At 3:10 a.m. Sunday morning on a remote trail near Foresthill, California, Jan Vleck was in a desperate place. He was 78 miles into the Western States 100 The Key Factors for Boosting VO2 Max as You Age.
Vleck, a 72-year-old retired doctor and bio safety administrator from Olympia, Washington, had wanted to run Western States for years, and he finally received an entry after being chosen through the race’s raffle.
Vleck has run dozens of trail races over the past 10 years—including four 100-milers—but after spending most of Saturday depleting himself in 90-degree heat, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to cover the final 22 miles to the finish line.
To get there, he’d have to walk into the river and float his way across with only the aid of a rope, safety spotlights, and the helping hands of volunteers.
“Coming into the Rucky Chucky river crossing, I was fearing for my life because I knew I was so unbalanced and weak and spaced out from being out in the heat all day,” he said. “I told the volunteers there, ‘You really have to take care of me.’”
That they did.
Vleck easily made it across the river thanks to some helpful hands and continued along the trail, arriving at the 80-mile aid station at 4:17 a.m. From there, he dug deep into septuagenarian grit and continued to persevere, watching the sun come up for the second time since the race began at 5 a.m. the previous morning at the base of Palisades Tahoe ski area in Olympic Valley.
Finally, at about 10 a.m., Vleck reached the Placer High School track in Auburn, and completed the final 300 meters on the track amid the roaring cheers fans and supporters, crossing the finish line in 29 hours, 2 minutes, and 26 seconds.
Vleck was the first of 65 runners to finish in the race’s dramatic Golden Hour, the final hour before the 30-hour cutoff time. The Golden Hour is one of the coolest things in running because it embellishes and celebrates the runners who have been out on the course the longest.
“I had some really tough times last night,” Vleck said after crossing the finish line. “It was hot and hard, and there were a lot of hills, but I think people know most of those things. You just have to find a way to keep going. My secret goal was trying to break 29 hours, but it’s pretty cool to finish this way. I’m proud to be a Golden Hour finisher.”
The Golden Hour
This year’s Western States champions Caleb Olson (14:11:25) and Abby Hall (16:37:16) finished Saturday night, more than a half day before Golden Hour began. Plus, 91 runners finished by 5 a.m. Sunday morning to earn a coveted silver belt buckle for completing the race under 24 hours.
Although the Golden Hour celebrates the final 60 minutes of the race, the excitement and emotional outpouring of sentimental finish moments really starts several hours earlier as the frequency of runners increases, said Western States Endurance Run board member Madgalena Boulet.
Of this year’s 285 finishers, 180 of them (or 63 percent) finished in the final five hours, and nearly half of the finishers arrived in the final three hours.
“It’s been a golden morning, for sure,” said Boulet, a 2015 Western States 100 champion and 2008 U.S. Olympic marathoner. “Golden Hour is so special because you get to witness and experience people’s hearts. These runners show up with everything that they have to reach the finish line, and we are lucky to be able to witness that. You can see it in their eyes, you see it in their body language. It’s a gift to watch it all unfold. It’s a stage where you get to see people’s dreams come true and just showing us all what is possible.”
A select few of the Golden Hour finishers looked fresh and limber, but most looked ragged, weary, and dusty. Several runners, including 58-year-old Montreal runner Francois Lacoursiere and 59-year-old local Auburn runner Pamela Coughlin, were leaning drastically to one side as they hobbled to the line. But each one covered the 100.2-mile course, which includes 18,000 feet of elevation gain and 23,00 feet of elevation loss.
“It was amazing,” said Maria Simone, a 51-year-old running and triathlon coach from Conifer, Colorado, who crossed the line at 10:21 a.m. “It was hard, challenging, hot, but very fulfilling. I waited 10 years to be here. It lives up to the hype.”
