Western States Endurance Run 2005

The beginning:

I was waiting for the boat to Copenhagen in the evening of the 28th of 
August 2004 in R˘nne in Bornholm in Danmark.. The day before I had run my 
first 100 K run in the Bornholm ultra marathon and I was now on my way back 
to Iceland. I sat in the cafeteria and was reading a book. Then suddenly I 
heard someone say to me: “Where did you by those shoes. I have never seen 
this model before?” I looked up and saw a gray-haired man, a little bit 
older than me, sitting not so far away. I hadn’t noticed when he sat down. 
I told him that I had bought my shoes in a sport store in Malmö in Sweden a 
couple of weeks ago. Then we started talking together and he told me that 
he had participated in the run in Bornholm the day before. He was from USA 
and was quite experienced runner compared to me. He had run a number of 100 
K and also a three 100 M. A 100 miles run. I had never even thought about 
the possibility to run a 100 miles. He showed me a big silver buckle which 
he had on his belt. “This is the award form the Western States. I have run 
it three times and I got the silver buckle in my third run” I had never 
even heard of the Western States Endurance Run. He told me a little bit 
about it, that it was very tough and one of the hardest trail run in the 
world but the trail was very beautiful and the run had a big traditions and 
its own special history. “What time did you get in the yesterdays run?” he 
finally asked. “I was on 10.27” I said. “Ok, then you will easily finish 
it” he said. Before the boat came, I got his email and information about 
the Western States website. 

When I came back home, I looked through WS website and started reading 
about this fantastic run. The whole autumn I was thinking about what to do. 
Then at last, a week before the final registration day, I send Greg 
Soderlund a email and posted 200 USD. I should join the WS 100 in June 
2005. At the very beginning I didn’t dare to tell anyone about my plans. 
Was I gone crazy? Planning to travel all the way to California to run a 100 
miles in the mountains without rest for up to 30 hours. Finally I told my 
running partners about my plans. We were at that time only 6 Icelanders who 
had run a 100 K so it was rather big step forward but anyhow, someone 
should take the first step.

The training:

I starting reading everything that I could find about WS 100. On the web I 
found many stories from WS runners. It was quite clear that the WS 100 was 
very tough and it looked out to be easy to make such a mistake in the run 
that I would go home with a DNF. That was a terrifying thought.

I started my training period in the beginning of January. My plan was to 
run totally 300 K in January and February, 400 K in March and 500 K in 
April and May. I should run two marathons in March, 72 K in the 1st of May 
and 120 K during the 21. - 23. of May (the same weekend as the training 
weekend in WS). I planned to run long runs (25 to 40 K) in Saturdays and 
Sundays (the hamburger stile) and when the weather would allow, I would 
start to run up hills and down hills in a mountain nearby Reykjavik. I knew 
that it could be difficult to finish this program, the winter could be 
hard, lot of snow, rain and wind. I could get sick, hurt and injured and so 
on. In the very beginning I ran mostly with three running partners but one 
of them got injured in the early stadium so we were three which hold 
company during the winter. One of them finished 100 K in Danmark in late 
May and reached his goal for the winter. To get a long story short I 
finished my program 100%. I reached my goals for each month and ran totally 
2000 K for the five months or almost one and a half times round Iceland. In 
average, I ran almost 90 K in a week during this period, from the beginning 
of January to the end of May. In average it was from a ca 70 K a week at 
the very beginning up to 140 K a week in May. I was in a good shape at the 
end of May, a little bit tired but anyhow, fresh and in a good form and 
what was most important, without any injury. 

