Crossing paths

 Sunday, I was down at Crowders Mt running repeats on one of the trails. As frequently happens, I see other runners doing the same thing. We often share waves and encouragement to each other as we pass. 

Rarely do we actually get a chance to run together. 

This past weekend, this changed when Mike caught up to me on my last downhill. The last several weeks, I had seen Mike running up and down the Tower Trail. I finally got a chance to put a name with a face. 

As with any runners, our conversation quickly delved in to training and racing. He was telling me about his upcoming plans to run the 24 hour timed laps at the WWC. He went on to tell that this was all part of his training for a special ultra event. Yes, you guessed it. He is running Western States in late June. 

Western States is kind of hard, no, really hard to gain entry. 

But this is where the story really gets interested. Mike has never finished a 100 miler. The ones that he had entered, he had DNF. 

Then, he goes on to tell me how he got his entry. 

A while back, he was running a 100k in Pennsylvania. There he won a single ping pong ball for the entry in to Western States. 

When they held the lottery, and with just one single ping pong ball, his number came up. That is so cool and lucky. 

This definitely made me smile. I wished him luck as he was heading back up for another repeat. 

I am sure that I will see Mike in the coming weeks at Crowders. Now, I will be able to add a name to my encouragement when we pass. 

Crossing paths 

Cool Down Runner