The Heart of the Run: Highlighting Volunteers & Important Race Updates

Episode 4: Spring Updates & The Road to Western States

Welcome back to The Spirit of Western States, the official podcast of the world’s oldest and most iconic 100-mile trail race. In this episode, Assistant Race Director Carrie Meng and Board Member John Trent shake off the "lost month" of March to bring you a packed agenda of essential race updates.

As the calendar turns to April, the energy is ramping up for the Western States Endurance Run. We’re diving deep into the logistics and community highlights that make this race legendary, covering everything from volunteer recognition to technical race changes.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Volunteer Awards: Celebrating the heart and soul of the trail.
• The Pole Debate: An update on the rules regarding trekking poles at WS.
• Chianti Golden Tickets: Recapping the latest qualifiers from across the pond.
• Racer Logistics: Vital info on the pacer portal, general info forms, and medical conference details.
• Behind the Scenes: Media credentials, trailwork and more.

Whether you're a runner, a pacer, or a fan of the sport, join us for an inside look at the preparations for this year's trek from Olympic Valley to Auburn.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to the Spirit of Western States, the official podcast of the world's oldest and most iconic 100-mile trail race, the Western States Endurance Run. I'm Carrie Mean, the assistant race director of Western States, and I'm here with my co-host, John Trent, board member, aid station extraordinaire, Western States runner. What else boxes do we do we check? But John checks a lot of our boxes. Journalist, overall stellar human being, co-host of mine. Welcome, John. Good to see your face.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Carrie, it's good to see you too. You know, last time we talked, I think you were in New Zealand. And so, you know, you're back stateside. And it's, it's, I'm, I'm happy to hear that here in the States, you're keeping very busy.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yes, I know. I feel like that was yesterday, but it was actually over a month ago because it's April or today, and we're recording our fourth episode, which means we missed March. And I don't really know how that happened, except that maybe there wasn't a March or that it just happened so fast we lost track. But, you know, whenever I texted you, was it earlier this week? And I was like, oh no, we need to record a podcast. When can we do it? So we did miss March, but that's okay. We'll just catch up on all the things today on April 3rd. Maybe we'll do two in April if we're filming really ambitious. But we were trying to do one a month, but we'll give ourselves a little grace because it has been pretty busy. As we were just saying before we started recording, that every year from at least like the operations side of Western states, we Craig and I and everybody, board members, everybody gets busier. Yet it's, you know, a race that doesn't get bigger on the runner side. So the runner number hasn't changed in a long time, but we get busier, which, you know, it's not a bad thing. It's good. We're staying relevant. It's good to stay busy. But yeah, so it has been a little bit crazy. Um, how about for you? Have you been busy with all the things that you have your hands in?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah, you know, there's we've taught, as you know, you know, there's there's all these things on the side which just magically appear on race weekend, like the race program, for example, which we're really proud of. I think it, you know, I'm I'm a I'm a writer and a journalist, and words are my thing. I always take a lot of pride in the quality of our race program that we share with, you know, our runners and and crew and every everything. So, you know, we as you know, we had a meeting about that to talk about like writing stories for that. And then there's there's, you know, there's there's all these other preparations that go on, and it definitely keeps you busy, you know, as because before we know it, it'll be May and it'll be mo the Memorial Day weekend training camp. And then at that point, it's all gas and no breaks at that point.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

That's right. And at training camp, you captain an aid station there, right? At the pump.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah. Yeah. We work we work the pump, which which we love. You know, our our our local club here in Reno, um, the Silver State Striders, we've we've done that for many years. And it's a blast because it's it's great because it's not only the the people who are running the race who are coming out to train, but then there are there are those Western States curious folks that they've been in the lottery or they're they're thinking about, you know, kind of taking that plunge and they come out and experience it. And it's a lot of fun to help those people too.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

