2026 Western States Recap: Records, Record Crowds, and the Sphere of Influence

Carrie Meng and John Trent recap the historic 53rd running of the Western States Endurance Run, from flag raising at Emigrant Pass to the Golden Hour finish. They break down the numbers behind the fastest Western States ever — Vincent Bouillard's sub-14-hour men's course record and Jennifer Lichter's women's course record in her 100-mile debut — plus the third-coldest, arguably best-ever race conditions and a record 87% finishing rate. They also dig into what it took behind the scenes: record media turnout, new crowd-control measures at Foresthill, managing an ever-growing spectator "sphere of influence" around the elites, and the emotional moments that stick with volunteers, like a heartbreaking cutoff decision and a board member so busy congratulating finishers he nearly missed his own buckle. The episode wraps with what's next: Granite Chief Wilderness trail work weekends, qualifying-race updates for 2027/2028, and a preview of December's lottery weekend.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:08

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 Ming, the assistant race director, and I'm here with my co-host, John Trent, Western States board member. And we are finally getting around to our official recap of the 2026 Western States, the 53rd running of the race. John, uh, we're almost two weeks out. Not not quite, but close to two weeks post-race. How are you feeling recovered yet from your race weekend?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Yeah, I think, yeah, Carrie, I think so. I mean, although it it's a process, right? You know, it feels like um in the day or two after it, you're kind of still buzzing with it. And I think, you know, for a number of us, that buzz, it it kind of goes away and then it comes back. And then you think about it some more and you think about all the feelings and everything. And yeah, it's um, you know, um we had an exciting year this year. Not that every other year isn't exciting, but this one in particular was was one for the history books for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Absolutely. And that's a great description of how uh I felt after the race, also. Um I was still on a high for a couple days, and then you kind of hit a low, and then it kind of comes back. So yeah, it's been that up and down, similar to our race course, up and down, up and down feelings and emotions afterwards. And, you know, obviously neither one of neither you nor I ran the race this year, but uh working and volunteering for the race is its own uh endurance event. And um on that note, I think it would be fun, John, to hear what did race week and race weekend look like for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

It was, yeah, I it it was it was kind of a blur. But um, this year I I tried to um, you know, maintain my um energy levels and keep it to a dull roar, but it you know, better easier said than done, you know, right? Um as as we all know. And um I I was, you know, really honored to be part of the flag raising on Thursday. That's a um traditional event that we have to kind of kick things off for the week on Thursday, travel up to um immigrant pass, which and the escarpment is below that. Um, and we actually had that event for the first time up there as opposed to because of weather and other things, we'd have it at high camp. So we actually hiked all the way up to where the Watson Monument was and had a really, really moving um ceremony. Uh Mo Livermore, um Dennis Siloff, um Charles Savage, um Shannon Weill was up there, Allison Thomas um was was part of it too from our board. Um, and we had really good turnout and people were really, really into it. Um it was it was moving. It was it was emotional. We laughed, we cried, um, talked about what Western states meant and everything. So that was a lot of fun. And then of course, you know, Friday, um, which you're a part of, um one of the many things you're part of is you know the media and making sure the media had their credentials and their final instructions before um, you know, the the event was held on Saturday morning. And um, you know, um we had a lot of media this year, you know, that was a record setting, not only uh for record setting Western states, but a record setting number of media. You know, I think you said it best. I think when we were um during the media briefing, we put you know, you pointed out that there were as many media as there were runners um this year, you know, um, and um it's continues to grow and evolve and everything. Um so we we did all that, um, uh yeah, interacted with the media. Saturday I got up on the ladder, was able to give some, I hope, what was what were words of wisdom for our runners. Craig Thornley, for the last several years, has asked me to do that. I consider that a huge honor. I tried to play off the idea that um we're all part of this hem of history that and Western states' goodness um that it kind of infiltrates us all and carries us through the day and unites us all. So I hope that message came through. It's always interesting looking down. Um the elites in particular, they were all like, you know, wearing puffies to the very last minute. And a number of them were kind of like off to the side, and then they jumped in at the at the at the start, trying to stay warm until the very beginning because you know it was it was a cold morning and windy morning um up at um Emmergut Pass. And then uh and then a few hours later, joined my colleagues, um, volunteers, teammates, um, team at Forest Hill, you know, which we've you know been part of um, you know, our running club, the Silver State Striders Arena, been that's our been our aid station for three decades. We had a great day there. Um, you know, conditions were great. Runners weren't in a a lot of trouble. We did have to help rally a few to get through that. And then the scene there was just incredible. It was high energy, tons of people there, the most people we've we've ever had at outside of the aid station um at Forest Hill in the community of Forest Hill. Um, you know, I one of the things I do post-race is I get a chance every year. For the last 20 years, I write the the big story about Western States for Ultra Running magazine. Had a chance early this week to to talk to Jennifer Lichter on the phone. And um, she mentioned and she and in a good way, which was nice, she she said that the energy at Forest Hill was is something she's never gonna forget running through that because it is it is quite a scene. I mean, there there are attendant um pressure points associated with that and tensions uh sometimes, but the overall energy and the vibe was was great. And uh it was great to hear that you know somebody like Jennifer really picked up on it when she ran through there. And then um closed down Forrest LA Station, you know, um, after the last runner got through at 1145, closed it down, got a few hours sleep, then went to the track, saw some friends, saw the golden hour, um, saw that finish. Um and then by the awards ceremony, just kind of felt out of it. Yeah, understandably. Yeah, after a long week. How about you? Well, how was how was how was your you know, several days of of all of that? How'd that go?

