It’s probably the most great time of the 12 months for path runners—the legendary Western States Endurance Run (WSER), the oldest 100-mile race in North America, kicks off at 7 am ET on Saturday, June 29 in Olympic Valley, Calif. 300 and seventy-five runners (together with 50 elites) will head out to traverse practically 5,000 metres of elevation acquire over 100 miles. With near-perfect climate forecasted, the boys’s course file holder Jim Walmsley making a long-anticipated return and final 12 months’s second-place girl, Katie Schide, going for gold, this 12 months’s occasion guarantees no scarcity of pleasure. Right here’s what you could know to observe alongside.
WSER is notoriously laborious to get into—runners should full a qualifying race yearly with the intention to get a lottery ticket. Whereas tickets accumulate exponentially, lots of the 10,000 annual entrants wait upward of seven years to have their names drawn. Final 12 months’s race was a wild trip, with Leadville, Colo.’s Courtney Dauwalter not solely demolishing a course file that had held for greater than a decade (beforehand 16:47:19 set by British-Canadian Ellie Greenwood in 2012), however beating many of the males within the race, ending in 15:29:33 and sixth general.
Girls’s race
With too many high contenders to call, the ladies’s race shall be a thriller. Schide, who lives and trains in France, stands out after her remarkably quick efficiency final 12 months (second solely to the indomitable Dauwalter) and a latest win on the Canyons 100K. Fellow American Rachel Drake will give Schide some fierce competitors, coming off a stellar build-up with wins at Black Canyon 100K in February, Gorge Waterfalls 30K in Orgegon in April and Tillamook 50-miler, additionally in Oregon, in Could.
Edmonton’s Priscilla Forgie completed a easy seventh place in 2023, and is able to roll after spending a while acclimatizing and warmth coaching in Arizona. She’ll be paced by fellow Canadian star Jenny Quilty. Nebraska’s Kaci Lickteig shall be returning to WSER for the tenth time, and there shall be a robust worldwide presence, together with Eszter Csillag (Hong Kong), Emily Hawgood (Zimbabwe) and Ida Nilsson (Sweden).
Canadian ultra-star Priscilla Forgie is able to crush Western States 100
Males’s race
Main the boys’s discipline is Walmsley, the three-time WSER champion and course file holder with a time of 14:09 set in 2019. Walmsley, 34, is from Flagstaff, Ariz., however spent the final couple of years specializing in the UTMB 171K in Chamonix, France, the place he earned a stable win in 2023. He’s returning to defend his title, going through formidable competitors together with Hayden Hawks, contemporary off a record-breaking efficiency on the Black Canyon Ultras 100K in February, final 12 months’s second-place winner Tyler Inexperienced and worldwide standout Jiasheng Shen of China, who took fourth in 2023.
The right way to observe
Followers gained’t need to miss the dwell broadcast on YouTube, offering international protection all through the epic occasion. Commentators and professional ultrarunners Dylan Bowman and Corrine Malcolm will information viewers by way of the highs and lows of the race till its conclusion at Placer Excessive College in Auburn. Don’t simply tune in for the rostrum finishers, although—convey some Kleenex for the emotional ultimate hour of the race. Dubbed “Golden Hour,” the final hour typically has the most important crowds, when followers and runners alike come out to cheer on the back-of-the-packers as they race in opposition to the clock to earn their belt buckles.
Study extra about WSER on the web site right here, observe your favorite runners on the dwell monitoring hyperlink right here or tune in to YouTube right here.
