Western States Days 1 and 2

I'm finally here at Western States! For those of you that are not familiar with Western States, the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run is the granddaddy of US ultras and one of the most prestigious ultra-marathons. It's like the Boston Marathon of Ultras.

Western States started in 1974 when a man by the name of Gordy Ainsleigh joined the horses of the 100 mile Western States Trail Ride to see if a man could complete the course on foot. He accomplished this feat and a race was born. Gordy is now 67 years old and participating in this year's race.

This year, John, who is one of my best friends, got one of the coveted race entries. I am along for the ride, pacing him his last 20 miles to the finish. We (he's an orthopedist) also decided to attend the Medicine and Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports Conference that goes on a couple days before the race so here we are!

If you want to see a course preview video, click HERE.

This is a map of the course...

I will meet John at the aid station at Green Gate at Mile 80. Here is what my part of the course will look like. The charts read right to left and go from aid station to aid station.

 

Yesterday was a looooong day (I know, what else is new?)

I worked Sunday night then got up at 5 am to go to the airport. Flew from Indy to Dallas, then Dallas to Reno. Best part of the trip was when I got a whole row of seats to myself between Dallas and Reno!

Once I got to Reno, I rented a car and drove to Squaw Valley Resort in California. Finally got to the hotel at 1 pm Pacific time, which was 4 pm Indy time.

After a quick shower and change, I met up with John to grab food and drive on out to check out the trail at the Green Gate aid station - which meant about another hour of drive time... Then we ran part of the trail... and my body's like "Whoa, WTF are you doing trail running after flying all the way across the country and now it's 11 pm Indy time!" By the time he dropped me back off at my hotel I pretty much felt like I'd pulled an all nighter. Hmmm... maybe he's just prepping me for race day. That's pretty much what race day will be like. His race starts at 5 am. I will be there for the start, then crew all day, then run the last 20...

Today was conference day. Here was our schedule for the day...

The talks were interesting, some more than others. Most of the speakers were researchers with Phd's. I haven't heard this much physiology since I was in med school. Here's what I got out of it...

Cardiac Function lecture - Ultra-marathoners have enlarged hearts, abnormal EKGs, abnormal echocardiograms, and can have positive troponins with normal cardiac function. So...  if you are an ultra-marathoner and go to the hospital with a cardiac complaint and see a doctor that doesn't know this, you are screwed and will end up in the cath lab.

Neuro-Muscular Fatigue lecture - More physiology than my brain could handle at 9 am. I told John that what I learned was that if he got too tired, I should shock him with a cattle prod or something like that.

Carb Restriction lecture - Cut out carbs and your body will learn to use fat as a fuel source. You will feel crappy for 2-3 weeks if you try this. I believe this is the basis of the Adkins Diet.

GI Distress lecture - Most runners end up not finishing due to nausea and vomiting. Eating and drinking early on and eating fat will lessen this.

Sodium and Hydration lecture - Drink to thirst, salt to taste.

At this point, John and I decided that potato chips were the ideal food to eat during an Ultra - fat, salt, some carbs - perfect! Yes, we both love our chips.

Barefoot/Minimalist Shoe Running lecture - It's a fad. Experienced runners will have a foot strike pattern that is most efficient for them and over 95% of elite runners are heel strikers. Most people who try to change their running pattern will end up injured. In Ultras, the newest thing now is the super thick soled shoes (think Hoka).

Running Economy lecture - So much physiology and graphs that I went cross-eyed and didn't glean a thing.

Hyponatremia and Rhabdomyolosis lectures - Watch your water intake. The best ways to prevent rhabdomyolosis is to be well trained and stay hydrated. If someone shows up and you think they are significantly hyponatremic and in rhabdo, save the brain before the kidneys. Most Ultra runners will finish with CPK's in the 5000 - 50,000 range and be OK. Then there was the dude with the CPK of 750,000... he ended up on dialysis for a couple weeks. Turns out he was from Australia, got an entry, didn't train enough because he got injured, flew here anyway because he had an entry, gutted it out and finished the race, then got massive rhabo.

For the non-medical peeps...

Hyponatremia is when the salt level in your blood is too low. When it's low, water diffuses from your blood vessels into your cells. Everything swells up. It's bad when your brain swells up.

Rhabdomyolysis is when your muscle cells break down. They release an enzyme in the blood called CPK so you can measure it to determine the degree of muscle destruction. The upper end of a normal CPK is 380. When your muscle cells break down they can release all kinds of nasty stuff in your blood that ends up clogging up your kidneys and causing kidney failure.

After our conference, we went out to eat and then to a reception. We are planning to run the Escarpment at 4 am so I'm off to bed. The Escarpment is the first part of the race. The trail goes up 2550 feet in 4 miles, cresting at Emigrant Pass which is at 8750 feet. Hopefully I'll get some photos tomorrow.