SPEAKER_03 6:28

Yeah, it was a very busy week for sure. The weekend before I was able to participate in what we call camp out weekend, which is the last final push for getting the trail ready. So trail work weekend, we camp out at Robinson Flat and then break up into five or six groups. There's, you know, 30 to 40 volunteers there, and we have leaders for each of those groups and we disperse different areas of the course. And so I was able to help with that, which was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. And uh, you know, Craig, of course, always makes sure we have a Starlink wherever we are because the work doesn't pause for us to be off grid for a few days. So uh Starlink work, trail work, camping at Robinson Flat, and then headed back to Auburn for the last few days of prep at the warehouse, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then headed to Palisades. And Thursday, we had the crew briefing at Palisades at the event center. Uh that's always really well attended. Myself and Todd Larson, our A-Station Coordinator, lead that. Uh, it's a really a lot of fun. Um, we have mostly new people that attend that, new crews that have never been there, new runners. So the energy is really good. That's always something that I look forward to. And then on Friday, we had the runner briefing, which is typically held outside, and we had to make a decision to move it indoors. Um, I guess it was earlier that morning we made that decision. I can't really remember. Like you said, things are kind of a blur due to the weather. There was like an impending storm. It was really windy, it was supposed to rain. So we moved it to the event center, and it was a packed house, to say the least, um, overflowing to outside, like probably not most ideal as far as having to uh beyond capacity in that room. But I think that uh Topher and Craig did a good job of moving things along um and keeping it brief. It was under an hour, but you know, just had the kind of critical information that people needed, and then introducing the elite field, which I think everybody looks forward to that. And then our medical director, Andy Pasternak, kind of gives his spiel about taking care of yourselves and crews taking care of your runners and so forth. So, anyhow, that was um a very different but fun runner briefing. And then with you, the media briefing. And like you said, our most media ever. I mean, this year was historic in so many ways, and I know we're gonna dive into more of that. Um, but the media was one of those ways. So did that with you, got all the credentials out, did our media briefing. And that was kind of a time I was actually able to exhale for a little while because all the like briefings and meetings were were done. Um, I guess that was probably 5 p.m. or so on Friday. And then, you know, just some last kind of final prep and trying to get to bed at a decent hour Friday night for that early 3 a.m. wake up time. And then I was supposed to go up to Immigrant Pass via the tram to help with like crowd control, because it was you know, last year, the first year we ran the tram. Uh, took a lot more people up there, of course. Um, and Friday, the choice, the decision was made by the resort that they wouldn't be running the tram because of the high winds, which we kind of expected when we saw how the went they didn't run it on Friday either for the high camp challenge, which still took place. You just had to hike back to hike up and hike back down. So no tram. So I said, okay, well, then I'm going to stay at the start line and help with media management at the start line. Because again, most media ever, we decided to create a media corral for the uh media at the start line. We've never done that before. So we had recruited some volunteers to help with that. So I was I was glad I was able to see that and help with that. Um, and then end up seeing some footage of immigrant paths. And there were still a lot of people up there.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

I was, I mean, impressed and surprised. Um, you know, obviously we don't have numbers, and I would guess it's still less than if we would have had the tram. But man, the windy, cold conditions did not keep people from hiking up. And I'm glad for that for the runners because it is a really cool experience to get through that giant climb at the start and to have that kind of crowd welcoming you and cheering you on through there. So, um, like you were saying, it was chilly at the start. So it was real kind of just quiet at the start line for a while. Like, where is everybody? And they were just kind of waiting till the last minute to come out and shed their jackets and so forth because of that cooler weather. And then, okay, so then we got the race going. And then I had a friend of mine who's also a race director. She's a hellbender race director, Carrie Barris. She had been with me all week, like shadowing and helping. And so we both had vehicles. Well, the couple weeks leading up to the race, a couple international runners had reached out and they were like, we're not gonna have a vehicle, but my spouse, my partner, needs to get to Auburn somehow when the race starts. So she took a woman from Finland, and I took a woman from France, and we drove them to Auburn. Um, the woman from France ended up staying with Carrie and I in the vehicle. She was like, Well, I'd rather go ride around with you two than sit in a hotel room. So smart lady took her with us. And so she kind of got to witness and some of the back-end race stuff going on and talking on the radio. And um, anyhow, sorry, I lost you for a second. And uh anyhow, we went to Robinson Flat. We uh stayed there for a while through the kind of the rush of the elite field, observing some of the parking and shuttles, making some notes on that. And then from there, we kind of just continued to follow the peak of the race. Um, again, just from an operations viewpoint. We went to Michigan Bluff, we went to Forest Hill, I was in Forest Hill for quite a while, and then driver's flat. We were there for probably four hours helping with parking, loading shuttles, um, just watching that process and some changes that we had implemented to see what worked and didn't work. We ended up at over at Slager Mine, which is the parking area to go down to Greengate. Um, so not the most like glamorous part dealing with like parking and vehicles, but like you said, the historic year brought historic crowds and it's historic parking and vehicles. So uh the race that never grows, meaning we, you know, growing in the number of runners continues to grow every other way, every year. Um, and then we eventually ended up back in Auburn, also got a few hours of sleep, and then we went to Net Control, which is our kind of we'll just call it headquarters. I mean, it's called Net Control. We post up in a spot in Auburn in an office that we rent, and all of our radio operators are there. And someone uh that we has the title of RD2, and that person changes, but it's somebody that's very, very familiar with the race, very, very familiar with the course, and that they kind of troubleshoot any issues that come up throughout the weekend. We have ham radio operators at all the aid stations. So if something comes up at aid stations, they communicate to the ham radio operator in net control. And a lot of problems, challenge issues are all resolved right in that communication line through net control. So we went there just to check things out, took the gang some breakfast from went to the finish line, picked up plates of breakfast, took it to them at Net Control, uh, hung out there for a little while, and then made our way to the finish line also to see the golden hour and then awards ceremony and then warehouse for unpacking, and then crashed out at some point that night. Um, and then up very early Monday morning to get finished cleaning up and warehouse stuff again. But uh, but yeah, that was the crazy few days of race weekend for for me.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Yeah. Yeah. Um that that's amazing. I, you know, and um people may think like, you know, race directors, assistant race directors, they're, you know, they're uh they don't realize how, you know, um, you know, you get your hands dirty. You're working hard throughout that entire time. I was reminded of that at one point. Um, my co-aid station captain, you know, Casey Green is one of them. Ken Castrico is is the other co-aid station captain of Forest Hill. Ken um went over to Driver's Flat to go um look at the parking and all that. And and Ken came back and he said, Carrie is working her butt off at Driver's Flat. You know, he said it was amazing to see that you were just jumping in and helping, you know, because I mean that's what we do. I mean, especially I think someone like yourself who, you know, is heavily invested in making sure that the race operates as smoothly and as efficiently as possible. It wasn't surprising to me to hear that, but it was like, whoa boy, yeah. I mean, she's alright, I knew you already had been busy. And then when I heard that, I'm like, wow, that's that's impressive.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Thanks, Ken. Yeah, Ken showed up there and I really grateful for him that he was out and about um looking because we had, you know, I'd consulted with him earlier in the year about some of our shuttle and parking challenges and so forth. So he wanted to see it for himself. Uh, so when he popped up at driver's flat, I really appreciated that he was out there checking things out to wrap his head around the challenges that we're dealing with with parking cars and getting people down in that particular location, getting them down to the river. So, but uh yeah, thanks, Ken. Um, so going back to the race itself, we talked a little bit about race morning conditions, were cold. I had my puffy jacket on, and then Ted came over and gave me his puffy jacket. And, you know, runners were wearing some of them were wearing jackets to start with, even they started in them. So that is not something we typically see. So temperature-wise, the third coldest year ever uh out of 53 years. And what I found interesting in addition to that, that I learned from Tropical John John Mettinger's article is that you could argue it actually was the best conditions ever because the two years that were cooler had rainy conditions for like the first 30 miles, which we didn't have this year. Um, so the the best conditions we've ever had for running, and I don't think any of us saw that coming um until the week of when I mean, even 10, was it 10 days out? Correct, only our race director's weather guy, Larry from Oregon University, is that where he's from? Anyhow, Larry, who's the weather expert, start sending updates like two weeks out, and you know, it's pretty unreliable at that point. But it was like it could be anywhere from mild to excruciatingly hot. So we were not, it was not on our radar that we would have the best conditions ever for racing. So start with that. Best conditions ever. Uh windy. The start was definitely windy, and I didn't go to the top, of course, at Immigrant Pass. I, you know, saw videos and so forth, and you could see the wind up there as well. But um, haven't heard much about how that might have negatively affected anybody. Um, but windy conditions, but very cool. I think the highs were in the 70s and our average high is around 92 or so. So quite a huge difference uh in in those temperatures. And we saw that uh reflection of that in our finisher numbers.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Um so do you want to talk a minute about let's see, course records.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, um as you mentioned, you know, uh, we so we had a high, the highest finishing rate ever, 87%, um, because of those perfect conditions. And I can attest, I covered the race as a journalist in 1991 when it was rainy and cold throughout. Tom Johnson set the course record that day on the men's side. And at that at the time, you know, it was cold, just it was wet and cold standing around. And I ran the race in 2012. I can attest it was it was wet and cold. I did not, I literally did not warm up until I got to Devil's Thumb that day. That's how cold it was and wet. Um and so perfect conditions in terms of there were there was no, you know, you didn't have to worry about any of that. So the high finishing rate, course records, um, you know, Vin Vincent Boyard set the set the men's record, broke 14 hours, along with um the the the second and and third place finishers, and you know, the top four all broke Jim Walmsley's old course record of 1409, which is incredible. And then on the women's side, you know, Jennifer Lichter, you know, Courtney DeWalter, when she had set the course record a few years ago, 1529, everybody thought that was untouchable. And Jennifer ran close to that throughout and then knew as she got to Roby Point that she still had about 30 seconds on it, but had to keep the pedal to the metal and did. You know, I think anybody who saw on the live stream her finish where she was sprinting at the finish, you know, she got the course record by a little bit more than a minute, 1528 and change. Um, just phenomenal effort on on both both um uh Vincent and and Jennifer's part. And the women's race was in, you know, just incredibly fast as well. Yeah, I mean, this will go down men's race, women's race, as the fastest Western states ever, you know, just for top 10 men, top 10 women. And then you factor in this incredible 87% finishing rate. Um, so it it made for, and I think everybody knew going in um that it was going to be a fast race. You know, there was talk of the first sub-14-hour um effort for the 100.2 mile course, um, and um the men's race delivered. And then the fact that Jennifer and her 100-mile debut got Courtney's record was sort of like I think people always have known that Jennifer is a rising talent, and now that talent has arrived, and it's gonna be exciting to see how that how that plays out. And just in general, I think, you know, standing around at Forest Hill, it was just so nice. You know, you're not on that black top.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

