Western States Live

Abby Hall the lead woman over the enscarpment, 3 mins down on the Enscarpment record. Ida Nilsson 30s back

Live Tracker here: https://www.ultralive.net/ws100#tracking/overview

Looked like awesome fan energy at the top of the Escarpment. Pretty wild how many men are there in that lead group, even at this early stage.

Yeah such depth - 15 men within 1 min 10s over the enscaprment. Will be interesting to see if it's thinned out at all by Lyon ridge. Seven women within ~90s as well

For folks in the know, can you explain pacing strategies for this race? I'm surprised Roche is in the lead so early (although I probably shouldn't be based on everything he's posted).

If Roche wins I'm going to really enjoy browsing the comments on Let's Run. So much entertainment that will be!

Top 12 within 15s and still 15 men within 2 mins at Lyon Ridge. 8 mins ahead of Jim Walmsley, Rod Farvard etc time from last year. Conditions look fantastic.

I volunteer at aid stations at a local ultra series - usually we have 1-2 leaders coming through, maybe 3. I'd be so stressed getting that pack of 15 through! Don't want to mess things up for them, lol.

He's not really in the lead per se, there's a big group that he's running in...he did look super strong up the enscarpment but you can't really read too much into that. You'd expect him to be top 15 no doubt, as much as LRC hates him he is very good so no surprise he's in the lead pack. Great conditions and course record definitely in play so they've all started hard.

That was nuts at Lyon Ridge. Must have been so stressful being a volunteer having 12 dudes blow through at the same time.

Men are 8 minutes under CR pace. There is going to be absolute carnage later in the day. This is awesome.

Runners should be penalized for excessive tattoos.

Haha yeah, Roche makes me roll my eyes a lot but the LRC meltdown would make it worthwhile.

Going to get hot today. Likely many meltdowns.

Women's race has thinned out a bit. Ida Nillsan and Abby Hall have swapped places and now down to 5 women within 90s. Over 4 mins down to 8th.

Yeah, going to see some big blow ups for sure.

I am certainly not in the know, but based on a few podcasts I've listened to - Roche believes that it is better to start harder in these ultras. I guess with the super high carb fueling, he thinks you can use more carbs early if you are running at a higher effort. So he runs at the high end of whatever he thinks Zone 2 heart rate is.

And then the fatigue of an ultra (central fatigue? something else?) sets in and they slow down in the second half, actually unable to keep HR up as high.

So it is kind of the opposite of road running at distances up to the marathon. And it seems to be a change in the racing paradigm in ultras, but I could be wrong.

Personally, I don’t feel pacing runners in ultras is ethically acceptable, although for safety and health reasons it might make sense.

David mentioned he thought the most time could be made up on the first climbs and high country (relative to course record splits). That part of the course is the rockiest, so not sure if that plan mixes well with his ankle issues. Hard to tell if it's solely him pushing the pace and the whole group just going with him, or several people charging hard. David came into Lyon Ridge in first but left in 4th or 5th after the quick water stop.