The Western States 100-mile Endurance Run launches into its fiftieth yr Saturday, and the summer season’s most hotly anticipated extremely occasion is shaping as much as be its most unpredictable. With final yr’s champions not returning to defend their titles in opposition to a area full of sturdy contenders—together with confirmed Canadian expertise poised for a spot on the rostrum—organizers anticipate this weekend’s race to be one of the crucial aggressive within the occasion’s historical past.
“It says one thing once we don’t have both our males’s champion (Adam Peterman, out with damage) or ladies’s champion (Ruth Croft, who had different racing commitments) again, and the overall consensus is that this could possibly be the deepest race we’ve ever had,” race director Craig Thornley stated this week. “It’s going to be thrilling to see how all of those actually achieved athletes are going to race not simply in opposition to themselves, however on a course the place within the excessive nation, although it’s been melting, will nonetheless be extremely disruptive and difficult.”
Including to the drama for these following the race on this nation is a bunch of notable Canadian athletes, recent off spectacular performances from races all over the world, who may stretch final yr’s podium finishes by Alberta’s Ailsa MacDonald (who was second within the ladies’s race) and Marianne Hogan of Montreal (who positioned third) into an actual Canadian renaissance at Western States.
And with an unbelievable efficiency and ending time of 15:47:27, Hayden Hawks is our 2nd place male on the 2022 Western States Endurance Run. pic.twitter.com/dfj6uZ3y1h
— Western States 100 (@wser) June 26, 2022
The boys’s race
The boys’s race is highlighted by 2022 second-place finisher Hayden Hawks, who battled with Peterman via 70 miles of final yr’s run earlier than ending in 15:47:27. Hawks leads a slate of returning American runners who dominated final yr’s Western States prime 10, together with third-place finisher Arlen Glick (15:56:17), fourth-place finisher Tyler Inexperienced (15:57:10), Alex Nichols, who was eighth (16:28:34), Cody Lind, who was ninth in 16:29:38, and Scott Traer, who positioned tenth in 16:35:23. Additionally returning is France’s Ludovic Pommeret, who completed sixth in 16:20:02.
Seeking to break the U.S. stranglehold on the highest 10 this yr is Montreal’s Mathieu Blanchard. Making his Western States debut, Blanchard is coming off a stirring duel with Spain’s Kilian Jornet on the 2022 UTMB, in addition to a third-place end at this yr’s Marathon des Sables. A win for Blanchard would make him the primary Canadian to prime the boys’s podium at Western States since Rob Krar pulled off back-to-back wins in 2014 and 2015.
“I really feel good,” Blanchard instructed Canadian Working on Thursday. “I’ve labored very laborious for this WS100 because the starting of the yr. From the coaching monitor in the course of winter in Quebec, then with a 250-km phases race in Costa Rica, a coaching camp in Kenya, the Paris marathon, and the Marathon Des Sables … Now all I’ve to do is focus and provides the perfect of myself.”
RELATED: Canadian Rob Krar finishes second at Leadville Path Marathon
The U.Okay.’s Tom Evans, who ran 14:59:44 to complete third at Western States in 2019, returns after a four-year hiatus. U.S. runner Dakota Jones might be making his Western States debut after victories on the Transvulcania extremely within the Canary Islands earlier this yr, in addition to on the Javelina 100 in October within the Arizona desert.
Completed U.S. extremely runner Gene Dykes, 75, whose Western States effort is being sponsored by Calgary-based Stoked Oats, will try to develop into the oldest finisher within the occasion’s historical past, breaking the file set by Nicholas Bassett in 2018 at age 73.
“It’s positively a special sort of strain for this race,” Dykes stated Thursday of his Western States debut. “The Stoked Oats of us are spending a variety of money and time sponsoring me, and I positively really feel like I must succeed for them, moderately than for myself.”
Dykes stated that whereas he’s accomplished all he can to organize mentally and bodily for the Western States course, he’ll should do a lot of the training as he goes alongside.
“Even after studying tons of articles concerning the course, I nonetheless don’t have an excellent really feel for a way laborious it’s going to be. In all probability simpler than some I’ve tried and more durable than a number of others. That uncertainty is definitely weighing on my thoughts,” he stated. “However, I’ll be in the beginning line having accomplished all I can to be prepared. All I can do is my finest. I’ve needed to cope with accidents, COVID, and most cancers, however I’ve managed to reach in the beginning line in fairly good condition.”
The ladies’s race
The 2022 Western States marked an inspiring return to type for Canada, with MacDonald (17:46:46) and Hogan (18:05:48) ending proper behind New Zealand’s Croft (17:21:30), changing into the primary Canadians to achieve the ladies’s podium since Vancouver’s Ellie Greenwood set the course file (16:47:19) in 2012.
Priscilla Forgie of Edmonton appears to be like poised to construct on Canada’s latest success. She has already had a standout efficiency on California trails this yr, putting second within the ladies’s 100K on the 2023 Canyons by UTMB in April, a end that secured her golden ticket for Western States.
“I’m heading into the race with the same old pre-race jitters however they’re positively being overshadowed by pure pleasure to get to be part of this entire expertise,” Forgie instructed Canadian Working Thursday. “I imagine a energy I’ve going into the race is my mindset—I’d be doing the race a disservice to not go into it with a lot happiness and gratitude. Regardless of how the day goes, I imagine in my skill to present it my all and embrace each little bit of it.”
One other sturdy Canadian contender is Jenny Quilty of Abbotsford, B.C., who final yr received the Doi Inthanon by UTMB race in Thailand—her 100-mile debut. Final yr she positioned second in an all-women podium on the Close to Dying Marathon in Grande Cache, Alta. She additionally received the 50K distance at Squamish 50/50 and was the earlier 50/50 file holder (till Forgie bested her time in 2022).
5 of final yr’s prime 10 are returning to Western States, together with fifth-place finisher Emily Hawgood of Zimbabwe (18:16:02), and American runners Leah Yingling (sixth in 18:32), Taylor Nowlin (seventh in 18:46:42), Camille Herron—recent off a world 48-hour file of greater than 435 km—(eighth in 18:51:54), and Katie Asmuth (ninth in 19:30:26).
Courtney Dauwalter of Leadville, Colo., returns to Western States following a four-year absence. Her 2018 profitable time of 17:27:00 was on the time the second-fastest ladies’s run at Western States. This weekend’s race would be the first leg of a difficult three-week double the place Dauwalter will even try to win the Hardrock 100 in Colorado in mid-July.
Different notable entrants embrace 2022 UTMB champion Katie Schide, prime Swedish runner Ida Nilsson—who has excelled on the world stage at shorter distances and might be making her debut 100-mile effort at Western States, 2021 ninth-place finisher Keely Henninger, Heather Jackson—one of many world’s prime multi-discipline athletes—and 2016 champion Kaci Lickteig.
On Saturday, June twenty fourth, the 2023 iteration of the Western States Endurance Run (@wser) kicks off. We’re stoked to be an official sponsor of the world’s oldest 100-mile path race and we’ll be bringing you updates all through the day! pic.twitter.com/HLAEqwD3Ej
— Strava (@Strava) June 22, 2023
observe the motion
That is the third yr that Western States might be streamed stay on YouTube. The race begins at 5 a.m. PDT.
First run in 1974, Western States is the world’s oldest 100-mile path race and one of the crucial prestigious. Every June, 369 runners from throughout america and all over the world embark from the beginning line in Olympic Valley, Calif., to deal with a difficult course to the coveted end line at Placer Excessive Faculty in Auburn.
With reporting by Keeley Milne
