Western States Endurance Run.
I’m sorry to report that the blog is not 3 for 3 on Ws and that Oppenheimer was right but wow, how sick would that have been…
We are one week out from the race and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what happened last Saturday and what I did in the prep or in the days before that allowed me to access such an intense and unbreakable flow state all day. I had a major life event happen 2 weeks before race day that took a heavy emotional blow, and to be honest I had no idea how it would affect me on the day. It was not something I could necessarily ignore and compartmentalize either, but I did notice every run I did in those 2 weeks in the lead up felt extremely good. Rarely do I feel like I nail a taper and typically it feels like the fatigue catches up to me when I start to drop the volume, but my body felt different in the days leading up this time around.
Mentally, I felt confident but I also felt like nothing mattered. I felt like if I blew up I wouldn’t care. I came in knowing how I wanted to race and if I was not going to be aggressive I might as well just not show up. I wanted to make a mark on this race and running smart, picking people off on my way into the top ten was not impactful enough for what I wanted. I felt top five was possible and on a very special day, podium.
The number one thing I’ve learned this season is that you cannot wait for the race to come to you. Because it just won’t. To podium I needed to put myself in the mix early, cover moves from the guys I knew would be dangerous, and just hope I would be strong enough and on top of my fueling to hold on until the end. The only reason people blow up anymore is because of small mistakes and in this era, at this level, on this stage, mistakes are hard to come by. It is safe to assume 90% of the elite field will nail the race and take care of all the details. I think anyone in the top ten on the day could have ended up on the podium. It took being aggressive early to establish a gap that would decide the outcome.
I’m sure everyone who raced would say something different but I believe the race began after we all filled our bottles at the first aid station at Lyon Ridge. From that moment, a switch flipped and I accessed a level of focus, intent, and presence I never before have in my life. No waives, no smiles, no words to crew and pacers other than “yes” or “no”, and no exchanges with competitors for the most part. The race became about the next step and nothing further for the rest of the day, which at some point developed my mantra for the day:
Do what feels sustainable in this very moment.
Coming back to this mantra allowed me to block out any doubts or fears of blowing up later in the race, run harder down descents I would normally jog, shuffle up climbs that I would normally walk, and take the lead from Jim at points between Michigan Bluff and Green Gate. I did not once for a second think about how many miles were left and that we had to make it 100 miles. It is truly amazing how much of blocker the notion of 100 miles being a long way to go has been on my past performances. All these years I’ve run with fear as if it were a part of our mandatory gear checklist, but for some reason on June 29, 2024 I decided to not bring fear with me.
Before I dive into the gross details, I want to highlight this screenshot from the Race Analysis feature on Strava. It provides a visualization of how full-on the race was from the start and how relatively even we had to run all day to stay competitive. I ended up positive splitting only about 6 minutes in the back half (with stoppage, 7:09 for the first 50 and 7:15 for the second 50) despite going out right at course record pace. The El Dorado aid station at Mile 52.5 is typically what is considered to be the halfway point when analyzing race splits, which I entered at 7:27 into the race. Considering this, I did end up negative splitting the course by 30 minutes which is insane for me think about given how hard I felt the early pace was.
Traditionally, States is broken down into 4 sections: The High Country (Escarpment to Robinson Flat), The Canyons (Robinson Flat to Foresthill), Cal Street (Foresthill to Rucky Chucky), and the River to the Finish. As I’ve done in past blogs, I’ll break the report into sections based on key turning points in the race that were notable from my perspective, which turned out to be the following 8 for me as I recall how things played out:
Olympic Valley to Lyon Ridge (mile 0-10)
Lyon Ridge to Duncan Canyon (mile 10-24)
Duncan Canyon to Devil’s Thumb (mile 24-47)
Devil’s Thumb to Michigan Bluff (mile 47-56)
Michigan Bluff to Cal 2 (mile 56-70)
Cal 2 to Green Gate (mile 70-80)
Green Gate to ALT (mile 80-85)
ALT to Finish (mile 85-100)
Section 1: Olympic Valley to Lyon Ridge (mile 0-10)
Name something more embarrassing than being first up the Escarpment? You can’t. I decided to live with it though and crested the top first with a massive pack right behind me. I did not think the pace was any different than past years but looking at the “WSER-Start to Emigrant Pass” segment on Strava, it looks like we may have swept the leaderboard. I’m eager to see the “Splits” excel come out for this year on the WSER website to compare all historical data, but long story short I guess we ran up quick. Expectedly, everyone seemed to be keying off Jim and running 5-10 steps behind him, adjusting pace as he did. I found this pointless as we are all running the same pace anyways so I decided to get in front and prepare myself to have clear footing through the singletrack in the High Country.