And the pump, that aid station at training camp is not a race aid station, though. That's one of the few, maybe the only one over training weekend. Yeah, maybe the only aid station ever training, anyhow, that we don't have over race weekend. It just it's moved a little ways from where the actual aid station is on race day.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because last chance is kind of a little bit away from there. Um, you gotta from last chance, then you gotta go down and and go down to swinging bridge and then then climb up and and out to Devil's Thumb and then over to the pump, which is not that far away from from Devil's Thumb. And then, you know, just about a mile or so is the Deadwood Cemetery, and then you make the plunge down into El Dorado Canyon and make it climb up to Michigan Bluff. So it's kind of nice to be in a different spot. What's interesting about that spot for whatever reason, sometimes we have bees that be like, you know, so we also work an aid station in the in that general vicinity for the canyons, which is at the end of April. There are definitely bees at that point, and sometimes they linger, you know, to May as well. And so sometimes we've had to kind of shift the aid station a little bit away to it was it's funny. There was a runner who came through one year and and he was a biologist, apparently from UC Davis or something like that. And he, you know, he knew what type of bee it was. He goes, Oh, yeah, those are Africanized bees. I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

We were all like, well, that's great. You're out of here, but we have to stay and serve the runners. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

It's like, I'm out of here. Good luck. Good luck with those Africanized bees. Wow, that's interesting. I don't think I saw bees there. I did see bees somewhere on the course one year during training camp and let Craig knower, let somebody know, but anyhow, so hopefully no bees this year. Hopefully they found another home that's far away from any of our aid stations.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Thankfully on race day, not an issue. You know, by June, I think the heat or whatever smacks them and they're they're they're kind of down for the count at that point. But yeah, April and May, they're around.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah, the Canyons, so they have bees to deal with and poison oak. I mean, we have poison oak too to try to, you know, get rid of or cut before Western states. I actually saw the Canyons made a post recently. I don't know if you saw that about the poison oak and how to potentially avoid getting it or then treating it if you do get it, because it's you know, it's pretty impossible to remove all the poison oak for the entire course um before the race. So I know last year that was a problem for some people. Somebody actually missed our rate, like had to withdraw from western states um an elite runner because she suffered side effects so greatly that from canyons that she couldn't run western states. So I guess if you know you're highly allergic and you're running that race in April, you have to take precautions and um hopefully, just hopefully nobody gets it.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

But absolutely any any leaf that looks a little shiny, avoid it at all costs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

