Pain and Euphoria in a Painted Dessert - Zion 100 Mile Race Report

Posting Date: 4/10/17
Current Weight: 175 lbs
Total Miles Last Week: 112 
Long Run This Past Weekend: 102 miles at Zion 100 Ultra (yes..it's 102 miles, actually) 

Start/Finish Line of Zion 100

It's 5:30am, a half hour before the start of the Zion 100 mile race. Over the past 24 hours, I've travelled from the low lands of Minneapolis, Minnesota (elevation: 830'), to Springdale, Utah (elevation: 4200'). We're on what I would later find out is known as The Colorado Plateau, a huge land mass of high-desert 130,000 miles wide that is known for it's huge "Red Rocks," Mesas, Mountains, and Canyons. Zion is a massive Canyon centered over the Virgin River, with peaks and mesas of up to 8,726'. 

As I stand at the start line, I'm as ready as I can be. I have thousands of miles of training under my belt, heat training, quad pounding plyometric resistance routines, and a good taper in the weeks before the race. At 6:00, In typical ultra marathon fashion, the race director gives us a quick speech about not getting lost and following the markers, and then yells out "3....2....1....GO!" We are off towards the first climb of the day, up Flying Monkey Mesa. 

Pic on top of Flying Monkey

The drive in to the Zion area was awe-inspiring. As my Mom (my travel companion on this adventure) and I left Las Vegas, we found ourselves driving for about an hour in somewhat desolate open space. As we got closer to Zion, however, the land began to take shape. Before long we were driving on mountain grades, and through canyons, surrounded by massive flat topped mesas. This area looks like an alien planet to someone from Minnesota. It is different than anything I've ever seen; it is desolate, rugged, and beautiful. We stop by the race expo to grab my race bib, and then head to our hotel in Springdale, a couple short miles from the opening of Zion Canyon and the park. I invested in an over the counter sleep med, something I never use, to help ease my nerves and allow me to sleep as best as possible the night before the race. It worked to an extent, and I intermittently got about six hours of precious pre-race sleep before I got up to head to the race at 4:15am. 

The climb up Flying Monkey starts in the dark, with no perspective of how high you are up on the Mesa, or what is around you. That all changes as the sun comes up around 6:40am. Breathtaking views begin to light up, as you are looking down at the painted desert landscape from over 5000'. The first climb features fairly technical sections, including ridgeline running (just you and a nice big drop off), and a big ~8-10' rock face that you have to scale using a rope placed there to help runners pull themselves up and over. The first little aid station was near the top of Flying Monkey, and gave me my first glimpse of what I would be working with as far as fuel and hydration. Honey Stinger Gels, Tailwind, Water, and the normal fruit and salty snacks made up the aid-station fare. I topped off and drank the hydration flask that I stuffed into my race pack, and grabbed a gel for the road..still unsure about how my body would agree with a honey based fuel (...fructose isn't usually a great choice, but I came to find out the gels are actually a mixture of tapioca starch and fructose from honey). Once you reach the top of Monkey Mesa, you are treated to a rocky, rooty, roller coaster of double track trails. The trails are fun, and while not incredibly fast, are fairly easy on the body due to the softer claylike feel of the ground below. I established a good pace and was able to get back down the Mesa feeling like I was having a great start to the day. At the bottom of Monkey Mesa, towards Dalton Wash aid station, I met another runner named Robin. Robin is a glass-blowing artist from north of Detroit, MI. He's got quite a story and has done some pretty amazing races. We made the climb up from Dalton Wash to Guacamole Mesa together before splitting up to settle into our own comfortable paces. Guacamole Mesa sounded innocent enough, and was probably the easiest climb of the day. Although the climb is long and steep at times, it is on jeep road, and pretty manageable. At the top of Guacamole Mesa came a taste of what was going to make my day a little more difficult than expected. 

