50 pushups
db press 35lb x 5 x 10
Airdyne 10 min 203 calories
It's been 2 days since this run, and I'm still not sure what to make of the whole experience. The canyon was obviously amazing, the views were spectacular and it was a once in a lifetime experience to run the canyon. It is something I will never forget. Even though it was only 24 miles, I look at the pictures now and I sort of can't believe we ran from one end of the picture to the other.
It ended up being a bit like the 50 mile race I ran last year. I was really happy with how it went, I was pleased with my effort and the outcome, but I don't really want to do it again. We met some girls who running the South rim to the North rim one day, staying the night, and then running back from North to South the next day. There is no way I would do that. The thought of going back on that trail is sort of haunting to me at this point.
Going into the run, I had conflicting views on how difficult it was going to be. Based on the numbers (24 miles, 6000 feet of climbing, 5000 feet of a descent), I couldn't see how it was that big of a deal. I've run the TRT 50k, which is about 33 miles and 7000 feet of climbing and descent in 90 degree heat in 6:45, how much harder can it be to go 9 miles less than that? On the other hand, there are a ton of warnings out there on the internet and at the South rim trailheads talking about how hard the trails are to run.
We had a very tight schedule to fit this run in. We flew down to Las Vegas the day before, drove 4 hours to the South Rim, and spent some time in the late afternoon scouting out the trailhead and taking pictures of the canyon. Our plan was to get up early the next morning, run to the North rim, drive back to Las Vegas (it ended up being a 5 1/2 hour drive because of traffic) and then catch a plane back home that evening. I had a softball game to coach at 8:00 am the next morning plus a birthday party for my daughter, so I had to get back.
Our friends who we were trading cars with (we were parking on one rim, they were parking on the other, and we traded keys on the trail) wanted us to park at the Bright Angel trailhead. The Bright Angel trail is about 3 miles longer than South Kaibab (which is the traditional route rim to rim runners take). We were too tight on time to mess around with parking at Bright Angel and taking a shuttle to South Kaibab, so we just ran from Bright Angel. In hindsight, we are guessing the extra distance ended up taking us an extra hour or so.
I expected the run would take around 5 hours, and 5 1/2 hours seemed achingly slow. I couldn't fathom taking 6 hours, but that is what it took. And we didn't screw around. We only stopped to fill our water bottles and take a few pictures and we ran an appropriate "ultra style" pace the majority of the time, except we hiked/walked/crawled most of the climb out of the canyon.
We got incredibly lucky with the weather. It topped out at 80 degrees with a nice breeze as we were climbing out the North Rim, and it was only 75 degrees in the bottom of the canyon (of course, we were there at 8:15 am, so it was still pretty early in the morning). It was overcast with cloud cover the majority of the time we ran. If it was 20 degrees hotter (basically the norm in the summer), I could see this turning into a major league sufferfest that could even degrade into an actual problem for completing the run.
I went extremely light on gear. I ran with just a 25 ounce hand bottle and a waist pack. For the run I ended up eating 4 GUs, 3 Justin's Almond Butter packs and a power bar. I also took 6 salt tabs and some advil. If you added up the times when I refilled and drank my bottle when standing at the water faucets on the trail, I probably drank around 12-14 bottles of water. I never ran out of water, but I could again see that being a problem if it was hotter.
In hindsight, I would say my water and fuel ended up being just about perfect. However, if it had been hotter, I would have been a miserable dude with just one bottle. A second bottle would have been necessary. There are fairly frequent water stops (about akin to the distance between aid stations in an ultra), but just like scouting a map for an ultra, you can get caught in the game of saying, "the next water stop is 6 miles, that's not far", but then nearly 2 hours later you are begging for water.
Climbing out of the North Rim (the last couple of miles are probably around 750 feet climbing/mile on sandy trail) I was completely over it. I just wanted to be done. Typical of the end of a marathon or ultra, you swear you are never going to do anything stupid like this again. I was thinking a lot about the rim to rim to rim records of under 7 hours. I couldn't fathom reaching the top and then turning around and going back. Let alone doing the whole damn thing in 6 hours and 20 minutes (the recent new record). I don't think of myself as any kind of competitive ultrarunner, but my Lord, after having been there I can't even fathom someone doing that.
If I had one piece of advice for someone who was considering doing this run and had never been there before, my advice would be to not underestimate this run. It is very doable, but it is harder than the numbers say. Don't take this lightly.
I suppose that, from an athletic perspective, my experience perfectly summarizes my situation as an ultra running imposter. I simply don't put in the proper training to do something like this effectively. So far this year I have done three 2 hour runs and one 3 hour run. I average 20-25 miles a week of training on three moderately paced runs. With that light running base, something like the rim to rim in 6 hours is going to hurt.
On the other hand, it is fairly impressive to accomplish what I did in 6 hours with a bottle of water, a few GUs and minimal training. I've built a good base of experience on pacing, fueling, mental strength, knowledge of gear and all of the things you need to effectively accomplish a task like this. The rim to rim run went very well because of that experience. But if I got unlucky with weather, stomach issues, etc. it could have been ugly.
You could spin the story either way. It is potentially dangerous and probably not too smart to try and accomplish stuff like this without properly training for it. Or it is impressive what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. When we hit the Colorado River I told Steve that when I am in a place like that, I want to be in shape to do multi-hour efforts in the hills so I can experience things like the Grand Canyon run. However, in any given week, I'm not too interested in putting in the miles necessary to do that. So I fake it.
I have a general philosophy that I would rather do one or two things well, as opposed to doing ten things half-assed. I'm definitely doing this ultra trail running thing half assed. It remains to be seen what I will (or won't) do about it.