At all costs, yes. Awesome. Well, we have a number of topics we wanted to cover today. We are gonna talk about volunteer awards, we're gonna talk about allowing polls at Western States, a real quick Keonti golden ticket recap that most people already know by now. Um, but we'll talk about that. We'll talk about our media credentials at Western States, some trail work update, our PACER portal and talk about the medical conference. So let's start with our volunteer awards, John. No better no better person than you to talk about that and fill us all in on what that those are and maybe how they started or how they came about.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, Carrie, yeah, I appreciate you know us having a little bit of time to talk about this. Uh, because awards are, you know, you I think when you're in the race business, you realize you can never tell people thank you enough, you know, especially the volunteer base, because these folks that normally they're not paid. They come out, they they spend their time, their effort, you know, and they go well, especially Western states volunteers go well and above and beyond the norm. And I think that's what makes the race so special is these people, they they look at it as kind of a calling if you're a volunteer, and they give a hundred percent of their effort and everything. So Western States over the years has always tried to, you know, celebrate the work of the volunteers. There's a couple of, there's, there's awards that people know about. Um, there's the Friend of the Trail Award, which is one of the older awards that Western States has, which goes out to a great volunteer. The genesis of that award was, you know, Shannon Wilde. A lot of stuff runs through Shannon. Her mother, Nancy, was a great volunteer who did everything. You know, she was the type of person that, you know, I probably have mentioned this before. Shannon's mom would, you know, check the runners in. She would, she would run um an aid station herself, and then she would help with the finish line as well. And in the days and weeks leading up to the race, she was always there to, whatever Shannon and Mo Livermore, whatever they needed, she was there to always help. So inspired by Shannon's mother's Nancy's example, um, the Friend of the Trail Award came came about. And it's been going on, you know, more than four decades that that race that award has been presented. There's also a longevity award, the Station Master Award, which goes to aid station captains who more than a decade at an aid station have, you know, been the leader at their various aid stations. This this is often presented. Um we have an aid station captains meeting in January. The Aid Station captains are there. Usually it's kind of a surprise. You hand that off to them to show that, again, you know, the longevity of the leadership, the continuity, the stability that's often important at aid stations. We honor those folks. And then, you know, over the past couple of years, Carrie, you know, you know, um, I'm part of an awards committee where we've tried to develop even more awards. You know, our president Topher Gaylord has said, you know, you can't have enough awards. So we took that and we've decided to create a few more awards. And we presented three new ones last year, um, and we're going to be presenting them again this year. Um, and that, you know, like everything with Western states, there has to be story to it, or else it doesn't really work, I think, because Western states is the greatest story of them all. And then these other things that run through Western states, they need to have a story connected to it. So these three awards have a story, an individual associated with them that kind of that becomes an emblem of what the award is about. So there's an award called the Sophie Brown Award. Sophie Brown was a longtime volunteer at Devil's Thumb aid stations. Sophie was there for forever, and she was, she was so into the volunteering that she would make handmade chicken soup for the runners, which we all know the restorative powers of chicken soup at Devil's Thumb. So she had her own home recipe that she made sure that she had every year there. And then when Sophie was dying and was about to pass away, she made sure that the A station captain at Devil's Thumb, Dennis Siloff, brought Sophie's successor to Sophie's house. And Sophie literally passed along that homemade, handmade recipe of the chicken soup to this new person that was going to take over that role at Devil's Thumb. So just an incredible volunteer. So last year, Sandra O'Pelia was the, who's a longtime aid station volunteer at Devil's Thumb. She was the first recipient, and we gave that award last year. And then there's another award called the Captain Marvin Jacinto Community Award. And this is based on there was a gentleman named Captain Marvin Jacinto, who just passed away in the last year or so. He was part of the Placer County search and rescue. And when Mo Livermore and Shannon Weill were trying to figure out the infrastructure, the safety infrastructure of the race, Captain Jacinto said, Whatever you need, we're here for you. And he rallied the Placer County search and rescue for many years to make Western states a much safer race. You know, the communications, if search and rescue was needed, that sort of thing. So he was one of those early figures that made sure that Western states had a really good safety protocol. And he was from Auburn. He was a longtime law enforcement person in Auburn, and people just loved him because of all the work that he did in the entire Auburn community, not only for Western states, but everybody. So last year, the first recipient of that was Matt Keyes, who is a longtime volunteer, sort of, you know, jack of all trades kind of presence at Western states. Matt does everything and does it really, really well, including a lot of trail work and other things. So Matt, who lives in Auburn, received that award. And then the third award, the third new award that we came up with was the Dr. Robert Lind Medical Award. And this is, you know, obviously, Dr. Robert Lind is the godfather of all things medical at Western States. You know, he was the first medical director of the run from the very beginning. And for many years after that, he encouraged people to come and do research, medical research, just welcomed any type of medical person to come out and do their thing. So last year, Dr. Jeff Curland, who at my aid station, Forrest Hill, Dr. Curland has been the medical captain there for decades. He flies in every year special from Pittsburgh to be a part of this, travels across the country, and Doc Curland is awesome. I mean, he he has solved many, many problems and has made sure that many, many runners have left Forest Hill and gotten safely to the finish out of our aid station at Forest Hill. So Dr. Curland was the first recipient of the Dr. Robert Lind Award. So, Carrie, you know, just to sum up, you know, these are some of the awards that I think tell a story, not only the recipients, but the larger story of what all this comes to mean, which is, you know, care, compassion, and empathy and understanding of what all of our runners' needs are. And, you know, we're just really excited that we have these awards and we have worthy people that we can honor each year to tell them, hey, we appreciate you and we love you.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah, that's awesome, John. Thank you for that history behind those awards. I feel like that must be a really tough job also on that committee, given the history of the race and how many people are probably worthy every year of an award of one of those that you mentioned or of some some sort of recognition. So, you know, if we have over a thousand or twelve hundred, we're not really sure on the exact numbers of volunteers out on the course every race weekend. I mean, that's just race weekend. Like many of these folks that you name do much more above and beyond even race weekend. But I imagine that's a tough job as the committee to to uh to select a recipient of those awards. But uh, but I think they're super important and say a lot about how our organization feels about volunteers, and we know that they are absolutely like the backbone of the race and that we wouldn't exist without them. Um I'm confident I wouldn't have made it through the course last year without our volunteers out on course. So thank you for you and that volunteer committee and on any of those involved in um developing those awards and making sure that they are acknowledged in some way for those.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

