Race

• 2018 Antelope Canyon 50 Mile
• ‎Feb 24, 2018
• ‎Strava

Gear

• Saucony Peregrine 8's
• ‎Salomon Adv 12 hydration pack, two .5L soft flasks, ~1 L of Tailwind with a plan to refill late in the race.
• ‎7 gels, 2 stroopwaffles, Gnarly electrolytes at the aid stations, 1 red bull
• ‎ARTC trucker hat, expired handwarmers

Background and Training

Training went generally pretty well for this race. I designed my own plan that built up mileage pretty slowly, trying to peak at 90mpw, with one fast day a week whenever I felt good, and a few big big workouts.

7 weeks out I ran a double 14 miler, which the only thing that I messed up was not eating enough between runs. 5 weeks out I circumnavigated Manhattan for a total of 32 miles, and felt terrific at the end, last mile was sub-6:00.

But I did strain my calf twice in the cycle, the second time preventing me from doing my last big planned workout (Sat/Sun 20 milers). Saw a PT who said I was weak basically just everywhere, but whatever. Overall felt really good about my training. Never quite made it to 90mpw though. We'll work on that.

Race Plan

Literally no idea. I spent the week leading up to it doing some big hikes in Zion and Grand Canyon, as you do during ultra tapers. The course is known to be difficult - 40 miles of loose sand and slickrock, 10 miles of runnable packed dirt. So I had no idea what to expect considering my training was almost exclusively on Manhattan streets.

I planned to go out near the leaders and just keep it conservative, walking up all the steep hills (lesson learned from my last 50k that you can't start that too soon).

Pre-Race

It was cold in the desert. Temps of 27° to start, dropping to 19° by 8am, and then going back up for a high of 40°. It rained the day before too. But! This made for great news. When we arrived, the sand was hard and packed. I didn't complete all of my... morning ritual. Not a great sign.

When they said "fast people, toe the line, it's single track for a bit and you don't want to be stuck", only three of us actually did. Me, some guy named Chris, and a really fast looking girl Alexandra.

Miles 1-12

We took off at 6am, Alexandra bolting out in the lead right behind the "pacer" (who showed the way for the first mile), me in ~3rd-5th, and we immediately hit a steep slickrock hill. Then packed sand or jagged slickrock for a few miles. My hydration bladder tube froze. Shit.

At mile 5.3, I used the aid station "porta potties" (zippered tents with a bucket of sawdust, probably how cats feel). The course then opened up to a huge swath of sand for a mile or two before converging into Antelope Canyon. The race website sold me on this, but I saw this. Oh well. Fun fact! Antelope Canyon is named because when it snows, Antelope can't see the cracks up top, and they'd be found dead at the bottom. I found no such antelopes. Up around a hill, back through another slot canyon, and back towards the start.

By mile 8 I was by myself, I had counted 4 people ahead of me, including Alexandra, but could only actually see one of them at this point. Around mile 10 I was passed by one guy who said the next person was 7 or 8 minutes behind. At mile 11, I used the portapotties again. At mile 12, my quads were already sore. I hadn't drained any of the water on my back because the tube was frozen, so I dumped half of it out to feel lighter. It actually helped immensely.

Miles 12-26

I hit a lonnngggg sand road, with a repeating pattern of deep dip and little hill every 15 feet. It was... annoying. My calf started hurting around here, but not too bad, I'd have to keep an eye on it. At mile 17.5, used the bathrooms again. FFS. Another long sand road, and then at the mile 20 aid station, picked up my drop bag of nutrition, and headed towards Horseshoe Bend.

The slickrock here was difficult. I ran on it for a few miles but I was using so much energy trying to stabilize that I eventually only just ran when it was parallel to the direction I was trying to go. The course was sort of poorly marked here, but I had run into the back of the 55k-ers, so I had people to follow/pass most of the time. I did pass a 50 miler who said his training wasn't ideal, his longest run was 14 miles. Ouch.

Gotta vent here, at one point I yelled to two lost-looking 55k-ers heading in another direction that I had found a course flag, assuming they'd follow. One apparently very wrongly placed flag later and I couldn't find any more, and turned to see them a couple hundred yards away, apparently having found the correct path, but decided not to return the favor. Infuriating lack of race etiquette. I passed them with gusto. I'm sure they felt my inner rage and felt bad about it.

