Bryon Powell’s 2013 Western States Qualifier Attempt Livecast
October 12, 2012 by Bryon Powell · 33 Comments
My gear for Le Grizz.
Woe is me. I’m am horribly, ridiculous far from fitness. No, I’m not sandbagging here… I’m in the worst shape I’ve been in 19 years. Fortunately, for your entertainment, a good friend has offered me his raffle spot in next year’s Western States and I’m without a valid qualifier. The resultant pain and, for those prone to schadenfreude, entertainment will commence at 8 am Mountain Daylight Time Saturday morning on the shores of northwest Montana’s Hungry Horse Reservoir at the Le Grizz 50 Mile. The one and only goal? Cross the finish line under my own power in less than 11 hours. I’ve yet to do the math, but I ran a total of 70-75 miles per month in July and August, didn’t do much more in September, and haven’t run further than 8.5 miles in three months. Oh, this will be “interesting” for all of us.
For your entertainment, I’ve created a separate Twitter account @LanterneOrange so you can follow along (if and when I have cell coverage) without me spamming iRunFar’s Twitter account. Feel free to encourage and/or heckle me there.
I’ll also be wearing a SPOT device, so you can follow me if there’s no cell coverage. The full SPOT Adventure page is here, but I’ve embedded a small version of the map below. [Neither of these should display any data until shortly before the race.]
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Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Nice shirt.
Very brave bryon, good for you! Hope all goes well tomorrow, been wondering when you’d toe the line again, remember, have FUN!
Good choice with the emotions, excellent pair of shoes!
Best of luck, great report. What I want to know is – will you be interviewing yourself? AND If so, will you have a bonus question for yourself? ;)
Bryon,
Have a great run and don’t forget the fun in it. You will do outstanding, I have no doubt.
Thomas
Good luck dude! You know better then anyone that it’s more mental then physical! Kill it!
Good luck Bryon!
don’t think Bryon, just run it, one step at a time. In bocca lupo, as they say in Italy :) (to which you answer ‘crepi’)
See you in Squaw!
Good luck, Bryon! Running with fun but hard makes you shining.
yes.
Bryon, you’re so talk, you can probably walk the 50 in 11 hours.
Break it down into smaller distances and just make each one look easy out there as you get through each one.
Best of luck to you. Once fast, always fast. You’ll have no problem.
So tall, my bad…
Good Luck!
CONGRATULATIONS!!! WS HERE YOU COME!
Rock this thing Dude!
Good Luck! I was going to run it but felt under-trained so bailed for this year.
Bryon, I have seen you run around covering races – that is training! You got this! You will be awesome. Western States here you come!!!
BRYON FINISHED IN 8:35 — not bad for someone with zero training!
Way to go Bryon!
Like a BOSS.
How did Meghalicious do?
8:24 or so.
Congratulations, Bryon! Great time, too!
Like a boss indeed! Well done Bryon. Inspiring. I’ve got a 50 miler coming up next weekend that I feel under-trained for. I’ll carry this with me to Palo Duro Canyon.
Wow, Bryon, I’m quite impressed!
(Now, how much are you hurting today?)
Wat to go!
Congrats, Bryon! I also have a WS qualifier but it’s a helluva lot slower. I’m gonna downshift to the BP 70-mile per month training plan and see how that works. Maybe then I’ll even have time for other things! Super-impressive.
Good luck!
Be thankful that you are no longer sitting in law school.
Awesome! Great job….Western States here we come! :D
I still can’t tell if the tracker worked. You are amazing and I look forward to your WS.
I love how good humoured you are about all this. Good luck!
So it’s possible to run a 50-miler on 75 miles a month of “training”? Excellent, sign me up!
It sure is.