I was gonna say it wasn't just nice for the runners. Yeah. Yeah. Volunteers.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

It was great. I mean, you know, it was, it was, it was a very pleasant day all day long. Um, you know, and but even with that, you know, there I remember um, you know, part of the duty as as the aid station captain is you have to cut off the the runners' wristbands when they when they drop. And we had a few of those at Forrest Hill, not many, but a few. The most memorable one for me, um, they're all. You know, those are all tough situations. But Hayden Hawks had had his race had kind of unraveled because his, you know, he was having some physical problems, his leg, his knee. Um, and uh he was in Forest Hill Aid Station. Um, you know, any chance of the top 10 was pretty much gone at that point, but Hayden still didn't, you know, want to completely give up. And his family was there. His, you know, a whole host of friends, supporters were all there. And I was standing there, you know, with my with my knife. Uh actually it's my daughter's Katie, Katie's knife, and um was waiting. And he came over and he asked me, what do you think? And, you know, I always take that responsibility really serious. And you want to, you know, weigh like the runners' condition where they are relative to what they still have to do. Um, and I thought, yeah, I mean, he could probably walk this out. And, you know, he he was limping pretty badly, and you know, he could have done it. But I told him, I said, you know, you you have this gift, and you sometimes you need to think about protecting your gift. Um, and so he walked away from me, talked to his wife. They cried together, you know, he then he walked around a little bit more, talked to more of his friends, and it was about a 20, 25 minute process until finally he came over, he said, okay, let's do it. And he put his hand out and I cut cut off his. Well, I had his I had one of his friends cut off his his wristband. And it was, it was a reminder that even in the most perfect conditions, some of the best runners in the world, they still, you know, it's still challenging for everybody to go 100 miles. And you have these, these, and you know, I could tell he, you know, he loves the race. And I think he believes in everything about the race, about finishing the race and doing your very best. And he was really torn about like, you know, even though I think he coveted winning, he still thought about seriously about, you know, maybe just walking it out and hiking it, you know, 38 miles to the finish. Um, and it was very moving and it was very emotional. And that's something I think I'll always remember.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

