Nicole Studer and Shaheen Sattar, who will compete in the Western States 100-Mile Endurance run this month, are honorary queens of ultrarunning. Photo by Rasy Ran

Nicole Studer and Shaheen Sattar, who will compete in the Western States 100-Mile Endurance run this month, are honorary queens of ultrarunning. Photo by Rasy Ran

In the June magazine, there is a story about two ultrarunners from the White Rock area — Nicole Studer and Shaheen Sataar —who are smashing gender barriers, shattering speed records. This weekend, they compete in the country’s ultimate ultra-race, the Western States 100-mile trail run.

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Nicole Studer, a 33-year-old attorney, recently clocked the fastest time ever recorded by a female in a 100-mile trail race.

Shaheen Sattar, a 30-year-old Bryan Adams High School graduate, two years ago was the second female finisher at the Leadville 100, a race through the Colorado mountains made famous by the 2009 bestseller “Born to Run” (Matthew McConaughey recently was cast as the lead in the movie version).

Few humans ever even meet the standards to enter Western States (entrants must first place among the top finishers at an approved qualifying 100-mile or 100k race, one “of significant difficulty”; others can secure a place via the Western States lottery). It is the race to which the world’s best ultrarunners flock.

Nicole and Shaheen and several other strong male and female runners will start running before dawn June 27 in Squaw Valley, Calif., climb more than 18,000 feet, descend 23,000 feet, cross a cold and rushing waist-deep river and, after 20-something hours on their feet, finish on a high school track in Auburn.

To see live coverage of this weekend’s event, visit irunfar.com.

A few years back, we wrote about neighborhood dad Nick Polito, after he completed the WS100.