible.   In the end, I got in around 1,500 miles of quality miles.  No speed, but no junk.  I wanted to specifically make it to the starting line in Squaw Valley healthy and not over-trained.  June 29, mission accomplished!