It's one of those things carries the labored love. I mean, there's so many good people. We just, you know, these these awards are gonna um they'll outlive me for sure, because I'm old and you know, you're you're a lot younger than I am. Hopefully they're gonna outlive you as well. And that, you know, 50 years from now, these these awards are are still presented and and we still have, you know, there's still a long list of people that we still need to honor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

John, that reminds me, I wasn't planning on talking about this, but you know, you say that, you know, that the awards will outlive you and hopefully me as well, which is true. You know, one thing that I think about with this organization and our board members and those that are really involved in making this race happen, is predecessors. And it's gonna get to a point that there's no one left that was around since the beginning, um, you know, around when all these things were created and have the historical background. Like I really hope that those that are just getting started in the last few years, like me, like 2023 was the first year I was involved in Western states, that are will will emulate all of you and will carry on the heritage and legacy and the history and making sure all these really important things can continue. So that I think about that a lot. Like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do when John Trent's not on the board anymore? And that several people like that. And because it will get to that point that we have that turnover in the board, and who will be the next up and coming folks to replace board members and operations like Craig and myself. And anyhow, I think about it a lot and what that means for our organization.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

You're exactly right, Carrie. And I I think what carries all this stuff forward is humankind's storytelling tradition, you know. I mean, that's ultimately I come back to the word story a lot with Western states, but I think it's really, really central to what we do. It's important that we even though sometimes, you know, you don't want an old guy telling a lot of old, boring stories, but you want, you want to share these stories. So then, you know, people they grab them and then they share them with others. And so a generation removed, two generations removed, the stories live on and you understand what the essence of the organization is all about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah. And then they'll hopefully read. There's, you know, lots of publications, lots of books. Shannon wrote a book this past year, Buckle Fever. You have a couple books, you have Second Sunrise that talks a lot about the history of Western states. So we gotta make sure that those all stay in circulation and that we keep telling the stories. Maybe we can have a younger person just read the story from the book. Maybe they weren't there firsthand, because it's obviously gonna get to that point that there won't be any more firsthand storytelling. It will be storytelling of what they learned from all of you that have been around for so long. Yeah. Um, okay, great. Well, um, I know we mentioned it on our previous podcast right after the rule was changed, but it has been brought up lately again several times. So we decided to talk about allowing running poll trekking poles at Western states. It has been a rule for ever since the beginning that polls aren't allowed at western states. And things, you know, not only the technology of poles, but the usage of, you know, how they're used or the purpose of them has also evolved over the years. And so it was decided in a board meeting this last October, I think it was, that we would now allow trekking polls. And it sounds like you were recently asked about it a few times, and I was not in that board meeting where the discussion happened. And so we'd love to hear your perspective and kind of what how it was handled at the board meeting and why the decision was made.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

