WESTERN STATES 100 HIGHLIGHTS -- PART II

Western States is like a big party. I was joined by Cheryl, who flew out from Chicago, and had the chance to see lots of cool people I've met through running. Since I am neither "serious" nor competitive, the "hanging out" factor is huge. It's really a treat to have an excuse to spend time with a bunch of great folks I wouldn't otherwise see and having good friends like Cheryl come play too.
Cheryl and Jennifer Hemmen, Melissa Johnson's pacer and all around great chica, hanging out sometime during the race.

Steve Holman, Craig Slagel, Suzanne Carrier and me all sitting in Squaw before the race.

It was like Christmas morning -- Melissa and I drinking coffee before the race start.

Cheryl, who didn't get to run and wasn't horribly sad thankfully, and Suzanne, who got to see me do some interesting things on the trail. Pacers are awesome.

So it was tons of fun to hang out with all the fun runner people (and their people) and it was also really nice to realize how much support in running and in life I get from my friends and family. Sometimes it's just really awesome to "feel the love" so to speak. I was thinking about how races like this teach me a lot about a lot of things. Not the least of which is how blessed I am. And, appropriately, I finished the week hanging out with really old friends. It was hard to spend too much time moping about not finishing. Turns out my friends and family still like me regardless of how far I made it :p