Aloha Friends !
Non-runners may find the following dry and boring but I need to say it. Sorry. Today was a sad day for all ultrarunners but especially our local HURT ultrarunners. Out of hundreds of lottery-picked entrants for the Western States 100, Hawaii had only TWO. However, they are a very special two...Marian Yasuda and Ernest Tay. So, for the past several months, these two wonderful athletes have "lived and breathed" Western States. To say they have trained hard is a total understatement ! Unfortunately, due to smoke from fires in the area, race officials sadly were forced to cancel the race. The good news is, the 2008 entrants will be rolled-over for 2009. You will still have to do a qualifying race, but I'm confident that's okay with Marian and Ernest. Nobody's to blame for the race being cancelled. It's just the way it is.
Ultrarunners around the globe are a very unusual and special breed. It's not unusual during a race for an ultrarunner to sacrifice his or her race to come to the aid of a fallen runner, many times spending hours until help arrives. You rarely, if ever, see this in an Ironman Triathlon. Ultrarunners have an uncommon bond. My wonderful wife Heather has witnessed this uncommon bond several times and was asking Steve Dewald why he thought this was. By the way, Steve just got accepted in Ultraman, the double Ironman ! Congrats, Steve ! Anyway, Steve felt it was due to Ultrarunners sharing the adversity that comes with the extreme sport. I agree. Ultrarunners train together through all kinds of conditions and for lots and lots of hours...through the day and night. When something bad happens to one of ours, we are affected too. This is why most all of our HURT ultrarunners are very saddened by the cancellation of the Western States 100.
A great example of an uncommon bond is the one between myself and David Goggins, which has been told many times, but still not enough in my opinion. David busted his okole for 135 miles, over 24 hours, in extreme heat, using all he had, to finish 3rd in the Badwater Ultramarathon. After finding out that I was still out on the race course, struggling through back problems, David somehow was able to go back out on the course and help me for my last 10 miles, before the clock ran out. David's entire crew, including his great wife Alleza and John Rennison, who had also just finished his race (and including his crew) followed along giving support to me and my wonderful crew.They all could have been in their air-conditioned motel rooms sleeping and letting their blistered feet heal, but chose to help me. An Uncommon bond. Ultrarunners are just that way. I'm proud to be an Ultrarunner. Don
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