Submitted by Cheri Alvarez
Western States - heat, drama, dropouts & success!!
What a weekend this has been...the heat has gotten to everyone, in all races - here in Sacramento, up in the mountains and reaching all the way to Idaho!!
With 399 starters at Western States this weekend, only 210 people finished the run (that's 53%) and ONLY 54 has sub-24 hour time. This is by far the lowest year since 1995. And the heat this year was just stifling (Auburn was predicted to be at 103 degrees on Saturday)...according to Grant Carboni, there were areas where you just couldn't breathe at all. The "new" (old) route thru Duncan Canyon was not only the toughest canyon climbs, it also provided absolutely NO shade. This area was were the forest fires were years ago...and although the route was "runnable" (and not to this author, but from the pros that run this wicked beast), the trees were just trunks...no shade what-so-ever. Even at midnight at the Placer High School, jackets were NOT needed...as it was still warm.
The drama in all of this was the first finisher....won't go into too much, but lets just say he got DQ-ed for being aided (and this author saw it, along with many other runners/people who KNOW the rules). It was sad to see this, but here is a link to the article in the Sacramento Bee by John Schumaker...
As for the dropout rate (and that would be 189 out of 399)...unfortunately our High Dunger John Blue, Grant Carboni, James Yee, Rena Schuman, & Becky Johnson were just knocked sideways by the heat/hills/and all things included in this wicked beast (see my trend here!!). We all hope that they are recovering quickly & are resting/relaxing!! To top this all off, one person (not a Chip) suffered an apparent heart attack early on - Lyon's Ridge, and had to be air-lifted out. Reports show that his condition has been raised from serious to stable.
Now on for the success!!! Our very own Erik Skaden, of Folsom, ran a tough but great race with a time of 19hrs/9min/5sec to place 2nd overall!!! And watching him come across the finish, he looked GREAT!!! And his pacer, Jen Devine-Pfiefer would not let him stop for anything...(that's the teacher in her!!!). Both looked great, just dirty (duh, that's to be expected!!). Our other bison that were able to beat the wicked beast (again...my own interpretation of what this is) are Mark Lantz with a time of 22hrs/24min/2sec placing 23rd overall!!! And John Nichols with a time of 26hrs/58min/15sec, Karyn Hoffman with a time of 27hrs/26min/26sec, Bill Finkbeiner with a time of 27hrs/40min/00sec, Barbara Elias 29hr/33min/59sec. Laura Yasso (aka Kulsik) 29hrs/38min/16sec, and Therese Iknoian 29hrs/49min/46sec. I'm sure I missed quite a few runners, but this was just my visual scan of the list. Congratulations to ALL of you for taming this wicked beast (yup, I'm going to continue to use that phrase to describe this run...as you won't ever see me out there, unless I'm being chased all 100.2 miles!!!).
All of you are my heroes!!!
Other notables - Tim Twietmeyer finishes his 25th Western States, and his 25th sub-24hour Western States!! This is a man who tamed the beast long time ago!! And, Dean Karnazes Ian Torrence, and Simon Mtuy continue to finish in the top 20. Niki Kimball is the first woman to cross the finish line (and I want to tell you, she was hustling on the track...you couldn't even tell that she just ran 100 miles!!!), AND...AND...AND....she was 3rd overall finisher (GIRLS ROCK!!!!). Beverly Anderson-Abbs (last years Women's winner) was 2nd female, and 9th over all (again, GILRS ROCK!!!).
Ok, enough of my gushing and awe-struckness (if there is such a word)...on to other news.
Ironman Coeur d'Alene, Idaho - June 25, 2006
Or I should IronWOman!!! From my "spies" in Coeur d'Alene, our very own Cammy Thomas was looking good and doing GREAT!!! This was her first Ironman Tri!! Cammy finished THIS wicked beast with a time of 15hrs/37min/2secs. AND... Coeur d'Alene was also under a heat wave (low 90's)!! Have not talked to her (or her family yet), but this is just FANTASTIC and we are all so proud of her!!! Here it is again...GIRLS ROCK!!!
ALSO.....Bruce Alderich just ripped through this race with a time of 11hrsmin/45min/18sec. But we always knew Bruce was an Ironman!!!
Congratulations to you both and thank to you my eyes/ears in Coeur d'Alene!!
Ok, enough my gushing on THIS event...on to the local event...
Shriners 8K & 5K - here in Sacramento
Submitted by Linda Hall
Saturday was a very hot day for the PAUSATF 8k at Shriners Hospital in Sacramento. The first thing everyone I saw said was how hot is was, even at 8 am. The next thing we all said was "I'm glad I'm not running Western States!" We had it comparatively easy in this race. The course was changed this year and it partly compensated for the hot weather because the new course is shadier and we only had to run down and up T Street once. We had a good turn out of Chips including at least 5 medal winners (with * in front of their names below) . My apologies to anyone I missed......Chips that I saw (with age group places in parenthesis) were:
Women:
*Barbara Miller (1) 37:04
*Maggie Ward (2) 42:01
Shanna Fanning (15) 43:02
Heather Bracken (4) 46:16.....Just back from the Midnight Sun Marathon in Alaska which she recommends highly.
Linda Hall (7) 47:36
*Po Adams (1) 1:04:04
Men:
Dennis Early (13) 31:39
Ernie Takahashi (5) 34:11
*Doug Braasch (3) 36:13
Gary Lotspeich (14) 37:43
Joel Contreras (9) 38:34
*Tony Alvarez (3) 43:34
Paul Camerer (4) 1:16:25
The oldest finishers were Chips Veterans Po Adams and Paul Camerer! Way to go!!!!!!!
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