 Alan Abbs - Our leader, works for a landfill company in Northern California. In his spare time he works hard getting goodies for the team and works closely with Sunsweet. Before ultrarunning took over his life, Alan was a competitive cyclist, then an adventure runner. He is a regular top finisher in ultras of all lengths, with impressive finishes at Run on the Sly, Western States 100, the Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica, and many top finishes in adventure races. His trail name is White Trash (WT) because he also likes to collect appliances and store them in his yard.
 Bev Anderson-Abbs - Executive Director of a non-profit organization called the Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum. Born April 15, 1964 Bev grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She has several degrees in science and has traveled around Australia for a year by bike and hitch hiking. Later she moved to San Diego to work at SDSU and escape the cold Canadian winters, where she met and married a handsome Naval officer (Alan Abbs). She and Alan moved north to Red Bluff and started adventure racing, and ultimately ultrarunning. The number of ultramarathon victories and course records is daunting, and she has been the second overall female at Western States 100 mile for 3 consecutive years, and 2008 USATF Female Masters Ultrarunner of the Year. Her trail running name is French Kiss (FK). To the team's knowledge, only WT has ever had a juicy real French Kiss from Bev, but Sunsweet makes these delicious chocolate covered plums by the same name (little bit of health wrapped up in love! - her favorite Sunsweet product). While Bev always keeps a bag in one of the many freezers they have on their property, she only gives them out on special occasions. Bev also receives sponsorship from Montrail, Kremer Chiropractic, nuun, and runningskirts.com.
 Meghan Arbogast - Massage therapist and High School cross country coach. Born April 16, 1961, Meghan began running competitively in her thirty's. She has qualified and run in the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2000, 2004, and 2008. Her ultrarunning career has included 2 top ten finishes in Western States 100 mile, 4 master's wins at Where's Waldo 100k, 6th at the 2008 World Cup 100k in Italy, and a handful of 50k course record wins. Her trail name is GayMan (GM) because she is sometimes mistaken for a man with effeminate characteristics. But the reason for the nickname GayMan is because a couple of years ago Craig and his buddies were on a spoonerism kick. They ran with folks like Tan Mitts, Hot Newman, and Taggy Sits.
 Dan Olmstead is currently employed as a professional civil engineer in Eugene, Oregon and recently started his own small business, Urban Cottage company. He was born April 12, 1972 and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. Dan is happily married to Courtney Leonard who is a partner in excessive fitness endeavors, but keeps him balanced and healthy. Dan started running and racing at age 11 and in-spite of repeated attempts, hasn't been able to quit. He ran at California State University, Chico in Northern California from 1991-1995 and continued to lower his PR's after college: 5,000- 14:31, 10,000-30:21, 1/2 marathon-1:09:09, marathon-2:26:22. Dan has only recently found the welcoming arms of the ultra running community but is looking forward to may happy off-road miles. Dan's trail name is "Tapeworm" (TW) because of an ill fated trip to India.
 Joe Palubeski is a teacher at Red Bluff High School in Northern California. His current assignment is teaching Drama and Theater Tech but has taught History, Psychology, Government and Economics in his 15 years in the classroom. Before Bev and Alan Abbs introduced him to Ultra running, Joe was an active cyclist who enjoyed racing at the Cat 5 level. He started running at the young age of 40 and has competed in over ten ultra marathons, some of which he is very proud of with top ten finishes, some he would rather not talk about. He loves Ultra marathons because of the endless pain it brings him and the beautiful locations. He is married to a wonderful woman (Betsy) who supports his running habit because it gets him out of the house. He has two great boys (Davis and Ross) that he is very proud of and enjoys being part of their lives. Joe's trail name is "Drama Queen" (DQ) because he replaced a transgender Drama Instructor at the school, and when he initially heard the proposed name, he didn't like it.  Jeff Riley - Night shift employee at Weyerhauser, and television sports junkie. Jeff began ultrarunning after chasing the road marathon for years. He has numerous top ultramarathon finishes, including winning Javelina Jundred, top ten finishes at Western States, Where's Waldo 100k, Miwok 100k, Angeles Crest 100, and Tahoe Rim Trail 100 and all with an amazing smile on his face. He has an extraordinary appetite for sugar and eats waffles with ice cream for breakfast on a regular basis. His trail name is Bilirubin (Bili). He got his nickname on a long car ride down to the Rogue River Trail from Eugene. Somebody in the car who will remain nameless asked the driver, who is a paramedic, "I have an A&P question for you. If my stool is pale does that mean that my bilirubin count is too high?" Hysterics ensued and for some reason the name stuck with Jeff.
