Western States 100

Jay got the opportunity to pace our friend Joelle at the Western States 100 Mile in June.  We decided to make a bit of a vacation out of it, since it fell over our anniversary.  We left on Thursday after Jay got home from work and drove to Winnemucca for the night. 

We left the next morning after a yummy anniversary breakfast for Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe.  Once there we met up with Joelle and her family and their friend Jay (we call him O-Jay, which could stand for other Jay or old Jay…whichever you prefer)…We wandered around the resort in the wind and sat for a pre race meeting.  That night we stayed at the Montrail house (the company that sponsors Joelle) with some other racers.  They did a big lasagna dinner and get together for the team and many others.  Jay and I ended up sleeping on the floor in the living room…

The next morning we took our time getting up and getting ready.  We didn’t have to meet Joelle until mid afternoon, so we weren’t in too much of a hurry to hit the road.  We drove towards Auburn, California where the race ends and to the pick up point where Jay was to begin pacing Joelle.  We ate lunch at the school where the aid station was and then watched the first racers come through.  This guy below ended up winning…

 

Here’s Jay meeting Joelle and running her into the aid station before they headed off back to the trails…

 

I tagged along with Steve (Joelle’s husband), O-Jay, and Chase (Joelle’s son).  We drove my car to Auburn and parked near the track (race finish).  Then we all hopped in Steve’s truck and drove to the next aid station where we could meet Joelle.  We had to drive to a church, catch a shuttle, and then hike almost 3 miles to see them. 

 

Joelle and Jay after the river crossing…they were the first to not get the raft tow….

 

We had a bit of an adventure getting back to the truck after seeing Jay and Joelle off again.  The shuttle had broken down and we had to catch rides with random people coming down to drop off friends and family at the aid station…but eventually we made it back and headed into Auburn to await the finish.  We sat in the stands and waited, watching runners come in for several hours.

Joelle and Jay made it in around 2:00 am with Joelle finishing in 21 hours.  It wasn’t the time she was hoping for, but was amazing none-the-less.  We visited for a bit and then headed to our car to sleep for a few hours before driving to San Francisco.

This was such a cool experience and hopefully we’ll get the chance to do something like this again.