The adventure in Sierra Nevada Mountains:

I flew from Iceland to San Francisco on Monday before the run. During the 
winter two Icelanders, August and Kristinn, who are living in San 
Francisco, took contact with me and volunteered to be my crew during the 
run. I had also been in contact with Rollin Statton, the runner which I met 
in Bornholm and who introduced me for the WS 100. He invited me to run with 
me the last 40 Miles or through the night. I was very thankful against 
these guys who’s help would make it a lot easier for me to reach my goal, 
to finish the WS 100. I had prepared for the run as well as I knew. I had 
learned a lot from the reports which I found on the web. I also bought two 
DVD films from the WS store, "A Run For The Soul" and "Running Madness", 
and had watched them several times. They illustrated clearly that the run 
was a big challenge, a long, hard and tough challenge. My biggest fear was 
the heat. I was not at all used to run in 30 – 35C (or even up to 40C). The 
weather forecast told us that this weekend the heat would be around 30C. It 
could have been worse. My staying in California for a few days before the 
run would help me to get a little bit familiar to the heat. It was also a 
lot of snow on the trail this year. I was familiar with running in snow, 
but I knew it would be both hard and boring. The forecast told us that the 
10 to 15 miles of the first 25 miles would be covered with snow. I didn’t 
have any plans for the final time but I knew that if I went out too fast it 
would be very likely that I would get DNF.

