Races Everywhere

Guess where I am? I'm back in Lake Tahoe, home of Western States 100. Why, you might ask. Well it's because Lake Tahoe is also home of the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 and the TransTahoe Swim Relay race.

So I rode up with my friend Samantha to the Tahoe Rim Trail registration, she's signed up for the 50k. The race also offers a 50-mile option. I stopped by to greet friends and wish those running a good time and a great race. That will be the extent of my involvement with TRT however because I'm really here to support Jessica, Jeff and the rest of the "Poyo Del Mar" swim relay team for their swim across Lake Tahoe. It's a 6-person relay team and they take turns swimming until they cover the 11-mile/17.6 kilometer swim. I'm not swimming, are you kidding. I'm just here to hangout, take pictures and guard the beer cooler. Strange to be spending time in a swim event instead of an ultra but I'm making up for last year. It's also Jessica's birthday weekend and I owe her big for being my one person super crew at San Diego 100. Last year I also came up with them but ran the TRT100 and missed out on the weekend celebrations. They saved me birthday cake but I was too tired to come back to the house after the finish. I rented a room at the race hotel and crashed for a few hours before attending the awards ceremony and heading home that evening. So this year I get to make up for what I missed. It is weird though to be in the middle of these two events and to be merely a spectator. I'll be thankful when the temps rise to 90+ as forecasted.

Shout Outs!
Closer to home is the Vineman Half-Ironman Triathlon, an event I have volunteered for a couple of times. Lots of great tri-club folks racing. I wish them a good race a good race as well. In Vermont, my buddy Bob Gentile will be starting the Vermont 100. I am wishing him a BLISTER FREE race.

This past week the Badwater 135 was held, hotter than the previous year from what was reported - temps up to 127 degrees fahrenheit. Woof. Fellow San Francisco ultra guy Jon Gunderson crossed the line at about 31.5 hours. I believe that is a personal best for him. It was his fourth Badwater and he has gotten faster at each running. Buddy Tony Portera was there too, his first time and he finished. I heard a report that at 50 miles he passed out and puked on himself. I guess his crew dusted him off and he ran another 85-miles for the finish. Can you imagine?! Plain craziness but don't quote me on that, I have yet to verify the story with Tony. Last weekend, right before Badwater was the Hardrock 100. It is officially the hardest 100-miler we have in this country, don't ask me about the unofficial one - you don't want to know if you didn't know already. It takes most runners two days to finish, kind of like Badwater. This one is in the mountains of Colorado and a lot of running between 10,000-14,000 ft. Big, big hills in thin air, some you have to scramble up on all fours. It is a mountain goat's dream. Olga finished that race. Always a step ahead that woman. Hardrock is a dream race of mine.

Well that's it for now. Camera screen is shot from the dunking at the river crossing at Western States but the pictures are coming out okay. I downloaded the contents of the memory card to my comp and they look good. I'm just shooting blind is all.

See you all on the other side of this weekend.