Quest for WS

     There’s something special about the Western States 100. It’s hard to describe, but the best simplification I can come up with is that it’s humanity at its finest. Sure, it’s just an arbitrary competition, but in the big picture it’s more than that. It’s 369 people attempting to do something incredibly hard and thousands of surrounding people offering them help doing it. It’s a welcome summer day of excitement, positivity and a massive amount of human kindness, and for the past four years it’s been my favorite day of the year.   The first time I went to the race was in 2016. That year, I talked my mom into driving out to the small town of Foresthill for the afternoon—62 miles into the race. We watched Jim Walmsley fly by at a pace that was unprecedented for a person trying to run 100 miles in the mountains. We followed him to the river (mile 78) and watched with panic as it swept him 20 meters away from the crossing before he safely reached the othe...

Kia Ora friends and family! This weekend marked a relatively special day for me. When April 23rd rolled around, I turned 21 years old. Legally, it’s not a particularly important birthday here in New Zealand, where the drinking age is 18, but it is heavily celebrated (probably due to that pesky American influence). On the day, I was in the middle of a bit of vacation up on the North Island with some friends, and frankly I’m not into raging as much as some of my other peers, so the night consisted primarily of a few casual drinks and good chat.   I was also reminded that I first arrived in New Zealand on January 22nd, meaning that I’d just surpassed three months in this incredible country. During that time, I’ve visited almost all of the major cities in New Zealand, traveled to and completed some epic tramps, and explored the heck out of every trail I could get to from my front door. It’s all been amazing.   Still, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows all the time (...

     It was several months ago that I applied to spend a year studying in New Zealand. I knew I wanted to study abroad and eventually chose New Zealand due to its beautiful scenery, adventurous spirit, and small population of humans. I had initially intended to apply for a trip back to China (feeling like I should make use of my rusty Mandarin skills), before finally deciding that I wasn't keen to spend a year in a major metropolitan area. So, after many google searches and youtube videos watched, I knew whole heartedly that New Zealand was the place I wanted to spend my next year. Specifically, I settled on the South Island city of Dunedin—a moderately sized city featuring beaches and mountains, and cooler weather than I'm used to.    When I finally was accepted into the program about five months prior to my departure, I was always reluctant to share the details of the trip with friends and family. Even though I committed, there were many things I was uncertai...

           44 years ago a young man named Gordy Ainsleigh showed up to a horse race without a horse. It wasn’t the sort of horse race you might see on TV, though. It was an endurance ride called the Tevis cup. It spanned 100 miles in distance from the alpine location of Squaw Valley to the small city of Auburn. Gordy wanted to participate, but his horse was lame, and after a few calculations he decided he could do what had never been done before—he ran 100 miles from Squaw Valley to Auburn.   44 years later, Gordy’s accomplishment has blossomed into a spectacle. Every year, 369 people are granted entry to run the Western States 100, following a similar route to the one Gordy ran back in 1974. Of those 369, a few are given to sponsors of the race, some are given to elite runners who qualify in a more technical manner, some are given to folks with special considerations and one spot is reserved for number 0, Gordy Ainsleigh, who continues to atte...

     As soon as my alarm went off at 4:30 AM on Saturday I knew I was going to run 63 miles that day. The longest run I'd done in the past 6 months was 20 miles—just over 3 hours—but I was healthy. No fever, no chills, no overuse injuries clawing at my legs. The first few steps I was going to run would be filled with nothing but excitement.    After a long stretch of injuries herself, the famed kiwi mountain runner Anna Frost once said she believed getting to the start line healthy was half the battle. For months, this was my goal. Back in February I attempted to qualify for the Western States 100 at the Sean  O'Brien 100k. Training had gone perfectly for months. I ran a 50k PR leading up to the race and hit my all time mileage high of 90 miles in one week, but with 4 weeks before the race I started to develop a creaky pain in my Achilles tendon. On top of that, with just 5 days before the start I got the flu. The night before the race my Achilles tendon h...

I came through mile 22 of my fourth 50k Ultramarathon ahead of pace, but I knew it wouldn't last very long. Not only was I hot and tired, the seemingly unimportant pain in my thigh which I chose to ignore was now forcing me to limp. Still, I wasn't going to let myself DNF. Sure, my thigh will probably hurt for a few days, but I was planning on taking a week off anyway. I gutted it out, mostly walking, and eventually finished 5th in 5:13. The next day, I wasn't walking very well. The day after: equally bad. One week went by and I was still limping. It was clear that whatever was going on in my thigh was getting better on a week-by-week basis. This was going to take a while. Running can sometimes be very painful. There are a number of nasty things that can happen during a multi-hour race, including nausea, vomiting, blisters, muscle cramps, dehydration, and pretty much any other complication of exerting oneself for hours on end. For me, however, not running has alw...

I've run for countless hours in the wilderness, seeing rattlesnakes, foxes, coyotes and a few ominous tracks, but I have never had to sleep there. We rolled into our makeshift campsite on my very first backpacking trip. The hike was extraordinary; We'd walked a short eight and a half miles from our car through Lassen National Park to our first makeshift campsite at Lower Twin Lake. After lounging around for a few hours and taking a quick swim, we began to setup our sleeping equipment. I've been camping many times before, but this wasn't my ordinary campsite. There was no fire pit, no nearby RV's, and absolutely no people with the exception of the five of us. My four friends set up their two, two-man tents in the small clearing about 30 feet from the start of the woods. Looking for the smoothest spot, I set up my newly purchased one-man tent a little ways from them, about 15 feet from the woods, which ended up being the first precursur to a long and stressful night...