Just a few years in the past, a gaggle of my faculty classmates and I have been hemming and hawing about whether or not or to not go to our thirtieth class reunion. Citing all the same old obstacles like jobs, households, and extra, we have been all coming fairly near bailing on the entire thing when one of many upperclassmen in our group chimed in:
“Hey guys, I believe it’s best to all go. I went to my reunion just a few years in the past and it was meals for the soul.”
With these phrases, one way or the other we have been all persuaded to go, and every week later we had all made plans to attend. And, as one would possibly count on, we had an exquisite weekend, which really turned out to be meals for the soul.
Lately, I’ve typically been requested why I am going again to the Western States 100 yr after yr, particularly since I haven’t run the race in eight years. Folks marvel why I take a full week out of my life to fly throughout the nation, hire a automobile, and camp out alongside the best way simply to attend a working race in the midst of California. In any case, don’t I’ve something higher to do? Isn’t that some huge cash to spend to simply watch a working race?
Tim Tollefson on the end of the 2021 Western States 100, having positioned fifth. Picture: iRunFar/Alex Potter
And, the easy reply is, no. From my view, there isn’t a higher manner for me to spend the final weekend in June than volunteering, spectating, and cheerleading at America’s oldest and most prestigious 100-mile race. It’s, for me, meals for the soul.
Annually at Western States, one thing occurs that surprises and conjures up me. One would assume after 20 years of attending the race that I had seen all of it. However, I’ve not. Western States has a manner of bringing out the very best in folks, individually and collectively, and the teachings I’ve discovered on the occasion have carried over to the remainder of my life for over 20 years.
Whether or not it’s watching a unprecedented elite efficiency on the entrance of the pack, offering help to a 24-hour runner who needs to drop however decides to forge on even after the Silver Buckle dream is gone, or standing on the Placer Excessive College monitor to induce on the previous couple of finishers in the course of the Golden Hour earlier than the race cutoff, Western States offers for me one thing nothing else does — an enormous outdated beneficiant portion of meals for my soul.
Runners who end underneath 24 hours are awarded with a custom-made silver belt buckle, whereas all those that end underneath 30 hours obtain a bronze buckle. Picture: iRunFar/Alex Potter
And so, as you learn this not lengthy earlier than the 2022 race, I’m in Olympic Valley on the occasion’s beginning line, busily getting ready for top-of-the-line days of the yr. A day of conquer adversity, a day of hope within the midst of despair, and a day which really, and unapologetically, is a pure celebration of the essence of the human spirit. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes from Tahoe Nationwide Brewing Firm in Tahoe Metropolis, California. Tahoe Nationwide’s Kaiser Kolsch is a novel tackle a basic fashion. Crisp and barely fruity, Kaiser Kolsch is much less cloying than different beers of this fashion and fairly clean taking place. For anybody within the space and ready for Western States to start, this little brewery on the shores of Lake Tahoe is a gem.
Name for Feedback
- What place, race, or expertise in path working and ultrarunning is meals on your soul?
- In case you are working, supporting, or in any other case following Western States this week, what a part of the occasion excites and energizes you probably the most?