I, August, and his two sons, drove to Squaw Valley on Thursday. It was good 
to have possibility to get familiar with the starting area, have 
possibility to take a look into the mountains and get used to the rather 
thin air. On Thursday and Friday there were meetings for the runners where 
we got a lot of information about the run. It was amazing see to some of 
those runners which I had read about during the winter or seen in the DVD 
films. Amongst them was Gordy Ainsleigh, runner number zero. On early 
Friday was the registration, weighting and BP was measured. I was weighted 
as heavy as 193 pd which I thought was heavier than I usually are. After 
this ceremony I took a walk up to the mountains after the trail, which we 
should run in the morning. I walked almost up to the Escarpment. It was 
useful because now I knew a little bit about how it looked like and what 
was waiting for us just after the start. 
When I came back I starting preparing the drop bags which I was going to 
send out to the aid stations. There was firstly some pair of socks, some 
gel and a t shirt with the Icelandic flag on if I should get so far that I 
could use it on the final part of the run. The last days I ate as much as 
possible of meat, potatoes, eggs and bread with cheese. I had read about 
that the traditional marathon food (mostly carbohydrates) was not 
recommended in such a long run. The body should get as much of protein as 
possible. In the evening there was a lot of things to think about and 
things happened to be in such a way that I didn’t get any sleep that night. 
I had slept very little the night before because a journalist from Iceland 
called me just when I had fallen asleep so on the Saturday morning I was 
standing in front of that fact that when I would arrive to Auburn I had not 
slept almost anything for three days. But it was nothing to do about it. 
After eating breakfast, getting my papers and other things in the 
registration hall and chatting with some runners, I left the hotel room and 
left the key in the lobby. Now it was no way back. I said goodbye to 
Kristinn and August and started waiting for the shot. The runners around me 
were in good humour, cheering and shouting. I was quite relaxed. I was 
dressed in shorts, a T shirt, had sunglasses on and a cap with homemade sun 
protector. I had an Ipod in my bag which I had filled with an American 
music: Beach Boys, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. They among other things 
should help me to get to Auburn. I also had a little camera in my belt 
because I wanted to have pictures from the whole run back home as a memory. 
My crew was going to take photos at the aid stations where we were going to 
meet each other. I had decided to power walk up every uphill, eat and drink 
constantly and remember that I was going to be on the run for up to 30 
hours. Up to 30 hours!!! Was it possible? The counting down started. Ten, 
nine, eight,….. and the shot from a big shot gun sounded over the runners. 
Off we go.  I power walked up the trail to Escarpment. The faster runner 
ran from the very beginning but I thought that it would be clever for my 
part to be rather careful in the start of the race. When we left the road 
and went into the trail there was a little aid station. I ate some bananas 
there and got electrolytes into my camel bag. The dark disappeared little 
by little and it became colder. When I reached the Escarpment after ca one 
hour then we could see the sun over the tops of the mountains and we 
started to walk run in the snow. Just before Escarpment I met John Rhodes, 
which I recognised again from "A Race For the Soul". Amazing. 
From now the trail was mostly covered with snow. Now and then there was a 
little stream of water on the trail. I tried as much as possible to avoid 
wet my feet. I knew that the easiest way to get blisters is to run for a 
long time in wet shoes. For long sections it was hard to see the trail and 
we had to follow the footprints from the faster runners. At this point I 
was wondering about how fast I should go. What was fast and what was slow? 
I didn’t really know. I try often to find a partner in the long run which 
is running in “my” speed, but now it was hard to find anyone which would 
really fit me. I power walked up every up hill. I didn’t count on those 
runners who was running a few steps in the up hills and then they did fall 
down again and wasn’t faster to the top that me who walked every up hill. 
It was nice to see the first aid station, Red star ridge. I refilled my 
camel bag, got something to eat and put some cakes, energy bars and GU in 
my pockets. After leaving the aid station I was still wondering about the 
speed. How fast should I run? What was too fast, what was too slow? Then I 
suddenly saw a woman in front of me on the trail who was running a little 
bit slower than I was. “Do you want to pass?” she said. “No, it does not 
matter, it is a long way to go” I said. "Yes, that is right" she replied. 
We started talking together. She said that she always started rather slow 
in such a long run. She told me that she had seen so many sad cases when a 
runner had gone out to fast and DNF. I asked if she had run WS often 
before. “This is my sixth” she said. Obs, six times!! I asked her where she 
came from. “From Canada” she said. Then I remembered that that on the DVD 
film “A Race Fore the Soul” a Canadian woman was going to run over a twenty 
100 M runs that year. I asked her if she was really that woman. “Yes, that 
is me”. There she was, Monica Scholz from Canada, the queen of the 100 
miles run in the world. She told me that her plan was to get to Auburn in 
less than 24 hours. Below 24 hours and she was running slower than I was! 
That was something for me. I asked her if I might run behind her for a 
while. “Of course” she said. After that we ran more and less together all 
the way to Michigan Bluff or for about 75 K. 
To run together with Monica was my big luck during the run. She is a runner 
with an almost incredible experience. She knew exactly how fast we should 
run down the canyons and how fast we should walk up hills. The way between 
Robinson Flat and Forest Hill School is the most difficult part in the run 
and that is there which the runners makes most of their mistakes, 
especially by running to fast. She told me that she had seen so many sad 
cases when runner had reached Foresthill School up to two hours before her 
and then did not make it all the way to Auburn. We continued steady, alone 
or with other runners. Once we were four together, Monica from Canada, one 
American runner, a runner from South Africa and I from Iceland. This 
combination of runners from so different nationalities and different part 
of the world was quite funny. In this part of the run the temperature was 
quite high, almost for me, though it was lower than the last years. I ate 
well in every aid station, both different kind of food and GU. Then I put 
electrolytes drink in my camel bag and drank steady. I was little stressed 
about my weight because I thought that it was too high. But it was ok in 
every aid station maybe 1 pd under or over. I put ice in my cap in the aid 
stations during the hottest part of the day and got also ice in my drink. 
It was good feeling when we reached Devils Thumb after climbing up from the 
canyon in more than an hour. We made a short stop at the aid station and 
then we began running down to the next canyon. It was even longer. Finally 
we reached the bridge over the river in the bottom and started the climb up 
to Michigan Bluff. Come hell or high water. Up we went. It took more than 
an hour to get to the gate where Kristinn from my crew was waiting for me. 
It was a good feeling to have the canyons behind me. With the gate I met 
two girls who were very surprised to meet an Icelander in the run. I took a 
photo of them as a memory. We took a fast walk up to the aid station. It 
was good to reach Michigan Bluff. There was lot of food, hot soup, bread 
and other supplies. I changed socks because mine was quite wet after the 
smelting ice. Everything was ok, my feet, my legs, my stomach and my 
humour. After a short stop I left my crew and continued through the 
village. After a while I saw a man with a small camel bag in front of me. I 
ran after him straight ahead up to a little hill. Then a car came, stopped 
besides me and asked if I was in the run. “Yea”, I answered. “Then you are 
going in a wrong direction and you have to go back” the driver said. I said 
the “bad word” and turned back after shouting “thanks” to the driver. I had 
made a small mistake and somehow I had missed the EXIT out to the trail. I 
ran back and found the trail out of the village. I presumed that a car had 
been parked in front of the EXIT plate when I passed it earlier. Because of 
this mistake I missed ca 15 minutes. I continued running without any 
worries until I noticed that my camel bad was dry. Shit. Forrest Hill 
School was not very far away but anyhow, I was thirsty. Then I passed a 
woman who gave me a drink out of her bottle. Thanks to her. When I reached 
Forest Hill School the clock was almost 20.00. I had been running for 
almost 15 hours and had left ca 100 K behind me and in front of me was ca 
10 – 11 hours of running and 60 K.  In Forrest Hill I met my crew and my 
friend Rollin who was waiting for me. They were a little bit worrying 
because many of the runners which in front of me didn’t look too well. The 
reception in Forest Hill was great. The name of the runners was shouted up 
in a loudspeaker and a runner in Hawaii skirt ran through the ships gate 
with the runners. After weighing and some arrangements I met my friends. 
When we were walking down the street we meet Cowman, a 61 years old legend 
who was the second one to run the Western States Endurance Run. We got a 
picture of us with him and continued to the car. I prepared for the night 
by changing a t shirt, put new second skin under my feet, got new socks and 
a new trailer shoes which was a little bit bigger than the other ones.  

