Forecast 103F, 115F In Canyons! How To Follow The Carnage...

Well so much for my pipe dream of this being a 'cooler' year for Western States. The latest forecast is for it to jump up an additional 15 degrees tomorrow and to hit 103f by Saturday! That should push the canyon temps up over 115 and will basically ensure a much slower winning time than normal. I spoke with Erik Skaden at 'The Montrail House' earlier. He has finished 2nd the previous two years and his take is that the winning time will be over 17hr for sure and maybe up towards 17.5. It was fun to pick his brain a bit and to drink a few beers with the rest of the Montrail U.S. running team.

Oh yeah, before I forget, thanks so much for all the comments on the Princeton Tec giveaway, it's awesome and as promised I'll do the draw in a few days time. Still about 30hr to get your name in on it if you haven't already. Just scroll down to the next posting.

If you are looking to follow along live as all the action unfolds at 5am on Saturday, here are the easiest ways to do so:

-The Western States Webcast will update runners positions throughout the race.

-Right here on my blog you may have noticed a new twitter update bar just to the right. You can scroll through these updates by clicking on the arrows and anything in orange links to a pic or a website. My crew will be doing live updates throughout the day, including pics and text as to how I'm really doing out there!

-My twitter page, although as mentioned you can find all the info right here if you prefer

-Matt Hart will also be twittering and videoing throughout the day. You can find his twitter links on his blog (you have to scroll down about half way to find them), or his twitter page

And with that, I'm out, it's after midnight and I won't be getting much sleep tomorrow night!

Here are a few pics of the trip so far:





GR