Ultra-popular: Gordy Ainsleigh has left his footprints on the Western States Trail

OLYMPIC VALLEY – Gordy Ainsleigh is a well-known and popular man in the ultra-running world. Known for famously taking on and conquering the Western States Trail on foot (how that transpired is an entertaining story all its own; his version is also slightly different from the way it's been told over the years), the Meadow Vista resident quietly enjoyed Friday afternoon's race meeting for the Western States Endurance Run with several hundred fans under a bright, blue sky on the lawn outside the Olympic Plaza. Considering the company Ainsleigh was keeping, people recognized him. One admirer asked Ainsleigh, also known locally as a member of the Auburn Recreation and Parks District Board of Directors, if they could take a picture together – shirtless. Ainsleigh and the younger man pulled off their tops, put an arm around the other's shoulder and smiled for the photo as several onlookers enjoyed a laugh. Ainsleigh also was approached by a young man from Alderson, West Virginia, and two young women from Nashville, serving as pacers in Saturday's 100.2-mile ultra race from Olympic Valley to Placer High School in Auburn. They also wanted photos with Ainsleigh. In between, Ainsleigh shook hands and shared conversations with friends, race officials and others. Since famously completing the trail on foot in 23 hours, 42 minutes in 1974, Ainsleigh has completed 23 Western States Endurance Runs; or as he puts it, 22 official finishes and one in overtime. He wanted to go after Tim Twietmeyer's 25 finishes but, "I got old. I was going to try to catch him." Ainsleigh, 74, didn't run in Saturday's Western States due to an injury, though his name topped the list of entries in the program, with his familiar bib number: 0. Well before Ainsleigh was picking a bib number, he purchased an endurance horse in 1969 and competed in the Western States Trail Ride, aka the Tevis Cup, in 1971 and '72. Then, Ainsleigh met what he described as "a pretty little beach gal," who wanted the horse. "I can always borrow it back," Ainsleigh thought, "but she left me for a guy with good drugs and took my horse." Here's where the story takes a twist. Ainsleigh says the horse didn't go lame in 1974, prompting him to run the trail on foot. Ainsleigh did fine another horse, which he said had "a problem," and it went lame before the ride in 1973. Drucilla Barner, the secretary for Western States Trail Foundation and Tevis Cup founder Wendell T. Robie, invited Ainsleigh to run the trail the next year, in 1974. Ainsleigh had the background, having run track in high school and cross country at Sierra College. "I ran from Michigan Bluff to Auburn four times in six weeks" to prepare, he says. "I trained myself the way I trained my horse." Ainsleigh credits the late Pete Hanson of Colfax for the training that led to his first marathon – the Golden Gate – and his performance in the Avenue of the Giants marathon at Humboldt Redwoods State Park, in which he recorded a different sort of mark: fastest time by a person weighing more than 200 pounds. Ainsleigh completed the course in 2 hours, 52 minutes. "I had an amazingly good day," he says, adding of Hanson, "I'm indebted to him – a lot. He coached me." When Ainsleigh accepted the invitation to run the Western States Trail, Barner asked him what number he wanted? He answered zero. "She says, I'll order it.' I said, 'Don't bother, I'll put it on the shirt,' " Ainsleigh says. "I still have the shirt." Says Ainsleigh, "My belief is we're all here to do something, and if we don't do it, it won't get done."