While this weekend will take us to Washington, D.C. for a half marathon, another race is taking place this Saturday: The Tarawera Ultra Marathon, in New Zealand which has 100k, 85k and 60k courses.  Competing this year will be one of the strongest fields of ultrarunners. The good folks over at I Run Far will be livecasting the race and have excellent summaries on the men’s and women’s fields. You can also follow them on Twitter.

I don’t follow that much ultra-running, but one of my favorite athletes, and one I find most inspirational, is Timmy Olson. Olson will be running the 100k and crushed the ultra-endurance mega-race Western States this past year. I tweeted at Tim on Twitter and he’s always responded, and his playlist for the Western States — posted on his blog Sole to Soul Rhythm with some incredible race photos– is now a staple in my own trail running. I’ll be rooting for Tim on Saturday. Happy trails to all!