WSER 2022 - My 11th year at Last Chance!

For the 11th year in a row (skipping the horror that was 2020 when the race was cancelled), I was allowed to join the Stevens Creek Striders in helping out at the Last Chance aid station. This aid station is at mile 43.3 and just before the dreaded Deadwood Canyon, which always promises heat. Crew and pacers are not allowed at Last Chance, so that means we have the runner's undivided attention. And that makes volunteering at this aid station a reasonably unique experience.

(There are a few negatives: It's very remote with mostly no cell service, and once you are there, you are stuck there until the aid station closes since portions of the road in are used as parts of the course, and there are mosquitos - MANY mosquitos.)

There is also wildlife.

The 2022 version of the Western States 100 trail race carried on a lot of the new precautions introduced in the 2021 version, including food handling and the lack of using sponges for cooling the runners. The most notable change was the number of runners! 

2021 was still hampered by travel restrictions, so many overseas runners were unable to attend, and had their entries rolled over to 2022. 315 runners started  in 2021, well under the normal 369 that normally start. 2022 saw the number of starters increase to 383, with a large chunk of those runners coming from the 2021 overseas rollovers. 

Of those 383 spots, 239 were available to the lottery, where well over 6000 runners had applied for entry. Amazingly, there were 18 with 128 tickets this year, and 11 of those got in. The other 7 will have 256 tickets next year if they run a qualifier and enter the lottery yet again. (To get 128 tickets, you have to have entered eight times, each year with a qualifying race. Truly amazing!)

Embarrassing bit

I was determined to get to Last Chance fairly early on Friday - many of the volunteers come up on Friday and camp out to avoid having to get up early to make it here by 9:00 AM, when the road closes to general traffic.

From Foresthill, you drive a bit over 22 miles on the windy, appropriately named Mosquito Ridge Road.  Then you turn off on a narrow, vaguely paved road called Deep Canyon Road. After snaking down that road for a couple of miles it arbitrarily decides to become a narrower gravel road. About three miles (and a couple hours) later, you hit the Dusty Corners aid station. 

This is the aid station just before Last Chance, and it is crew accessible - it has to be one of the least accessible crew accessible aid stations ever. 

When I drove through Dusty Corners, there were a few people there already. Some volunteers camp there as well. 

I kept going towards Last Chance. The road deteriorates gradually the further you go. Fortunately, you "only" have three miles of this. 

Unless you miss the aid station and keep on going.

I was not expecting to be the first one there, and so I was completely focussed on dodging rocks and ruts until I saw other cars. Then I came to a gate. There is no gate on the way to Last Chance. There IS a gate about a half-mile after Last Chance though. I went a bit further before finally admitting that I may have made a mistake, and took a look at a GPS map I had downloaded a few years ago, and confirmed I had driven well past Last Chance.

Even with no cars there, Last Chance is a bit hard to miss. The three porta-potties should have been noticed. The Last Chance sign. The Starbucks. (There is no Starbucks.)

Moving past the embarrassing bit

Since I was first, I grabbed the best parking space, unloaded the tables, chairs, coolers, and such, then set out to put up the signs. 

For this year, I upgraded my sign stake technology, and was eager to see how well that technology worked. (Spoiler alert - it worked great! You can read more and see the signs here.)

After a bit, other people began to trickle in and Last Chance was quickly becoming a bustling area. 

The evening went fine, the mosquitos were getting fed by us (involuntarily), and we relaxed around a pretend campfire. 

Some ice drama

Starting about 8:00 AM or so, volunteers that were not into camping and feeding the mosquitos started to show up. One thing they all agreed on - there was no ice trailer at Dusty Corners.

Generally, I pick up about 1200 pounds of ice from the WSER warehouse in Auburn on Friday as I head in. In 2019, Lon the Aid Station God arranged for an ice trailer to be delivered to Dusty Corners with both their ice and ours. We drove up to Dusty Corners on Saturday morning and grabbed ours - this meant a lot less overnight melt loss - a huge win. In 2021, there was no ice trailer, so I dragged the ice up as normal. But for 2022, the ice trailer was back!

Except it wasn't. 

Peggy and Amir discussing how cool ice is.

Amir, the Last Chance ham radio guy, contacted Dusty Corners and asked them to let us know when the trailer showed up. Meanwhile, we were getting a bit nervous. Volunteers are asked to bring a bag of ice for just in case something happens, and we've done well to not have a "just in case" moment for a number of years. But this was now quickly becoming a "just in case" moment. 

Finally we got the call that someone was bringing the ice to us. It became a happy morning when I saw Lon driving up with a truck full of ice (he brought us 800 pounds -  it turned out we had to go back in the afternoon and grab another 400 pounds).

You can't imagine how great this sight was.