The views here were absolutely stunning. But... by mile 23 I was begging for sand again. The slickrock was brutal on my stability muscles/tendons. But my tube finally thawed! So at least I was back to full nutrition. Finally left the slickrock and crossed the mile 26 aid station at 4:15 or so. I was very, very beat at this point. Tried very hard to forget that I had to run a second marathon...

Miles 26 - 31

Dropped into another slot canyon, and got stuck behind some 55k-ers. Passed a few and then got passed for the first time in the day. It was a 100 miler, absolutely cruising. I ran with him for a while, until we hit a road that stretched out for about 2 miles in front of us, just a straight loose sand road littered with 55k-ers as far as you could see. Seeing that far ahead in a race while being exhausted is... disheartening.

Mrs BB thought she might be able to meet me at the mile 31 aid station, but I got a text saying I was ahead of schedule (somehow), but she'd be at 38.5. I saw a bunch of 50 mile bibs here, and in my confused state had no idea what was happening, people were entering and leaving from 3 different directions. Turns out I didn't realize I'd been through this station before, and when I asked which way to go, and the guy told me one direction, thankfully quickly figured out where I was in the race, and correctly sent me the opposite direction. Would've been bad.

Miles 31 - hmmm, "38.5"

I literally don't remember this part of the race. So, there you go.

Anyway, I do know I was struggling trying to make it to 38.5 as I saw the starting parking lot again. I had been needing to walk up smaller and smaller hills at this point, and as my watch clicked ~36.5, the idea of running another 2 miles until Mrs BB and my last drop bag was seeming impossible. But right at that moment as I summited a hill, I saw an aid station. My watch said 36.5, but there was Mrs. BB., running out to give me water. Teared up a bit, for sure.

As I crossed the sensors, a volunteer told me I was in 3rd. Woo! And of course literally as he said "3rd", I was passed by two people. Well, that was quite a ride. One was a pacer though, so I was back to 4th! and took off after getting my things together, with the new 3rd place guy tearing away at a shockingly fast clip.

Miles 38.5 - "50"

I forgot to take the red bull out of my drop bag. Very disappointed to figure that out. Put on headphones to try and get in a groove and started running pretty fast on a really lovely packed dirt path with amazing views of Lake Powell. My lungs and legs were actually feeling pretty good, but my IT band flared up something fierce. From here to the finish, it kept hurting worse.

I was now in a battle with trying to not injure myself further, deal with the pain, and keep the looming ghost of 5th place behind me as I had to powerwalk more and more often. I managed to pace off of some 55k-ers for a bit. But it was a grueling, grueling last 10 miles. I hated it.

The last aid was the same as 38.5, and it was .7 from the finish. I hobbled my way across the last bit of sand, around a butte, and saw Mrs. BB on the other side of the finish line. I must've looked terrible after I crossed because I got a lot of weird looks. Though I was probably in tears. I don't really even know.

8:23:00, 5th OA, 4th Male

I think the race was short, and it was technically only 49.x miles anyway, not an even 50. But screw you! I'm calling it 50.

Post-Race / Thoughts

Still beaming. Still sore. My PT is going to be mad I came back with more problems. But I think I ran it as smart as I could've, trained as well as I wanted to, and surpassed all of my race goals. I'm a happy man.

The finish awards were cool, though unnecessary, because literally everything I own is still covered in sand. After congratulating Alexandra on her blazing fast race (she came in 3rd OA by quite a big margin), she got my hopes up by saying she thought the 1st place guy skipped part of the course. He did not. Dammit Alexandra! (Though the first two winners worked for Altra... a sponsor of the race... I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that "coincidence"... ^{<cough>collusion!} )

I hobbled .7 miles back through sand and up a cliff to try and catch my friend at 38.5. After sitting at the aid station in the cold for 40 minutes I figured out I had missed her by literally 5 minutes. So I hobbled back down the cliff to sit by the fire and wait for her at 50. Had some beers and wolfed down some BBQ.

What's Next

NYC Half is in 3 weeks, though I'm reconsidering racing it, depending on all my legs. Then Ottawa Half, Sugarloaf 15K, and next big goal is Grandma's in June, with a spattering of casual races in between.