Curt Amstutz, a 56-year-old retired teacher from Berne, Indiana, crossed the finish line with plenty of time to spare, thanks, in part, to his son, Ben, a 27-year-old audio engineer, running alongside him the final 20 miles.
Sierra DeGroff, a 34-year-old sales engineer from Las Vegas, arrived soon thereafter with a big smile on her face, knowing she had just finished her 20th 100-miler.
“That was hard,” DeGroff said. “It went from a good day to a not-so-good day, but I’m happy to finish.”
Nicholas Hill, a 40-year-old fleet manager for Amazon, from Mendham, New Jersey, crossed the finish line after eight years of trying to get in through the lottery with his wife and young son and daughter in tow.
Colin Anderson, a 49-year-old financial services manager from Glasgow, Scotland, finished at 10:44 a.m. wearing a kilt.
“Oh man, it’s hot, really hot,” Anderson said. “I was dead in the water at the 62-mile mark, but something just kicked in and said, ‘It’s now or never,’ and I basically gunned it from there.”
Several more finishers arrived at the line over the next 10 minutes, each celebrating in their own way. Some came solo, some came with a pacer, some finished with their families or crew members. No matter how they did it, they earned a bronze belt buckle for making the cutoff.
Tatsuro Aoyama, a 52-year-old runner from Tokyo, was bent over with his hands on knees as he hobbled around the south end of the track. He was joined by his wife and son, proudly carrying a Japanese flag.
Aoyama would be the final finisher this year, crossing the line in 29:57:48 and immediately collapsing to the track. He was doused in water and covered with ice by medical personnel, then kept under observation in the shade for the next 30 minutes or so.
“That was so hard and so hot,” he said. “But I finished, so I feel good now.”
About 2 minutes later, Neeraj Egbert, a 53-year-old physical therapist from Louisville, Kentucky, earned the dubious honor of becoming the first person to reach the finish line unofficially. Several others would follow, but none were credited as being official finishers.
At the race’s awards ceremony about an hour later, Egbert learned he would be granted an entry for the 2026 race, thanks to a new race sponsor, the Man Against Horse Race, RW+ Membership Benefits.
“I feel gratitude, grateful to be here, to experience Western States,” Egbert said. “I work with people who can’t walk and can’t run, so I know I am fortunate to do this.”
Going strong at 70 and beyond
Vleck was one of a record six entrants in this year’s Western States who were 70 or older, but he was the only one who made it to the finish line. The others included Michel Poletti, 70, of Chamonix, France; Ed Willson, 71, of Eugene, Oregon; Jim Howard, 70, of Applegate, California; Michael Koppy, 74, of Duluth, Minnesota; and Nick Bassett, 80, of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
When Vleck gained entry to the race last June, he reached out to Bassett, who has finished Western States 14 times, most recently in 2018 when, at age 73, he became the oldest finisher in the race’s history.
Bassett and Vleck chatted on the phone and texted numerous times over the past year, as Bassett, who was entered in this year’s race through a race sponsor’s entry, was eager to share information and pointers. Vleck said talking to Bassett inspired him and his insights about the course helped him out a lot.
Bassett had a rough morning on Saturday, struggling with running, hiking, and walking the early uphill sections of the course, including the initial 2,550-foot climb in the first 4.5 miles that sent runners up and over the 8,750-foot Emigrant Pass. Although he dropped out of the race at the Red Star Ridge aid station after only 16 miles on the course, Bassett later found his way to many sections of the course to cheer on Vleck and other runners.
He was there with Vleck when he finished and gave him a big hug after he crossed the finish line. Vleck not only finished strong, but eight of the 64 runners he beat were half his age or younger.
“What you’ve got to realize about this group of older runners is, we just don’t stop,” Vleck said.
“You just can't,” Bassett said. “You’ve got to keep going.”
Brian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, Sydney Marathon Results, and Red Bulletin. He’s a former walk-on college middle-distance runner who has transitioned to trail running and pack burro racing in Colorado.