I know Carrie was interesting because we, you know, as as a board, we've addressed this issue a couple of different times. And it made me go back to discussions we had, you know, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years ago. And there was a real unanimous feeling, you know, in those discussions of a long time ago that no, you know, Western states is different, you know, we need to hold the line on this. You need to, you know, and I think part of what colored those early discussions was this idea that if you use polls, it's it becomes a hike and not a run. And I think that was one of the things that we really held close to us was we, I think everybody's always felt and continues to feel that Western States is a running race. We know, you know, after you see like UTMB and some of these other races, and the way a number of these athletes use the poles, I mean, they're running, you know, and it's there's no doubt it's not this leisurely, you know, they're holding themselves up by the poles or whatever. It's part of their running. And that's just a fact of life now, you know, but the elites in particular, but everybody else. It's it doesn't really even matter what type of course a person is on. There are many people that that use poles now. So that was, I think, one of the realizations we needed to make. And, you know, again, looking at all the other events that are out there, and you know, we we were, we're like one of the last um holdovers from that old mentality that, oh, you just you don't need any of that, you know, um, to use. And it was, it was a surprisingly um harmonious discussion that we had. It we didn't get bogged down in this idea of like, you know, are we a run runner or a hike or whatever like that. It was more of a realization that this this is, and Western states, as much as we're a very traditional, you know, historic type of race, you have to realize at some point, this is where the sport is right now. We like to always feel like we're leading in major decisions. This is one where I think we, I think all of us felt like it's time. The time feels perfectly to do it. And it's been interesting, you know, as we were kind of messaging back and forth about this discussion. Just last weekend, I went and helped some friends who were running it, you know, uh, they had a long canyons day, and there were a bunch of other groups out there. And I, you know, must have been half dozen people came up to me. And they didn't, they, it wasn't that they had like, you know, a strong feeling one way or another, but they were like, why did you change? You know, and it was just like this, you know, why, why did why do this? You know, it wasn't like they were against it or for it. But I think anytime Western states changes something, people notice that. And and they were just curious about like, you know, why now? And it's just like, why not right now? Because again, I think this this is a reality of where the sport is right now.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Yeah. I completely agree with you. And obviously, people still have the option to. Not use polls if you don't want to use polls. And a lot of people won't. But it was coincidental that you, you know, we discussed our kind of topics for the podcast earlier in the week. And you're like, we should talk about polls again. And um I was going through the 2025 live stream YouTube videos um this week. And I was, I was looking for some specific things, but I hadn't watched the live stream. I keep meaning to from last year when I ran and just, you know, but I haven't had 31 hours where. So anyhow, I end up scrolling and coming to um a time in the live stream that Adam Pop was on the live stream. And so he was our above-the-knee amputee runner last year. And you know, he runs with the blade. So I stopped to watch it for a few minutes and I'm looking at the chat conversations, and people were like, um, he should be using polls. And they're like, Yeah, polls would definitely be warranted in this situation. I'm sure he could have gotten an exception, and you know, I'm sure he would have. But a lot of people then replied to those comments saying most people or some have you sometimes folks don't want a special accommodation. And so if Adam, if that was, we don't know, if that was why Adam chose not to use polls because no one else was using poles, I could see that had we allowed polls, maybe that could have helped him. He would have used it because now everybody's allowed to use poles. It's not a special accommodation for him. So I could see that also being a really good reason for us to allow polls because in those situations where maybe somebody does have a balance issue or a limitation, you know, we don't want them to that to stop them from A participating in our race or B finishing the race. And then especially in the later hours and overnight hours that people maybe don't see as well at night. So it does become like a safety thing and could make or break be the difference between somebody finishing or not. So I thought that was interesting that we were going to be talking about polls today. And I saw that on the live stream. I was like, yeah, I bet because I was thinking that too. I was like, he could have had a special request that we probably would have granted. Um because we have before for um a blind runner, at least maybe probably more than one that um, you know, of course asked to use polls and of course was allowed to use polls. But anyhow, um, I think it's a great decision to allow polls. And like you said, it's just time and that most other races and you know, trail races and ultras allow polls. And the other big change at the same time was the micro spikes and allowing micro spikes, which it doesn't look like we'll probably need that this year, but we will in the future at some point again.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah, yeah, we we will. Yeah, this isn't 2023. Yeah, 2026 is a dry year in the Sierra. Yeah, there's nothing up there right now. Very well, we we got some more the last couple of days, but it's not gonna last. Yeah, it's that's what I heard.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah, dry and dusty this year.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, and maybe might be pretty hot, might be a hot one. Awesome. Um, well, speaking of the of trail conditions, one benefit of not having a lot of snow is they've been able to do more trail work at this point than usual. So we got some updates from Craig posted a few days ago on the Facebook page. I'm less than if you if anybody wants to go look. There's some pictures here. I'm looking at it now, just saying that the volunteers have been out clearing the winter blowdown, taking advantage of the lack of snow. They got some small trees off of um out of Volca Volcano Canyon. Um the western states is clear all the way up to dusty corners. Oh, wait, with the exception of two small ones on Volcano Canyon. Okay, so at the point of this, at the time of this posting, those two trees weren't cleared yet, but the rest is cleared all the way up to dusty corners.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

