This past weekend I competed in my first ultramarathon, and I had chosen the Antelope Canyon 50 miler in Page AZ, but not because I wanted to run 50 miles, but because any shorter distance on that course (they also offer a 55k and a Half Marathon, in addition to a 100 miler) would leave out certain sections of this scenic destination course. Plus I really wanted to get a decent amount of UTMB points, and the 50 mile race offered 4 such points.
I had trained pretty well the last year and in the last few months averaged 50-75 miles of running a week, in addition to a solid amount of cycling and swimming. And my longest run leading up to the 50 miler was 32 miles, of which I ran the first 24 miles at around 10:20 pace and then the last 8 miles at sub 8 pace. I also raced two other trail races in the last couple months to test my fitness, but they were all in my sweet spot of 20-30k, and I did well in both.
The Antelope Canyon race however was not going to be my focus race, as I have a whole bunch of other races lined up in the next few months. Whether those events will actually happen is another question. The Boston Marathon was already moved to a September date, and the Antelope Canyon race was close to be cancelled. But instead they encouraged athletes to not congregate at the finish and the start, and to arrive in the last minute to that chip timed event. Also they asked all athletes to use the hand sanitizers at each aid station, and preferably use their own drop bags.
But back now to the actual Antelope Canyon event. I flew out to Phoenix, AZ on Thursday for the Saturday race date, and that made me arrive late on Thursday night in Page after a 4.5 hour drive and a dinner stop. On Friday morning I ran 4 miles with a German friend who was vacationing with his family in the Southwest after having raced ÖtillÖ Catalina, and in the afternoon I picked up my race package and dropped off my drop bag. The coolest part about the package pickup was a super tiny bib number that measured 5x4 inches, and I mounted it to my homemade elastic cord race lock belt. But I must admit that I was more nervous than usually as this was new territory for me.
The race started at 5:45am on Saturday morning and the temps were in the mid 40s, but it was super windy and felt much colder. I wore a thin jacket and gloves over my Northface BTN shirt and my 2XU Hyoptic shorts, plus I had Farm 2 Feet wool socks and Inov8 Terraclaw 250 running shoes on me. The Inov8 shoes however were modified and a local cobbler had stitched a Velcro strip to the base of each shoe, to which my Raid Light desert gaiters mounted, and these gaiters came in handy on this course with about 30 miles of sand running. Plus since it was going to be dark for at least another 30-40 minutes I had a Black Diamond headlamp on my Boco Gear technical trucker hat.
My plan was to run mellow early on and I think I managed that well, but I really had no idea where I was overall in terms of position. We climbed out of a small Canyon early on and it was tough to see who was ahead, but there were several female runners nearby and they turned out to be the female leaders. After about 5 miles we reached the first slot canyon and it was amazing to experience - super narrow and winding and beautiful. After that canyon we ran across a super sandy plateau with a crazy strong headwind and sand was blown in your face too, but that section was a lollipop stick so I knew we would get tail wind on the way back. Luckily my headlamp was still within reach as we finally reached the Upper Antelope Canyon and that canyon was deep and thus still dark even though it was now after 7am. But again a very stunning piece of nature and well worth a visit, but outside of this race only allowed with a Navajo guide. As we looped back the course avoided that canyon but pushed through another and soon were back on the plateau, thankfully now with tailwind. I stopped at each aid station and grabbed bananas and pineapple and sometimes cheese quesadillas, and throughout the race I had 5 gels in between. I started with 2 Salomon water bottles in my vest and at about the halfway point I replaced them with one water bottle and one Gatorade one. During the last 14 miles I also had Coke a few times.
Mile 20 was the Horseshoe Bend aid station and this was the last time when I was passed, from that point on I only passed folks. I stopped briefly but forgot to drop my headlamp, jacket and gloves into my drop bag, and that meant I had to carry it another 12 miles until we returned to that point. The next section at Horseshoe Bend was super technical and the strong wind had blown many course markers into the bushes they were attached to, and thus hard to see. Luckily we caught the tail end of the 55k race that had started 75 minutes after us and had bypassed that canyon section, and with them in front of us that made it easier to navigate as there now were always folks ahead. This section with the famous Horseshoe Bend is amazingly beautiful, and many of the runners I passed were standing on the course taking pictures. I also grabbed some pics with my GoPro, but I kept moving. The first 7 miles or so of that section were slow and required scrambling and were not great for folks afraid of heights, but after that we got to run fast down a super sandy fire road to the next aid station at about mile 29. I watched my pace to not burn any matches but with the Garmin not exactly recording accurately it was not always sure how fast I actually ran. At about mile 32.5 we reached the Horseshoe Bend aid station again and I dropped the extra gear into my drop bag. They also had bacon there and I had one piece plus 2 pieces of cheese quesadilla, plus more banana and pineapple. And then it was on to what I knew would be the harder mental bit, but I still felt good. I had no sand in my shoes, my stomach felt good, and so did my legs. By the time mile 36 came around we were passing by the start and finish and the scent of food was in the air, but I had places to go and see. The next 2 miles were super sandy and mostly uphill to the Page Rim Trail, and that is a 10-mile loop of pretty fast running on much harder surface. I caught the female leader with about 10 miles to go and shortly after passed an athlete who clearly was a triathlete wearing DeSoto tri shorts. I introduced myself and he told me he was an avid slowtwitcher, but then I moved on. I struggled a bit during the last 8 miles but kept running and walking and caught another person who seemed to be in my race just before the end. With so many 55k folks on course it was tough to tell who was in which race, and they ended up doing the same course we did at the end.
I crossed the line in 8:48:48 and that was good for 10th place out of 369 starters and I was thrilled about that unexpected result.
So the next race after this one will be a 12 hour race in mid June – hopefully.