That's such a great story and a reminder, yes, that conditions can be perfect, but a hundred miles is still gonna throw a lot of challenges at you and it's still incredibly hard on your body. And whether you're elite, back of the pack, middle of the pack, like we're pushing ourselves to do our very best that day. And that comes with risk, um, you know, with injury, GI distress, whatever it may be, because we are trying to get every ounce of ourselves out of it uh out through that hundred miles. So um, I know that had to be an incredibly hard decision for for Hayden and for really anybody that that did have to drop. I mean, we had our lowest drop rate ever, but it wasn't zero. So there's still people that did not make it to Auburn. And, you know, that's always heartbreaking for for everybody. We know what it takes to get to Western States, and it's tough if you're not able to see it through. Um yeah, that as HST captain must be really tough. I've never had to do that at Western States. It's never been my job. I don't know that it ever will be, but I do feel for all of you captains that have to have that conversation and look those runners in the eyes because I'm sure it's a very tough decision. Yeah. And so um, on that note of like records and stats, we have a lot of fun stats on our website. Uh, John Mettinger puts most of those together for us. There's a uh what do we call it, geeks only page.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Uh yeah, geeks only that you can see all kinds of stats of all-time top 100 men, top 100 women. Um, he we also rank the every every year by median time, median finish time. Um, and it's you can view it by hardest to easiest. And based on that, we had our fifth easiest race based on median time. Um, so that's you know, that's just it's more fun than anything. But you know what I want to see? I'm maybe somebody's done this and I haven't seen it yet. But what because there's you know temperature adjusted times and we can plug things in the calculator. So what would this year's finish times equate it to if it would have been 92 degrees, like the average high? So is there has anybody calculated that? Because if so, like please send it to me. I want to see it. Um, but that's great. Take these year, this year's finish times, plug it into some kind of heat calculator out there, because I know they exist. Um, maybe I'll try. I can try with some AI or something. I don't know. But I do wonder if anybody's played with that yet to see what the sub-14s and Jennifer's course record time would what would that have equated to if it was our kind of normal Western states temperatures? It's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Now that you mentioned it, Carrie, there's there's some uh computer scientist kind of person out there that's gonna take that deep dive and figure that out for you.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

I hope they do. I hope they do and send it to us so we can talk about it because that would just be a fun thing to see. Not that it means changes anything, but just more, more of a fun thing. Um and then going back to just like the course and the spectators and you know, Jennifer's comment about the energy through Forest Hill. That was that was the only time, well, let's see, I saw the top, some of the top women come through Robinson Flat while I was there. And then when I was at Forest Hill, I was able to see, I think the only runners I saw were when Hans Troyer and Francesco Poopy came in really close together. And Hans was, you know, ahead of Poopy at that point, and they were just flying. And the streets were completely lined, almost making like a tunnel for the runners to come through. It was unbelievable. And they, you know, head out of Forest Hill, turn on Cal Street, and they're gone, can't see them anymore. They're on the trail. Well, a little while later, I get a text message from our race director, from Craig, and uh, don't remember what we were having a conversation about, but he said, I'm out on, he told me where he was on course, which was after a little while after they turned on Cal Street on the trail. And he said, and I just saw Hans throw up and poopy passed him. And I was like, oh my God, like he's getting, he's seeing it before, you know, it's on live stream before anybody knows what happens. And so, you know, Hans pukes, poopy passes him. Then I think Hans passed him again, he throws up again. Anyhow, Craig is watching this unfold in real time and texting me, and then you know, we know what happened after that. But anyhow, that was uh the last moment that was the last time I saw runners until I got to the track on Sunday, because then after that I was at parking. But um, yeah, the energy is what I'm going back to and the amount of people, you know. On my end, I'm looking at it like, oh my gosh, there's way too many cars in Forest Hill, like they're just parking. And um, and then same with driver's flat. But for the runners, I'm sure it was a pretty incredible experience to have that many people out cheering them on and feeling the energy of the community um supporting them. And you would know this. Do you feel like that once that elite feels like how does the energy shift as the day goes on in Forest Hill?

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Yeah, really good question because there is a shift. Um, you know, um it we're at max capacity, it feels like, and then some. I mean, it's standing room only three or four or five people deep all the way down the street from the time Hans Troyer, the leader at that point, came through until, you know, probably until the ninth or tenth place woman comes through. Um, it's just packed. Um, and just like you, I went out, you know, I went out of the aid station a couple of different times just to get a sense of how packed it was. And it was, it was extremely packed. I was really thankful because I was standing there as Hans came through as the first one. I mean, there was no room. Um everybody was just kind of standing around visiting, and you know, it's a party, you know, and it's very, you know, people are, you know, it's kind of a festive sort of thing. And I'm like, oh boy, you know, um, I hope people become aware soon that the leader is going to be ripping through here. Thankfully, you know, um, a couple of the mitigation measures that we made ahead of time, you know, Carrie, you know, you were in a you were leading a lot of this effort where we got um a longtime Western States volunteer, Johnny Glover, to get involved. And so there were some ambassadors, volunteers that were outside of our aid station who helped with some of the crowd control and everything. Um and and luckily, I saw like, you know, as as Hans came out, some of Johnny's group was making sure that people were aware that here he comes. And then suddenly everybody, you know, um kind of didn't scatter, but but widened out enough that that Hans, who was loving it, he was, you know, goosing the crowd and doing all this. And there was enough, there was enough room definitely for Hans. And then he had probably, I don't know, 15 media members, you know, following him, cameras and all that stuff. And now that's that's really where the issue is. It's not the runner. There was plenty of room for Hans, but you know, you're you have five, four or five people on each side of him, four or five people behind him. And so his sphere of influence is suddenly is doubled. And and luckily that group was able to find, you know, the every, you know, the spectators widened up enough where the whole sort of entourage was able to make it through for that. But it was, it was a I'll tell you, and I I described this to Jennifer when I was talking to her, and she um remembered, you know, I because I stood outside when she came through as well. It was, and I was like a maybe a block down from the aid station, and it was like being out in the ocean, and you see this far-off wave, and you hear the wave and its energy and its noise kind of pick up. And this wave of cheering just started at the end of the aid station and just sort of came at me as I'm standing a block away. And she, you know, and the runners, you know, she's Jennifer's kind of surfing this, this intense sort of loud cheering. Um, you know, she's at the front of that. And I recalled that and she did too, you know. And so that that was the cool part of it was to see that sort of thing play out. But I mean, it and we we've come at Forest Hill to kind of embrace this idea that um no matter no matter how we how much we want to control it, it there is gonna be kind of like this party atmosphere. And now that this is our reality, how do we manage this party as opposed to just the aid station? And I think, you know, we did our best this year, and I think for the most part we were successful. There's definitely some growing pains that, you know, as you know, Carrie, we're gonna continue to discuss, you know, over the coming months to figure out even more ways to try to maybe lessen the density of all of that, just in terms of, you know, the parking, the impact that it has on it's a neighborhood, people live there and all that. And how do you do that? And and you know, last year um there was uh a baby pool that got left behind that we, as we were cleaning up, we mistakenly thought it belonged to one of the residents and we left it. We didn't clean it up and it stayed. And so we we, you know, the aid station kind of caught a little bit of flack because of that. It was ironic because at 11:15, I was determined that that was not going to happen again this year. And we were gonna clean up, you know, as intensely as we could. So my wife and I, my wife Jill, we literally with two garbage bags, we walked up and down that street to make sure that all the garbage, and throughout the day it had been handled, I thought, a lot better this year. But ironically enough, we found yet another abandoned baby pool that was that had been left behind, along with a cooler full of ice. They just whoever it was, and I don't know who it was, um, they they just left it after whatever runners or runners they were dealing with um had passed through. So, but we made sure we grabbed that baby pool, we grabbed that cooler, and we threw it, you know, we asked somebody if they wanted it. They didn't nobody wanted the baby pool. We threw it in the dumpster. Somebody wanted, it was a really nice cooler. It was expensive. Some one of the vol one of our volunteers took the cooler, but it just goes to show you have to, you know, just have your antenna up at all times and don't assume that just even with all the mitigation efforts that you're making, that they're all working and you have to be on the ball um throughout the entire time. And that's a it's a 12-hour deal, basically, for us at that aid station. And we can't let our guard down. And I thought we did a much better job of that because we found another baby pool, but this time we disposed of it properly.