When this was over we got up, we said farewell to our friends and started 
our run to Auburn. Firstly we power walked to warm our legs up and then we 
started running after the fire roads. Pretty soon it began to get darker so 
we had to put the pocket lights on. When we were ca half ways to next aid 
station my camel bag was empty. We passed a small stream after a while 
where I could refill my bag so I didn’t have to worry about this. We should 
on the other hand be careful about that my bag would be filled up in the 
next aid stations. It was very good feeling to run with Rollin through the 
night. He had run this part of the run a several times before and knew the 
trail quite well. He knew when we approached the next aid station and how 
the trail looked like in front of us, if it was hilly or if it was flat. We 
passed a runner now and then and Rollin shouted each time “Runner to the 
left” when we passed them. Most of the runners had an assistant with them. 
We stopped as short time at the aid stations as possible and continued 
running. We power walked up every up hill and ran the other part of the 
trail. The hours passed by quite quickly. Just before midnight we reached 
the river Rucky Chucky. It was a good feeling to know that we had less than 
a marathon left. The water in the river was so high that we were 
transported across the river by a boat with a safety west on. There was an 
aid station on the both side of the river which was quite comfortable. When 
we had crossed the river we met Kristinn and August. August´s sons were 
sleeping in the car. They were glad to see that we were doing well and 
nothing had happened that would change our plans. Now my squads had started 
to be a little bit sore. It was not a big problem but anyhow, it was 
heavier than before to keep the earlier tempo. I comforted myself by 
thinking about that the other runners were also tired and maybe more tired 
than I was. That was a right judgement because on the way between Forrest 
Hill and Auburn we passed ca 50 runners but we was only passed by one or 
two. When we left the river it was a steep trail for ca 1.8 M to the next 
aid station. I thought that it would never take end in the dark but at the 
end we finally reached the Green gate. We continued in the dark after a 
short stop at the aid station. We were now running after a deep canyon. 
Once I steeped out of the trail on the right side and felled on my knee. It 
didn’t hurt and I got quickly on my feet again. Then Rollin said behind me: 
“You should be careful here, Gulli, because it is 50 meters fall straight 
down here”

We kept on running in the dark, made a short stop at the aid stations and 
continued through the night. In most of the aid stations a runners were 
sitting down resting and seemed to be pretty tired. I thought that it would 
be difficult to start running again if I should stop and sit down. I found 
that my legs got stiffer when we stopped for a while at the aid stations. 
It was therefore quite important to keep on running without stopping longer 
than necessary. When we was quite nearby Browns bar Rollin told me that 
after a while we should hear the sound of the music from the aid station. 
They usually play loud rock music during the night. When we made a turn on 
the trail we heard the music in front of us. “Country road” sung by John 
Denver sounded through the night. At the station the volunteers were 
dressed up in lively clothes and cheered at us as we were old friends when 
we reached the station. An old man with a big Mexican hat and a powerful 
grey moustache chatted with me when I got a hot soup and fixed my shoe. I 
took a photo of him as a memory. 

