Two Palisadians put mind over matter Saturday, Sept. 17 and showed what true grit is all about.
Forty-seven-year-old Sean Whitely and 51-year-old Darren Wald were ninth and 10th, finishing side by side in a time of 25 hours, 40 minutes and 24 seconds to complete the 100-mile Stagecoach Ultra Run from Flagstaff, Arizona to the Grand Canyon. The race started at 7,500 feet elevation and reached 9,000 on primarily unpaved, rocky trails. The friends were less than five hours behind the winner and three minutes off the pace of eighth-place runner John Music from Las Vegas.
Wald, who lives in the Alphabet Streets and coaches youth baseball, ran the 67.79-mile Backbone Trail run through the Santa Monica Mountains with the help of Whitely, who joined him for the last 26 miles, in March 2021.
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