It felt empowering to set the pace through the High Country and run what I felt was comfortable instead of chasing and clipping heels in a long centipede like years past. I caught up with Ryan, Tyler, and Jim, sharing some personal life updates with Jim which he gave affirmative commentary on but I’m sure deep down was wondering why the f I felt like I need to tell him all this. Jim took the lead from me around mile 9 and set the pace to Lyon Ridge where the gloves really came off.
Section 2: Lyon Ridge to Duncan Canyon (mile 10-24)
Jim, Tyler, and I entered Lyon Ridge together and we were able to fill our bottles and exit before the massive pack of 20 men came in at once. I left first but Jim quickly caught up. We climbed together but it seemed like his mission started as he began to drill the descents. I thought about following but did not have the confidence that I wouldn’t blow out my quads by the time we hit the Canyons. Nevertheless, I was still moving well in second and would actually catch glimpses of Jim a few switchbacks or another ridge away. By the aid at Red Star Ridge he had 2 minutes on me and meanwhile Hayden and Dan had moved up and exited the aid right with me. I let the dynamic duo take turns pulling while I sat back and hung on. I took my time at Duncan Canyon relative to them, using my crew to swap packs and apply an ice bandana, and dropped back about 30 seconds before heading out toward Robinson.
Section 3: Duncan Canyon to Devil’s Thumb (mile 24-47)
My legs were heavy but I was climbing well. I pulled back Hayden, Dan, and Guomin on the climb up to Robinson and was in and out of the aid in 25 seconds. The 15 mile descent from Robinson to the bottom of Devil’s Thumb is easily my least favorite part of the course. In years past, I’ve blown up here going too fast while in other I’ve lost the field here going too slow, characterizing how difficult it is to know how fast to run this section. This year was no different as I was completely clueless to how far up the road Jim, Hayden, and Dan were. All I knew was that I was running 6:40s for a few miles, got caught by Dakota, and never saw the three lead men up the road. I figured Dakota is a good person to push this descent with as he typically does not hold back. He was quicker through aids so I would lose him every time we ran through one, but eventually we made it down to the Swinging Bridge together. I looked up and saw Hayden and Dan beginning the climb together. We somehow caught up. I crossed the bridge and started the climb and a heard an enthusiastic “WOOO”. Holy shit there was Jim sitting in a spring. We were at the very front of the race.
Section 4: Devil’s Thumb to Michigan Bluff (mile 47-56)
Things got extremely exciting. Hayden, Dan, Dakota, Jim, and I all were within 30 seconds of each other climbing up Thumb. The Top 5 men within 30 seconds 7 hours into Western States. I started to realize how mindblowing this was but I tried to ground myself and stay present. This climb is notoriously where so many people unravel in this race.
To this point I had been drinking about three bottles (1500mL) an hour. In the excitement at Last Chance (the last aid station before the Thumb) I forgot to fill a 3rd bottle so I left with only 1L. It was starting to get very warm down in the Canyons and I really started feeling it on the exposed climb up The Thumb. I tried to climb as chill as possible knowing I was down 500mL. The legs were definitely starting to feel weak up the climb. In my visualizations I imagined running the upper quarter of this climb but I had to hold myself back due to that logistical error.
I came into the aid station right with Dakota on my heels while Dan and Hayden had just left as we arrived. Jim came in front of all of us and I’m pretty sure he ran up the whole thing. In retrospect sitting in that spring by Swinging Bridge for a minute while we all passed him probably allowed him to do that. I wanted to do the same but to be honest he was hogging all the water. Pro move. Huge box out.
