what a weekend!!!

Hi guys and gals!

What a weekend! The race results are still coming in but I will share many with you now.

Local Training
I am not sore at all with 10 hours of hill climbing. Nattu, Pam Reed and myself were on the Teton Pass on Sat.. 10% grade for over 5 miles! I was able to PW up the pass while Pam ran and Nattu was just on our tail. I am ready to go..what a joyful weekend!

Ironman Idaho!
Keith Fleischman: doing his first Ironman in 15:23:17!!! Keith just learned how to swim over the winter and has not even done any short triathlons leading up to this. Way to go:):)

John Eisinger: Pulled off an 11:12:09!! This is just amazing considering we did not do much IM training:) John is running Atacama 150 in a few weeks...Nice:)

In the US...
Beth Katzman: she was to do an Olympic distance Tri in NJ but the weather was so bad that the swim was canceled and the race was turned into a duathlon! Beth nice job on turning it around and doing such a great job at this race..3:13:24

Amy Vignaroli: Ran the Jackson Hole half marathon for a training run, it was really the first day we had any heat! Nice training run Amy!!! 1:56:43:15

In Canada...
Barb Owen: Barb kicks butt in her first 100 mile race in Canada! Barb came to our DV training camp to learn all she needed to and read her results!!! I am happy to report that I won the Eagle 100 mile. Not just the women's but the whole thing. The heat was atrocious with temp between 34 to 39. But I was able to climb in the river a couple of times and stuck with my plan. I was in the lead after 75 miles and picked it up at the end. I wanted to go sub 24 but ended up 24:01 but I helped a girl with sever heat cramps and stayed with her for 20 minutes until help came so I am not sad about missing my time goal. We had 14 starters and 6 finishers. I could not have done it with out my crew Jessica and my pacer Steve. They were awesome. I'm not too sore today so I don't think I did too much muscle damage.BARB...WAY TO GO GIRL AND WAY TO HELP OUT ANOTHER RUNNER IN NEED!

And finally Western States!!!
Western States 100 was more than difficult this year. Read the bottom of this post for some accounts from eyewitnesses.
Dreamchasers is happy to say that we were successful at Western States this year and after hearing so many stories and reading so many emails about the race we are even more pleased with the results. 189 WS entrants had to DNF, over half the field.

Jay Batchen!!! 25:22:48!! His first trail 100, 63rd overall. Jay had some real troubles he worked through the first half of the race and then he started to feel better on the 2nd half. George, Sean and Stephen the Batchen family thank you so very much for taking care of our man! Thanks to so many of you for the emails about Jay and his accomplishment, they mean a great deal.

Jim Hildreth: runs his first 100 mile race and comes in with a 26:50:06. Jim it has been a real joy coaching you for this race and watching you shine

Olga Varlamova: 28:25:05. Olga had many issues to deal with and work through but she did and she got herself to the finish line when most would not have been able to. The mental power of this woman is greater than most that I have been witness to.

We are so proud of all of you. 1st or last, give it your best shot and at the end of the day know you did your very best and this is all you can do.

Lisa

Happy Feet!
Lisa Smith-Batchen
http://lisasmithbatchen.blogspot.com/
www.lisasmithbatchen.com
www.dreamchaserevents.com
www.tetonraces.com

Western States This Year - Reports from Eye Witnesses

Here are some emails from the medical staff that were sent to the Ultra List. Thanks for sharing what the course was like to those of us who couldn't be there:

Working at MB aid yesterday was an emotional endurance event. Many of the runners who came through looked shockingly ghastly and beat-up, and it was awful to see them through the aid station in the extreme heat with so many miles still ahead of them. Having never experienced a major natural disaster or been in combat, I have never before witnessed so much physical suffering in one place, nor have I seen so many men weep. Of all the runners I had hoped to cheer along personally (I had an index card with bib numbers in my pocket), only two of them even made it to MB, and one was so ill that I cried to see him. There were a few runners who came through looking strong and upbeat, but we did not see too many smiles out there.Anyone who ran yesterday deserves decorations for bravery, toughness and athleticism, regardless of whether or when s/he dropped. For those who finished, it must feel like the achievement of a lifetime. Congratulations to ALL of you, and heartfelt admiration.

Seeing the faces of the many crew, pacers and especially family members who waited at MB throughout the day was sobering and sad, and gave me new perspective on what our loved ones experience in supporting us. This was anunanticipated enlightenment for me. These folks went through their own hell as they watched and worried for their runners, many of whom never arrived. The tension and fear they were experiencing was palpable, and when a runner did come through in bad shape, as so many did, his family was often even more worried after he left the aid station. I saw moms and dads, husbands, wives and kids all looking sick and shell-shocked when their runners had gone on. Some tended their disabled runners in the medical area for long periods of time, and that was really rough to see. My heart went out to all of them, and after witnessing their distress over the safety of their loved ones, I couldn't help re-thinking my attitude toward my own family's concern for me on long running adventures. I will likely not dismiss their worries as off-handedly in future, and when I consider whether or not to do an event, the potential stress for my family will be more real to me and will carry more impact than it did before.Again, congrats and kudos to all of you WSER heroes yesterday!

Sincerely, Lisa W.

I just got home from working the Devils Thumb aid station all day. And what a day it was. It was very hot at the Thumb, and we were in the shade. It is an unbelievably hard year for the runners. Because of the heat, most runners' electrolytes are/were whacked. The course is A LOT HARDER than it has been in the last four years, because of the return to Duncan Canyon. As John Medinger mentioned earlier in the week, the section from Red Star Ridge to Duncan Canyon has become extremely rocky and strewn with pine cones. Combine that with a lot of snow left up in the high country, and you start to get a feel for what they had to contend with just in the early sections of the course. By the time they hit the climb up Devils Thumb, the heat was oppressive to say the least (the high temp in Auburn today was 100 degrees). As the webcast shows, we had a HUGE number of drops at Devils Thumb. Many dropped because they were just too sick to continue, and just as many missed the cutoff. It was very hard watching all the runners come in near the cutoff with problems, and trying to get them on their way before the time ran out. However, I have looked on the website at some of the runners I knew personally, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they had made time up on the absolute cutoff by the time they got to Michigan Bluff.

Kathy Welch
Auburn, CA