Made with Slideshow Embed ToolIt was my first 100m and my first all night run. I finished  in 26:57 and I couldn’t be happier as my goal was just to finish before the 30hr cutoff. There were a lot of unknowns going into the run – almost every measurement for WS (be it mileage, elevation, elevation change, temperature changes etc) was more than double anything I had encountered before. This contributed to a really poor night of sleep on Friday night but I hit the trails Saturday at 5:00am and  finished at 7:57am the next morning on the high school track in Auburn, CA.The course was beautiful and I got to see the sun brighten the night twice during a run which was surreal. We had a lot of snow with an official trail re-route near the beginning – but there were still miles of snow fields and wet streams to run through near the beginning when we were over 8k feet.  While there was definitely some heat. the canyons were tolerable and a lot of people talked about how lucky we were. For the most part I had a pretty consistent pace. Breaking 24h crossed my mind but I didn’t want to push my luck especially because there were some really big climbs during the first half.  I think I went through most aid stations in a few minutes or less – mostly grabbing food and water and electrolytes.

I sat down three times, twice for a few minutes to work on my feet and once for about 10 minutes to drink/eat at a medical-check in because my weight had dropped a little too much. But overall I hydrated well. Running through the dark with headlamps on, occasional voices and animals in the night, and a stretch of crazy single track with signicant exposure off one side of the trail was surreal! The people at the aid stations were simple amazing – it was like high-class valet service (except for the generator and party lights and grilled cheese). I didn’t hallucinate and I never felt dead-tired but I did drag my feet some between 80-95 until I got a second wind.  Some of this was due to Eric Barnes yelling  up the trail “Wolpin, I’m on your ass!” around 94m, and a little later Pablo said something like “You could finish the race now.” I couldn’t understand why he was suggesting I quit and then realized he meant to just dig in. We started bombing down a couple miles of single track toward  ‘No Hands Bridge’ before climbing up the other side and running through a bit of town to the finish.  I loved that they had footprints painted on the road, each step leading to the finish. We ran all-out around the final 200 yards of the track.  The last 6.5 miles were mapped with my watch. There is a short video on you tube of the finish.

Almost all of it was fun. I didn’t lose any toe-nails, but then I don’t have many left to lose.* My quads got really beat up and walking after the race on Sunday was tough. It’s never taken me that long to negotiate a parking lot or a curb but things have progressive gotten better since and I’m starting to think ‘What next?’.

Much thanks to Pablo Cabrera who paced me from Forest Hills (62m) through the dark and the light to the finish on the high school track in Auburn. His encouragement and reminders to eat and drink and not dawdle were key and we had some good conversations and funny observations to share throughout the night and early morning. A big thanks to Shawn Leonard for giving me a ride down and back. And thanks for all the messages, positive vibes, and drop bag suprises from friends and family 🙂

It was humbling to see Gordy cross the finish line for what something like his 23rd time. And Amy Palmiero-Winters kicked ass becoming the first amputee to finish the race in 28:43. Congrats to the male and female winners Geoff Roes (15:07)  and Tracy Garneau (19:01) whose times seem unbelievable.