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For the second year in a row, there was some doubt I was going to be able to be at the Last Chance aid station at the Western States Endurance Run. This time the issue was that I had a hip replaced at the end of April. The recovery plan said that by the end of June, I should be pretty good to go - a bit limited in how much physical activity I should be doing, but overall, I should be useful and not needing to pamper the hip too much.
And amazingly, that all worked to perfection! For the 15th year in a row (ignoring the COVID year) I got to volunteer at the Last Chance aid station! Many there knew I was a bit fragile and stepped in to help out in ways that reduced the chances of me doing any damage to my new joint.
The lead up to the day is always a challenging time, and this year was no different. I made quite a few signs and loaded a bunch of stuff into the van, including six tables, a small picnic table kind of thing, three coolers, a stove, the signs, a few tarps, ice buckets, sponges, sprayers - the van was pretty full!
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| The back of the van - the WSER letters were actually blue before the dusty road to Last Chance had its way with them. |
But there was still room to have Alex join me on the ride up and back (parking is really limited at the aid station, and carpooling is strongly encouraged).
Note: One kind of dumb thing I did; an email was sent out in early March to make a list of the volunteers. I got the email, but put it to the side since I wanted to wait to see how the surgery went. I then forgot all about it, so I was not officially on the volunteer list. I had been emailing with the aid station captains though, so they knew I was going to go, but I ended up missing all the official emails. Fortunately not much changed, so it all worked out.
A few Last Chance details that may be helpful to know:
- It's at mile 43.3 in the race. The generally dreaded hot and steep canyons are next.
- Last Chance is an old mining ghost "town" - actually a wide spot in the "road" - with old mining bits and pieces scattered around. There's no or very little cell service. You are a long ways from everything. (Well, except for the Dusty Corners aid station.)
- Bits of the "road" actually become part of the course, so you have to get to Last Chance by about 9 AM on Saturday (most camp there Friday night, which is what I always do), and you can't leave until the sweepers come through (about 5:30 PM).
- There are no pacers or crew allowed - we get the runner's full attention!
- It is the best of all the aid stations.
- But wow, there are MANY mosquitos thanks to a nearby spring. (A bit of a spoiler alert - the cooler temps actually seemed to slow down the mosquitos! I never actually used any bug spray, which is a first for me there.)
The big story - the weather
The one constant at this event is that it will be hot. It might be normal hot or it might be extra hot. But it will be hot.
This year was a bit different - there was still some warmth, but it wasn't nearly as hot as normal. At night, it's normal for it to be a bit cool at the aid station - maybe cool enough for a hoodie, but nothing serious. Cool enough to make for comfortable sleeping.
This year, just about everyone was wearing a hoodie on Friday night, with several puffy jackets also spotted. When I woke up at about 7 AM, I looked at the thermometer I set up near the our ice station just to guilt runners into getting cooled off, and it showed 40º. At noon, we still hadn't made it to 60º. By 2 PM or so we finally warmed up to about 75º (we should normally peak out at 85º to 90º in the aid station shade).
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| Not the most high-tech thermometer, but this was a bit after noon and we were still under 60º. |
Naturally, this made it challenging to convince some runners to grab some ice or at least get their sleeves wet - it was hard to believe that it was really going to be all that hot in a couple of miles. Many of the elites just ignored us completely - part of that was that the head end of the race was very competitive and they didn't feel they had time to squander on a thing that might not really be needed, and part of that was that many of us were standing around in hoodies in the mid-50s.
There were exceptions who did stop, including the first runner into Last Chance, Hans Troyer.
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| OK, maybe Hans isn't a good example since he ended up not finishing the race. |
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| Ryan Montgomery was the fifth runner in and ended up finishing third! |
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| Zach Miller was the 6th runner in and finished 5th with an astonishing sprint around the track. I'm pretty sure we get a bit of credit for that finish! |
Once it warmed up into the 60s, nearly everyone stopped to get prepared for the first canyon. Talking to people later, they said it was indeed very warm on the very exposed climb to Devil's Thumb.
We had a LOT of ice
As has become the norm for us, our ice is delivered in a trailer to the Dusty Corners aid station (the one before ours that volunteers have to drive through to get to Last Chance). Normally it is one of my big tasks to get that ice to travel that last few miles to our aid station, but this year, others took on that task and I was left to take a few pictures and a movie.
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| We have the ice and a bunch of people to unload it! |
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| The ice is stacked on a tarp then covered with a tarp, a layer of insulation, and a blanket. It was cool enough this year that there was little melt loss. |
Click here to see a video of the ice team in action!
