A Ticket A Trail & A Dream

Emily Hawgood has felt an intimate connection with the Western States Trail and the racing odyssey she has experienced throughout the first half of 2021.

The 26-year-old native of Zimbabwe ran three 100k races in the span of 104 days, starting with Bandera in January, Black Canyon in February and then Canyons in April. They were all Golden Ticket races – a top two (or perhaps three or four) finish in any of them would earn her a spot in Western States in June.

“I really feel like I’ve had this connection with the trails (at Western States),” she says, mentioning that it was wins at both the 2018 and 2019 American River 50 that piqued her Western States interest. Her coach, Paul Lind, had encouraged her to check out the trails both