Western States - the Super Bowl of Ultras

This week, 400 and some runners will go over hill and dale from Squaw Valley to hopefully finish at Placer High School in Auburn less than 30 hours later. The Western States 100 Endurance Run starts at 5 a.m., June 26, and runs until 11 a.m., June 27.

For their efforts, participants get a lot of blisters, eat a lot of dust and maybe, just maybe, earn the coveted silver belt buckle for those finishing in less than 24 hours. Between 24 and 30 hours, they receive a bronze buckle. After that, they receive a DNF (did not finish).

But there's nothing dishonorable about a DNF on that course. Medical providers can pull you at any one of the aid stations for dehydration, retaining too much liquid, throwing up and a host of other medical ailments. You can fail to make pre-established cutoff times.

Or you can let valor take over from lack of common sense and pull yourself so you can run another day, rather than end up in the hospital or worse yet, not be able to run for weeks. Western, as it's called, is kind of like the Super Bowl of ultra-marathons. Very few people actually participate in it, but tons more watch it.

You can too, in a way. No jumbotrons, no HD TV feeds, no Goodyear blimp and no John Madden calling the shots. But there is a Web feed so you can track your runner. Just visit the Western site at www.ws100.com, and click on the LiveFeed link. And yes, there will be a handful of Central Valley runners participating.

Thinking on the run

I've always contended that some of my best thinking is done while running. I can now add that some of the best ideas come from running with other people and just tossing ideas about.

I was out on the trails today with Barbara, who suggested I start a running blog. She pointed to one that the Sacramento Bee was running. Unbeknownst to her, the Bee killed it today. The reason: not enough Web hits.

In this day and age of Web communication, publishers look only at numbers. If you don't generate the hits or visits or page views, you're dead.

Since I don't have to answer to a big publishing house, I can somewhat ignore the numeric side of things.

Barbara thought of me since I have a passion for writing and running, and I'm connected to the Modesto running community. That includes the fun runs, marathons, ultra-runs and even track.

In the coming months, I hope to write on all of those and then some. You don't have to be an Olympian to enjoy jogging or running. You just need a good pair of shoes and some dedication.

And we have some real good stories to tell about Modesto's runners. So, as they say on t.v., stay tuned.

Feel free to suggest ideas, too.