SPEAKER_03 35:24

Wow. Well, A, I'm disappointed to hear that. I would love to give the benefit of the doubt that they scrambled, the crew scrambled out of there and were like, oh no, we look we forgot the kitty pool and cooler. I I really hope that's the case because I was obviously disappointed last year when I heard that a pool was left behind. Um, because that certainly shouldn't be happening. But thank goodness for you and Jill and all of your volunteers that are committed to leaving Forest Hill the same or better than when we found at the entire town. Because, you know, technically your aid station is at the school. You know, that's your area of responsibility. But I know that you guys are committed to the entire town. And that town is really important to us, and the community is important to us, and leaving behind garbage is unacceptable. Um, and you know, like you were saying, we did a, we created, we added a lot of things this year to help mitigate some of our negative impact. You know, we added more toilets, we added the, you know, Johnny's team of, we called them forest hill ambassadors to help with crowd control, to help with parking, to help with community. Um, we added barricade just to help with crowd control. And, you know, at driver's flat, we added an additional shuttle. And so we are responding to this influx of people, but it does seem to continue to grow. So there we're gonna have to keep continue to response and mitigate uh those things, but we need the help of everyone else by a bare minimum taking your garbage with you, respecting the communities, parking and actual parkings. I saw someone's vehicle being towed away on race day. I saw tickets on when they were clearly parked by a no-parking sign. So, anyhow, you know, realizing that the whole town doesn't shut down for us, that people still live there and businesses are still open. So, um, anyhow, we will just continue to preach that on here at the crew meeting in our documents, things of that sort to make sure that we are really trying to protect the communities that we run through because they're of their importance to us and to the race. Um, same with Auburn. Auburn was insane. Um, Craig walked for to his house home. I think it was when he walked there, either for the to get all the results together for Ward Ceremony or when he walked home and he was like, Oh my gosh, I cannot believe the street all the way to his house. He's like, I've never seen cars parked that far down this particular street from the high school. Um, so anyhow, it we felt it everywhere, but Forest Hill, I think by far on the course gets the most amount of people. I mean, it's really, it's easy to get to. Uh, it's a you know, paved road all the way there. It's not on a mountain road, it's not very remote. So, anyhow, and it's a big party and it's a lot of fun. So I can't blame people for wanting to go. We just need to make sure we're respecting the communities while we're there. But I did want to jump back to you said a couple things that I loved. The sphere of influence. First of all, I've never heard it framed this way, but it's so true. That was stressing me out as well when I knew the elites were coming and I saw how big the crowds were in their direct path where they would be coming into the eighth station, out of the eighth station, and kind of out of our protection of fair cade or what have you. And I was like, I sure. Does everybody know they're they're coming? Um, are they gonna move out of the way? And you know, Johnny's ambassadors helped with that for sure. But the sphere of influence, because you're right, you know, if it's just one runner, they're gonna get through, fine. But it was not. The entourage or sphere of influence that each of these runners had is just unbelievable of how many people want to get that shot, want to get them on video. And you know, some of it's our live broadcast, but also a lot of it is just like external media. And then the second thing you said was the metaphor about being in the ocean and you hear this wave, and then you start to see the wave, and then Jennifer Lichter is riding the wave. That is awesome. Like we need to print that. That was uh and yeah, I can just envision it just with that um that exact story, how you told that. So um just wanted to circle back and acknowledge those great words that how you frame those elites coming through the sphere of influence and Jennifer riding the wave. Um, but then, you know, also going back to speaking of our back of the pack and cutting wristbands and, you know, our race is so much more than just the elite field. And I know it's really fun to watch people running fast and breaking course records. Um, but that's like such a small percentage of the folks that are out running the race. So obviously want to acknowledge all of them. I know what it's like to be a back of the pack runner at Western States because I was last year. Um, and knowing that there's there, some could argue maybe it's harder to be in the back of the, we're out there for a lot longer. Um, but you know, it's all different types of challenges that everybody is going through. I was watching a video this morning. Um, I was actually like tuning into hard rock stuff, and then I saw somebody had posted a recap video of Tara Dower's race at Western States, and there's a clip of her crossing the river at Western States like two weeks ago. And I got like goosebumps watching her looking at her the vulnerability on her face. You'll have to go back and I'll have to send it to you. Um, this video. It was a like a professionally done, like four or five minute video. It's not very long. But I know that she was she was looking back, and whomever her pacer was, you can hear him on the video. Don't look back. And she would do it again. He's like, stop looking back, don't look back, just keep going. You're doing great. Stop looking back. And I could just see it on her face. And I maybe had a similar look on my face, except for it wasn't looking back for people. It may have been checking my watch for cutoffs. But point being that that like vulnerability and putting it all out there is felt from the front wave all the way to the end, the back of the pack wave. Um, and it's pretty special all the way through. It is felt for sure at the golden hour, which you know arguably has a bigger crowd than potentially the elite field, or at least the same. Um a giant crowd. And uh anyhow.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Golden Hour is so cool. Um, you know, um I forget their names now, um, but um, you know, I was sitting there with some friends, my family, you know, Jill was there, my daughters, Annie and Katie were there, friends from Reno, and we're outside of the stadium. And there's a couple, I want to say their name is Bob and Nora or Bill and Nora, something like that. They live in the house that's literally right on the corner, and then you, and then you run right in the stadium gates. And had, you know, all these years that I've been involved with this race, I've never had occasion to talk to them. And um, you know, they're they're an older couple, you know, um, really super friendly. I mean, you know, the the guy, he's the kind of guy you walk your dog by. He has dog treats for the for the dogs in the neighborhood and gives gives them one. And and they were just saying, living in that house all these years, because I said, like, you know, is the PA, you know, does that get to you? Or, you know, the, you know, all the announcing. And they said, no. Um, they said, first of all, they appreciated. I think we adjusted the PA a little bit. So the the bat, the, the bass or the treble or something is not quite as loud. But but they said they wouldn't trade where they live there, right at the corner, heading into the stadium for anything because of this incredible human race that they see, you know, on every June at the end of June coming by. Um, and it was, you know, it was so sweet. They had chairs that they had out in their front yard and they offered, they said, Do you want to come sit? And we, you know, we had another place, you know, um right there close by. And but you know, they they just they get up for this. Um and awesome. You know, they they look they look active, but I wouldn't say that they're ultra runners or even runners or whatever, but they just embrace what you know the humanity of. of the of the race and seeing everybody from Vincent Bouillard to the to the over 30 hour runners who are just still getting there as well. They they embrace it all and love it all. And that that to me was a really, really cool thing to actually sit and visit with them for a few minutes about about their life right there on the corner leading into the stadium.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

