Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run is this Weekend

[Traddles]

Since I've broadened this thread and I thought it might be interesting to "see" what does into producing a running event ... I'll be volunteering at an aid station at a small-medium sized trail run. The organizer has been doing Thanksgiving morning plus Saturday After events for, well, years. Two venues are used, the Thanksgiving Day event being 5K and 10K distances, and the Saturday event adding a half Marathon distance. Runners who complete a distance at both receive a connector medal that connects their two finisher's medals into a "mega medal". There are short children's runs, "Little Turkeys", for young children. Both events have start/finish areas in their respective parks, and are done with permits and assistance from rangers as needed.

The quickie (?) summary description over, here are the volunteer stations and names of people staffing the stations:

QUARRY TURKEY VOLUNTEERS 2022

SET UP AT PARK 11:30AM:
Father Dale & Sharlet
Frank N
Leo & Virg
Rocio
Felicia R
Craig

PARKING:
Will
Gary
Glenn
Lorna
Rich & Christina
David & Kerry

QT & Crans: (Costumed)

RABBITS on bikes:
Half –Andrew
10K –
5K –

Race day reg: Tammy
Half: Dorothy
10K: Katherine
5K: Rachael W

Little Turkeys: Angela M, Jessica C

TSHIRTS:
Deval
Fanny

MERCH:
Angela M

SWEAT CHECK:
Jean S

AIDS:
AID 1: Blythe: Christine, Jess M, Helen H, Thuy P, Jaisan S, Faith F
AID 2: Brian C: Ciara, Alyssa, Zenith, Christoph, Kaitlyn, Sophorn
AID 3: Tommy M: Pete S, Cesar Z, Min K O, Jeremiah, Brian H,
AID 4: Sheri: Pat B, Thin A, Leslie C, Dexter E, Erik H.

COURSE MONITORS:
Madeline D (Aid 2 - 10K turn around)
Pat V (Aid 1 – 5K CM)

PHOTOS:
Julia (out on course)
Sheri (Aid 4)
Dan C (Aid 2)
Warren (start/finish)

Finish Area FOOD:
Katelynn
Stephanie S
Gaby R
Anthony & Jason M
Ria S
Henry G

FINISH LINE WATER & MEDALS:
Fanny
David & Kerry after parking
Gina
Jessica C after Little Turkeys

MEGA MEDALS:
#3

AGE GROUP AWARDS:
Tammy

PACK UP:
Rachel
Sama
Alex A
Anuj
Jolly
Albert

SWEEP:
Troy J – Half
Nikki S – 5K

Looking over the list briefly, I recognized about 20 people (out of 76) as volunteering regularly at this organizer's events (myself among them, FWIW). Sweepers are runners or cyclists who stay behind the last finisher, for safety, and retrieve course marking flags. The Little Turkeys volunteers assist parents with herding their "cats" (errrr, Turkeys). Normally there would be a group of volunteers for day-before-event packet pick-up (shirt and bib), but that was done the Wednesday before T'giving, for both events. Photos are free, but not indexed by name or bib number (wearing a distinctive shirt helps).

The couple who own the organizing company and a few of their employees will also be working the event, and I suspect that "#3" may be their older munchkin. So, for an event with what I expect will have 500-700 finishers of the three distances, there were 80-90 people helping put it on. Employees are paid, of course, and volunteers receive an event T-shirt and a "free" entry to a future event.

Aid stations with this organizer have water, electrolyte drink, GU packets (100 calories, electrolytes, and some flavors have caffeine), and a variety of sugary and salty snacks (even 5K runners burn off a few hundred calories and sweat out electrolytes). The tubs with aid stations' supplies also include pitchers, ladles, gloves, sanitizer and wipes, cleaner, paper towels, knives (fruit) and scissors etc. (i.e. food handling stuff).

[Traddles]

Hmmm, today's Turkey Trot by this organizer had 770 finishers between the two distances, more than I expected (FWIW).

[Traddles]

I was at Aid 3, which only saw half marathon runners and walkers, 158 in all. There were a total of 519 finishers of all distances. beside the hydration and snacks, possibly the most important duty of volunteers is to watch for runners who may be in trouble. Usually that simply means chatting up runners as they get their whatever or pass through the station. For I think my first time, I paid particular attention to a couple of runners. One is a guy I know is in his mid 70s, for GP. The other looked really tired, and I made sure he was "with it" (not doing it obtrusively).

[Traddles]

Continuing this crazy-stuff-runners-do thread ...

Tomorrow 12/11 will be the Honolulu Marathon, https://www.honolulumarathon.org . There were 6241 finishers in the 2021 event, and almost 19,000 in 2019. Should be interesting to see how much the event recovers as it "recovers" from Covid. I have several running friends doing this event.

