Dear Craig,

Mother Nature has sure thrown a lot at us this year. Our biggest challenge after the Mosquito Fire last fall was getting the 16 miles of trail that were impacted by the fire open in time for our events this year. Then we had an historic winter including record snowfalls and atmospheric river storms that dropped almost 60 inches of rain in Foresthill! Something I learned years ago is that if you make a decision too early, it will often be wrong or unnecessary. I've learned the value of being patient and living with some uncertainty. So here is your April update - a little late so I'd have answers to some of your questions - with other things still fluid and yet to be determined.

Let me start with the trail work.

Work "in the black" began before the fire was even fully contained as the US Forest Service was able to get Hot Shot crews in almost right away to fell hazard trees. WSER, Tevis, Canyons by UTMB/Ironman, and anonymous donors contributed approximately $200,000 to supplement federal BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) money which allowed the USFS and Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship to continue working on the trail through early winter. We also had several volunteer days to supplement the work of the professional crews.

Thanks to these combined efforts, work in the burn area is proceeding on schedule and we expect the trail to be open to the public very soon. See this update for more on the Mosquito fire trail work.

We will get to the upper parts of the course to do our normal maintenance once the snow melts. There are several more volunteer work days scheduled if you'd like to help out. See the signup sheets on our website for upcoming opportunities.

Snowpack

Now for snowpack. No matter how you measure it, a lot of snow has fallen in the Sierra this season. Over 200% of normal statewide, with more falling to the south of us and less to the north. For historical comparison we use the snow water content (SWC) at a single SNOTEL site in Olympic Valley at 8200'. This single point is historically not that extreme. It ranks 7th for April 1, which is generally the time at which the snowpack begins to diminish, since 1983.

How will this impact the course? Too early to tell as the melt rate will be the factor we are looking at now. If we have a spring like 1983 or 1995, it won't melt and may even grow into May. Contrast that with a year like 1997 which had more SWC on April 1 but then a fast melt as that spring was very warm. Below is a snow depth comparison chart created by Ken Ward who is running the race this year. This compares snow depth of our most recent big snow years, 2017 and 2019, with 2023.

We will exhaust all options to run on the normal course. The beautiful singletrack on the ridgetops is where the course is and that's what we want to deliver to you. The challenge for us is aid station access. The roads into both Lyon Ridge and Red Star Ridge are often not clear in big snow years until right before the race. In 2017, we were able to bust through the snow and get trucks to the Red Star Ridge aid station on Friday before the race! I got a text from the crew working it right before the pre-race briefing. In the 1980's and 1990's helicopters were employed to get supplies in - something we are prepared to do again in 2023 if need be.

Mosquito Ridge Road and Aid Station Access

One significant result of the 60 inches of rain from the atmospheric river storms is Mosquito Ridge Road, our main access to the south side of the course. It has serious damage and is expected to remain closed to the general public for a year. If that remains the case, we will not have crew access to Duncan Canyon or Dusty Corners. When the final decision is made I will let you know and update the website but probably best to start planning no crew at those two aid stations.

BIb Assignments

You may have seen that bib assignments have been made. I tried to accommodate your bib number requests. If you didn't get what you requested know that somebody else also requested it.

Pacer Matchup

If you are in need of a pacer you can use the portal to find people willing to pace or post that you are looking for a pacer. Login to portal.wser.org for that service.

International Runner (BBQ RSVP)

A reminder to those of you coming from overseas. The city of Auburn is hosting a BBQ in Auburn on Wednesday before the race to welcome you. Please RSVP if you can make it.

2023 Research Opportunity

Regular exercise improves overall health and greatly reduces the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease. However, as recently pointed out by the American Heart Association, more exercise is not always better. Indeed, there is growing evidence that long-term, sustained, high-volume exercise may increase risk for negative cardiovascular side effects. Thus, as participation in ultramarathon grows, there is a critical need for an improved understanding of the acute and chronic cardiovascular implications of this lifestyle.

The purpose of our study is to examine the acute cardiovascular implications of ultramarathon participation. We will use novel, rapid, and non-invasive techniques to collect a host of cardiovascular measures. Prior to the race we will send you a ~20 min survey asking about your lifestyle, health, and training history, to be completed at home. The week of the race we will meet with you once before (Wed-Fri, at your convenience) and then soon following race completion, and each measurement session will require ~20 min of time. Our primary measures of interest will be aortic arterial stiffness and central blood pressure, which we will collect using a blood pressure cuff and a stylus-like device. You will also be given the option to donate a small amount of blood (~4 drops), which we will collect in a completely painless fashion from superficial blood vessels. Participation in this portion of the study is optional and it will not harm performance (6 of the top-10 finishers from last year can attest). We will not be asking you to do anything during the race, as we don't want to interfere with your special day! With your help, our findings will help to better inform athletes and clinicians of the health consequences of extreme endurance exercise, and may aid in the identification of certain intrinsic (e.g., sex, race) and/or lifestyle (e.g., training volume, sleep habits) characteristics that predispose an athlete to undesirable cardiovascular health changes.

***All participants will receive an immediate report of their aortic arterial stiffness and central blood pressure measures with normative values.***

If you are interested in participating, please complete this brief questionnaire and a member of the research team will be in-touch shortly:

forms.gle/4USmVBt4bk1BN9no6

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Grosicki via email at [email protected].

That's the scoop as of mid April.

Expect more updates from me in May and June.

I'll end this with a quote from Steve Warshawer in 1988 that seems applicable.

“As the sage Demosthenes Brito once said: Everyday is not the same and that’s alright by me.”

Craig Thornley

Race Director