The Grand Canyon, one of the
natural 7 wonders of the world, is something every person should see once in
their life. Looking out over a massive
hole in the ground over a mile deep is quite a sight by itself. Looking at the canyon knowing you will have
to run to the bottom and climb back up twice is enough to send most people
running (the opposite direction). However,
this run has become a bucket-list item for nearly every ultrarunner; the famous
Rim2Rim2Rim. Being a short (13 hour)
drive from my hometown, it only made sense to make the trip and tackle the most
scenic trail run in the country. The
window for running the canyon each year is small. Too early in the year and there will be snow
on the North Rim and too late you risk dehydration from extreme heat inside the
canyon. After throwing the idea out to
some friends and some careful planning, we all crammed into the car and headed
out Thursday night for a long weekend in the desert. We camped in Moab around 3 am and arrived at
the canyon Friday afternoon. Our first
view of the canyon was out the window of the car and we all stared out with a
glisten in our eyes, knowing in just a few hours we would be trekking across
this beast. We have arrived.
Since we would be waking up at 3
am, we had an early dinner at the pizza shop and prepared everything for the
next day. You might be wondering “why
didn’t you eat a big bowl of pasta, like they give you before marathons”? The first answer, there is very limited food
at the Grand Canyon village, so you need to work with what you have. The second answer is that no amount of
carbo-loading would be sufficient for a run as long as this. We would be eating the entire time we were on
the trail, so the pizza was just a good base to start with, which would be
burned off early in the run. Once we set
up camp, it was time for final prep before going to bed. The most important part of this trip would be
my nutrition, since dehydration and fatigue were looming dangers that were
guaranteed if I didn’t play it smart. For
water, I would be carrying two 20 oz bottles in my pack and stopping at water
stations along the way to fill back up.
For electrolytes, I brought along salt capsules, which I haven’t used
before so I figured this would be a good trial run. For food, I packed everything from gels to
waffles to powerbars and a slice of pizza from dinner the night before. As a conservative guess, I would be eating 300
calories per hour and I might be out there for 14 hours, which equates to 4,200
calories I would need. I brought about
5,000 calories worth, just to be safe. Besides
food, I also packed a rain jacket, Tylenol, bodyglide, a headlamp and extra
socks. I didn’t want to pack anymore
than I needed, but I also needed to make sure I wouldn’t be SOL if something
went wrong. Proper preparation before a
big run is as important, if not more important than the training leading up to
it. With everything ready to go, I
headed off to bed.
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| Everything I brought on the run |
Food
9 waffles
11 gels
5 bars
2 packets of gel blocks
3 dissolvable high-calorie mixes
1 slice of pizza
At 3 in the morning, I was rearing
and ready to go. Last minute prep
included sunscreen application, duct tape over the nipples and body glide on
the inner thighs. Sunburn can be
painful, but doesn’t compare to the debilitating pain of chafing and
bleeding. I took down a leftover piece
of pizza and we headed to the trailhead at 4 am. In our Rim2Rim2Rim crew, we had myself, Ryan
and Liz, who are also training for Leadville, and Jon, an experienced
ultrarunner just along for the adventure.
Another friend joining us was Chris, who was running just one direction
(23 miles) and Tiffany, who would run down to the river and back (14
miles). We would be starting from the
South rim, going to the North rim and back.
As we started our 7-mile descent towards the bottom of the canyon on the
South Kaibab trail, all we could see were headlights dancing in the night and a
black abyss on the side of the trail. The
descent was fast and winding. It was
nice to run through the dark and not worry about a 1,000 ft drop along the side
of the trail. We reached the Colorado
River, 1 mile below the rim, as the sun was peaking above the canyon rim. We refilled our water and ate a little snack at
the Bright Angel Campground, then headed up the North Kaibab trail. The first half of the North Kaibab trail was
mellow and runnable, following a stream that fed into the Colorado River in the
canyon. After a few water stops, the sun
got higher in the sky and the trail became steeper. About 15 miles into the run, it was clear
that the easy part was over. My IT bands
started to tighten up a little, so a little stretching and hiking and Tylenol
were in order. Ryan and Jon had ran
ahead, so Liz and I kept pushing on towards the North Rim, up and up we
went. After running through a mile of
donkey poop, from the tours, we made it to the North Rim. The trip was only halfway over at 23 miles in
7 hours. Still, reaching the North Rim
felt like a small victory in its own way.
Everyone was cheering on runners as they came to the trailhead,
recognizing the grueling effort needed to make it that far.
