The Western States Endurance Run is not only the founding event of American trail ultrarunning, it has always exemplified the wooly frontier moxie that built the West. Famously, it was founded in 1974 when rider Gordon Ainsleigh arrived at the start of the Tevis Cup Trail Ride with a lame horse then decided to run the 100-mile horse race on foot. He finished, hallucinating and incoherent, 24 hours and 47 minutes later, and within four years the race blossomed into the first official 100-mile trail footrace in the country. The Western States 100’s mountainous California route now takes runners up 18,000 feet of cumulative climb and down a total of 23,000 feet on trails that the race’s organizers describe as “relentless…unforgiving… and beautiful.”
This year, Amy Palmiero-Winters, one of the world’s top ultra-runners in the able-bodied division, upheld the iconoclasm by becoming the first amputee to finish the race, jogging through two sunrises from the Squaw Valley Ski Resort to the town of Auburn in 27:43:10. She described the race as “harder than childbirth” to The Sacramento Bee. “It was tougher than I thought,” she added.
The accomplishment won Palmiero-Winters a bronze belt buckle, the traditional rodeo-style trophy awarded to finishers who cross the tape in less than 30 hours. She ran the race in honor of Pat Griskus, a fellow amputee runner who died 23 years ago and had wanted to be the first amputee to complete the race. Palmiero-Winters said she plans to give the buckle to Griskus’ family.
Heather Perry, Palmiero-Winters’ pacer for the final 38 miles of the race, was quoted as saying, “[Palmiero-Winters] was amazing…. That was one of the easiest pacing jobs I’ve ever had. She was totally strong, did not waver for one second…. I had no doubt about her.”
Sadly, Amy Dodson, 48, another transtibial amputee competitor, was mistakenly pulled from the race at mile 34.4. Due to what race director Greg Soderlund called a miscommunication between race officials, Dodson and two other runners were improperly disqualified when they arrived at an aid station at a pace that could have indicated a finish beyond the 30-hour cutoff. However, there was no absolute cutoff time for that aid station and according to the race’s rules, they should have been allowed to continue.
“I was basically heart-broken,” Dodson told the Bee. “I’m really okay with succeeding and failing as long as it’s of my own volition…. It was very, very disappointing.”
