The Western States, Hardrock, and Leadville 100 Milers, 14 Years Later – iRunFar

Fourteen years in the past, throughout the summer season of 2009, I had the nice fortune to run three of North America’s most iconic 100-mile races. With my household by my aspect, we traveled to the Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and Leadville 100 Mile and loved the splendor of those three excellent occasions over the course of 11 weeks. For all 5 of us, it was probably the greatest household summers of our lives.

This yr, as luck would have it, I had the chance to journey to every certainly one of these races once more, this time as a volunteer and crew member. In some ways, all three occasions held the identical magic and maintained the identical really feel as they did 14 years in the past however, as one would possibly count on, some issues had modified.

The Western States 100, the granddaddy of all of them, was already immensely common again in 2009. Nevertheless, after I evaluate what I noticed in 2009 to what I noticed this previous yr, one factor stands out. There was a major enhance within the variety of spectators, sponsors, and media members attending the occasion.

One in every of my obligations at this yr’s Western States was to work alongside my good buddy Scott Wolfe, monitoring parking at Robinson Flat, the mile 30 help station of the race. It was exceptional to see the variety of sponsor automobiles and media groups that descended on the racecourse. Moreover, it appeared just like the quantity of people that had pushed as much as the help station to easily watch the race was large. I, for one, like to see the elevated curiosity within the race and look ahead to being a part of the volunteer workforce that works to handle this development within the years to return.

On the Hardrock 100, I used to be privileged to be a part of the Run Steep Get Excessive media workforce that was video streaming the race reside from the Silverton Excessive College fitness center. Over the course of 48 hours, we labored to deliver the occasion to individuals reside by way of YouTube. It was a brand new expertise for all of us and one which helped to share the occasion with the extremely world.

After I evaluate the 2009 occasion to this previous yr the one factor that stood out is how a lot of a worldwide occasion it had develop into. Whereas there was the occasional worldwide runner within the occasion a decade and a half in the past, this yr the race was populated by runners from over a dozen nations, one thing I think will proceed to extend because the attain of the race expands.

Lastly, for my return to the Leadville 100 Mile, I used to be a part of a workforce of coaches from CTS offering help to runners at Twin Lakes, a key help station at miles 37 and 62. All through the day and into the night time, we linked with dozens of runners in addition to their crews and pacers.

What struck me about so many of those interactions was how many individuals had been operating Leadville as their first ever 100-mile race. Again in 2009, I might guess that only a few individuals ran this occasion as their first 100 miler. This yr, at the very least in my expertise, it appeared that greater than half had been doing so.

It was fantastic for me to revisit the Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and Leadville 100 Mile multi functional summer season. The chance to see the vibrancy of the path and extremely neighborhood shut up was inspiring for me and gave me renewed hope for the long run, even all these years later.

Bottoms up!

AJW’s Beer of the Week

This week’s beer of the week comes from Eddyline Brewery in Buena Vista, Colorado, simply down the highway from Leadville. The Boater Beer Pilsner is a quintessential summer season beer, good for a day on the river or within the mountains. Gentle and crispy and weighing in at a modest 4.5% ABV, Boater Beer is a pleasant, all-purpose beer for any event.

Name for Feedback

Is there a race that you simply’ve been going to for lots years, and what modifications have you ever observed happen?