Editor’s Choice: My Most Unforgettable Pacing

Zeke Zucker

© 2015 42K(+) Press, Inc.

The conditions for the 2006 Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run were rather grim. After a particularly snowy winter there was still plenty of the white stuff around, making for challenging movement through the “mashed potatoes” for most of the first 30 miles. Added to this was the soaring temperature, which pushed up perilously close to the record of 80 degrees at the Squaw Valley start and 101 degrees at the 62-mile pacer-pickup point on Main Street in Foresthill.

Jim Campiformio from Connecticut, a good friend and fellow ultramarathoner I had known for many years, had asked me to be his pacer at Western States. Until I could legally begin to pace him at the 62-mile mark, I was assisting his sister Rosemary with crewing support at designated, authorized aid stations. After having met him at several locations throughout the day, we were waiting for Jim to appear at mile 55, Michigan Bluff, in the very warm evening hours. By now he was way behind his intended sub-24-hour pace and barely clinging on to a finish within the 30-hour cutoff. Rosemary and I knew that it wasn’t going well for him.

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