A lone runner on the hot mountain trails of the 100-mile endurance run . PHOTO BY GRAHAM WOMACK
portions going smoothly before needing over six hours for the marathon . In what he refers to as a moment of weakness , he agreed to do another Ironman . His training comes at a busy time : A Comstock ’ s board member , Clemmens sold his business , Digital Deployment , on April 1 and recently founded a new technology venture called Streamline .
“ I ’ ve found that physical excellence and entrepreneurial excellence are one and the same ,” Clemmens says . “ The driving force is the same , and I need to support both . So , for me , this is about being a successful person , not just a successful professional .”
It ’ s not just endurance runners or triathletes . The greater Sacramento region also has its share of climbers , possibly because there are a number of good places to climb within an hour or two drive .
Erik Griffith , 29 , who trained to be a climbing guide in Patagonia , Spain and Alaska , owns a Sacramento-based climbing company called Vertical Pursuits , which offers climbing adventures around the world . He says there are good hikes off Highways 50 and 80 . Near Kyburz , there is Sugarloaf , a 350-foot rock that juts out off the side of a hill . Not far from decommissioned rail tunnels at Donner Summit , there ’ s some of the best singlepitch climbing in the area , he says .
Alex Honnold , who grew up in Sacramento , became one of the world ’ s most famous climbers after he scaled El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 2017 by hand without ropes or safety equipment . He trained at Sacramento Pipeworks ’ 40-foot climbing wall . Griffith has trained at Pipeworks as well and has implemented speed tactics to climb the nose of El Capitan in under a day .
It ’ s safe to say extreme athletes tune to their own frequency .
“ Any ultramarathon runner , they ’ re not worried about if their car breaks down ,” says Mansour Monem , vice president for Buffalo Chips Running Club in Sacramento and a 2019 Western States finisher . “ Because they can always run it .”
That ’ s not to say things always go smoothly though .
When things go wrong
For Western States competitors , the darkest times can come before the dawn , literally . The race kicks off at 5 a . m . on a Saturday , and it ’ s common for runners to run all through the night , with 11 a . m . Sunday being the cutoff to finish and have their results count . But this doesn ’ t make the early morning running any more natural , with Zilaff saying , “ By about 2 o ’ clock in the morning , your body is just saying , ‘ You got to go to bed .’”
For Zilaff , this culminated in him briefly falling asleep at Mile 83 of his first Western States , immediately waking up as he hit the ground , around 3 or 4 in the morning .
Yet runners find unusual ways to keep themselves going . The Devil ’ s Thumb aid station offers a variety of refreshments that would seem verboten in an ordinary road race , from shots of
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