I mean, it really is. I mean, usually there's yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

And Craig told me that he's like, we are not usually this far along at this point, so that's great. Um, and there's still opportunities to do trail work. We have our weekend before it's the weekend right before the race. So the 20th, June 20th. We do a camp out at Robinson Flat and then break out into different teams and do our final kind of trail work before the race. Then, and then this summer there are six weekends of two days each, so 12 workdays to complete the granite chief wilderness reroute, knocking on all the wood that will be finished up by that sixth weekend. That's been four years and multiple millions of dollars in the works to finish that reroute. So it's a kind of a cool opportunity to be able to take part of that and see something historic happening. So the signups are on our website. It is a camping situation because it's two days, you're going into the wilderness and there for two days and to work. But um, but it's pretty exciting to think that that is likely wrapping up this summer.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

I know you've I know you've helped out with that before, John.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Yeah, it's carry, carry, it's it's it it really is kind of awe-inspiring. You know, the the group that I worked with, you know, as we were hiking in, just where the trail, where where they they've put the trail in, and there's these huge boulders and there's all these rocks and everything, and then there's trail. I mean, it it boggles the mind to think about how how these teams over the past several years have been able to more than scratch the trail in. I mean, it it's gonna be there and it's gonna be lasting, and and the views are just incredible. It gives people an entirely different aspect of the race. You get some of that on the on the old part that you would go through through the granite sheaf. This takes you up into the heavens. I mean, it it really is cool.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yeah, I cannot wait. I'm hoping to um cut fly in for one of those weekends this summer to take part of that. So I have not yet done any granite sheaf trail work. So I'm it's past due needing to, and I don't want to miss I'm having FOMO also to be a part of it. So I will be there this summer at some point.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

