The G Running Diary

Gentlemen Runners: 4/6/03

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Often in ultrarunning you see runners helping each other and being gracious about it. I have two stories that mean a lot to me. One is from yesterday, during the American River 50 Mile. Well, in a way they are both from yesterday because I was telling one story and then experienced the other.

When I ran the Skyline 50K in August, 2000, I had a hard time. I started the race with grandiose goals and sometime during the race was reduced to dirt. Skyline is not considered a tough 50K. Finish times are fast, compared to something like Headlands 50K, but it has some nice hills. So, at some point late in the race I started running with a guy who seemed to be taking it nice and easy. We talked some, but not a whole lot, because when I feel crappy I don't like talking. But he was so calm it was good to just run with him. I was wondering about finish time, thinking I'd be about 6:30 or worse. He said, "No, we'll do fine. I think we'll be under 6 hours." And smiled. I didn't believe him. Well, sure enough, that finish line turned up sooner than I thought and as we turned the corner to run across a little bridge, he broke stride a bit and said, "It's all yours, and let me finish a second ahead of him. This kind man was Tom Gallagher, known to many as the race director for the Silver State 50/50.

So, in the American River 50, Don, Jeff, and I were running together. Right at the start we saw Steve Jaber and since he had such good luck sticking with us in Way Too Cool, he wanted to stick with us in this one. The race turned out to be tough in different ways for all of us, and we weren't always together, but generally it went really well. Steve was with us at the end, even though he said many times that he was going to fall back. When the four of us got to the finish line, and the race workers were taking the tags off of our bibs for the finish order, Steve stepped back so I would be in front of him. Technically, he had crossed the line before me (I think). He said, "There's no way I'm going in front of you after all that." So Steve is on my hero list too. These are the traits in ultrarunners that are truly to be admired. Steve is also a race director, for the Ruth Anderson 100K/50M/50K. Maybe it's something about race directors. Or maybe it's that I have a thing about them.