 Lewis Taylor - Born May 13,1973 in Boulder, Colorado, Lewis is Public relations writer/editor and came to ultrarunning relatively late in life. A few years ago he profiled a group of Eugene ultrarunners (LB, Bili, HN, OD) who welcomed him warmly into this strange new world. The sport appealed to his compulsive nature, his love of eating and his burgeoning interest in running. Being a bit of a masochist, it also gave him endless new ways to hurt himself. Before he knew it, he was entering 50ks and 50 milers. He did well in a few of them (2006 Where's Waldo 100K, 2007 Way Too Cool 50K) did all right at others (2008 Miwok 100k, 2008 SOB) and tanked a few times, too (2007 Western States 100, 2008 Leadville 100). Lewis lives and trains in Eugene, Ore. He is married to a beautiful and wonderful woman (Rebecca) who supports his ultra-addiction. The couple have a super-cute and endlessly entertaining toddler named Alice who promises to be the next Nikki Kimball. His trail name is lc 'because it is hip to write emails like this with fragmented sentences and no punctuation he got his name lowercase because he doesn't use the shift key except for proper nouns that is why we call him lc'.
 Craig Thornley - Systems Administrator at University of Oregon, Ski Patrol volunteer, Co-Race Director of Where's Waldo 100k, and ultrarunner mentor to many. Born January 24, 1964, he started running in 7th grade (California 1978), and was an early witness to Western States 100 mile finishes. He began his ultrarunning career in 1997 and has run about 75, including nine 100 milers. His records range from a 4:33 mile, a 32:07 10k, a 2:33 marathon, a 3:34 50k, a 6:27 50 mile, and an 18:25 100 mile. He has been a top 10 finisher at Western States 100 two times, is a two time winner of the McKenzie River 50k, and the Mt Hood PCT 50 mile. In 2004, he was the Masters winner of the Montrail UltraCup Series, and placed 3rd Master at USATF National 50 mile trail championships (White River 2004 and 2005). His trail name is Lord Balls (LB) "My name came from my step-dad's mother (Dot) who passed away a couple of years ago. She was telling the story about watching Western States the year before to me and OD a few months before she died. She was in Foresthill and I apparently came through and didn't say hi to her. I think it was the year I puked right after leaving the aid station. She told me I ran by like I was Lord Balls or something. The name stuck." |
Contents |
Team Biographies |
'Bili' was born because I must have used 'bilirubin' 20 times in a sentence, respectively, that quirky day on the Rouge River Trail. Craig anointed me soon after - it was just too good. I mean, really, the nameless runner (KRW) had probably never used the word 'stool', let alone 'bilirubin'. Relentless, friendly mocking followed, and he damn well deserved it. If it were me who formed such words - in such a studiously sincere manner - I know I'd get hammered, and deservedly so. Of course KRW showed me his heels early on in that run, and I finished a good 60-90min behind him. Pale stool or not, KRW is a Fat Ass king.
An important Bio note: Laura, my wife, is beautiful and sweet, and she is largely the reason I have any success at all. She believes in me more than I do myself, always encourages me through the doldrums of training and gives me good reason to run hard. Without her, well, I'd run with a deflated heart. I'd also be sans a kick-ass crew captain.
I love TV, true, and I heart running. Bili