Each year we have to guess how much ice we'll need. The only rule is that we can't run out. The other only rule is that we need to be able to give the runners as much as they want. Seriously - if a runner wanted to carry a 16 pound bag with them we'd try to tape it to their back. (Some get close to this!)
This being a cooler year meant we didn't need as much ice as we usually do, but at the time the order was placed, we didn't know that. In the end, we had quite a bit of ice left over (I suspect all aid stations did) and the excess was taken down to the finish line.
Before the runners started showing up
One of the first things I do is set up the signs that I and others make for the runners. There is a standard set of "Burma Shave" style signs for runners coming into Last Chance and many others the runners see a bit after they've left us. Click here to see a post that details the signs.
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| Most of the signs are on a small uphill section that gives the runners an excuse to slow down a bit. |
There are about 25 or so signs - some are general for all runners while others are for specific runners, including the Last Chance entry of Peggy, our long-time Last Chance captain!
On Saturday morning, we had a group meeting to go over everything that was going to happen that day.
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| Note that almost everyone is wearing a jacket and long pants. It was about 50º at this point! |
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| Last Chance captains Eric, Bonnie (yay for making it this year!), and Andres (filling in for runner Peggy), then I believe our radio guy (our only reliable contact to the outside world), and Andrew (the head of our medical team). |
There were two WS Trail awards handed out to a couple of long time Last Chance volunteers.
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| The first went to Robert, who is checking to make sure his name is spelled correctly, with paparazzi Mandie taking his picture. |
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| The second went to Patricia! These awards are so cool! |
Then it was time for our group photo. It always astonishes me how many people are involved in running an aid station like this.
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| Note the Peggy banner - as a surprise, Andres designed and had that banner made, then had all of us sign it for Peggy before she came through. |
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| The members of the Stevens Creek Striders that were at Last Chance. |
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| A better shot of the Peggy banner. |
Eventually, all the formalities were done and we were ready for the first runners to arrive.
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| Something I've never seen here before - people seeking out the sun to try and warm up a bit! |
Now let's talk about the race
According to the official WSER website, we should get our first runner at about 10:55. Last year the first runner showed up at 10:46. This year, Hans showed up at 10:29! We were expecting runners to show up early due to the lack of snow up high and the cool temps, and we were right!Vincent Bouillard, the eventual race winner, showed up about seven minutes later - the third person in (the second person in, Francesco Puppi, would end up finishing second in the race). As mentioned earlier, Hans ended up not finishing the race.
The first woman in, Riley Brady, who ended up finishing second, showed up at 11:24, ten minutes earlier than the first woman last year. The eventual winner, Jennifer Lichter, showed up two minutes later as the second woman.
So we were seeing runners earlier than normal, which was to be expected. And this was reflected at the finish line.
For the men, the course record was held by Jim Walmsley at 14:09, set in 2019. Due to this year's conditions, it seemed likely that we could see our first sub-14 hour finisher. It turned out we saw three of them! Vincent, Francesco, and Ryan all went sub-14, and just for fun, Thomas Cardin also broke the old record - four runners beat Walmsley's six-year-old record! (Jim was also in the race, but ended up dropping.)
For the women, the course record was held by Courtney Dauwalter at 15:29, set in 2023. That had been the first time a woman had finished in under 16 hours. The next year, Katie Schide also went sub-16, but not sub enough to beat the record. Courtney had a stout record.
For the first time in a number of years, Alex and I decided to go to the track. In the old days, I used to be able to make it to the track in time to see the men's winner come in, but they finish too fast now. This year we managed to get there just in time to see the women's winner come in.
Announcer Tropical John Medinger was doing a great job getting the crowd wound up for the women's winner, pointing out that she had a real shot at setting a new record. We were standing by the track and a runner came in and the crowd went nuts. Then we realized that this was the tenth male finisher, and not the first woman finisher.
The crowd calmed back down a bit. The tenth male finisher, Hiroki Kai, had to have been more than a little puzzled.
Then Jennifer came in, and it was astonishing how loud the crowd got! Everyone was willing her to get around that track as fast as possible, and she obliged, going much faster than anyone who had just run 100 miles should be able to go! And she set a new record! By 87 seconds!
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| Jennifer running hard to break the course record! |
She was 11th overall, and six of the next seven finishers were all women! Before this year, two women had finished sub-16 hours. This year, four more managed to do that!
It was so much fun watching these finishes, and the crowd was so into it!
