CONTACTS
SUBJECTS
Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run Nick Bassett Age 73 Completed
0403 -
0403 - ..
0404 - Summary/Objective
0405 -
040501 - Follow up
040502 -
040504 - ..
0406 -
0407 -
0408 - Progress
0409 -
040901 - There is concern by some medical professionals at the VA, and by
040902 - family and friends about me doing 11, 15, 20+ daily hikes.
040904 - ..
040905 - Here is a story in...
040906 -
040907 - Runners World
040908 -
040909 - 73-Year-Old Sets Western States Record - and Astounds Doctors
040910 - With His Fitness
040912 - ..
040913 - Nick Bassett becomes the oldest finisher of the grueling 100
040914 - miler, breaking a mark that had stood for 20 years.
040915 -
040916 - https://www.runnersworld.com/trail-running/a21998984/73-year-old-sets-western-states-record/
040918 - ..
040919 - By SARAH LORGE BUTLER
040920 - JUN 29, 2018
040922 - ..
040923 - Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley was able to best the course record by
040924 - 16 minutes at the Western States Endurance run last weekend,
040925 - but that wasn?t the only significant mark to get a rewrite.
040927 - ..
040928 - Course description....
040929 -
040930 - https://www.wser.org/course/
040932 - ..
040933 - Aid Stations 5 - 10 miles apart...
040934 -
040935 - https://www.wser.org/course/aid-stations/
040936 -
040938 - ..
040939 - Not only did Nick Bassett, 73, finish before the 30-hour
040940 - overall cut off, he became the oldest finisher of the iconic
040941 - 100 miler, crossing the finish line in Auburn, California, in
040942 - 29:09:42. Ray Piva set the previous Western States record back
040943 - in 1998 at the age of 71.
040945 - ..
040946 - How does anyone run 30 hours straight? Actually, there are aid
040947 - stations placed so
040948 -
040950 - ..
040951 - As he made his way around the Placer High School track to the
040952 - finish line, in front of excited announcers calling his name
040953 - and happy spectators clanging cowbells, emotion took over. ?I
040954 - teared up,? he told Runner?s World. ?It was something I didn?t
040955 - expect. People came up to me, took pictures, people I?d never
040956 - met. It was just awesome. It was fun to be a celebrity.?
040958 - ..
040959 - To be sure, Bassett?a highly experienced ultrarunner?boasts
040960 - the fitness of a much younger man. At his most recent annual
040961 - checkup, he said his doctor kicked him off the treadmill
040962 - during his stress test because it was taking too long for his
040963 - heart rate to get up to 125 beats per minute.
040965 - ..
040966 - The hardest part of the race for Bassett, who splits his time
040967 - between his home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at 6,000 feet of
040968 - elevation, and Anchorage, Alaska, where his significant other
040969 - lives, was getting in. He sat down to watch the live stream of
040970 - the annual drawing for the race last December?more than 4,000
040971 - people enter the lottery for 261 spots?and his was the first
040972 - name called.
040973 -
040974 - ?I should have bought a Powerball ticket,? he quipped. He had
040975 - been shut out for a few years previously.
040977 - ..
040978 - For training, which he began in earnest after he got into the
040979 - race (even though he always keeps himself in good shape), he
040980 - ran five days a week, with one of those a long run. His
040981 - typical routine is to walk for 30 seconds and run at a decent
040982 - clip for 45 seconds.
040983 -
040984 - ?It?s really discouraging when you used to be able to run
040985 - 7-minute miles and now you can run 10:30 miles,? he said. With
040986 - his run/walk method, he said, ?You can really cover a lot of
040987 - ground. Not many people do that. It works for me.?
040989 - ..
040990 - During the spring, he entered longer races?50Ks, 50-milers,
040991 - and 100Ks?for training.
040993 - ..
040994 - He also works out with certified trainer Alysa Horn, a former
040995 - professional basketball player, at a gym in Anchorage two or
040996 - three days a week doing core and strength work. ?Torture for
040997 - an hour,? he called it. But it works.
040999 - ..
041000 - Horn was part of his crew at Western States, and she marveled
041001 - at the world of ultrarunning. Basketball players, she points
041002 - out, work on a court that is 94 feet long over games that last
041003 - for 40 minutes at the college level. To see him moving for
041004 - nearly 30 hours? ?Inspiring,? she called it, adding there is
041005 - little in the weight room that Bassett can?t do. ?He has never
041006 - strength trained before this and now is able to do advanced
041007 - movements like deadlifts, power cleans, squat cleans,
041008 - Bulgarian split squats, overhead presses, pull ups and chin
041009 - ups.?
041011 - ..
041012 - For the race, his strategy was to start conservatively, taking
041013 - an extra hour to get to the aid station at 30 miles. He
041014 - generally walks the uphills and tries to run on the flats and
041015 - downhills, advice he got during his first run at Western
041016 - States in 1984 and that has served him well in his other races
041017 - since.
041019 - ..
041020 - He?s never missed the 30-hour cutoff at the race, which he has
041021 - completed at least once in every decade from his 30s to his
041022 - 70s. (Before this weekend, his last Western States was when he
041023 - was 64 and completed the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, a series
041024 - of four 100-milers in a single year.)
041026 - ..
041027 - Missing a turn between 55 miles and 62 miles took him about 25
041028 - minutes off course. But he felt stronger as he went along, and
041029 - he never sat down when he went through the aid stations.
041031 - ..
041032 - He says he felt ready to push harder, but he didn?t want to
041033 - jeopardize his shot at the oldest-finisher record.
041034 -
041035 - ?I really wanted to run a lot faster than I did,? he said. But
041036 - he held back, telling himself, ?You can always do it some
041037 - other time, but you want to be the oldest guy.?
041039 - ..
041040 - There?s always next year. If, of course, he gets in the race.
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