They will welcome you with open arms.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Thanks, John. Appreciate that. Yeah. Um, I have helped Craig with some other trail work. I was his swamper, which is funny. I've never I had not heard of that term previously. Um, and our my local trail here that I'm on the board for is called Graham Swamp. And so he was called me a swamper, and I was like, Yeah, yeah, I guess I am actually. Um, but basically carrying the chainsaw for him. Um, so for him to do the chainsaw work, which is very physically intensive. And he was cut, there were these giant trees that he had to cut. And then I was sitting on the ground using my feet to try once he was slicing the big tree and trying to get it out of the road and the trail. We were also clearing an access road. Man, I was sore for days. Like, like it's almost like inverse squats, like you're laying on the ground, kicking with my feet to, you know, I'm trying to impress my boss. So I couldn't tell him I wasn't strong enough. So, anyhow. Um, all right, a couple more updates. We just sent out Craig just sent out a runner update email to everyone in the race and everyone on the wait list. Did it go out last Friday, about a week ago, maybe Saturday, anyhow, within the last week. And in that email was a link for our portal. It's the same portal we use for folks to enter the lottery. And that portal now is used for a couple purposes, one of it being a pacer matchup. So if you want to pace someone and you want to find a runner that needs a pacer, go on to the portal. The link is on the website. Um, I think he put it on the Facebook page also, and sign up there. It'll ask you some questions. And then runners that are in the race can go on and look at that and find a pacer. And we often have pacers match up that way. So it's a really fun way to be involved in the race if you want to pace, but you don't know anybody that's running or know anybody that needs a pacer. So go on the pacer portal, sign that, um, fill it out there. And then if you are in the race, there's a general information form to fill out. And why that's important to fill out is Tropical John Mettinger, who is in our announcing booth most of the 30 hours. I think somebody takes over at night. So, but most of the 30 hours, he pulls up those general interest forms and reads something about you as you were coming onto the track. So that's pretty cool to hear not only your name, but whatever you put in that general interest form. And the first time I experienced the how cool this was was in 2023. It was my first year working for Western States. My friend was running, he had been in the lottery for seven years, and he comes onto the track. I'm at the finish line, and they say his name, they say the seven qualifying races that he had to run to, you know, get in. And then they talk about his crew, and then a big congratulations to his friend, you know, Carrie Bing, who just sort of wrote and so, anyhow, so you can put your, you know, notes in there of what you want to say. You want to thank such and such for coming out and crewing you and pacing you and like helped you get to the start line. So, anyhow, fill out the general information form so that we have something to say about you when you get to the track. And there's all we may also use that during the live stream. So, you know, a live stream is real heavily focused on the front of the pack, the you know, first, you know, part of Saturday. But then we need we need to talk about everybody else that's in the race from then on, past our top 10 folks. And we want to hear people's stories. So if you're in the race, please go fill that out. Craig sent out the link. We want to be able to hear what is your why or what brought you to Western States and be able to talk about that on the live stream and then as you make it to the track in Auburn.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yeah. I I I remember all 11 times I finished the race. I always the the one thing I always wanted to make sure I included was my wife Jill, my daughters Annie and Katie, who were always central to me getting to the finish line. I always wanted to make sure that their names were read out loud. I mean, because that like you said, like with your friend and and you and everything, it's it's I always thought of those little forms as less about me and more about all the people I loved.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Absolutely. And it's it really is a neat thing for the runner and then their friends and family that hear their name over the loudspeaker at the track. So I highly encourage filling it out because we do use it. And I think that folks will be glad that they did. Okay, so real quick, we'll talk about Chianti. I was not there, I didn't go to Italy. Too bad, but maybe next year. We awarded four golden tickets. So top two men, top two women, except we had some decline the golden ticket, and in which case it rolls down. In our golden ticket races where we do top two versus top three, it rolls down to fifth place if needed. So on the men's side, it rolled down to third place. Our first place runner, Thomas. He might, it might be Tomas. I'm not sure. He's from France. Cardin, he accepted the golden ticket. The second place runner declined the ticket and it ran, it came down to Vincent Bouillard. So that's exciting. I think there were probably a number of us that were rooting for Vincent to come back. So it did work out for him that he was able to get that ticket because of Andreas um declining the golden ticket. Excited to have those two guys lining up um in our elite field this year. And then on the women's side was what was I doing during Keonti? I think I was putting on, oh yeah, I had a um kids' trail race that I was putting on that day. And so I didn't get to follow along and there wasn't a live stream, anyhow. So I had to find out everything, you know, after the fact. And um, apparently the women's race was something is quite the spectacle, and everybody wished there would have been a live stream because of how competitive it was, and that in the last first, what I heard was in the last nine miles. I