Texans get ready for Western States

Hunt for Mo Wilson's accused murderer continues

Jun 22, 2022

Hello endurance athletes,

It’s been a minute! Life, work and workouts have kept me away from the newsletter for a few weeks. A surprise work trip to London was the most recent schedule scrambler. No complaints, of course. A run along the Thames and then eating meat pies and drinking real ale made for a great week … and the subsequent need to focus on my workouts upon my return.

Just a couple of hours off the plane, a little sleepy still. Made it to Tower Bridge on my run.

Newsletter might continue to be a little hit or miss this summer with a heavy workload still afoot. Major events tend to take a little bit of a break during the heat of the summer, but I’ll get to most things here or on the Facebook page.

Now, on with the news…

Western States Endurance Run

The self-proclaimed oldest 100 mile trail race (plenty of races make the same claim) goes off this weekend in California. The Western State 100 starts in Olympic Valley with a net downhill route to Auburn, California, close to Sacramento.

No matter how accurate their “oldest” claim is, it’s certainly the most iconic U.S. 100 miler and the one that most trail runners work to get into. The most common way to get in for normal humans is through the lottery that takes place in December.

Runners have to complete a qualifying race within a specified time to get a lottery ticket. Tickets roll-up if you don’t get picked, so your chances rise the longer you try to get in. Of course, that means completing multiple ultramarathons too, as you need to run a qualifying race each year you register.

This year we have a field of 7 Texans in the race, which is limited to 385 runners total by the U.S. Forest Service.

Here are the seven luck entrants, 3 of them with only one ticket in the pot!

Alison Miller of Ft Worth has 6 people ahead of her on the wait list. She’s a long shot to get in, but there are often some last minute dropouts. A lot of people that close will go out to volunteer in hopes that they get in. In addition to Miller, there’s also Brent Robinson from McKinney about four spots after her.

As for the rest of the field, it’s a star-studded affair as usual. With Jim Walmsley, the course record holder out, the men’s pro field is a little more open than in years past. Walmsley’s teammate Jared Hazen, who set the second fastest mark at WSER in 2019 is a favorite along with Tyler Green, Tim Tollefson, Drew Holmen and Cody Lind.

The women’s side could be even more exciting with the inclusion of Camille Herron, the world record holder in the 100-mile distance on trails and tracks. Herron returns to avenge a rough day at WSER in 2021 and has been on a roll. Others to watch are Brittany Peterson, Katie Asmuth, Keely Henninger and Kaci “Pixie Ninja” Lickteig who is coming off of a number of injuries. No Courtney Dauwalter this year, which helps open the women’s field up a bit as well.

Live coverage will again be available on the Western States YouTube channel here.

Mo Wilson murder suspect still on the run

Frustratingly, not much has changed since our last update in the Moriah Wilson murder case. Authorities still suspect that Kaitlin Armstrong is the murderer and don’t really know where she is. In our last note, we had learned that she went to NY via Laguardia airport. Later it came out that police had found video of her at Newark Liberty International Airport the day after Austin policed obtained their search warrant. However, no reservation could be found under her name.

A private investigator told NewsNation’s Marni Hughes that he believed she may be using her sister’s name, Christine Armstrong, while she is in hiding.

U.S. Marshals have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to Armstrong’s arrest.

Ex-boyfriend to both women, Colin Strickland, has been in hiding since the murder, spoke to road.cc this week, saying about the initial relationship with Wilson, "It was completely unplanned and yeah, we started spending some time together. That was clearly expressed to Kaitlin at that time and Kaitlin dated other men directly after that.

"We were clearly going our separate ways but we just didn't get enough inertia to separate. Kaitlin and I were involved in several businesses together. Mo and I communicated about twice a month (after that) and I think it was skewed in a very misleading way in the affidavit."

Strickland has much more to say about the situation in the article.

Meme of the Week

edusidegum

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Media We’re Consuming

ESPN Launches Fifty/50 World in Celebration of 50 Years of Title IX (ESPN)
Vandals Strike One of Yosemite’s Most Popular Trails (Outside)
Catch up with the crazy runners competing in California’s The Speed project (Red Bulletin)
Strava Adding Video Support: Here’s how it works! (DC Rainmaker)
Trail Races With No Laces: Naked Launches Slip-On Running Shoe (Gear Junkie)
Skarper disk brake propulsion system turns any bike electric (Cycling Industry News)
Jake Fedorowski Hated Registering for Races Outside Their Identity. So They Decided to Speak Up (Men’s Health)

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Rock Dallas Triathlon | Olympic Tri | Flower Mound | September 10
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