Penny and Andrew held a party at their home a week before the Western States Endurance Race. As well as inviting the Striders who were running and pacing, they also invited the Striders Board Members and the Australian Western States Team - 20 amazing folks who'd come 8000 miles to run. Thanks Penny and Andrew for your generous hospitality.

There's a load of equipment and food required to run the Aid Station at Last Chance. This had to be collected from the event's storage warehouse in Sacramento on Saturday June 9. By convenient coincidence, Striders were running in the Tahoe Relay that day, so Penny and Robin were able to collect the stuff en route for Tahoe. It was subsequently stored in Penny's garage and transported to Last Chance by volunteers and I believe John made the major contribution to make that happen. Others also brought equipment and supplies. Thanks to Eileen we had lots of fresh fruit.

The Aid Station at mile 43 has been provided by Striders for 26 consecutive years. A proud record. The Station's called 'Last Chance' because it's on the site of a ghost mining village of that name. The village was finally deserted in 1970. At one time, I believe there were about 130 living there. Today it's a forested wilderness.

Anyway, we camped on Friday night. Our first runner arrived at 11.21am and the station closed at 5:15pm. It's very convenient - there's no pressure to set up in the morning and folks who are pacing and crewing are able to work on the aid station before going off to their next supporting role further down the trail.

The Club really appreciates the help given by non-members who volunteer, and of course Striders who volunteer. This year we had a record 50 volunteers from Striders, San Jose Fit, WSER, and other friends and nice folks. Thanks everybody who made this "The Best Aid Station on Western States".

Runners in the Western States can pick up a pacer (running buddy) at Foresthill - mile 62. Of course, most runners have a special buddy arranged up front. However for overseas visitors, the 'Pacer Central' service (on-line in advance and at Foresthill on the day) pairs runners with pacing volunteers. Dennis paced Tamyka from Australia, Steve paced Cath from England, Penny paced her friend Peggy and Anil paced his friend Chris.

And of course there were Striders 'crewing'. The crew are the long standing/waiting buddies and family members who hang around aid stations to give support and encouragement to one or more runners. Bill and Gene were crewing for Peggy, I was crewing for pacer Dennis.

The finish at Auburn is an elecrifying experience. It's very dramatic to see the early runners arrive in the dark with their head lamps. They enter the stadium to the huge applause of the crowd. I did not see this year's winner Hal arrive - however I was there to see all the others. You're welcome to camp and sleep in the sports field adjacent to the stadium track.

So I was awake to see Striders Jean and Peggy finish. Although sleeping, I heard the stadium announcement of Charle's superb 23.40 finish at 4:40am. I was asleep when Mark R finished at 4am. Great running by everybody.

It's really inspiring to see the finish. The early finishers are impressive for their incredible pace, the later finishers for their incredible effort. The generous and sporting applause of the crowd for every single finisher makes this extra-ordinary event. Breakfast is provided for the 1200 volunteers who supported the 400 athletes.

Thank you everybody who contributed. The hosts of the send off party, the runners, the station captains, the pacers and crews, the safety patrol, the 20 Australians and their families and the 50 volunteers who ran the Aid Station at Last Chance. It was just wonderful. Oh, and a "Thank You Too" for Greg and the WSER Team. I'm sure Greg will be making sure there's an Australian Flag on the finish line at next year's event! Great Job, Everybody.