And the Race Begins

The next morning we got up at 3:45, packed up the kids and headed to Squaw Valley to watch the start of the race.



Will had a bite to eat
and then at 5:00 they were all off and running. The first part was almost straight up the hill. You could see runners all along this tiny trail going up the mountain.

While Will was running the first 60 miles of the race, we went back to our room, slept, had a little more pool time and then packed up the cars and headed to Auburn, CA. We checked into a our rooms there, swam in the pool, ate lunch, bought groceries, slept and waited out the day till we could meet up with Will at Forest Hill School that night. He would be there sometime around 8:30.
Tessha and I walked up the trail a little watching for Will but it was so dark we couldn't tell one runner from another. As they passed us going down the hill we would say something like, "Good job" or "You're almost there." They would usually reply back. One man answered us and we both said, "Will?" We had recognized his voice and he ours. He came over and gave us both hugs and then we walked on down the hill where Dan, Jenni and the boys were at. He looked good and didn't seem to be having any problems. He said his body weight had stayed the same and that's really important. If a runner loses too much weight he's disqualified. We met up with his pacer, Hugh and they walked on into the check station.
Jenni had some hamburgers for Will (We found out later he could only eat one of them because his stomach couldn't handle more than that - after running 60 miles, I would guess so.) Will adjusted things for his night-time run and then they were off again. They were in and out of that station in about 10 minutes. Only 40 more miles to go (can you imagine?) We went back to the hotel to sleep :-)
The next check point where we could meet up with Will was the next morning at Horse Crossing.



After a minute or two he was off again.
We only had to wait about an hour before we could see him again. Just down the mountain at El Dorado was the next checkpoint and it didn't take him long to get there.


After that he was in the home stretch. We drove on down the mountain to Robie Point and Jenni went on to the High School track field. Tessha and I left our car about two miles from the field where we met up with Will and Hugh and ran with them to the finish line. Will was so kind as to slow down a bit for us to run with him. It was so exciting to enter the field with him and watch him finish off 100.2 miles in 28 hours and 32 minutes. He was even still smiling at the end. He truly is amazing!! We're so proud of him.






With a mind that says "Keep going", feet that can carry you, and a heart that can endure it, I guess Will can go just about anywhere he wants to go. But then, we knew that before the race.