I would guess this ended up being my longest aid station stop for the day as I really needed to reset and cool off. I took my time with Dakota and left after a little over a minute. Now we were on the chase. My downhill legs felt GOOD. I caught Hayden right at Mile 50 descending down into El Dorado, and then Dan at the very bottom of the descent at Mile 52. I entered the aid in 2nd but left in 3rd with Dan 15 seconds in front of me. I caught him halfway up the climb and continued to climb hard out to make an assertive move. I just moved into 2nd place and ran into the Michigan Bluff aid with intention.
Section 5: Michigan Bluff to Cal 2 (mile 56-70)
As planned, my crew setup at the very end of the aid zone so I could get eyes on who was leaving. I ran straight through, did not make eye contact with anyone and transitioned packs and ice bandanas in 20-30 seconds again. I was out of there and expecting to see Jim minutes up on me toward Chicken Hawk Hill.
Within half a mile on the runnable double wide road, I heard footsteps behind me and I figured Dan or Dakota had caught back up. I tried to play it cool and not look behind my shoulder until I heard unfamiliar voices chatting. Curious, I looked back and saw a film crew along with a tall figure in all white soaked down to the bone. After a few head turns to really confirm, I came to terms with the fact that I had put myself in this position and I had to step up and do everything I could to race Jim for the remainder of the day. Honestly, I was stoked for the opportunity and I never thought about the outcome. I just knew that if I were able to hold on I was going to have a historic day, so that became my sole focus.
We traded leads back and forth to Foresthill. Jim slowly would pull away on the steep uphill pitches where I felt like I only had one gear, but I would catch back up as the climbs would level out. I was feeling confident descending whereas it seemed Jim would actively slow down. In doing so, I took the lead on the descent down to Volcano. I ate shit near the bottom and not a word was exchanged. We soaked in the creek at the bottom together and I asked if he wanted to lead up the climb to Bath Rd. He said I should go for it and that I was running really well. Thanks, Jim.
Overall, the vibe was friendly but tense. Both waiting for the other to strike - perhaps me with this feeling more so than him. You know that scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where Harry and Cedric are racing through the maze to find the Triwizard Cup but they both help each other at points and it’s kind of awkward because they want to beat each other to it at the same time? Well, it felt like that. I won’t get into who was Harry and who was Cedric but at the end of the day they’re good friends and it’s really sad when Cedric dies. Just like the Triwizard Cup, the Cougar will do crazy shit to your soul.
Running up to Bath Rd to Foresthill, Jim built another gap as I mentioned before, he was much stronger on the climbs than me. The same story played out though running down toward the crowds at Foresthill, where I was able to close the gap and come into our respective crew stops at the same time. Coincidentally, our crews setup right next to each other before the turn onto Cal Street. Again, Jim took his time and took care of all the little things he needed to while I stuck with my pack swap, ice bandana swap, and douse in water. It may have been a bit hasty but I knew I needed to get out of that aid first as I was afraid if Jim had the momentum he would put a massive move in to break me on Cal Street.
Tim joined me on the journey to the river which I’m so grateful for. He didn’t say much but he said everything I needed to hear. We flew through Cal 1 together in first place. Hearing cheers not too far back, we knew Jim was closing in and I knew the steep rollers on the next section toward Cal 2 would be pivotal. I was prepared to be passed and Jim finally did about halfway between Cal 1 and Cal 2.
We cruised at our own pace, careful to not get too caught up in racing yet. The temps began to rise and while my stomach felt totally fine, my drink mix was starting to become hard to palate. Up to that point, I had been drinking 3x 500ml soft flasks per hour, 2 as pure water and 1 with drink mix. I carried an empty flask with just drink mix powder in it so I could easily fill it with just water whenever I entered an aid and drink my own nutrition instead of take the unknown concentration mix at the aid stations. At Cal 2 I made the decision to fill a 3rd flask with just water instead of use the powder flask because I wanted to continue hydrating at that 1.5L/hr rate and I was worried the distasteful drink mix would cause me to drink less. By choosing to do this, I would miss out on about 40g CHO each hour and my totals would drop from 100g/hr to 60g/hr with just gels. I felt comfortable doing this since I figured my glycogen would be relatively high after 10 hours of 100g/hr and I could make it to the finish strong with just 60g for the next 4-5 hours. While hard to say, I do believe this decision ended up having a massive impact downstream in the race, which I will get to later.