That is very cool. And you make a point about that they are likely not runners or ultra runners and but are a fan of the race. And we see that all over we have aid station captains who aren't runners. And that the best example of that is that Red Star. And our aid station captains they are the Scots celebrated their 40th year volunteering for the race this year. And they're not runners. And they have been involved with Western States for 40 years. They received an award that Craig Thornley and Todd Larson were presented them during the race this year, which is very cool. But uh it yeah I it's understandable how runners are drawn to this race and other races, but non-runners to also feel the magic of that is a pretty cool thing. Um and just the I think you said the the human sport, the human side of it um is felt yeah beyond just the runner demographic which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Speak so speaking of that what what was what what was your most inspirational moment would you say?

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Wow. It would have to be the golden hour for a number of reasons. For one, it was the only time I was at the finish line. So I'm sure I missed a lot of other inspirational moments. I didn't get to see you know any elites finish and of course those very fast times are inspirational. But the golden hour still kind of remains that for me. And you know of course I have a a personal uh attachment or um to the golden hour but just seeing them come through with you know barely any time left knowing that just thinking what they probably struggled through that 29 and something hours um is and that they didn't quit and they made it some with only a couple minutes left or less than a couple minutes. And then those that finish after 30 hours and they could have stopped at Ruby point or pointed whatever point it was that they realized they were not going to make it under 30 hours, but they didn't and they finished anyways and they are Western States finishers even though it's technically you know not within our cutoff they're not going to get their buckle it's not considered an official finish, but obviously they did fin still finish and made their lap around the track and crossed the finish line. So that is a huge inspiration to me as well to keep going.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Yeah how about you do you have a most inspirational moment yeah yeah I, you know, a couple small ones you know associated with what you just said, you know, our our club, the the Striders, we have a spot that, you know, because of our aid station service at Forest Hill. So Bryce Rhodes, you know, who's lived in Reno his, you know, his whole life, his parents, John and Terry Rhodes, you combined those two individuals have 17 Western states finishes. Bryce previously, but it had been a long time, had finished the race as well. And Bryce was, you know, our selection for for our aid station spot this year. And Bryce finished just a touch after 30 hours. He was part of the, I think it was three, three runners who finished afterwards. But it was really cool because Bryce is a very resilient guy. He's always so positive and doesn't take himself very seriously. You know he he has kind of a you know devil may care sort of approach to you know life and everything which is super refreshing. And so he finished you know as he was finishing a bunch of us were standing there from Reno from our club or whatever. And you know we we did the you know the the little tunnel um up him on the on the back stretch you know run under um and and seeing him finish you know completing that journey was and he you know I talked to Bryce afterwards and he was okay with the fact that you know he he didn't quite make it under 30 because he'd gone he'd gone the whole way nonetheless. And that was super important to him. So that was cool. And it really you know a a quick one was also um our board member Lamont King Lamont was running um he's doing the Grand Slam this summer he'd gone and run Old Dominion done well there he was really tired um running Western States spent some time with Lamont in our aid station at Forest Hill um his wife was helping him and everything Lamont was you know even though he's really tired was exactly the way Lamont always is where he's very attendant of the people around him and very aware of the people around him was so thankful you know to everybody all the all of our people that were helping him and everything. And so then you know as you know Carrie you know we we hand out the buckles during the award ceremony and everything and and board members it's an easy duty it's a fun duty is you know the the buckles are handed out a bunch of board members are standing there and you you shake um the finishers' hands as they you know get their buckle and then walk out of the tent for a second. So Lamont was doing that because he's on our board um he's an officer of our uh you know he's a part of our executive committee as well and uh so Lamont got so caught up in shaking everybody's hand and congratulating them that when he got you know he finished in the 28 hour cohort and he's literally standing there and they call his name and he's like not in line to get his buckle he's still too busy shaking people's hands, telling them a great job. And he had to kind of remind himself and snap out of it oh you know um I can kind of like think about myself for a second and get my buckle. And I just thought that was a really gorgeous moment um of a very caring man who always thinks about others first and it was so caught up in the spirit of Western states. I think you know if they hadn't called his name, you know, he would have kept shaking hands and congratulating everybody. And so he jumped in and got his buckle and everything. So I thought that was a really really cool moment as well.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

That is a cool moment to call out I was speaking of Lamont where was I when I got a text message from Chloe and she was at the White Bridge and she said Lamont is on his way to the track he just crossed the white bridge and I wasn't at the finish line. Was I even maybe I might have still been at net control maybe I was in the warehouse because we funny story when I was at net control Sherry Alvarez said I don't know if we took enough finisher medals to the finish line and there's some more though we we have a handful more at the warehouse though because all of a sudden we're realizing we're gonna have the highest number of finishers and I was like well I better go right now and get more medals. So I ran to the warehouse real quick and I think that's when I got the text. So now I'm trying to find a parking spot at the finish line. And so I called the finish line manager and I'm like any chance there's a spot I can sneak into I'm trying to hurry up and A take these medals but really to see Lamont finish. And um so he was able to get me a spot and then of course I'm going from the car to the track and getting stopped by people wanting to talk to me about this or that and I miss him. Like he I could see I could see him coming and then anyhow when I walked up he was already across anyhow I barely missed him but I was able to congratulate him as he walked out of the shoot um and yeah very inspired impressed by him and hopefully he gets into Vermont actually do you know has he gotten in he's he's close because I I've been checking for him I've I've I've decided that I've I'm taking this up for Lamont because you know and I as of this morning I think he was number four or five on Vermont's wait list.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

