Montville — With about a mile to go, Steve LaBranche started crying.
What he
Nike Air Max 90 Femme Blanche already had accomplished
Adidas Superstar Donne Blu at the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run was so awesomely monumental.
He already had 99 miles down on the trail from Squaw Valley to Auburn, Calif. Over the nearly 28-hour period, LaBranche would burn 15,000 calories. He would run 16 miles in snow, followed by
Nike Air Presto Femme 100-degree heat, followed by darkness. He would need medical attention for the skin on the bottoms of his feet.
And then he started to cry.
“My pacer said, 'Will you stop?'” LaBranche said recently with a laugh, going over his trek memory by memory. “'I don't want to be running with someone who's crying.' I have a picture of my wife (Heather) and I holding hands crossing the finish line. She ran over across to me with 100 meters to go."
“I was really emotional.”
And he's about to become more emotional.
LaBranche, 44, of Oakdale, the head boys' and
Adidas NMD Dames girls' cross
Adidas Superstar Homme country coach at Montville High School, has undertaken the unenviable task this summer of finishing the nation's Grand Slam of Ultrarunning: four 100-mile runs in a year.
That requires LaBranche to complete the Western States run, which he accomplished in 27 hours, 47 minutes,
Nike Air Max 2017 Mujer 54 seconds on June 24-25; the Vermont 100 Endurance Run, which is this Saturday and Sunday; the Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado on Aug. 18-19; and the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run in Utah on Sept. 9-10.
The feat originally was being attempted by 32 runners this
www.mateopinilla.es year; that number is now down to 19 after Western States. Vermont has the highest dropout rate, with many Slam participants experiencing the back-to-back events for the first time. Leadville, “The Race Across the Sky,” is considered the hardest, climbing to an altitude of 12,600 feet.
Only one
Nike Air Max 90 Femme Noir runner from Connecticut has ever completed the Slam: Jerry Turk of Guilford in 2009.Stupid is a matter of perspective,” LaBranche said with a laugh.
“There are pits of despair,” he went on, explaining the dynamics of a 100-miler, nicknamed a “hundo.” “You get to know yourself. Can you push yourself through severe discomfort and fatigue? Get it out of your head that you might drop. Get it out of your head. Once I start, I am on a mission to finish. There's never a doubt."
