Meet the Woman Who’s Really Running Western States

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When the Western States Endurance Run begins at 5 A.M. on Saturday, June 29, 1000’s of us will watch the oldest 100-mile race, now in its 51st 12 months, in particular person or remotely through a livestream broadcast. We’ll get hooked on the drama from the entrance runners to the ultimate finisher on the finish of golden hour. However we most likely gained’t see the important behind-the-scenes work that retains the venerable occasion on the forefront of ultrarunning.

One girl particularly—Diana Fitzpatrick, the primary feminine president of the Western States Endurance Run (WSER) board—deserves credit score for working tirelessly to information the race group to evolve with the occasions and handle challenges to Western States’ long-term viability.

It’s one factor to run Western States—to traverse the path from Olympic Village on the base of Palisades Tahoe ski resort to Auburn, California, below the 30-hour restrict. It’s one other factor, maybe much more difficult, to run (that means, lead) the group’s board and plan for the occasion’s future. Fitzpatrick, 66, has executed each and attracts on deep expertise as an ultrarunner, legal professional, and a mom of two to hold out her position as president.

Fitzpatrick has run the race 5 occasions, most lately in 2018 when she set the 60-69 age group file and have become the oldest girl ever to complete it with a sub-24-hour time, 23:52, at age 60. Then, in 2019, she graduated from her seat on the board to grow to be the board president. It’s an unpaid volunteer place to which she devotes numerous hours.

Greater than only a storied 100-miler, Western States additionally has path stewardship and medical analysis on the core of its mission. Fitzpatrick’s influence on the occasion has been far reaching.

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Main By Difficult Occasions

Throughout Fitzpatrick’s 5 years as president, the board has tackled quite a few difficult points involving variety, anti-doping, path upkeep and entry, and the board composition itself. The board additionally confronted crises such because the pandemic, adopted by a raging wildfire in 2022 that broken the course. And it faces a continual downside of the best way to pretty handle an exponentially rising variety of runners—over 9,000 in its final lottery pool—vying for the dear 369 entry spots, a quantity restricted by the occasion’s wilderness allow.

Though she’s maybe lesser identified and never as seen because the occasion’s many legendary pioneers and champions, you may glimpse Fitzpatrick in Olympic Valley earlier than “the massive dance,” as some name the race, checking in runners at registration, or on the end line greeting runners on the Placer Excessive Faculty observe. She’s additionally a hands-on helper on trail-work days and at help stations through the occasion’s Memorial Weekend coaching camp.

However most of her work takes place out of sight as she collaborates on an almost day by day foundation with the race director, Craig Thornley. Collectively, they oversee and delegate all aspects of the occasion—together with funds and sponsorships, the lottery, path work, analysis, managing over 1,600 volunteers for race day, and far more.

Whereas Thornley takes cost of the occasion’s operations, Fitzpatrick leads the 15-member board and organizes committees for long-term planning to meet the group’s mission. As a part of that, she’s typically the one to analysis and draft coverage, then diplomatically attain consensus to implement it.

“She is completely working her ass off throughout her tenure,” says Thornley, the race director since 2013. “I’ve by no means labored with anyone higher at researching and writing coverage.”

John Trent, who previously served as WSER board president and nonetheless sits on the board, says Fitzpatrick has achieved greater than any WSER board chief to this point. “I say this with respect for everybody who’s been president [of the board], and we’ve had some nice ones, that Diana has been our greatest.”

Fitzpatrick hesitates to take credit score for accomplishments throughout her tenure, viewing the board work as teamwork.

“I really feel actually humbled that we get to do that. Everybody on the board shares the sense of being on this actually particular place and feels very protecting of the occasion,” she says. “The board is filled with people who find themselves utterly passionate concerning the occasion—that is like their child—and everybody has had their private life-changing expertise by Western States. Folks care so deeply concerning the points, and that may be a actually good factor, particularly if it comes with a degree of respect for variety of opinion.”

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A 20-Yr Relationship with Western States

Fitzpatrick’s connection to Western States started 20 years in the past when she first ran it.

A profitable street marathoner, having 3 times run the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon, she began operating trails within the early 2000s after she and her husband, Tim, moved to the San Francisco Bay Space.

In 2000, she began a streak (damaged solely in a single 12 months) of operating the famed Dipsea path race—a 7.4-mile race from Mill Valley to Stinson Seashore with a novel age- and gender start-time handicapping differential—that she gained twice and ran once more earlier this month, ending seventh total.

She gained her first 50-mile path race, the Dick Collins Firetrails, in October 2003—having by no means run something longer than a street marathon—after which gained the Silver State 50 and Miwok 100K the next spring as a buildup to her first 100-miler, the 2004 Western States. She completed it in 20:28, the fourth feminine.

