Western States 100 Stories
One-Year Anniversary, a Live Stream, and a Podcast Interview
Today is an important day. Exactly one year ago, I ran the Western States Endurance Run. The most formative running experience of my life. I can’t believe it’s already been a year. Mostly, because I think about this race almost every day. The impact it had on my life and running is still as tangible as at the smell of tartan on the Placer High School Track, minutes after I ran the very last 400 meters in deep serenity and bliss.
New Stories in the making
If you find the time this weekend, or even if not, I highly recommend following this year’s Western States 100 live stream. Corrine Malcolm and Dylan Bowman do an incredible job presenting this epic event for 30 hours straight, despite an occasional lack of top to-date live footage from the race.
Many people don’t know this, but the Western States route mostly goes through a nature reserve with strict limitations of how many people are allowed on the trail. In addition to this, large parts of the racecourse are in completely remote areas. Thus, you should not expect a gapless live-stream like at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships a couple of weeks ago in Innsbruck. But this is just another wonderful peculiarity, that makes the special charm of Western States.
It’s going to be an exciting race for sure. I can’t wait to follow it. Where will you be watching?
Stories told and written
Back to 2022. Many things happened to me between the early morning hours in the Olympic Valley and the sunny mid-morning in Auburn. Luckily, I managed to gather all my memories, impressions, thoughts, and emotions and wrote them down in great detail. With a little more fine-tuning and editing, it then became a book. My first book. It’s called “Runhundred” and it will be out sometime this year.
In the meantime, Runners World Germany gave me the opportunity to tell my story, both in the form of a written article and an in-depth podcast. Unfortunately, both are in the German language.
Since this week, however, there’s a new Podcast interview online, which is in English. I got invited to Kobe Blondeel’s “In the Zone” Podcast.
In this podcast, we discuss the life-changing experiences I made running Western States alongside other exiting topics, such as:
What Running and spirituality have in common
How the ideals of Punk and Hardcore influence the work with my running brand Willpower
Why values are the backbone of everything I do
And how all these strings come together with the latest Willpower Collection “Route of Samsara”
“At one point, you just have to let go. Let it flow. WAtch things happening. And they’re gonna be great. One way, or the other, they’re gonna be great. That’s one of the most important things I learned from Western States.”
It’s a great listen. No matter if you’re interested in the Western States 100 race, Punk / Hardcore culture and music, spirituality & running or Willpower, you won’t be disappointed. The “In the zone” Podcast is available on all Podcast platforms.
Everything not running
I hate people. Well, it’s not that bad. But it’s also no secret that I often don’t like being around people that I don’t know. I feel awkward hearing folks speak about things I don’t like and behave in a way that I don’t understand. However, through running, I have met more awesome people than in my whole 20s and 30s combined.
My friends Mat from Australia and Leo from Innsbruck are two of them. It does not happen too often, that I hop on a train and go to another city for a short run and a quick dive into the river. However, in this case, I am glad I did exactly that.
Mat, Leo and I have related backgrounds. We all grew up with punk and hardcore music, and at one point in our lives all embraced a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle. And we all discovered running as our greatest passion and purpose. For me, it is easy to connect with people who share the same values and, to a certain degree, have experienced similar things.
I found it super refreshing and inspiring to chat about running, music, traveling, politics, tattoos, and culture with Mat and Leo. Smart and awesome mates, who have their hearts in the right place. Hope to meet them again soon.
Sprachnachricht
Wie immer gibt es zum Das Z Letter eine deutschsprachige Audio-Zusammenfassung. Oder -Ergänzung. Je nachdem wie man es sieht. Kein Running Podcast und denn überall zu finden wo es Podcasts gibt.
I‘m going to follow the YouTube-Footage too, but probably with the sound turned off since I find Dylan Bowman’s voice really annoying (apart from the fact, that I don’t understand his sponsorship by Red Bull - a brand, that I can’t find sympathetic anymore after its CEO‘s statements regarding the refugee issues).