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| Probably not an important sign |
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| The Colorado River crossing |
At the North Rim, we met back up with
Ryan and Jon, gulped down some water and ate a bunch of food from our
packs. The pizza I packed 7 hours
earlier wasn’t looking very promising, but Jon convinced me to take a bite to
see if my mind changed. Within a minute,
the entire thing was gone. While we were
resting, I got to talk to some other people who were tackling the R2R2R that
day and met “Grandpa Jim” who was giving out soda and chips to the
runners. This was not a race and he was
not paid for being there. Grandpa Jim
was there to keep everyone’s spirits up and wanted to support everyone simply
for the love of running. He is one of
the people who make the running community so much fun to be around. As I was saying goodbye to him, we saw the
donkey train coming down the trail. Time
to go. If we got stuck behind the donkey
train, we would have to wait a little while before we could pass them. So off we went, fueled and hydrated, flying
down the North Kaibab trail back towards the river. The long descent made for a beautiful run about
13 miles back to the Colorado River. Ryan
and Jon took off again, being more experienced ultrarunners, and I ran with Liz
and some of our new friends from the North Rim down the canyon. Once we reached the bottom of the canyon,
there was only 9 miles until the top. Before
we went up the Bright Angel trail, Liz and I dropped in to Phantom Ranch for
some lemonade and a quick refuel. Possibly
the most delicious lemonade I’ve ever tasted.
The first 4.5 miles up Bright Angel
were pretty mellow with great views of the river at the bottom. Then we hit the steep part. I knew from reading other people’s accounts
that this would be the toughest and steepest part, being 43
miles into the run. We kept slogging on,
eating and drinking and resting as needed.
There was a point where I started cursing the trail because it felt like
no matter how many steps I took, I wasn’t getting any closer to the rim. I guess this was part of my mental training. I started to make checkpoints to break the
hike down to make it more manageable. 1
mile, ½ mile, 1 switchback at a time. Right
when I thought I would need a serious break, I looked back behind me. I could see the river, so far below from
where I had come and the sunset lighting up the canyon walls in a way I could
not believe was real. I thought maybe
the miles and altitude had been messing with my head, but this was all
real. I took a moment to soak in that
moment because they do not come very often in life. The sun that was illuminating the canyon
walls was the same one I saw 15 hours earlier rising on the other side of the
canyon. It was a surreal experience and
for a moment, the fatigue and exhaustion and pain that had been probing me for
hours melted away. This view made the
whole trip worth it. Shortly after this,
I saw the fence at the top of the South Rim, the end. Liz and I walked into the parking lot where
everyone was filing into busses and let out a howl of victory that confused and
terrified all the children in the area. We
had made it across the Grand Canyon and back in 15 ½ hours. I was elated.
Distance: 48 mi
Elevation Gain: ~11,000 ft
Time: 15:30
Calories Burned: ~7,500
Calories Taken In: ~4,000
Looking
back on this run, with all the things I tested out and my physical condition,
it couldn’t have gone any better. I was
fully prepared with food and electrolytes and water, the new pair of shoes I
wore didn’t cause me any problems, and my body was prepared to take me the long
distance. This was not an easy run and
was 50% longer than the longest run I’ve ever done, but to have completed it
and felt as good as I did was a big accomplishment. I feel lucky to have been able to do this
run, especially with the great people I got to run with. We tend to look up to great people, like
sports figures and social activists, who have changed the course of
history. We call them our heroes and
plaster our bedroom walls with posters of them growing up. I have come to learn that my biggest heroes
are the people I hang out with every day.
I get to watch them formulate dreams and push themselves beyond the boundaries
of what many think is possible, while inspiring everyone around them to do the
same. My heroes find comfort zones and
hurl themselves as far as they can outside of them to test the true limits, not
the perceived limits, of their ability. They
stay honest and humble in their efforts and let their actions inspire, rather
than use empty aphorisms (What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger). They believe that you can always make
progress and should always strive for improvement, even when improvement means
walking 100 feet without stopping. Ultrarunning
is a mentally taxing sport. The ultimate
question still lingers, “why do you do this”? It is still a hard question to
answer, but I am beginning to understand part of the answer, the people. The people you train with, the people you
meet on the trail, the person you discover in yourself when pushed to the
edge. Unexpectedly, they have become my
heroes for their willingness to run through hail, blistering heat, extreme altitudes,
with pained limbs, unable to stomach solid food, slogging up and down hills for
a ridiculous number of miles, with no cash prize or notoriety waiting at the
finish. There is something else,
difficult to describe, which keeps driving them forward. They have a smile on their face and endure the
treacherous terrain as they move forward, hour after hour. These are my heroes, and the people who make
this crazy sport so much fun.
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| We made it! |
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