Section 6: Cal 2 to Green Gate (mile 70-80)
All day I noticed I was getting time back on the descents. I wasn’t slow on the climbs but my legs were heavy and I didn’t have the pop to get up the steep stuff quite as fast as Jim. Capitalizing on this, Tim and I sent it hard down to the river from Cal 2. To keep the momentum going, I ran up most of 5 minute hill and pushed to Cal 3 where we found out we cut Jim’s lead from 2 minutes at Cal 2 to 30 seconds. Still staying calm, we continued at our own sustainable pace and finally we caught a glimpse of Jim’s white bucket hat. Slowly closing on him we remained calm and quiet until suddenly he darted off the trail and bushwhacked down to the river. Genuinely so confused on what was happening, I asked Tim, “Is he playing mind games with me?” In my head, Jim had seen us and wanted to pretend he did not give any fucks how close we were since he was so confident he would smoke us. Tim reassured me as much of a chessmaster Jim is, he was not playing mind games and he really just needed to take time to cool off. I didn’t fully buy it.
We came into Rucky Chucky in first shocking the world and apparently Jim who thought he was still in front of us after jumping in the river. Turns out he never saw us behind him and never saw us pass in front, which just shows how demoralizing Cal Street can be - even if you are closing hard and only 10-20 seconds behind someone, the way the trail bends makes it near impossible to see them and can just get mentally exhausting when you’re trying to hunt and it seems like no gaps are closing.
I meet crew for the last time, swap Kris Brown in as my pacer, and enter the river in first. At this point I had no idea how far back Jim was but within seconds of beginning to cross I hear Jim in the water behind me. To be honest, I cracked a little at this and wish I had kept my composure better. I was hoping the river would be a time to relax, take my time, and really reset but with Jim on my ass holding the rope 20 feet behind me I felt immensely pressured, rushed and stressed. Side note, I will absolutely follow his move to put on a life vest and float along the rope instead of try to walk across next time. While wasting less energy trying to walk across the slippery rocks, he was also fully submerged and cooling the entire time. Absolute pro move.
Jim was on our shoulder within two minutes from exiting the river. Between us, pacers, film crew, and crew that ran down Green Gate for Jim there were probably 10 of us running in a pack up to Green Gate, all dead silent. Tensions were extremely high. Kris reminded me to run my pace and let Jim go if I had to, but I was pleased with my climbing legs at this point and held on. We entered Green Gate together and I left three minutes in front of him.
Section 7: Green Gate to ALT (mile 80-85)
By no means did Kris and I think we had it. We were running well and perhaps if it were anyone else behind us (edit: except Hayden) sitting at Green Gate we actually might have. I’m not sure how much caffeine Jim slammed at that aid station but I would have to assume enough to kill a small baby. Within three miles he had caught back up to us which means he ran a minute per mile faster on rolling terrain. I assumed he would take his time with the pass as he did prior times, but he was just absolutely feeling it this time.
The move happened on the longer, switchbacking climb about 2 miles away from ALT. He caught us, stepped aside off the trail, and went right by. He looked back as he did and told me to come with him, which is when I knew this was going to be THE move. You don’t say that unless you know there is no chance that person can hang.
I think about that move a lot. The way Jim bounded up the hill, taking 1 step to cover the same distance it took for my 3, was jaw-dropping. The fan boy in me is so happy I got to witness true greatness like that that late into a 100 miler, but the competitor in me is wondering why I gave up so easily then. Part of me wonders had I been able to respond for even just 30 seconds up the remainder of the climb, would he have slowed down the pace knowing that his move wasn’t necessarily working as he wanted it to and would I have been to stay with him longer. I think he got a lot of confidence from signposting me then and there which carried him to drill the pace harder and harder for a bit until he had that 5 minute gap at Quarry Rd.
I blame my inability to respond to 2 pieces of empirical data: 1) cutting my carb intake from 100g/hr to 60g/hr two hours prior by choosing not to refill my powder flasks and just drinking water along with my gels, and 2) choosing to be more conservative with caffeine to avoid GI issues. I’m sure these both played a large part in Jim being much stronger than me in the last 20 miles of the race, but deep down I think I was so mentally exhausted from leap frogging with him for almost 30 miles that when I saw that move, I was ready to tell myself that was it and it was time to just accept second place. There was a feeling of relief not having to fight anymore and that is what bothers me the most.
