2024 Western States 100 Recap Show

Brett Hornig from Conversational Pace and Dani Moreno from the Subhub Podcast join Singletrack to recap the 2024 Western States 100.

We talk about the amazing performances from athletes like Jim Walmsley and Katie Schide, Brett's experience working on the livestream, Dani and Finn's experiences crewing top runners, whether there's a definitive training and racing playbook for this event, noticeable innovations in crewing, nutrition, and topical cooling, and what the future of this race might look like after such a historic year of individual and cumulative performances.

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[runsingletrack]

Thoughts about Western States? Thoughts about our conversation? Leave a comment below! We wanna hear from you.

[johnborton]

I was heavily involved in the technical end of live sports broadcasting for near 2 decades. Worked 5 Super Bowls, 7 World Series, Stanley Cups, Daytona 500s, Olympics, America's Cups, etc. and (with team) earned 3 Emmys. I'm also an Ultra runner who retired to the eastern Sierra near Tahoe and spend ever hour I can (which is a LOT) in the back country wilderness. Few are as qualified to understand the crazy task the production crew took on to bring us the AMAZING coverage. Blown away. Absolute kudos to all.

I know all did their absolute best, but now for the critical part ... when Dylan and Corrine left the booth to go to the field for interviews, everything went to HELL (live stream part 2, 3hrs:1min in). Those two (and the field reporters) had done such a GREAT JOB of building the excitement as it went along and presented with the most amazing WSER finish in like FOREVER, the guy who stepped in just went POOF and the air went out of the broadcast. For the next 20 minutes ... No information. Bad information. Conflicting information. Dead air to no end.

At 3hrs, 15min, the livestream cuts to two runners (from the back) on the pavement in Auburn. The Chyron graphics appear to claim that it is both Rod and Hayden running together (but I had my doubts). As the camera follows, we are then told that Hayden has overtaken Rod for second ... not only wrong, but still no clarification that we are NOT watching Rod and Hayden running together as we had previously been informed via Chryon.

Now the complete collapse at 3hrs: 21min... Chaos. Drone view of runners. We're told it's Hayden. We're not told if Rod is with him or not. Then someone says a mistake has been made about something, but we're not told what the mistake is (other than we're told it's camera related). Viewers are only alerted to the sprint for the finish for 2nd and 3rd by GASPS and OMGs from the onlookers near the finish line camera. As someone who doesn't know the faces, I can't tell who is who (and assume it is Hayden ahead as we were told previously). The first runner collapses on the pavement and doesn't roll over at all so we can't tell who it is ... we are not told who it is. Dead silence from the announcers as the runner lies on the ground writhing. Dead silence as another runner sprints across the line. Runner on ground being tended to ... dead silence. Plenty of audio, just no talent talking.

From the moment that the sprinting runner crosses the line and collapses (3hr:21:50), it's 2 minutes before Dylan steps up and tell us that it is one of the greatest finishes in WS history and gives both runners names but NO POSITIONS. Viewers still can't know who beat who to the line. Audio filled with superlatives: "Historic" "Heroic" "This is THE BEST day ever, the BEST sport every, the BEST race ever". Yeah, yeah, all true ... but WHO CAME IN SECOND?

Nearly 6 minutes after the "best finish ever", we get the shot of the podium three with medals ... but the viewers still have zero idea who came in second.

10 minutes in, Dylan is back with commentary as Dan Jones crosses the line for 4th. Well, we know 1st and 4th now. 13 minutes in all three podium men are being interviewed, still no mention of who finished second. 15 minutes in, Dylan when beginning his interview with Hayden (if you pay attention) he tangentially says something that gives a clue that Hayden finished third (he says that Hayden has been a runner up here at WS and finished on position lower). FINALLY!!

Broadcast grade for the first 14 hours? A+++. Just amazing.

Grade for the next 30 minutes? F ... but that's not going to reduce the overall grade much because of how WELL y'all did with a ragtag crew of amateurs who worked their hearts out and stuck everything but the landing. I've worked for years with the likes of John Miller, John Madden, Al Michaels, etc. Dylan is a NATURAL. An amazing talent.

Overall grade. A freakin' A++. The team should be so very proud of what was accomplished. If the WS gets to sports broadcasting big time, we know it all started here in 2024. Damn good, and a team of horses won't be able to stop me from volunteering for 2025. I'll sweep floors and dig trail ... don't care, just want to be a part of it.

