We are down to less than 45 days until race day. I hope your preparations are going well and you're getting excited. This is your May Runner Update email. Expect one or two more emails from me before the race. Any last minute information will be shared with you at the pre-race briefing in Olympic Valley on Friday afternoon.

You may have noticed that bib number assignments have been made. Outside of the top runners (bibs less than 50), I tried to give you the bib number you requested. Please look at the entrants list to find your bib number.

One thing we do at Western States is talk about each finisher as you run around the track for the final 250 meters. Tropical John Medinger sits up in the announcer's booth for all but a short two-hour break. In order to give him something to say other than your name, please fill out the general information form which is now found on our portal (same as you used for the lottery). You can give shout-outs to your crews or pacers, or whoever else you want to be recognized for helping you get to the finish.

Login to portal.wser.org and you'll see at the top menu "Runner General Information". You can change or update this as many times as you like.

Also in the portal you'll now find a pacer matchup system. The system we had used for years was no longer available so we built a new one. This works both ways as people looking to pace can offer their services, and runners can list that they are looking for a pacer. Click on Pacer Request if you wish to advertise that you are looking for a pacer. To see a list of pacers who are looking for a runner, click on List Pacers. Email addresses will not be exposed until you contact a pacer or the pacer contacts you.

Finally, you may have been following that we did get a good amount of snow in April. At the Palisades Tahoe SNOTEL site we had 15.1 inches of snow water content on April 1. We still had a surprising 14.7 inches on May 1. This does not change the snow outlook for the race. 14.7 inches on May 1 is still the 8th lowest since 1983. You can geek out at Snowpack history page.

Take care.