Last weekend, I once again had the pleasure and privilege of crewing and pacing for my friend,
Meghan Arboghast, at Western States 100. There are so many reasons why I love being a part of this race - having the opportunity to run in the beautiful northern Sierras, seeing good friends, feeling like I'm helping others, and ... possibly more than anything else, witnessing the amazing stories of human strength, courage, and commitment that play out over the 30 hours of the race.
 |
| Serving in the Queen's pit crew with Kelsie Clausen |
Over the past few weeks, I've attempted to share with my non-running friends what this weekend means to me - and each time, I've felt like I came up a bit short. On that note, I wanted to write about one particular story that unfolded last weekend. By now, it has become a well known story - even making it onto NPR, but I enjoyed writing this down the day after the race and hope that at least one person out there enjoys reading this.
At 70 years-old, Gunhild Swason was attempting to become the oldest woman to finish Western States 100 (the oldest 100 mile race). She'd run this race in the past, and has run other ultra-marathons, so she is certainly in shape. However, Western States is not an easy 100 and this weekend's race was particularly difficult - the high heat (90s-100s during the day) and lack of shade along much of the course due to fires in the past few yews combined with uncharacteristic humidity resulted in much slower times and a very high "DNF" (Did not finish) rate (over 30%).
By 10am Sunday, Gunhild had yet to cross the finish line. At 11am (30 hours after the start), all racers would be pulled from the course and given a DNF, *no matter how close to the finish line they are*. At 10:43, they announced over the loudspeaker than Gunhild had just passed the last check-point, 1.2 miles from the finish. While 1.2 mi doesn't seem that long, after running for 98 miles, even the elite runners are diminished to a shuffle; it took the fastest woman a little over 15 minutes this year to run that distance; Gunhild now had only 17 minutes.
Everyone anxiously awaited - almost everyone involved with the race gathers to encourage and cheer on the runners finishing in that final hour, which is referred to as the "Golden Hour". The finish line is 3/4 of the way around the Placer High School track - the runners come through a gate in the fence, and run (usually with their crew and pacers) around the track to the finish.
At about 10:58, Gunhild came through that gate, escorted by her crew, pacer, and friend, Robb Krar, who had earlier won first place in near course-record setting pace. She still had to run almost 1/4 of a mile to finish. The stadium exploded. Almost everyone got to their feet to cheer her on (which is saying something considering many of them had just finished running 100 miles themselves). There wasn't one person in that stadium who was not cheering for her, willing her to cross the finish line before 11am.
....and she did. She finished in 29 hours, 59 minutes, and 54 seconds. 6 second to spare. I don't know of anyone who didn't have tears in their eyes. It was one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen. Not only Gunhild's determination and perseverance, but also the force of a group of individuals - all from different backgrounds, united in caring for and believing in someone else. Even now, I can't think about it without feeling the emotion creep up.
You can see the video of the amazing finish, and read her post-race interview here: http://www.irunfar.com/
On a side note ... at the pre-race meeting, when they introduced Gunhild (they make a special introduction of the top men and women - they'd included Gunhild because she was attempting to be the oldest woman to ever finish), the crowd cheered and applauded for her louder than they did for several of the elite women who were anticipated to be in the top 10. When she stepped back into line, she commented to Meghan, "I didn't think they'd care so much".
No comments:
Post a Comment