Photo of "Slick Rock" (credit: singletracks.com)

Until the top of Guacamole Mesa, I figured the tops of these monsters were all soft clay, green vegetation, and plush with beautiful single track trails. That was what I wanted to think, anyway. What I got was huge globular mounds of cement like rock. This is not akin to the run-able rocks we get in Duluth, MN on the SHT, but is rather organized into huge mounds, domes, dips, and voids. This is where I made my first mistake of the race. Despite the tough terrain, I figured it would be short lived and wouldn't go on for much distance. I was wrong. We did a nice 7.5 mile stint on Guacamole's slick rocks, before looping back past the Guacamole Aid Station once again before heading back down the jeep road to Dalton Wash. By the time we hit Dalton Wash Aid Station for the second time, a pretty decent crowd had grown, as this was runners first access to their crew. I didn't have a crew, but managed to snag a few high-fives anyway. We were 30.5 miles in, I was feeling good energy wise, but knew I was pretty far ahead of pace and should save my legs by slowing it back a bit. I also started to realize that I was developing some abnormal hot spots on my feet. I figured the worst of the foot abuse was behind me, and didn't think too much of it. I ran/hiked intermittently on the jeep road between Guacamole and Gooseberry Mesa. After three miles on the jeep road, I hit the big 1500' climb up to Goosebump Aid station (it climbs 1500' in about 3/4 mile). This is the first true "hands on knees" climb of the race. I consider myself a very strong climber, and even at the crawl-like pace I felt like I was holding on this climb, I managed to pass up four other runners. I found the climb up Gooseberry Mesa exciting, as every time you took a looked off the ridge, you were rewarded with a better view. This view showcased the miles of huge Mesas and Mountain in the distance, painted bright red, purple, and white now by the bright sun overhead. We reached the top of Gooseberry Mesa and the Goosebump aid station, I grabbed the hiking poles out of my drop bag that I had sent to the aid station, refilled my water and grabbed a few gels, and took off towards the Gooseberry Mesa loop. This loop proved to be a real game changer for my race. The 4.5 miles between Goosebump aid station and Gooseberry Point were almost exclusively slick rock, just like we had seen on Guacamole, but with a whole lot more variation. Although I was beginning to feel the effects of the jumping, hard bumpy landings, and the extremely uneven terrain underneath, the reward when you got to Gooseberry Point made that all worth it. Gooseberry Point is the highest point in the race, at ~5600'. The view from the point atop Gooseberry Mesa is phenomenal. You can see for what seems like an eternity in every direction. To the southeast you see Zion Canyon and miles of painted high desert mesas and peaks, and to the northwest you see snow capped mountains off in the distance. After stopping to take a few pictures and enjoy the view, I took off back on the Gooseberry loop towards the second pass at Goosebump aid station. The way back to the station is almost entirely composed of slick rock, and by the time I reached the aid station at mile 47.5, my feet were in rough shape. I decided to take a few minutes to grab my other pair of shoes from my drop bag, change socks, and put some vaseline on my feet to help reduce the friction on my feet. The shoes I changed into were my trusty Scott Kinabalu's, which I have ended up switching to in all three of the hundred-plus mile races I've done. I now know I should have just started with them, as they fit my feet perfectly, and keep them from moving around and rubbing against the shoe on uneven terrain. Despite the fact that they have somewhere close to 1,000 miles on them, they feel awesome and have held up like no other shoe I've ever owned. 

Looking down from the top of one of the Mesas

From Gooseberry Mesa, the race takes you towards Grafton Mesa using rugged jeep roads. This section of the race has the potential to be the fastest and most runable, and despite my painful feet, I tried to keep my pace up. I resolved to the oldest advice in the ultra running book, hike the ups, run the flats and downhills. I kept this up until I reached the Grafton Aid Station. This aid station is where runners can pick up their pacers. I didn't have a pacer for this event, but just seeing all of the pacers and crew at this aid station gave the event some new energy. I left the Grafton Aid station hurting, my feet now blistered beyond repair. I knew that at this point the best thing I could do is not look at my feet or stop moving, as stopping would make the swelling and blisters worse. I had to keep moving and keep the inflammation in my feet at bay. At this point I realized I was falling behind my goal pace. I was about a half hour behind 24 hour pace, with 46 miles to go. The windy loop atop Grafton was much easier than the previous two mesas, and I met a runner named John, who I was able to link up for the next couple of miles. John is a runner from Santa Barbara, CA, and had some great stories about some crazy ultra running events he had done in the past. Talking with him helped distract me from the pain I was feeling, and kept me moving at a decent clip. This section ends with a steep and very technical descent down the Mesa to Cemetery Aid Station. At Cemetery I took out my headlamp, as the sun was beginning to get low in the sky, and packed in half of a cheese quesadilla and a couple pickles for the salt. I kept my focus on getting in-and-out of the aid stations quickly, and this paid off in keeping my feet in workable condition and swelling at bay. I began the climb back up Grafton Mesa on the technical ascent towards the second half of the Grafton loop. On the way up this climb I met Carolina, a runner from Helena, Montana. We linked up until the second pass through the Grafton Aid Station, which turned out to be very important. The route atop this Mesa was very confusing and hard to follow in the dark. Having a teammate to help look for course marker flags was vital, and despite having two sets of eyes, we probably burned a good 10-15 minutes stopping and trying to figure out the route. Thankfully she's was a little better navigator than I am, and we managed to get to the Grafton Aid Station without getting too lost. At the second pass at Grafton, I again got in-and-out as quickly as I could before starting up the climb back towards Gooseberry Mesa on the jeep road. I hooked up my headphones at this point for the first time and put on my big running playlist aptly titled; "100 Miles Is Not That Far." The music helped to motivate me to keep moving, and within a few minutes I found myself running a good clip once again on this long section back towards the third pass at Goosebump Aid Station. While my hopes of a sub-24 hour finish were waning, I still found myself motivated to keep a good pace and finish with a trail 100 mile PR. I hit the Goosebump Aid Station for the third time and headed back down Gooseberry Mesa on the same steep and technical climb we had used to get up atop the Mesa 25 miles earlier. This descent was extremely slow and painful because of my feet, but I focused on keeping a rhythm, moving as quickly as I could down the steep rocky terrain. When I reached the bottom I was destroyed, and decided to just hike for the majority of the next section towards the Virgin Desert loops. 