Trent shared many miles together with her at races that 12 months and within the years that adopted. Throughout and after the races, he says, “she was extremely severe however extremely heat, if that’s potential. That’s the vibe I at all times received from her, and that carried over to once we have been searching for board members as nicely.”

Amidst three extra profitable runs at Western States in 2006, ’10, and ’14, plus many shifts volunteering for the race in different years, Fitzpatrick was requested to hitch the WSER board in 2012. Trent says he and others appreciated not solely her skilled ability set, but additionally her file of involvement as a volunteer for the race. “Diana was a type of individuals who, as soon as we received her into the group, we have been asking, what can’t she do?”

In Fitzpatrick’s most up-to-date Western States run, she struggled noon and fell far behind 24-hour tempo. However she revived after dusk and made up time to complete below 24 hours for her fifth silver buckle and the age-group file.

“I felt the moon and stars aligned the final time I ran it,” she says, recalling the enjoyment of getting not solely her son, daughter, and husband there to crew and tempo her, but additionally longtime prime ultrarunner and amputee Dave Mackey pacing her for a stretch.

Trent—who watched Fitzpatrick run by the Mile 62 Foresthill help station, which he captains—compares her final Western States efficiency to her board management, saying, “She has this present of not letting any difficulty of the second blow up. She’s extra about getting down the path and getting the job executed. I see that with what she does every single day.”

Navigating Change and Making Powerful Calls

That very same race weekend in 2018, the WSER introduced a brand new coverage that Fitzpatrick had been intently concerned with drafting and advocating: the being pregnant deferral.

As a board member, earlier than she turned president, Fitzpatrick pushed to offer an entry deferral to girls who grow to be pregnant previous to the race. The coverage grew out of a want to extend feminine participation within the occasion and recognition that the multi-year lottery course of can put girls within the tough place of attempting to time a being pregnant and postpartum restoration with a coveted entry spot.

The thought was controversial, in response to a number of concerned, with some suggesting {that a} being pregnant deferral may imply that runners of any gender ought to be capable of defer their entry if they’ve a medical difficulty the 12 months they’re chosen to run Western States. However Fitzpatrick and different supporters of the brand new coverage made a persuasive case and identified that runners can apply by one other entry avenue, the “particular consideration” coverage, in case of a hardship circumstance. The board adopted the being pregnant coverage in 2018, main the best way for different notable 100-mile races to undertake the same coverage in following years.

“Whereas the variety of girls impacted by this coverage is small,” Fitzpatrick says, “it’s very significant to the ladies who use it, which we be ok with, and we proceed to have a look at methods to extend these numbers” of feminine individuals. Within the 2023 version of Western States, 23 p.c of the beginning area was feminine.

In early 2019, Fitzpatrick took the lead on drafting a brand new coverage for transgender runners after a trans girl, who was a possible Prime 10 finisher, was chosen by the lottery to run within the 2019 version of the race. “Our objective was to steadiness making a welcoming surroundings for transgender runners whereas preserving equity in competitors for these competing for awards,” Fitzpatrick recollects. “We didn’t wish to be within the place of attempting to determine what to do on race day and felt it might be higher for the entrant and others if we had guidelines in place forward of time.”

The transgender entrant coverage—which permits trans girls to compete within the feminine division if they’ve been present process steady, medically supervised remedy for gender transition for not less than one 12 months previous to the race—was nicely obtained and drew nationwide consideration.

Then the board elected Fitzpatrick president in late 2019, and inside months, Western States’ leaders confronted an unprecedented disaster: the worldwide pandemic.

Throughout two fast-paced weeks in March of 2020 when the world shut down, Thornley initially centered on what he would want to do as race director to placed on the race below new restrictions. He credit Fitzpatrick with getting him to shift his focus to the runners’ predicament. It will be anxious and probably unsafe for runners to coach below the shutdown’s restrictions, and journey may very well be prohibited.

With public well being in danger, Fitzpatrick and Thornley really useful to the board that they cancel the race and announce it early, on March 27, despite the fact that on the time some thought life may return to relative normalcy by race day in June. In hindsight, all view it as the correct resolution and applaud Fitzpatrick for making that robust name earlier slightly than later within the season.

When the race returned in 2021, it did so with a brand new innovation that has expanded and gained recognition every subsequent 12 months: the livestream broadcast, coordinated primarily by WSER board members Topher Gaylord, Billy Yang and Dylan Bowman. This 12 months, the livestream staff will accomplice with Jamil Coury’s Mountain Outpost manufacturing crew to additional enhance the printed protection.

Bringing in New Faces

The truth that Yang, who’s the livestream govt producer, and Bowman, who gives livestream commentary, are on the board is one other testomony to Fitzpatrick’s management. Early in her presidency, she spearheaded a revision of the establishment’s bylaws to enact time period limits, to create extra turnover and entice some youthful board members.

“Since I’ve been president, we’ve gained 5 new board members, and that’s been nice. We wanted that,” she says. “Now we now have a extremely wholesome combine of 5 longer-term members, 5 within the center [in terms of length of board service], and 5 newer members.”

