Ben Gibbard will follow you into the dark, but would you follow him in running a 100-mile race?
The Death Cab for Cutie frontman and running enthusiast completed the Western States 100 over the weekend, which stretches 100.2 miles from Olympic Valley, California, to Auburn, California.
According to RunnersWorld.com, Gibbard began the race at 5 a.m. local time Saturday and crossed the finish line about 27 hours later, at about 8:15 a.m. Sunday.
Gibbard tells RunnersWorld.com he felt like he was “having heat stroke or something” while battling the 90-degree temperatures as he was reaching an aid station with the not-so-comforting name of Devil’s Thumb, which is located at the 47.8 mile mark.
“By the time I got to the top of the canyon at Devil’s Thumb, I couldn’t see,” Gibbard says. “I was really nauseous. I was seeing double and had to lay down. I was shivering even though they were putting blankets on me. I was in bad shape.”
Still, Gibbard persevered, and he credits the volunteers at the aid stations, as well as listening to the band Teenage Fanclub, for helping him finish.
“I can’t believe I made it, and that was a very rough patch,” Gibbard says. “I have been doing all this for a while now and the physiological effect is that it makes you feel unsafe. If it wasn’t for the volunteers at the aid station, I never would have made it. Everyone was so kind and did everything for me when I needed it.”
Death Cab will launch a U.S. tour, which presumably Gibbard will not run to, on July 23 in Sacramento, California. The outing includes select shows featuring a full album performance of 2005’s Plans.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