Let's talk about Peggy Alfred
Each year, each aid station gets to enter a runner into the race. The runner still has to qualify, so there is no danger of someone like this blog showing up at the start line, but given the limited number of people that get to start, this is a huge perk! If you're dreaming of getting into the race, you can increase your chances by volunteering - each aid station sets their own rules for picking their runner.
This year, the long-time captain (17 years!) of Last Chance, Peggy, got the ticket. Peggy first finished this race in 2007 (19 years ago!), and also got a finish in 2014. So she knows what she's doing.
Ten years ago she had a cancer diagnosis. She fought it and whipped it, all the while keeping the trails in her heart.
And a bonus thing, she was the most senior woman in the race (hence her bib number matching her age)!
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| Peggy's first finish was 19 years ago, and judging by this picture, I would guess she was about 12 then. |
We were all very excited when she came into Last Chance.
Sadly, it was not her day and she ended up dropping at Last Chance. Having said that, she did manage to get farther than the last two Last Chance entries!
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| It was a little emotional. |
Let's talk about Oscar Mejorada
I've known Oscar for probably 15 years, meeting him at Brazen Racing back in the day. He's a great trail runner, but he is a better person to have on your side when you're running. I have no idea how many people he has paced and/or crewed at Western States, but it is a large number. He's tried for years to get in.
In general, about 370 people get to run this race. There are some golden tickets - you can get a spot by finishing in the top three at a few selected races. There are some spots set aside for sponsors and other considerations (each aid station gets a spot). But most people get in through the lottery. This year, an astonishing 11,328 people tried to get into the race that way. The first year you enter the lottery, you get one ticket. Your chances stink. The second year you get two tickets, and for each year after that, you get your ticket amount doubled.
This year, there were 264 runners that got in through the lottery. 11 people got in with a single ticket. 16 got in with two tickets. 27 got in with 256 tickets - that's ten years after they first tired to get in and nine years of qualifying (you have to run a qualifying race each year - there was no race in 2020). And then there were the five people that had 512 tickets that got in. Amazingly, three of those five got in off the wait list - they were not actually drawn! (The three with 512 tickets that weren't drawn were automatically put at the top of the wait list - usually about 40 people off the wait list get the option to run or to defer until next year.)
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| The sign I made for the five with 512 tickets. One of these ended up not starting and the other four all finished. |
Back to Oscar - he had 64 tickets in the lottery and had one pulled! He got his first ticket eight years ago! His kids were still kids! I was so excited (and a bit emotional) to see him come into Last Chance, and the dude was looking really good! (Yes, we tell all the runners they're looking awesome, even if they're dragging one leg behind them and are missing an arm. Oscar though, really looked good!)
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| Oscar getting ready to leave Last Chance. |
Oscar was well ahead of the cutoffs - barring an injury or a lost fight with a bear (I would not place my money on the bear), he was comfortably going to finish. As a complete non-surprise, all his years of experience had set him up to run a smart race.
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| A fun coincidence - volunteer Kiran just happened to be coming past the signs into Last Chance as Oscar was going by his sign, and managed to get this shot. I love it so much! |
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| Oscar has finished in well under 28 hours (the cutoff is 30 hours). |
I don't remember what happened, but I failed to get a shot of Oscar as he was circling the track towards the finish.
It was so wonderful to get to see him finally get a finish in this event.
Oscar instructs kids (I think at least mostly kids) in Kajukenbo, a mixed martial art from Hawaii. On his sign, I wondered whether there was a Kajukenbo belt for a WSER buckle.
He sent me this shot.
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| There is, indeed, a belt for that buckle. |
Now lets talk about Mark Tanaka
Mark has been on a mission. He finished his first 100 mile race in 2005. A few years ago, he decided he really wanted to hit a goal of 100 100 mile finishes before he turned 60. It wasn't going to be easy, and to do it, he ended up getting 25 finishes in 25 months, hitting his goal earlier this year.
The icing on the cake was getting into Western States this year. He had 128 tickets in the lottery - nine years of qualifying.
The important bit to know was that he knew what he was doing. He even has a previous finish at this race.
History has decided that if you want to finish the race under the 30 hour cutoff, you need to get to Last Chance by 4:20 PM. Mark showed up at 4:37 PM. He looked good (legitimately good), and was efficient. He got out before it occurred to me to take a picture.
