Ultramarathon Daily News | Mon, June 27

iRunFar: The Week in Running. All the trail and ultramarathon results from around the world, compiled by Justin Mock.

Western States, T&F Outdoor Champs in Eugene, and Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK all in one weekend?!? Ack! I can’t handle it!

So in the last few weeks, I’ve seen Alysia Montano and Lauren Fleshman (both running) at Broken Arrow and now Alexi Pappas at Western States where she was supposed to pace Lucy Bartholomew. It’s awesome to see, but why the female Olympic T&F representation but nothing from the fellas?

Here’s iRunFar’s rundown of the Western States Endurance Run. My quick thoughts:

• So bummed for Tim Tollefson. Not sure what happened, but on paper, he should win this dang thing.
• I still had money on Ailsa catching Ruth up until the final ten miles. Yes, Ruth is an incredible, world class athlete, but when Ailsa is running strong, she’s tough to beat.
• There are a lot of new runners towards the front of the pack I’ve simply never heard of.
• I’d love to hear more about Kaci Lickteig, Erika Hoagland, and Megan “The Queen” Canfield’s experience as all three ladies finished in the 23-24 hour range.
• Dylan and Corrine were great with their commentary and it was incredible they got footage from some pretty far-off places. Next year I hope they focus on improving the video feed from Auburn and the track. Mine was stalled out most of the time and I don’t think it was my computer.
• More media: So much attention was paid to the top guys finishing while the women’s race had so much action going on!  All and all, it’s great to have any live updates but maybe a split screen next time?
• It was crazy to see Auburn totally come alive! There are always people out there cheering on the runners in the last mile, but this year it looked like the peak of a European race with so many spectators and fans lining the streets. So cool to see!
• Only one woman in the the top ten was in her twenties.
• As I tweeted yesterday, at any given time in Foresthill on Saturday, there were approximately $14million worth of Sprinter/adventure/overland vans.
• We were parked next to Adam Peterman’s crew at Foresthill and got to see his aid station strategy first hand. (He passed up the traditional station at the school and headed down towards Cal St.) For someone so new to this sport, it was incredible how efficient and thorough his friends and family got him hydrated, cooled off, changed out, and back on his way. Mentally he was totally engaged and relaxed.
• Gotta give it to Camille Herron. She hasn’t had a lot of success at WS, but each year she shows up and gets a little bit better. One of these years she’ll nail it.
• And how have I not seen any “Jared in the chair” memes yet?

RunSpirited: And here are Henry’s top ten takeaways from Western States.

I mentioned fancy rides in Foresthill, but I’ll take this old school Renault le Car Van conversion.

First, why in the world are young children competing with adults in this skateboarding competition. But really, is that any more ridiculous than a biological man competing with a girl?

Gotta get this done quick so I can drive Sunny and her friend up to the Max King Youth Trail Running Camp. The camp is in Mt Shasta and the couple dozen kids will spend the week learning about trail maintenance and etiquette, map reading, workout planning, nutrition, and yeah, a bunch of running too. She’s stoooooked.

I shook off a couple followers on Friday as I tweeted how bummed I was that the SCOTUS released its Roe decision on the day before Western States and now my Twitter feed would be all hysteria and chest bumping instead of Western States stoke and excitement. Once again, Twitter failed at grasping nuance and dark humor.

Great story about prep-phenom Gary Martin’s coach Paul Streleckis. Read it, it’ll make you smile.