Official 2019 Western States 100 Live Discussion Thread

AP5000 wrote:

If by Mocko is in good position, you mean: to lose to Courtney, then you, sir, are correct.

They both are within 5 minutes of 10th place through their last splits. Super close 10th-20th overall actually. I was just going by that he has steadily been moving up spots at almost every aid station.

Courtney is having a great race. I just checked and she finished 12th last year too. Lots of dudes getting chicked, which is the most important metric clearly.

Shaping up to be a good race on both sides. I don't think Jim dies, he's quite fit, but with 30+ miles left 8min lead isn't much to work with. When you blow up in an ultra, you blow up hard (20+ min miles). Still think him and Hazen will be 1-2. Would love to see Matt hang in for 3rd, but we shall see, a lot of things can happen in the final HOURS of your first 100.

Courtney will win. Anybody who thought she'd be beaten today hasn't followed the sport very closely. On the trails, she is heads and shoulders above a very, very good field.

Camille is a great runner, on the roads, when she doesn't do stupid things like commit to a trail ultra 3 weeks after a DNF on the other side of the world. She lives in Oklahoma, not a state that can prepare you for 18k climb and 23k descent. Idk why her coach/husband lets here do all these things on a whim, it's not good for her recovery/career. I totally understand wanting to be the best on all surfaces at ultras, but sometimes you gotta stick to your strengths and capitalize. When she's healthy, nobody can stick with her in 50mi+ on roads; I fear chasing accomplishments of Ann Trason will be her downfall for no reason other than blind ambition.

Spiro, don't you worry, he will get chicked.

Isn't sage in this race? Sage update?

Anyone dismayed by someone getting chicked is welcome to qualify for and then race WS and show us how it’s done. The first step is leaving moms basement.

Not sure if it's a timing issue but Camille still not showing as hitting El Dorado Creek which should have been 45 minutes after Devil's Thumb.

Daniels is fading, now in 4th behind Evan's.

Damn, Jared Hazen is having the race of his lifetime so far. Great to see him be successful at this distance.

They are not going to fall apart today, they are too fit and it's not hot.

AP5000 wrote:

Daniels is fading, now in 4th behind Evan's.

Damn, Jared Hazen is having the race of his lifetime so far. Great to see him be successful at this distance.

They are not going to fall apart today, they are too fit and it's not hot.

The weather is what is making the difference. It is a day for a lot of really good times on this course.

AP5000 wrote:

Not sure if it's a timing issue but Camille still not showing as hitting El Dorado Creek which should have been 45 minutes after Devil's Thumb.

Their might be some delays in the communications from that aid station.

Now Camille Herron is 17th at El Dorado Creek

https://www.ultralive.net/ws100#tracking/women

I thought Camille recently moved to Colorado. In terms of preparation living in the flatlands in the mountains, of course we have Kaci Lickteig who is crushing it despite living in Nebraska (and perhaps more impressively pulled off a 10th place at UTMB on that training...), so it's not impossible. The bigger thing is not being fresh coming off Comrades/dealing with a niggling injury. Another factor is that I think the training for Comrades and the training for Western States are not going to be perfectly complimentary for Camille. For someone else who has more climbing strength but needs to tune up speed, it work out fine, but Camille definitely needs more of a focus on vert/technical footing to be competitive.

This. I’m honestly confused why she thought WS might go well or why she even started at all after DNF from lake Sonoma in april and comrades 3 weeks ago due to the hamstring issue. I mean WS is harder than both of this, so did she think it was magically going to be okay? She’s a smart woman but can’t figure out why she sets herself up for these situations.

Those races are way too close to train for each. You could do Comrades as a fun training run for WS, but then you would have had to pick the one to train for.

Walmsley did great with Carbon X, which is pretty close overall to Comrades at least in distance. It was way before states so he could recover and then do a full block to get ready for this race.

I think when you are an elite professional athlete you have to believe you can do it. I can't imagine being a pro and not saying "I got this." That being said, there has to be some weight put on not stacking too many things in a short time period.

Camille is cooked. It's over. She should have hit El Dorado at 9:40 at the latest, so she just lost 30 minutes in one small segment. Good night. Top 10 is out of the question with so many good trail runner ahead of her.

AP5000 wrote:

... there has to be some weight put on not stacking too many things in a short time period.

There are exceptions to everything in life. Yuki Kawauchi for instance.

AP5000 wrote:

I think when you are an elite professional athlete you have to believe you can do it. I can't imagine being a pro and not saying "I got this." That being said, there has to be some weight put on not stacking too many things in a short time period.

Did you have time to go to bathroom today or you've been typing from there all the time?

Proust wrote:

In all the interviews that she's done, thinking of this one interview that she was doing during an actual run itself on trail, she always has this sweet, innocent, childlike grin, showing that she actually loves what she's doing and this coming from a really wholesome place.

red in tooth and claw wrote:

Cool story bro. That doesn't win races and no one cares about where the desire to run comes from. Red in tooth and claw. Camille Herron is so overrated and reality has just slapped her on the face.

Some weight wrote:

AP5000 wrote:

... there has to be some weight put on not stacking too many things in a short time period.

There are exceptions to everything in life. Yuki Kawauchi for instance.

Perfect example. Tanked at Boston 2019 because he raced too much leading up to it instead of peaking for Boston 2019.