I met Walter during a 100-mile race.
It wasn’t that cold, I was in shorts, and this guy in my opinion dressed too heavily flanked me.
“I’m from San Luis Obispo,” he tells me, reading my mind.
SLO is a seaside place and in American races you are not obliged to dress a certain way because of a regulation, you decide for yourself: if you live in Alaska and are used to cold weather you can also run in the snow shirtless, and vice versa.
All I know about San Luis Obispo is that there are huge waves to surf and to see Walter I would have said that with his physique he is more of a surfer than a racer.
I ask him if this is his first 100-mile race, and he replies that upon arrival it will be his fifth. Walter is 100 percent sure he is going to make it, and I wonder how he can be, since there are still a hundred kilometers to go and the race we are running is very hard. He is a quiet, easygoing, humble guy, but also very determined.
I ask him if he has any idea how much left for the next aid station because I don’t have much water left in my water bottle, and he replies that he doesn’t know, he hasn’t looked at the altimetry, but anyway there is never more than about 20 km left. After telling me this he explains that he only ran four 100-mile races, but he also ran a 200-mile race (twenty days before) and there were also 40 kilometers between each aid there, so even if it was 20 kilometers it was no big deal.
He asks me why I chose this particular race, and I tell him the truth: it is a historical race, it was very inspiring to me because it is not too main stream and that it was the only time I could take time off.
He asks me who I work for, and I answer him for this famous multinational company in the outdoor world.
“Ah then they will support you in the fact that you run mountain races.”
“Not exactly,” I reply, in the most diplomatic way.
Walter works as a computer technician for a company in his neck of the woods. They give all employees who play sports flexible hours, have a gymnasium, and of course locker rooms and showers. They did not raise an eyebrow by granting him work from home. Then, because ultrarunning was becoming a very important part of Walter’s life, the company told him that he could also work from Colorado (where he was planning to move to be closer to the mountains) or directly, work from his van. Later his employers told him that if he wanted a free period in life in which to devote himself only to his passion he could take it and they would rehire him a year later. Walter decided to continue working because he could handle everything, thanks to the flexibility of employers. As he was telling me about it I was reflecting that we were talking about a computer company, about people who, at least on paper, could give a damn about racing like I give a damn about SUVs: less than nothing. I used to work at a company that declared in advertisements “We are mountain runners” and would change in my car in the office parking lot for years, paranoid about badge times, jamming in hurried workouts where I often didn’t make it to lunch to lock myself in the office until dark, let alone showers.
“What about you?” asks Walter, breaking the silence.
“I get money for every minute I spend sitting with my ass in the chair,” I laugh at him, trying to mask the chilling fact that it is the truth.
We formed a healthy friendship of mutual esteem, the kind that often happens between those in the sport.
After the finish we say goodbye and the following year we meet again, obviously in another 100-mile race. I contact Walt to ask him for a ride because I didn’t know how to get to the start, and he of course shows up in his white van.
Things had changed. Walter was fresh from the Triple Crown of 200, that is, three 200-mile races (over 320 km, although actually one of the 3 races is over 400 km long) in less than a month and a half.
We stopped for groceries and he was walking a little bit, he told me he had a microfracture in a metatarsal, and the next day we had this 100 miles. This did not shock me too much, because among ultrarunners it happens to run over small bone fractures; however, I remember that the thing that surprised me most was that at the bib pickup during the expo, he seemed to be uncomfortable.
“All this time is wasted on bibs, I feel like running, I wish I had started already.”
As is tradition, we saw each other, for the third year in a row, at a 100-mile race. This time it was my turn to give him a ride back to his truck.
Walter decided that year that he would try to run multiple 100-mile races-or longer distance (and in his case I think it’s worth remembering)-in a calendar year. Walter wanted to run more races in a year than anyone else.
The previous record belonged to Ed “the Jester” Ettinghausen, a guy who runs dressed as a jester that almost everyone knows in ultra circles who ran 41 in 2014.
Walter planned to run 50; in fact, with his original plan it was 52. One 100-mile (or more) race per week.
Calculator in hand is more than 8000 kilometers, however, with the fact that the races have been longer and Walter likes to go out at least 5 times a week to train, he ran about 11000 kilometers in 2019, from what he told me.
11,000 kilometers.
Do you want to know how it went?
Walter has 50 buckles at home. He planned travel all over the United States, spent a lot of money to register for races (about $12,000), and spent more to get around; but I don’t think he ever regretted it or thought he squandered it. He ran 100 miles on track, in high mountains, circling asphalt circuits and in the desert. He started on January 1 by running the Spine, a 431-kilometer nonstop race in England in the middle of winter and sailing in Scotland, and from there he ran every weekend in the United States. He met a girl while running, who was also a 100-mile enthusiast, and they are still together now; he traveled around the country living in his van, and instead of being fired, his employers complimented him. From what I know he still works there. He ran when he was well and when he had a fever, met a lot of people and is now planning for next year.
He told me that he would like to do more quality than quantity.
I hope to see him, as per tradition, again this year in some races.
Congrats buddy!