golden hour

golden hour. golden hour is the last hour runners can finish before cut off. cut off for western states is 30 hours, so golden hour is hour 29 to 30. this is perhaps the most exciting part of the whole race, winners and elites aside, this is when the real ones finish. ordinary people like you and me, people who have been waiting 10+ years for their name to be picked in the lottery for their chance to run this race. the drumming starts, the track fills up with people, and we all cheer on those final finishers. it's a special, even emotional moment. the runners collect their finishers medal

then collapse onto the field like soldiers from war. we had gotten word that the daniella was approaching the town of auburn and was very close to race cut off. so we (adam, abe, and myself) ran through the streets to meet up with everyone and run it in with her. it was a beautiful moment of community all coming together to support one another, to help and motivate someone to accomplish a those last painful remaining miles. this is where we also came across donna. donna is the runner who fell and fucked up her back at rucky chucky (mile 80ish) and still trekked on, then tripping on a rock a few miles from the finish, landing face first into another rock, creating a huge gash on her forehead. hunched over her trekking poles, blood pouring down her face, she kept going. relentless forward motion. i had never seen someone so fucked up and still going before in my life. when the elites are dropping because of tummy aches and blowing up from going out too hard, there is donna and daniella, the runners showing true grit and getting to that finish line no matter what. after witnessing everything go down, from course records to inspiring cutoff finishes, it was over and the 2026 edition of western states was in the bag. a very eventful, fun and exciting year that we'll all remember and look forward to experiencing again next year, although i think this years er will probably stand for quite some time...