Sitting here at the computer keeping track of two of my buddies running in the Western States 100 miler today. Fellow CRUDer Paul Dewitt (who is currently in 5th place!) and my personal dietician, Meredith Terranova (if she DNF's, which now looks unlikely, I'm going to tell her she needs more junk food and alcohol in her diet).
Anyways, I've always wanted to run Western States. I don't know much about the race, except it's the most famous of all the ultras, sort of the Boston Marathon of the super long distance crowd.
But lately I've been having second thoughts, and I'm thinking of making next year's Leadville Trail Race my first 100 miler.
First off, the logistics of getting to WS seem like a pain in the ass. You have to qualify (which I have) and then get picked in the lottery. Then you have to fly to California, rent a car, get a hotel, and deal with people from California. Ugh. Just seems like a lot of money and a lot of headaches, on top of the small task of running 100 miles.
Leadville, on the other hand, is barely 2.5 hours from my house. Beautiful country out there, including the promise of some great mountain pubs that would keep me going through the rough times.
Not to mention the fact that a lot of the folks I train with here only do two races a year: San Juan and Leadville. A lot of 'em are obsessed with Leadville. And I think they may be rubbing off on me.
Either race would get me into the Hardrock lottery, which is my ultimate goal.
Trying to decide on what to do next. Plate is kind of empty as far as races go. Probably start working on my speed a bit, as well as bag some more 14ers now that the warm weather is here. The Pikes Peak Double is in Aug, but I'm not too worried about that. Also looking at the Durango Double (a 50K on Sat and a marathon on Sun) in October, the RD is none other than Heinous Anus of the Tenacious D H3. Maybe try to run fast down there, do a month or two of longer stuff, and see what kind of noise I can make at Bandera in January. We'll see.
9 comments:
Leadville? Western States?
Four words for you - Aych, Ewe, Are, Tea. Do our first hundreds together in Jan 2008 then spend a few days recovering/tanning on the beach?
No way, I don't look for those flat, easy races that you go to.
Wanker,
Do Leadville and I'll come down and crew and pace you if you want a fat old pacer late in the race to sing you hash songs to occupy your mind.
Centipede, even if I had covered 90 miles through the mountains and you were fresh, I'd still kick your ass! I'll keep it in mind though. Tough to get pacers for that race since it's usually the same weekend as the Pikes Peak races.
Ninty miles huh!!! I'll remember that when I'm carring all your shit up Hope Pass just to keep your ass from missing a cut-off.
Is Western States the one that runs through Death Valley?
No, that's Bad Water and it's a 135 miles. Leadville sounds like it would be fun to do
I'd never do Badwater. 135 miles, all on the road, and you don't even get to the top of the mountain! Sheesh.
HLAC - you can mule at Leadville, so maybe I'll have you carry a 30 pack of PBR for me.
What do mean you have to deal with the people in California???
Catra
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