We continued running through the night and it was a great feeling when we 
saw that the dawn was on its way and it started to be a little bit lighter. 
Now it was just two or three hours left of the run and we were sure about 
that we would make it to the end. At five o’clock the sunrise came and a 
new day had begun. We continued running and walking every up hill and 
everything was easier and more pleasant compared with running in the dark. 
Now it was such a long distance between the runners that it was rather 
seldom to see other runners on the trail. We had though now and then a 
company with a runner and his pacer until we reached No Hands Bridge. They 
passed us and we passed them. When we passed them for the last time I said 
“See you in Auburn” Rollin was more experienced and said: “You should not 
be sure of that Gulli, we have a bit left” We did not stop at the last aid 
station but continued straight ahead. We walked the rest of the trail and 
enjoyed the morning, the sunrise and that fact that we were almost to 
finish the Western States Endurance Run. There were not any runners in 
front of us or just after us so we were very relaxed. I was very satisfied 
with the final time who was going to be just over 26 hours. It was better 
than I could imagine in the very beginning. We climbed up to the road and 
my feet were rather stiff, I must admit. When we came up to the asphalt 
Rollin told me that even I believed that the up hills were almost finished 
then they were six of them left, so I should take notice of that in the 
very end of the run. That was right, we climbed up to one uphill after 
other until we came to the mailbox who were on the very top. From then the 
road were downhill to the stadium. I recognised this part of the run again 
from “A Race With The Soul” and it was great to know that the stadium were 
almost round the corner. We passed the last runner just before we ran 
through the gate into the stadium. August’s son were waiting there with the 
Icelandic flag. I took it in my hand and waved it during the last 300 
meters. Icelanders have through the years not been a common sight in this 
connection. What a great view to see the finishing line. I had finished the 
Western States Endurance Run on 26 hours, 14 minutes and 14 seconds. It was 
almost too great to believe it. I had reached my goal after eight months of 
reading, thinking, studying, worrying and training. Incredible. Right after 
finishing the run I was weighted, blood pressure was measured and blood 
sample was taken because of the ibuprofen test. My weight was ok but I was 
ca 1 pound heavier than when we left Squaw Valley. After this I got some 
massage and then I walked across to the showers. My feet were now rather 
stiff and it was not very easy to walk down the stair to the showers. After 
taking a shower and changing clothes I got something to eat and then found 
myself a shadow to get some sleep. It was welcome to lie down and close my 
eyes. I slept for ca two hours and wake up just to see Helga Backhaus 
entering the stadium ca one and a half minute before the 30 hours cut off. 
She made a great performance by finishing the run. 
I met Monica before the finishing ceremony and got a possibility to thank 
her for her assistance during the run and especially through the canyons. 
It was great to meet her in the run and learn from her great experience in 
the endurance runs. I also meet the two guys from Norway who participated 
in the run. They asked if I could help them to find some hotel rooms in 
Iceland so they could make a stop over in Iceland for a few days on their 
way home back to Norway. I knew a man who owns a little hotel so it was 
possible to solve their problem. The finishing ceremony took some time but 
finally I got my buckle. It was a great moment after an unforgettable 
experience during the run after the trail through the mountains between 
Squaw Valley to Auburn. I and Kristinn then drove together back to San 
Francisco, tiered but happy. Rollin, Agust and Kristinn gave me a great 
assistance through the run and made it a lot easier for me to reach my 
goal. This experience has taught me that it depends firstly on yourself how 
far you can reach even the goal seems to be insuperable in the very 
beginning. 

 
 
 
 
Western States Endurance Run 2005	6	Gunnlaugur Júlíusson