So I think he has a really good chance of getting in that's fantastic news.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

I've been thinking about that and one I haven't checked um but that's great because he's not he has to get into Vermont for the Grand Slam because he did not get it he was not registered for Leadville. So that's very exciting and terrifying it is yeah exactly. Great well that's good news I'll have to reach out to him um and then yeah you're a runner that's a great story to follow up with me talking about those you know after our after 30 hour finishers when we did have some dramatic finishes this year. Yeah so uh unless there's anything else you want to talk about for this race I was gonna kind of move on to where we are now and what we have coming up.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Yeah let's let's let's let's move forward Carrie yeah let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 52:56

Great. So after the race this is gonna lead into what we're gonna talk about next it the Thursday after the race Craig had asked me if I wanted to go for a hike with him and Joe Steinmetz, um our radio manager who's get who was supposed to hand off the reins this year to our new radio manager who just happened to get in the race through the lottery, Greg Larkin. So Joe had to stay on kind of one more year as our our radio manager, but he does a ton for our race and is one of our RD2s race weekend. And so him and Joe were going to go for a big hike and asked if I wanted to come along. So yes it was the day before I was flying back to Florida. I'd been there for two and a half weeks or so in Auburn. And so part of that hike we got to hike the new trail through the Granite Chief Wilderness. So I was thrilled they had seen it before I had not so I was thrilled to see that and that leads into kind of where we're at now which is starting hopefully the last push in the last summer of Granite Chief Wilderness trail work as it pertains to the reroute. And somebody had either like misunderstood us or misunderstood we're not rerouting out of the wilderness just to be clear. This is still in the wilderness is just a different trail on a higher bridge to get out of some like really bad eroded trail that needed to be rebuilt. So just to clarify that that we're still going through Greenwich Chief wilderness that is not changing. It's just through a different path so we were able to to do that and I was able to see what work has already been done and then what work is left to do and there's a lot left to do. And that starts this weekend with our first weekend of this six weekends we have at Greenwich Chief trail work. I'm gonna pull up pull that up actually while we're chatting um they are two days two days like Saturday and Sunday six week weekends you don't have to sign up for both days if you can only come for one at a weekend but we do still have some spots open for trail work and these are camp camping weekends um so they'll be camping at Lion Ridge which will be super fun. So yeah so this weekend Saturday Sunday granite chief reroute that's full um the next weekend that we have for granite chief is the 25th we still have 11 spots to fill um so July 25th 26th with camp out um you can camp in your car you can bring camping equipment at Lion Ridge John Katz who is our trails manager sends out all the needed information for that um once you sign up. So 11 spots left for July 25th if you're interested in being a part of granite chief work and then August 8th right now looks to be full but then we still have spots available August 22nd September 12th and September 26th weekend. And hopefully that will be the last weekend and the reroute will be wrapped up if all goes well with the plans. Yes. All the fingers crossed um so check that out on our website under volunteer opportunities and trail work if you'd like to be involved in that it's really hard work but it's incredibly rewarding work. And you're literally building new trail through the wilderness it's such a unique opportunity to be a part of um it doesn't happen very often that you get to be a part of something like that and cutting brand new trail and it's really like a work of art this trail work. I think you were probably I think John you were part of one of the days where they built that like I mean it just looks like it's built in a garden like a path like it has barriers and then the rocks and the the surface that you run on like it was just so impressive and I know so much goes into that thinking about drainage you know through the rocks and then some erosion prevention and things of that sort. But anyhow I you were you helped with part of that didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 57:09

Yeah last August I did yeah and yeah it it's an incredible process big rock small rocks all sorts of rocks you know you you I I was I was given you know there's the really skilled builders who handle all the big rocks and then there's those of us who aren't very good at anything. And so I gather yeah I was part of a group that gathered a bunch of small rocks that kind of was the filling around these beautiful big rocks that sort of created this sort of you know tramway down through this one section. And it is it it it was a it was watching you know John Katz Craig and and all of those people who are really really skilled at that put that together was impressive. And it you know it's just like any other trail you run where you know that it when it's been beautifully constructed and it's been there a long time and you wonder who did that? You know, how how did that come about? And then like you said Carrie um to be a part of this, to know that you're a part of that, I mean you're part of history. I mean that's something that a hundred years from now there's going to be foot traffic, horse traffic that's going to go across that um and you know these people that are out there that are volunteering and are part of this Grand Chief effort, that's their legacy.

SPEAKER_03 58:20

It's a pretty cool legacy to have 100% and it was so incredibly beautiful I have so many pictures from that day. The views are significantly improved. I mean they were already great in the high country but a lot some even better views the flowers were insane um and uh yeah I remember thinking well gosh I thought maybe Western States was going to be one and done for me maybe I have to run again so I could run the the new trail that they're draining achievement but any out of you heard it here first yeah yeah oh and on that note about how her to work in the big rocks the wilderness being a protected area you're not allowed to use any machines in the wilderness and so these giant rocks are all moved by hand um and they have different systems for doing that. Like they're bringing big rocks down from you know ridgelines or cliffs or what have you and they're using like a belay system.

SPEAKER_01 59:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 59:21

Uh anyhow it's a very cool thing to see and be a part of um anyhow so no machines which is really interesting and just adds a whole layer of challenge uh to trail work but makes it all that more impressive as well. Uh so yeah so that's happening. So go sign up for trail work if you want to contribute. Another thing that's happening is you know once the race is over it's it's we we tried to find time to unwind but now like an influx of customer service on qualifying for next year.

