Run to Win

The lottery for the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run was this afternoon, and there were 3 Mainers attempting to get in through the lottery.

Jamie Anderson made it through the lottery after having been chosen within the first 20 picks. James Demer and Stephen Wells were not one of the 191 lottery entrants.

Jim Eckert will also represent Maine. He bypassed the lottery because he was guaranteed a slot at the race after having won last year’s raffle.

There were approximately 1350 applicants to run the race this year. There are only 357 slots available for runners, and 166 of those slots were filled by automatic qualifiers who had either won a raffle from the year before, had “lost” in the lottery for the past 2 years, or who were in the top 10 finishers for male or female last year. The race includes entrants from 13 different countries and 40 different states, with the vast majority of runners coming from California.

The Western States Lottery coincided with the ultramarathoners apple pie baking contest today. Chuck Hazzard tried to sway the judges by bringing his pie straight from the oven to the contest, so it was still warm when judging began. No clear front runner could be decided between his pie or Jamie Anderson’s, which had been baked earlier that morning. Everybody seemed pretty happy with both pies.

(Click here to view the 2008 WS 100 Lottery Results)

Photo by Ian ParlinThe Vermont 100 Mile Trail Race was this past weekend on July 24^th. The top three Maine finishers all belong run with the Trail Monsters, a running group in the greater Portland area that runs local trails every week and race in the local mountain series.

Stephen Wells was the first Maine finisher in 20:27:37.80, and was 15^th over all. He overcame cancer a few years ago and has been doing all of the endurance events that he never thought that he would do before he was diagnosed.

James Demer was the second Maine finisher in 23^rd place over all. His finishing time was 21:10:07.00. He came by to the Trail Monsters group run this evening with his daughter and puppy, but he was just walking around on the trails.

Jamie Anderson rounded out the group in 36^th place over all with a time of 22:09:55.50, which is very impressive only 3 months off of knee surgery. He wrote a very detailed race report that is well worth taking a gander at. He walks through the day from waking up at 3 a.m. to taking a short 1 hour nap after finishing and then watching more people come through the line.

Andy Jones-Wilkins won the race with an impressive 9:32 pace, almost exactly an hour off of the course record time. He ran the race in 15 hours, 53 minutes and 45 seconds. Mary Churchill was the first woman to finish with a time of 19:41:13.80. There were 142 finishers. Other Maine finishers within the 30 hour cutoff were Maurice Kelleher (25:54:00.70) and Sarah Heck (27:42:09.60).

(Full Results – Photos)