Pre-race briefing

The traditional pre-race briefing is fun. You get a pretty good idea of how many people are there (around 60, including the radio guys and medical people).

Peggy explaining that mosquitos are not an endangered species.

A fun thing was that two awards were going to be given out to people that have made this aid station one of the best on the course. The first went to Michael, who has been volunteering here for more than 20 years! (The Striders have managed this aid station for 40 years!)

"Where do you keep all those volunteer shirts?"

Bizarrely, the second award was given to me. Granted, leveling the porta-potties is a useful skill, but really? Me? So many others have done so much more for Last Chance. 

"Are you sure there wasn't a mistake?"

Sadly, I didn't notice the Mango cat hairs on this before I took this shot.  Mango is smirking in his sleep about them.

In any case, it was time for the group photos.

It always amazes me how many people show up to volunteer at this remote aid station.

These are the actual Stevens Creek Striders that were here.

The race

The rest of the day went fairly smooth. We got our first runner at 11:20 and kept busy from then until we closed up at 5:25.

NASCAR pit crews got nothing on us.

Note the ice in her sleeves.

The hydration bar and buffet.

Volunteers come in a variety of ages! She worked the drop bag area for a bit before joining us in the Car Wash.

Our Early Warning System. Peter radios bib numbers down to the drop bag people who can be waiting with the drop bags of the runners as they arrive, making the process seem a bit like magic.

Another view of the buffet.

For hot food, we had soup and grilled cheese. No prime rib.

The Car Wash is still the coolest.

There were only a few runners that I knew in the race. The Pixie Ninja was one of the first through.

Kaci deciding whether to risk her sandwich while getting drenched.

Kaci had major hamstring surgery done in December. Mortals do not recover and train in time for a 100 mile race just six months later. Pixie Ninjas though…

I'm trying to work out whether that mustache is real.

Ace was number 64 on the wait list. In the past, runners in the 30-40 range could reasonably expect a chance at getting into the race. Runners in the 60s, well, they could safely make other plans. The Wednesday before the race, Ace got the call - he was in if he wanted to be. (He wanted to be.) He is running the Hardrock 100 in a bit less than a month. Ace is not normal.

Lisa the Brazen Racing entry! Triumphantly holding her non-soggy sandwich that she had somehow kept from getting soaked while she got doused.

Jessi heading out to face the heat of Deadwood Canyon.

Jessi ended up holding a special place in Last Chance this year - she was the last runner to arrive that actually managed to finish the race. (Every runner that came in after her, 17 of them, ended up dropping at some point.)

And that's about it! For a variety of reasons, I decided to skip going to the track this year. I'm sad that I missed seeing so many great finishes, but man, that shower and comfortable bed at home was awesome.

For the nerds

The official race guide provides some guidance on when you should leave the Last Chance aid station if your goal is a sub-24 hour finish or a sub-30 hour finish (the race cutoff). Based on that, I'm always curious how accurate the guidance is.

From 11:20 to 2:05

Our first runner arrived at 11:20. The guidance suggests that if you want to finish in less that 24 hours (and get the coveted silver buckle), you should leave by 2:05. We had 110 runners in that time range, and 88 of them (80%) managed to get a silver buckle. Four of those runners dropped and the rest finished before the 30 hour cutoff.

From 2:06 to 4:20

Runners in this range are expected to finish before the 30 hour cutoff. We had 160 runners during this period, and 142 of them finished (89%). Seven of them managed to finish in under 24 hours!

From 4:21 to 5:25

These runners are in the danger zone. Most will finish before the 30 hour cutoff, but many will not. It can be a challenge to convince these runners to stop and get iced up since they are watching the clock and are hesitant to squander any seconds in the aid station. We had 71 runners in this range, and 37 finished. Jessi came in at 4:53 and was the last runner in to finish. (We've had runners come in later than that and manage a finish, but that's not normal.)

In the end, we had four drops at Last Chance. Dusty Corners had seven drops (if you happen to have crew there, that can make it more attractive to drop). Devil's Thumb, the aid station after Last Chance, had nine drops. The goal is to have no drops, and Last Chance is good at minimizing them. 

And that's a wrap!  

As usual, it was a lot of fun (and hard work) being at Last Chance. The volunteers are so focussed on getting the runners everything they need to keep going, and there are enough of us that we minimize bottlenecks (runners have a knack of coming in in bunches).

Next year will be the 50th running of the Western States 100. It's going to be really special, and I can't wait. A HUGE thanks to Peggy, Bonnie, and Eric, the aid station brain trust, and the Stevens Creek Striders for all they do to make this the most fun aid station on the course, and allowing me and so many others the chance to take part.

That's it - move along…

PS: Click here to see a post about the signs.