Photo: Joe McCladdie
In late June, 72-year-old Wally Hesseltine toed the start line at the Western States 100 – a legendary and brutal 100-mile trail run that starts on a Squaw Valley ski run and finishes on a high school track in Auburn, Calif.
His goal? Become the oldest person to ever finish the race. The only thing standing between him and that objective? A 30-hour cutoff time.
Hesseltine started running at 37 years old when he noticed his mid-section was growing. Within months, he signed up for his first marathon. For the last 35 years, he has completed one or more races per month with only four “DNF’s” (Did Not Finish).
His legs have stretched across 175 ultramarathons (anything longer than 26.2 miles) and 26 races that have covered distances of 100 miles or more.
“I’d like to run until the day I die,” he said in a short film by an Australian-born filmmaker named Alex Massey.
Massey followed Hesseltine with the camera to create Thirty, a captivating mini-documentary that shows Hesseltine’s quest to get across the line in under 30 hours.
We won’t give away the ending other than to say that someone who witnessed Hesseltine’s performance was so inspired that he or she gave up entry into the 2017 races just so Hesseltine could have another opportunity, if he so chooses of course.
This is an effort you will always remember.