SPEAKER_01 59:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 59:57

And so I've been getting emails every single day um even race week people asking about qualifying for next year. I'm like you're gonna have to give me a minute to get back to you on that. But yes races that are wanting to add that you know that now meet the criteria to become qualifiers we've added several races that will show up on our 2028 list. Crazy we are already working on our 2028 list because November ends the window to qualify for 2027. So it is time to be thinking about that. If you don't have your qualifying race yet for 2027, you only have until November 8th I believe is when that window closes. So it makes sense that people are asking about it and asking about qualifier size, cutoff times, things of that sort and one thing that some runners get surprised about that you should be aware of is that not all of the western states qualifying times for races are the same as the races cutoff times.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

So please visit our website at the qualifying list and check what our time requirement is for races that are a hundred miles, we almost always I say almost because it's not always always almost always use the race cutoff time and so it's the same races under a hundred miles, we almost always have a faster time and that is to ensure and you know Tropical John puts a ton of work into this him and I do it together but I he's more of the brains behind it. But he determines those cutoff times he usually looks at like the winning time average times things of that sort so there is a thought process there is a method to the madness of how we come up with what that cutoff is. So if 100K has a pretty generous cutoff most likely our cutoff is going to be a little stricter and that's to help ensure people that are qualifying to be in the Western States lottery have a decent chance of finishing Western States. So that's why those times are in there that's why they may differ from the race and same goes on the opposite end of the spectrum those your 200 milers 200 250 mile races our cutoff time is going to also be faster than their cutoff time. You know being able to finish a 250 mile race or 200 mile race and their cutoff doesn't necessarily equate to being able to finish Western states in 30 hours. So anyhow that's just a little bit of the thought process that goes into how we're determining cutoff times and why they're sometimes different than the race cutoff time. So we try to get it as close to okay what would this mean for Western states for 30 hours? So check the qualifying list. We don't expect a lot of changes in races that are listed for this period, but we will be posting the 2028 list by September that starts in November with November races after the 8th. Yeah anyhow so um a lot going on with qualifying races right now.

unknown 1:03:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:08

You have anything to say about that you covered it beautifully Carrie it's and it's it's kind of fun and also a little daunting to just sit down and figure out what one's schedule is going to look like based on you know what you what you just laid out there. But it is it is good to give some thought to it because there are there have been times when people just have made assumptions and they're they're they're not correct and then it's it's a it's a mad dash and a scramble to trying to figure out an alternative or what what can be done. So it's just you know I think you laid it out beautifully and just remind folks just have fun with it and sit down now if you haven't already and start kind of scripting out what it might look like for you and the you know this year and next year and and on into the future.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:55

Exactly answering those emails is really heartbreaking for me when somebody said why is my qualifying race not valid for the lottery and it's because they ran under the race cutoff but not under the Western and they were like I didn't even look so please look please look at our website look at the Western States qualifying time just to make sure you know going into it what that is. And you and I will do a more extensive deep dive in either September or October into the whole lottery process. We'll answer some of the most asked questions once that lottery entry opens on November 1st the influx of emails that we get is pretty tremendous but there is a theme in the most amount of questions that we receive. So we'll dive deep into that later this summer right before the lottery opens in the hopes that it'll be a resource for people to go into the lottery with more knowledge of how the whole process works. But in the meantime we have great information on the website about the entry process um I've gotten two emails just in the last day of hey I ran my qualifier why is it not showing up in the portal? Well that's not how that works. We don't it doesn't automatically populate to the portal it's not going to show up until you enter the lottery in November. So we'll get into things like that. Yeah. And then speaking of lottery weekend is our next big event uh that we host as as an organization and that will be the first Saturday of December in Auburn. It is hosted live at the high school in the theater we may be having some outdoor viewing options as well because of like race weekend and everything else we have reached capacity for the our the theater seating. So we have been brainstorming um how to expand that capacity to some outdoor viewing. So TBD on that but first week in December and it will be live streamed. So in Anybody, of course, that can't attend, they'll be able to watch that live and hopefully hear their name called as we go through our lottery picks.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:09

And otherwise, we have a couple golden ticket races between now and then. So we'll be obviously keeping an eye out for those to see who our few elite field as we start to build that, starting with CCC in August out in um at the UTMB races. And then Havelina, which will be at the end of October on Halloween, Gary, is Willy Wonka going to return to Havelena?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

That's the question.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:39

I heard he is. I heard he is.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:42

Yes. So um look out for him to present those golden tickets at the finish line of Havelena Hundred Miler. Uh CCC is 100K. Havelina, it's the 100 miler just to because they have 100K too, but that is not that's not even a qualifier, let alone a golden ticket due to the lack of elevation gain. But last year, John, you ran Havelena 100. Are you planning on being out there this year for any purpose?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

Yeah, we're gonna, we'll, we'll, we'll the family's gonna be there. And my daughters, Annie and Katie, are both running the 100 miler. Um I'm running the 100K with my wife, Jill. And we're gonna, we just we're we're we're expecting to have a blast. I think it's gonna be man. That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:24

Okay. Well, Willy Wonk is gonna be excited to have the whole crew there.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

I'm excited to hear that. I'm excited Willy Wonk is gonna make a return.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:32

Absolutely. Well, we can't wait. Uh okay, on that note, anything else to wrap up this recap and looking forward podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Yeah, you know, I just I just wanted to say that um I think for anybody, I think when you've been involved with something for a long time and you're passionate about it, you always hope that you learn new things, you experience new things, you see new things. And Western States 2026, I think, you know, checked all of those boxes and then some. And that's what I think we're gonna remember, you know, going forward was, you know, this this was this is one of these years that people are gonna be talking about for a really long time. And to be a part of it um was was incredible to to know that in in in a small way, you know, volunteering, helping out, um, you know, to to be kind of seeing it unfold before you is a really, really um, really, really cool experience and something that stays with you and really, again, I'm getting that buzz right now about the race uh from a couple of weeks ago. Um, it stays with you and it it's it's it's something you carry with you. And it just, it was, it was an incredible year. And it just, I was really, really proud to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:46

Yes, very well said, John, and I feel the same way. Um, I'm gonna end the note on giving a shout out to our fellow board member Dylan Bowman, who is running hard rock right now. And this is apparently when he finishes this weekend, which I have no doubt he will, he will be considered a true hard rocker because he has finished it in the opposite direction already. So this is his first time in the is this clockwise this year?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:15

I think so. I think you're right.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:16

Yeah, and he's done anti whichever one it is. He is he will, anyways, want to give a shout out to Dylan and hoping that he is having the experience that he he hopes he has this this weekend. Until next time, thanks for joining us at the Spirit of Western States, and we will see you all very soon. Thank you, John.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

Thank you, Carrie. We'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:37

Okay.