{"id":12624,"date":"2017-06-23T14:29:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=12624"},"modified":"2017-06-23T14:29:11","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T21:29:11","slug":"on-the-road-to-western-states-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/run\/on-the-road-to-western-states-100","title":{"rendered":"On the Road to Western States 100"},"content":{"rendered":"

An\u00a0accidental-runner’s\u00a0path to taking on one of America’s oldest ultras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dawn\u00a0breaks through a stand of ponderosa pines, and Sarah Keyes flicks back a homemade curtain. She scoots down her bed, a 24-inch wide slab of plywood, and opens the back window of her truck\u2019s cap\u2014a $70 Craigslist find she\u00a0painted pink\u2014and takes a deep breath of mountain air. Mocha, her 20-pound mini Australian shepherd, does the same, stepping over dusty running shoes while Sarah\u00a0grinds beans for a tailgate French press. Over coffee, she’ll pore over maps and choose their day’s run. They’re partners on a cross-country road trip, running trails on the way to Sarah’s first Western States 100<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When you wake up at a trailhead, you have no excuses not to run.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If all went to plan, though, Sarah might\u00a0be at work\u00a0right now. In\u00a0early 2015, she finished a two-year nursing program in Saranac Lake, a town of 5,000 set deep in New York\u2019s Adirondack Mountains, but while her friends applied for jobs or grad school, Sarah\u00a0had another idea. \u201cI told people I was gonna build my truck out, head west, and run mountains,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I did it. I figure that when you wake up at a trailhead, you have no excuses not to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sarah

Sarah and Mocha at their daily tailgate meeting. | Photo: SweetM Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Sarah’s\u00a0love of running was born in 2011 at\u00a0the Great Adirondack Trail Run<\/a>, a local race that covers 11.5 miles of technical climbs and shoe-sucking bogs. She entered on a lark. Five miles in, racers usually gear down for a lengthy uphill. That\u2019s right where a tall woman with a braided ponytail passed Nick Yardley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was running my butt off, and she just flies by, tipping over rocks,\u201d he remembers. \u201cI wasn\u2019t quite sure whether to hate her or like her.\u201d That woman was Sarah, en route to a course record.<\/p>\n

After the race, she found Yardley, who is the CEO of Julbo, to thank him for supporting the race and came away with her first sponsor.<\/p>\n

I loved the race, but it was more about the community. We all hung out and drank beer after working really hard. I credit that to beginning my love for mountain running.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was no reason Yardley, or anyone else would have seen her coming: Sarah\u00a0only began running after high school, when her AmeriCorps program required a daily 15-minute jog. Trails came later. About 10 years ago, after shifts at the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery, she and a fellow manager would run small peaks. The pub supplied beer for the Great Adirondack Trail Run in return for a few entry spots and, in 2011, Sarah nabbed one. \u201cIt was a \u2018let\u2019s see if I can do it\u2019 type of thing,\u201d she says. \u201cI loved the race, but it was more about the community. We all hung out and drank beer after working really hard. I credit that to beginning my love for mountain running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, she\u00a0added hill workouts, ran bigger mountains and rode her bike to class to fit workouts into busy days. All that, plus shifts at the pub and a local running store. \u201cIt takes serious work ethic to maintain that level of fitness through full-time jobs while getting a degree in a competitive program,\u201d says Matt Harrison, pub colleague and early trail buddy. \u201cBut you don\u2019t know how good you are until you get into a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her winter routine included backcountry ski tours, pre-dawn climbs on a ski mountaineering setup at Whiteface Mountain, snowshoe races, and, when conditions permitted, running miles with ice crystals frozen to her eyelashes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, she put competitions on her\u00a0calendar\u2013and promptly won Oregon\u2019s Post Canyon 50K<\/a>, then finished inside the top 10 at both Montana\u2019s Rut 50K<\/a> and Washington\u2019s Crystal Mountain Sky Marathon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Sarah\u00a0traveled as a La Sportiva ambassador to races between shifts as a medical-surgical nurse on the East Coast, and consistent podium finishes earned her the U.S. Skyrunning Championship. Between those events, she took fourth at her first 100-mile race.<\/p>\n

Time to go pro? Not exactly. Sarah\u00a0got her first coach, but kept all of her day jobs\u2013and adapted when a record winter buried Adirondack trails. Her winter routine included backcountry ski tours, pre-dawn climbs on a ski mountaineering setup at Whiteface Mountain, snowshoe races, and, when conditions permitted, running miles with ice crystals frozen to her eyelashes.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Sarah running near Mt. Whitney | Photo: SweetM Images<\/p><\/div>\n

So, when spring arrived this year, Sarah set out on the road to make her way to Western States.\u00a0She’d upgraded to a Toyota Tacoma with a gear loft and an improved bunk that folds out to 48 inches and planned to join group runs at specialty retailers, help a friend with a Tetons objective, traverse Zion National Park<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>crew for a Grand Canyon ultra, and summit Mt. Whitney. Then, home\u00a0in on\u00a0the California Sierra to preview Western States, ultrarunning\u2019s oldest and most prestigious 100-mile race.<\/p>\n

Will Sarah\u00a0run down ultrarunning\u2019s elites? She\u2019s clearly ambitious, but when posed with that question, she\u2019d rather talk about how her new truck’s cruise control will make the drive home easier on her glutes and hip flexors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern states isn’t the finale,” she says. “There are moments of bliss out on the trail, and it\u2019s a life bonus that I get to dabble in this reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting to Western States Is Only Half the Fun<\/h2>\n

En route to America’s oldest ultra, Sarah confirms what we already knew about road trips: It’s not about the destination. Here, she shares a few of her favorite trails and\u00a0dirtbag amenities from her cross-country travels.<\/p>\n

Loon Lake Trail | McCall, ID<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Explore southeast Idaho on this rolling 4.8-mile trail to an alpine lake. It\u2019s remote\u2014when a B-23 Dragon bomber crashed here in 1943, the crew waited 21 days for rescue. Find the wreckage on the lake\u2019s south side. In town, Keyes recovers with a Shiver IPA at the Salmon River Brewery<\/a>\u00a0and visits Gravity Sports (gravitysports.com<\/a>) to check in on the local trail scene.<\/p>\n


\n