Magda Boulet, the 2015 Western States champion and president of Gu Power, a lead sponsor of the occasion, is among the newer board members who has labored intently with Fitzpatrick, particularly round problems with variety and inclusion. Beneath Fitzpatrick, the board added a few entry spots for underrepresented runners of shade. At its most up-to-date assembly, the board additionally adopted a land acknowledgement assertion as a part of its mission.

“Illustration issues,” Fitzpatrick mentioned in a current podcast interview with Andy Jones-Wilkins. “You’ll be able to’t be what you may’t see, and Western States has traditionally been very male dominated and white, very center aged, so it’s undoubtedly altering. The sector is youthful, there are extra girls … and connecting with the [Indigenous] communities and celebrating the Indigenous runners who’re going to be at this 12 months’s race has been actually good work and ongoing.”

Jones-Wilkins, who has run Western States 10 occasions and is certainly one of its commentators and largest followers, praised Fitzpatrick for “taking the lead on some facets of the game that may be perceived as hot-button or third-rail sort of matters. You’re leaning proper into them. That’s actually good.”

Boulet and others mentioned the board discussions across the new insurance policies and the group’s mission and worth statements have been tough at occasions and even emotional, however that variations in opinion are wholesome and in the end result in good insurance policies.

“She’s a fantastic listener and collaborator,” says Boulet. “Evolution and alter will be actually onerous, however she is straightforward to have these conversations with as a result of she is empathetic and leads with humility.”

In line with Trent, their final board assembly featured “a contentious dialogue that went off the rails,” and he recollects that one particular person commented to him, “‘I don’t know the way Diana retains it collectively and exhibits such nice poise and beauty,’ however that’s what she does together with her president’s hat on. You’re by no means going to see her lose her cool, which is tremendous vital as a frontrunner.”

“For me, a very powerful factor has been governance and attempting to carry a degree of professionalism to the board,” Fitzpatrick says. “It is a actually high-functioning board and actually does work nicely.”

Fitzpatrick additionally shepherded the board’s evaluation and replace of its anti-doping coverage, introduced in early April, in addition to an replace of the transgender coverage to accommodate nonbinary athletes. These modifications take the most recent scientific analysis into consideration. “Our insurance policies are ‘residing’ paperwork that we recurrently evaluation and replace,” she says.

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It All Begins and Ends with the Path

One anxious and little-known difficulty Fitzpatrick has been managing for the previous two years entails a sophisticated property negotiation, with a essential entry level for the route between Foresthill and the American River at stake. A bit over two miles of the Western States Path, the place it leaves Foresthill and transitions from a residential space to a 16-mile stretch of path alongside the river often called Cal Avenue, is privately owned.

Fitzpatrick took the lead in speaking with the property homeowners, a few of whom objected to continued public use of the path, in an effort to make sure entry by the property, not just for the Western States run and the general public but additionally for the Tevis Cup horse race that yearly takes place in July on the Western States Path.

“It’s a extremely massive, front-and-center difficulty for us to get resolved,” she says. Whereas Western States had to make use of an alternate route final 12 months, they’ve labored out a short-term settlement with the homeowners for this 12 months and are persevering with to work on a long-term answer to make sure continued everlasting entry to the Cal Avenue part of the Western States Path for the general public, Western States Endurance Run and Tevis.

Partly as a result of she desires to see the negotiations by to make sure future path entry, she is reluctant to say when she is going to step down from her position as president. The WSER board presidents sometimes serve about 5 years, nonetheless, so her tenure is probably going approaching its finish.

“A part of good governance is considering succession planning,” she says, “so I might say that I’ve been interested by it,” however the board will talk about it and maintain a vote earlier than saying a brand new president.

What about operating Western States another time? She’s not planning on it, preferring to finish on the excessive word of her 2018 efficiency, however she leaves the door barely open to the likelihood. For now, she avidly skis in winter and certain will proceed to compete in shorter races. At her final street marathon at 65, the 2023 California Worldwide, she completed in a speedy 3:22:40, averaging 7:44 per mile to simply win the 65-69 age group.

Jones-Wilkins sums up Fitzpatrick’s legacy nicely when he describes her as “a fantastic instance of how an occasion and an establishment will be transcendent and have an effect past the game. Whether or not it’s the being pregnant coverage, the transgender coverage, the work they’ve executed towards inclusiveness at Western States, the relationships with sponsors and with the Native lands, with the landowners and numerous companies with which they work—Diana is at coronary heart of all of that and is simply unbelievable.”

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Sarah Lavender Smith lives and runs round Telluride, Colorado, and publishes a weekly publication referred to as “Mountain Operating & Residing” at sarahrunning.substack.com. She ran Western States in 2016 and hopes to run it as soon as extra in her lifetime.