guess that must have been the distance from the last aid station to the finish. And it was the one, two, three changed. Like Courtney came in third place from at the last aid station, I believe. And then she ends up winning the race. And I recently listened to a podcast, Dylan's podcast, Free Trail, and he had Rachel Interkin on. So I actually got to hear more play by play of what happened because Rachel, she ended up in third place, and she thought she was fifth place, even when she crossed the finish line. And she was totally stoked and happy with that. She wasn't there to win a golden ticket. She really doesn't have any interest right now, at least in running Western states. That was not the purpose. It was to get into UTMB from the I found this out from her podcast. But anyhow, so she was ahead of Courtney coming out of that last aid station. Courtney catches her and apparently was, you know, just gets goes by her. Great job. And um I apparently it was in like within the last half mile, maybe, that that Courtney passed number two, Ingrid Casperson. So Courtney is far from being done, if there was any uh, you know, any rumors of that. Um, you know, last year she had her DNF at Cocodona and anyhow, and then has been running marathons, road marathons. So really throwing us all for a loop, but goes out to Keonti and reminds us of why she's the GOAT and one of the best in the world. So Courtney declined the golden ticket. We weren't entirely surprised. She's running Cocodona again. She is running hard rock. Like that would just, yeah, to also throw Western states in the mix would be incredibly difficult. But um, our second lady, the finish, Ingvlid Kasperson, accepted the golden ticket. Rachel declined. It went down to fourth to uh Gemma Moses, who ultimately also ended up declining. And it went to Lauren Purit's. Did I lose John Trent? No. Are you there, John? Okay. So, anyhow, that's our golden ticket. Yeah, I just got a text from John Trent that I lost him. This happened in our first episode. That's okay. We're getting ready to wrap up. So that's okay. Golden ticket winners. I think everybody knows who they are by now, anyhow. We have one more golden ticket race before in Western States, and that is the Canyons K, April 25th. And at that golden ticket, we'll award top three male and female. That will be our last golden ticket of the 2026 season. And then we will right after that be announcing golden ticket races for 2027. Most will probably say the same, but there could be a couple changes. So we will be announcing those after the Canyons, okay, at the end of this month. Uh, last thing we wanted to go over real quick is again mentioning our medical conference, part of Western States. One of our three pillars is medical research. And we have a conference every year, and it's held on the Friday before training camp weekend. So that's Memorial Day weekend. I believe that Friday is the 22nd, May 22nd. And that is held in Auburn at the Holiday Inn conference center there. So you can go on to Western States website, find the link there for the medical conference, and also on Ultra sign up, you'll be able to find it there, Western States Medical Conference. And you can get your continuing education education credits there. But anyone can tend you do not have to be in the medical field or needing credits. There's uh registration options for both. So I know that we have a really seller lineup of speakers this year that our medical team is very excited about. So check that out. We have the agenda and all that and speakers listed on the website as well. Next up, we will, oh, we did not talk about media credentials. And John Trent is our media manager. So maybe we'll have to record again in a couple of weeks so that he's included. But he just said that his neighbor is digging up his backyard and now he has no internet. So sounds like a line must have been cut. But long story short on the media credentials is that uh requests are now open on the website. So if you go to the home page, you will see a link there. If you are a media outlet and would like to cover Western states, you will need credentials to do that. So fill out that credential request. John will receive that, and him and I work together on the media credentials and sending out approvals and things of that sort. And then we have a media meeting the Friday before the race. So the day before the race at Palisades, a mandatory meeting for anybody with credentials, and we will hand out the credentials at that time. But um, check out the website and read through that we have all the rules for media and so forth. That's one area of the race that, as I was mentioning at the beginning of this podcast, that has really grown quite a bit and continues to every year. We had more media credential requests last year than we ever have. So we've implemented a couple kind of new procedures for the media credentials. We also added back to media access the far side of the river. So still crews cannot go past Green Gate, but we are going to allow media to go to far side. So it'll at least give the media another option for capturing content at the river and um more than just the near side. So, anyhow, all that information on the website. We will discuss it again on our next podcast when John can add more since he's so involved in the media process. And we will also start discussing all things to do with crewing, pacing. We'll start digging into the race week agenda as we're finalizing things over the next couple months and any other relevant logistics for our runners. And as always, incorporating some history of Western states in that as well. And maybe we can talk Craig into coming on to one of the episodes with us and talking about this year's race. Appreciate you joining us again at the Spirit of Western States. And wherever you're listening to us, give us a like and a subscribe and share with folks. If you're watching us on YouTube, say hello to us and uh yeah, pass it along. We're just trying to share the love of Western States and um and relevant information that is gonna be useful for anybody that plans on coming to uh the race this year. All right, guys.