Sunday, June 28, 2009

Hal Koerner and Anita Ortiz WSER 2009 winners



Hal Koerner defended successfully his 2007 Western States Endurance Run title today. He ran the 100 mile trail from Squaw Valley to Auburn in 16 hours, 24 minutes and 55 seconds.

The first female Anita Ortiz provided a most inspiring performance, finishing in 18:24:17. By the way, she also won the unofficial 45+ age category.

WSER is never a walk in the park (or maybe it is exactly that), but it seemed like a particularly rough 100 miles for many race favorites. Scott Jurek dropped already at Devil's Thumb (48 miles), followed by his archrival Dean Karnazes at Foresthill (62 miles).

UTMB multichamp Marco Olmo (age 60), Europe's vegetarian granddaddy of ultratrail running, also had enough after 100K.


Respect for all those hundreds of brave runners still on the trail. Remember, life's a race and you are there to win it, so walk hard!

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