[haraldk.]

dani is such a wonderful addition to your team, you harmonize wonderfully with each other, it's a pleasure to listen to you!

[brettrunsfar]

Been waiting for some WSER race recapping but didn't expect the best parts to be the pacing recaps 😁

[MonteComeau]

Coverage was great. Watched about 80% of it. Don't understand why Dylan and Corrine BOTH left the booth to do post race interviews and left us all hanging at a very critical part of the coverage but I suppose that was the only fail in my opinion. As for post race interviews....Give them 30 minutes or so, they just ran 100Miles not a 100M!

[swedaan]

Great coverage of Western States, been a blast listening to the podcast and following all the ins and outs. Thanks!

[kategiles]

Such a great race and the live coverage was awesome! Thank you! Can’t wait until next year 😁

[davidtlam]

Brett's face and Dani stifling her laugh while Finn tells the pacing story is why I came here. Thank you all for your service.

[marlinweekley]

Brett (black bucket hat guy 😆) did awesome getting commentary on course. Dibo and Corrine also did their usual fantastic job as anchors keeping it exciting and informative. The announcing changed near the track however with long periods of “dead air” and announcer seemed to be reading off a script.??? Loved all the pre race interviews you guys did, kudos to all. 😀🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

[guitarraclasica]

“The buns were buttered, and It was a big patty, and it was juicy, and I am feeling like you may have lubed up your insides with cow fat”
For this and more,
I ❤ singletrack
(Comedy gold)

[drr]

@runsingletrack first you guys are awesome. My absolute favs🎉 and my mind was blown away by Western States. I am coming from Pennsylvania so I had coverage on in the wee hours of the night...way too exciting to sleep! I even kept coverage playing during mile one of my first 50k so I could hear Sally's finish😂 . LOVED the Golden Hour moments watching the remaining runners come in...this IS a team sport and just love seeing the support we all have for each other! Your pre race interviews were the BEST! THANK YOU 😊 We appreciate you guys!

[mitchellmclaughlin]

A note I want to add on the topic of everybody sort of catching up to Walmsley with the professionalism. Walmsley was married to high-carb fueling way back in 2016. If you watch his IrunFar interview from that year, he talks about shooting for 400-600 calories per hour, and even mentions that people told him that’s crazy. I don’t think anybody else at the time was doing that much—the norm was still very much 200-300 calories per hour. I think Rod and Hayden have both publicly stated that dialing in their high-carb nutrition plan is a huge reason for their successes. My point being, in 2016, Walmsley was just about the only person married to high-carb. Now, everybody is.

[MattRadford]

Gotta be honest, it’s kinda lame to use Courtney as the thumbnail when she wasn’t even in the race this year. Especially when it was a race that featured so many epic performances that are worthy of attention.

[The_MidwestMisfit]

Best Story Ever =

Finn’s pacing story.

So funny! SO funny!!!

[maireadkeady]

Dani! Priscilla is Canadian! Just FYI ;) Notes for 1:07:22

[shanedoyle]

The coverage and race was super exciting. Livestream was great up until the end. So just a matter of refining how the interviews are conducted at the end of the race.

[KTravRuNEr]

Love the pacing stories here. For someone who’s never had a pacer or crew - it awesome to hear these stories.
Faster times - so many changes over time in crewing, pacing, nutrition, race strategy, race support, and coaching. Things were always going to get faster with all of this advancements / changes.

Courtney is amazing but not super human. Katie was so close to her record. Let’s give Katie the respect she deserves and stop pretending no one will break Courtney’s records. We still have very low women participation in ultras. Once we get more of the faster athletes, those times will drop more.

And so much love to Rod Farvard. What a run and sprint to finish. My new fav elite. ❤

[johnholt]

I think for most people Western States is a once in a lifetime race, so the pressure to finish is high. You only get one chance. At least, that's how it was for me the year (2010) I ran it. That said, the elite race this year was awesome for both the women and the men. Super fun to follow and the coverage was great.

[Wavygravvy]

Coverage was phenomenal. Only drop of the ball was audio as the top men were finishing. Considering where livestream has evolved in just a few short years. Overall, I was glued for 30 hours and my entire family now knows of all things Western States haha!

[gwilymeades]

Sorry to hear about your blowup, Finn, but I really enjoyed this recap. Great analysis, as always.