Anne Carroll & Western States 100
This year Anne Carroll, PBRR Treasurer and long-time endurance athlete will be fulfilling a dream – she is competing in the Western States 100 Endurance Run. Contested each year since 1984, Anne is one of only 369 runners starting her 100 mile journey this Saturday morning at 8:00 am EDT. Tradition says the starting field will always number 369 runners, the same number as the inaugural year event.
Anne has run many marathons, competed in Iron distance triathlons and now has one of the world’s premier endurance events ahead this weekend. Qualifying for Western States is a science in itself. An elite athlete can win or place high in a select few of ultra running’s other luxe races to win a “Golden Ticket.” For the masses, the qualifying amounts to running in races a minimum of 100 miles long to gather Western States lottery tickets. These lottery tickets are entered into an annual drawing to select athletes for the race. Every time you enter the lottery and don’t get in, you will have additional tickets in the lottery the next time you enter. For example: If you don’t get in two times, you will have four tickets when you enter the third year, eight tickets, the fourth year, 16 the fifth year, 32 the sixth year, etc. And you thought the Boston Marathon BQ process and “buffer times” were crazy!
We encourage PBRRs and your family and friends to follow the event and track Anne’s progress. Here is a link to the tracking:
https://www.ultralive.net/ws100
https://youtube.com/WSER100
Good luck to our local legend in this most prestigious of running events! 😀
-dm