Lew Hollander,Western States Endurance Run and Happiness

"Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."– Aleksei Peshkov

 I’d like to share some of my thoughts about running, in the mountains, 100 miles in one day. First, allow me to present a brief description of the setting. This race begins at Squaw Valley, California the site of the Winter Olympics in 1960. The elevation at Squaw Valley is some 6,200 feet above sea level. From there, there is about 18,000 vertical feet of climb and about 23,000 vertical feet of descent. The race ends at Auburn, California some 96 feet above sea level.

As far as weather conditions, there is generally snow, during the early part of the race, and then temperatures reaching triple digits in the canyons. This means that you may start out with the light jacket or long sleeve shirt and then shedding to a short sleeve shirt applying a lot of sun block, a hat to protect yourself from the sun and so forth. Some runners have encountered bears, cougars and rattlesnakes. Fortunately, for me, I am pleased to say, I encountered none of those critters.

Lew Hollander in Chapter 10 of “It Has Nothing To Do With Age “tells this story when he competed in this race in 1984. During one part of the run, he became hungry between aid stations. Like other runners, he reached into his shorts or fanny pack for something to eat. He found his sandwich. however when he looked at it for some reason it was soggy and dirty from all the sweat and grime. He said “it looked horrible, unfit to eat.” What is often the case during this run is that runners do not always use their best judgment. We jokingly refer to this as oxygen deprivation. So Lew did not use good judgment and this scientist did the unscientific thing of simply throwing his sandwich away. Of course, after running a short distance he had second thoughts and criticized his rash decision.

For those of you that know Lew, he has lived a very charmed life. And that was the case in 1984 for him because within the next hundred yards or so, unbelievably there on the ground, he found a clean wrapped sandwich.  I forgot to ask him what kind of sandwich? In essence, Lew satisfied his hunger and completed the race.

For me, there were many highlights ranging from the difficulty of the day and night to the satisfaction and relief of completion. At about 98 miles or so my pacer Jerome Beauchamp and I reached Robie Point. To my surprise, and I do mean amazement, I found a group waiting for me. I didn’t ask them how long they’d been waiting, but I was happy to see them. In the crowd were my sister Beverly, a former girlfriend, Tony and Debbie Brickel and Bob Edwards. That was so neat that I’ll never forget it as long as I don’t have dementia. I probably haven’t told them enough how much I appreciated them being there for me. It’s good to have friends and family during these significant events.

Robie Point

Remember to keep moving, laughing, smiling and deep breathing.