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| The sign that I was hoping Mark saw after he left the aid station. |
While sitting at the track later, I was tracking Mark's progress. It was looking pretty bleak, which was pretty surprising. Even more surprising to me was who was behind him - Mike Smith makes Mark look a bit like a rookie. He knows how to finish these races. He has it down cold.
And he was also not looking good.
At one point, the WSER tracking app showed Mark as making it to the last aid station, Robie Point (which is a bit over a mile from the finish), a few minutes past the 30 hour cutoff. I was a bit shocked.
I kept refreshing the app though, and then suddenly it showed Mark had made it there and was heading down to the finish line!
It was going to be tight, but a finish was doable. Mike also made it past the aid station. He was looking dicier, but, well, he's Mike.
I set myself up to see him come in through the gate and planned to capture a great video of him on the backstretch. A runner came in and I got a nice video of him, but it wasn't Mark. Then another runner came in, and I could tell it was Mark for sure, but sadly I was to excited and tapped the record button twice, and in the end, got no video or photo of him coming in.
Heavy sigh…
I didn't know that at the time though. Once he was past I headed over to the finish area.
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| Mark hanging out in the medical tent, naturally. |
I managed to talk to him a bit (he said he not only saw the sign, but it made him get a bit choked up) and give him the sign. I hadn't realized that Josam was pacing him - Josam was completely on top of what they needed to do to reach the finish, and managed it with just under five minutes to spare.
And Mike? He ended up being the last official finisher, with 69 seconds to spare!
Note: The last hour of this race is called the Golden Hour. There are a lot of people in the stands and bordering the track. There is a lot of noise. It's so awesome! There were a total of 322 finishers - 54 of them finished in that last hour. There was almost always someone circling the track!
Some Last Chance stats
As mentioned earlier, there is a scientifically determined Last Chance arrival time of 4:20 PM for runners that are trying to increase their odds of beating the finish line 30 hour cutoff (the final cutoff at Last Chance is 5:25 PM). I've always been a cutoff pusher, so these are my people. I like to go through the pushers to see how their race turned out.
- There were 342 runners that arrived at Last Chance (28 dropped before making it here).
- There were 69 runners that arrived after 4:00 PM - 46 got finishes.
- One of those runners managed to finish in hour 27! 11 finished in hour 28 and 34 finished in hour 29, the Golden Hour.
- 43 runners came in after the scientifically determined 4:20 PM time.
- Of the 51 runners that came in between 4:00 PM and 4:49 PM, only five didn't get a finish.
- The 18 runners that came in after 4:49 all failed to get a finish. (Last year we had two people that came in after 5:00 PM get a finish.)
- We ended up with three runners dropping at Last Chance, including two that arrived after our cutoff.
Wrapping up a bit
And that's about it!One interesting surprise was that we saw a runner come through with hiking poles on her back. That was weird since this race does not allow hiking poles. Then another cam through like that. Then another. It turns out that they changed the rule this year, and hiking poles were allowed for the first time. (You may have noticed in the Peggy picture that she was using poles when she came in.)
It was fun going down to the track for the first time in a number of years. I'm generally pretty tired after a day at Last Chance, and the last two years, I had weirdly ended up with tooth issues. If I drive straight home, I get there at around 11:00 PM at the earliest. This can be challenging depending on how well I slept in the back of the van the night before (generally, not great).
Driving to the track means no night driving, and the possibility of getting a bit of sleep before driving home (about three hours on the road). The sleep can be challenging (I end up reclining the driver's seat and catching some sleep that way), but possible.
Being at the track is a great experience though. I run into people I rarely see anymore, and the excitement of watching people finish is awesome. This year I wanted to be there to see Peggy, Oscar, and Mark finish, so decided that was the right thing to do.
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| I got this shot of John Kelly, of Barkley Marathons fame, finishing with his kids pacing him in. This is so fun to see! |
One thing that had changed at the finish line was that there was no music playing. Also, the booming voice of Tropical John was a lot less booming. I believe these changes were due to the live broadcast that was going on, with their stage set up on the football field.
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| Some watching the live broadcast - again, it was odd to see people not actively avoiding the sunshine! |
And a last thing that was a bit alarming until I worked out what was going on - for the Golden Hour they had a taiko drum group set up at the turn in the track that I was not aware of. They were loud! And booming!
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| It's really hard to see the drummers, but there were set up under those awnings. |
And now I really think that's about it! This event is weirdly magical and fun. The runners are amazing, as are the MANY volunteers that give up so much time for this event.
A HUGE thanks to the Stevens Creek Striders for again letting me join in at Last Chance!
That's it - move along…
