Craig Smith looked fit as a fiddle Sunday morning at the Western States Endurance Run finish line in Auburn, California. His body will let him know for the next few days how things are going.
Despite whatever training on roads, trails and Alabama heat, it’s no comparison to 100.2 miles of rugged California mountain terrain. Smith, 49, of Madison, finished in 28:01:04 at the legendary Placer High School track in Auburn.
Rounding the final road turn into the stadium, Smith got a cool shoutout from the WSER livestream crew for balancing work, home life and striving to be a positive example to his sons. He was wearing his familiar blaze orange singlet.
Smith becomes the fourth area runner in as many years to finish the event. He was consistent throughout the race, hitting splits from 14:11 to 16:46 through the 21 checkpoints. The final 27 miles saw 16-plus minute miles, not uncommon after such a distance.
According to the race site, “Beginning in Olympic Valley, the trail ascends from the valley floor (elevation 6,200 feet) to Emigrant Pass (elevation 8,750 feet), a climb of 2,550 vertical feet in the first 4½ miles. From the pass, following the original trails used by gold and silver miners of the 1850’s, runners travel west. They climb another 15,540 feet and descend 22,970 before reaching Auburn, a small town in the heart of California’s historic gold country.“
Smith was the 179th finisher out of 369 starters. He told TVO that while a sub-24 finish was a nice goal, a definite finish was the main priority.
Area Finishers
Seventeen area runners have finished Western States since 2002 within the time limit, with Smith becoming the 18th. Records from 2002 and prior have limited search info; other area runners may have completed the event, too.
Here are the ones we found from the Huntsville area and their finishing times:
2024: Steven Carr, 26:33
2023: Martin Heimbeck, 26:46
2022: Eric Fritz, 29:50
2019: Liz Canty, 20:55 (since moved to Colorado); Martin Schneekloth, 23:43; Dewayne Satterfield, 20:10
2017: Michael Dehaye, 28:35, Rick Rawls, 29:25
2014: David Holladay, 27:21
2012: Chad Ayres, 23:26
2011: Joshua Kennedy, 23:11
2007: Michael W. Allen, 23:58
2006: Cheryl Ibarra, 28:45
2005: Dink Taylor, 23:31; Kathy Youngren, 23:42
2004: Davy Kennamer (Guntersville), 23:42
2002: Rob Youngren, 22:55
The race was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic and 2008 due to numerous wildfires.
