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Ep. 7: Clare Gallagher
Ultra runner Clare Gallagher talked with host David Willey just 10 days after her huge win at Western States, a 100-mile endurance run in California.
The Western States race is regarded as one of the world's toughest tests of human endurance. It begins in Squaw Valley, California, near Lake Tahoe, and ends on a high school track in the town of Auburn. Races this long and grueling usually aren't dramatic but this year's race was different.
Clare was in the lead and running confidently until mile 93, when Brittany Peterson caught her, seemingly out of nowhere, just before the final aid station. The runners emerged in a dead heat with about six miles to go, ridiculously high stakes for a 100-mile race. Clare covered the home stretch, winning by 11 minutes and finishing in 17:23:25, the second-fastest time ever.
Clare talks about the six mile effort in detail in the interview and also provides a rare peek behind the curtain at some of the lesser-known aspects of Western States—the personal interactions between runners out on the course, the post-race interview scrum, where finishers struggle to remain upright while providing soundbites they may or may not remember the next day and even into the "pee tent" where top finishers get mandatory drug tests under less-than-solitary circumstances.
Besides Clare's win at Western States, she and David talk about her environmental activism, how climate change may be impacting endurance running as a sport and her unorthodox pre-race taper.
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By Honey StingerUltra runner Clare Gallagher talked with host David Willey just 10 days after her huge win at Western States, a 100-mile endurance run in California.
The Western States race is regarded as one of the world's toughest tests of human endurance. It begins in Squaw Valley, California, near Lake Tahoe, and ends on a high school track in the town of Auburn. Races this long and grueling usually aren't dramatic but this year's race was different.
Clare was in the lead and running confidently until mile 93, when Brittany Peterson caught her, seemingly out of nowhere, just before the final aid station. The runners emerged in a dead heat with about six miles to go, ridiculously high stakes for a 100-mile race. Clare covered the home stretch, winning by 11 minutes and finishing in 17:23:25, the second-fastest time ever.
Clare talks about the six mile effort in detail in the interview and also provides a rare peek behind the curtain at some of the lesser-known aspects of Western States—the personal interactions between runners out on the course, the post-race interview scrum, where finishers struggle to remain upright while providing soundbites they may or may not remember the next day and even into the "pee tent" where top finishers get mandatory drug tests under less-than-solitary circumstances.
Besides Clare's win at Western States, she and David talk about her environmental activism, how climate change may be impacting endurance running as a sport and her unorthodox pre-race taper.