When I think about nailing Western States, it doesn’t necessarily mean winning it, but it means having a perfect day where I can stay present and competitive from the second the gun goes off to the moment I cross the finish line. I almost had that day, but gave up a little too early, which makes me extremely excited to come back and figure out how to stay competitive in the final miles. It wouldn’t be until the final mile where I snapped back into that mindset on this day.
Section 8: ALT to Finish (mile 85-100)
All things considered, we were not going slow (the segment for River to the Finish shows 7th fastest all-time and 5th fastest on the day, which really means 8th and 6th respectively since Jim didn’t upload) but we found ourselves in some trouble with Hayden on his way to the segment CR. Every aid station we would get gap updates. We had 10 minutes on him at Green Gate, 7 minutes at Quarry, and 5 minutes at Pointed Rocks. At no point were we concerned as we were moving well and did not stop for more than a minute at any aid.
Every update I got I would do mental math to determine how much faster than us Hayden would have to run to catch us, which according to my coach is actually a complete waste of blood glucose since the brain uses so much. The more blank you can keep your mind, the more energy you can allocate toward running. Anyway, by Pointed Rocks it just did not seem possible he would run 1 minute per mile faster than us to catch us by the finish. We thought we were in the clear.
Apparently Tim saw the warning signs as Kris and I looked like ghosts crossing No Hands Bridge, and rushed himself up to the Robie Aid Station to assist. Kris handed me off to Tim after we topped out of the dirt climb and told me Tim would take me home. I was confused on why but I went with it. I later found out Kris was in the box for quite a while trying to take care of me and ended up puking on the sidewalk shortly after passing me off. Thank you for your service, King.
Tim and I made it up the final steep sections of the climb and were in cruise mode down to the track. He turned to me and asked if I wanted to go under Jared’s 2019 time of 14:26 and be the second fastest person behind Jim to run Western States. I firmly said “no” and I just wanted to take the last mile in, which he respected.
A half mile later, we crested the final bump before making the left hand turn across the bridge to the track and began to celebrate with the crowds. For whatever reason, Tim decided to look behind his shoulder at this point and in total dismay saw Hayden with about 10 of his Precision crew members charging hard. All I heard was “Rod, we gotta go”. I slurred back, “Why?” He responded, “Hayden.”
The next bit I don’t remember so much. I just remember being so sad it had come down to this and how upset I would be if I got 3rd after battling that hard with Jim. I needed second. I feel like my eyes were closed for the next half mile but all the videos show them open, which is kind of scary. I felt bodies on my shoulder as I rounded the track and couldn’t tell who they were and if they were Hayden about to rob me of my dreams. I collapsed at the finish line, heart rate through the roof and began to vomit. My body was so confused on what just happened and what it just did.
When I came to and was able to stand up, Jim was right there and Hayden too. I felt so insanely proud to be on the podium with these two legends and truly bonded to them by what we were able to do together. The first, second, and third fastest people to run Western States right there, just hanging out. What a gift and what an experience I’ll always remember for the rest of my life.
I came into this season wanting to learn from my mistakes and wanting to see if I had the potential to break into the upper echelon of the sport or not. Between Black Canyon, Lake Sonoma, and Canyons, I was able to implement new learnings I developed from mistakes made in the last and take care of the little things that have prohibited me from making the step up in performance in previous seasons. While it’s still only July, I feel like Western States was the perfect opportunity to execute on everything I learned this year on one of the sport’s biggest stages. However, even when the result is spectacular and beyond your wildest dreams, there is still room for improvement. I never in a million years thought I would run 14:24 but at the same time, I’ve identified areas where I messed up this year and where I could have done better to allow myself to compete late stage in the race.
What is so so exciting about this sport is that I don’t actually think fitness is the one big limiting factor in holding back fast times and insane performances. It really is the little things that could improve our personal bests by hours. Taking care of those little things is so easy compared to stepping up training when you’re already training at the highest level, and that gets me so fired up to do it. I already can’t wait to see what times are run at next year’s race and in the meantime I’ll continue using this place to keep myself accountable to never making the same mistake twice.
2024 Western States Endurance Run - 2nd Place, 14:24:15
https://www.strava.com/activities/11771799725#3242367568333247060