Today's "crazy" is this event, https://brazenracing.com/summitrock . In any weather the course for any of the three distances is very challenging, due to the elevation profiles, https://brazenracing.com/summitrock/race-info/#course and "technical" stuff like tree roots and smooth/slippery rocks (I did the summer version of the half marathon several years ago, so BTDTGTTS). Today is wet/muddy, and depending on local geography and tree cover, possibly gusty wind. The Did-Not-Start rate may be higher than usual.

[Traddles]

...
Today's "crazy" is this event, https://brazenracing.com/summitrock . In any weather the course for any of the three distances is very challenging, due to the elevation profiles, https://brazenracing.com/summitrock/race-info/#course and "technical" stuff like tree roots and smooth/slippery rocks (I did the summer version of the half marathon several years ago, so BTDTGTTS). Today is wet/muddy, and depending on local geography and tree cover, possibly gusty wind. The Did-Not-Start rate may be higher than usual.

A FB Friend posted this:

I got a PR today! PR as in POURING RAIN. The Summit Rock 10k was brutal. My trail legs failed me today. I just didn’t have it. It didn’t help that the rain and cold wind slowed me down dramatically.

On flatter terrain, with more clement weather, and preparation he does 100 mile endurance runs.

[Traddles]

Ringing in the New Year, runner style ...

Coastal Trail Runs does a one day event, with 100 mile (28 hour time limit), 24-hour, 12-hour, and 6-hour "distances", New Year's One Day . The course is a 1 mile loop around a lagoon at Crissy Field in the Presidio in SF. Crappy inaccurate stereotypes aside, it would take a lot of laps to start tiring of the scenery.

Brazen Racing does it differently, with two events, one on NYD, and the other the previous Saturday, (Amost) NYE (a two day weekend in 2022).

https://brazenracing.com/newyearseve/
https://brazenracing.com/newyearsday/

The distances both days are half marathon, 10K, and 5K. The venue is a park with a lake, and on one day the half course circles the lake in one direction, and on the other day it circles the lake if the other direction. The lake is nestled in hills, with several creeks that empty into it. The parts of the courses that are along the shore are paved, but the 10K and half courses go up into the hills on, ummm, dirt trails.

It probably has gotten little national coverage, but Central California has been having a rainy fall and winter 2022. Running events are rain or shine, as long as it's safe. So no thunderstorms, no smoky bad air. Today at Crissy Field would have been (and still is) very wet, but probably otherwise OK.

At Brazen's event, however, a gully became so full of water that the course on one side of the lake was shut down, forcing the re-routing of the 10K and 5K runners to the trail on the other side of the lake. As 10K and 5K runners were on that trail, a mud slide occurred, partially blocking the trail, and two trees dropped large limbs onto the trail, one coming close to hitting a runner. The dirt trails, of course, are mud, making going up or down hills an adventure, if not scary. I haven't heard whether tomorrow's event will be cancelled, but trail conditions seem to make that likely.

I just saw on FB that Brazen's NYD event has been cancelled.

NYE 2022 Deluge.JPG

The pic above shows the start/finish area, with a bridge crossing a creek in the foreground. That bridge is part of the course, and at the time of the picture, water was still running off into the creek from the park grounds. The level of the creek was almost high enough to overflow into the park.

[Traddles]

Just saw a FB post from a guy who did what I'm guessing was the 24-hour "distance" in Coastal's event. He logged 65 miles (>100 Km).

[Traddles]

On the lighter side of Weird Stuff Runners Do, https://hotchocolate15k.com/city/san-francisco/ . I've not done the event, not wanting to deal with the crazy logistics (to and from plus parking), but from comments by running friends who have, there are massive amounts of chocolate goodies at check-in (previous day), start, and finish. With 10K and 15K distances, Hot Chocolate is more serious than bubble and foam runs (usually 5K or less) or some wine runs, but it definitely is about indulgence.

[Traddles]

I've noticed several FB posts from a running community friend indicating that she may be about to to become a "Seven Continenter" marathoner. More specifically, she would be doing a marathon run on Antarctica (I think she did a marathon in Argentina a few weeks ago).

Here is the first of a couple of 2013 blogposts from a runner friend who did an Antarctica marathon, https://blisterscrampsheaves.com/201...-report-act-1/ . There is a link at the bottom to the second blogpost.

I've been partly lazy, partly realistic the past couple of months. February 11th was my first running event in a couple of months. I had registered to do a 5K on December 31, but decided to DNS, since I knew rain was coming, and not a light shower, and I had a pretty bad cold. That was the event that was nearly a literal wash-out, about which I posted above. There was a January event I was interested in, but between my cold and procrastinating, I didn't register for it. The 11th was a flatish 5K, and I've got a flat 10K in a couple of days.