My friend (and dietician) (and consultant) (and kick ass trail runner) Meredith will be participating in the Western States 100mile Endurance Run this June.
Definitely the very first 100 mile trail race run by a man in the world. Arguably, the permier 100mile trail race in the world. It started off as a 100 mile trail race for horse riders. One year, one of the riders' horse was unable to compete, so the rider asked for permission to do it without his horse. He completed the race, and there began ultraracing as we now know it.
There's a video called "A race for the soul" that you can buy.
A guy says at the start of a video:
"It's the Boston of 100 milers."Another ones says
"All the top runners come to this one. It's their Wimbledon. This is how they want to prove themselves to the best ultra runner, the best 100 miler in the country."David H over at www.endurancebuzz.com (a great website by the way), has a link to the actual video so you don't need to go out and buy it. On his site, you can watch the video in 6 separate sections. Here's a link to those videos. At the very least, check out the first few minutes of the first video. You'll see a bearded man in a turquoise T-shirt... that is Gordon Ainsleigh, the man that ran without his horse!
So it so happens that the prize that every horse rider got when successfully finishing the Western States race was a new shiny belt buckle. This became tradition for ultra races around the country, if not the world.
On Saturday, I set off to earn my first buckle for my first 100km ultramarathon trail race. I'm a little nervous, not nervous of not being able to complete it, but excitedly nervous to get it going.
Next time you see a photo of a Bandera buckle on this blog, it'll be in my hand, or on my belt. ha!
1 comment:
That was my first buckle as well!
Oddly, I have no urge to do WS. I think there are two much more difficult races here in my backyard.
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