Running up on Gooseberry Mesa

The Virgin Desert Aid Station is a big aid station that runners visit four times total, and come back to  after completing three separate loops of different sections of mostly mountain bike trail. Before heading out on the first loop, the "Red" loop, I decided to swap out the USB battery in my headlamp, which I had fully charged before leaving home. To my displeasure, the battery was not functional. After burning up about 10 minutes trying to get it to work, I took out my cheap backup headlamp and strapped it on. The Virgin Desert loops were windy and dusty (we were dealing with a "wind event," with gusts of up to 40 mph, carrying lots of sand and dust), with lots of ups and downs and semi-technical terrain. The lack of a good light made an additional challenge in navigating the varying terrain. I took the section slow, with a mix of slow running and hiking when my visibility was too poor to make out what was in front of me.  After completing the Red and White Loops, I went on to the Blue. While the Red and White Loops had not been easy, they were quite runnable and smooth in comparison to the Blue. The Blue Loop goes against the trend, with steep and rocky terrain descending down towards the Hurricane Canal. It was about 6am as I ran along the rocky ridge of the rim of the canal, and although I could not see it, I could hear it and make out the visual of the rushing water below in my mind. This section was challenging, but also very memorable for that reason. As we climbed back up from the canal we recached a giant "Wash" near the crest of the Mesa we were running on. A "Wash" is like a giant void that usually contains water inside of a Mesa. This huge wash was empty and made you feel like you were running on Mars. As I passed through the wash and back to the main trail, another runner remarked "Were they crazy to add this section or what?" No doubt, it was a challenging section for the end of the race, but I found it quite scenic and beautiful as the sun came up, so I was far from complaining. At this point I could "smell the barn," and was motivated to keep moving despite the challenging terrain. 

Check out that ultra style...

After the last pass at the Virgin Desert aid station, I headed off towards the finish. The first half of this final section follows the ridge along the Virgin River before crossing over the bridge towards Virgin, and following what feels like an endless series of ups and downs on a trail towards the finish line. I was well on pace for a sub 27 hour finish at this point, but did not know the true length of the course until after I had finished (102 miles, rather than 100 even). When I finally reached the final descent down to the finish area, I was elated. I picked up my pace and ran it in, crossing the line in 27:14. I didn't hit my "A goal," but I was elated to have finished. 

After the finish I picked my choice of the custom one-off 100 mile buckles, purchased a Zion Ultras running hat, and said a few goodbyes to some volunteers before heading back to the hotel. What a day, what a race, what an amazing experience. I couldn't have been more happy to be done, and to have had such a phenomenal opportunity to experience this beautiful area over 102 miles on my own two feet. 

What I Learned and/or Re-Learned at Zion 100

• Taking care of your feet is essential to a good ultra. For longer races, never fail to skip the steps of taping up potential problem areas, adding foot powder to your shoes and socks, and using a bit of body glide on potential hot spots. This was my biggest mistake in this race. 
• You can run pretty darn fast even after moving for 20+ hours. I actually found myself feeling remarkably fresh towards the end of the race. 
• Eating a high fat / low carb diet in the months leading up to the race seems to help me in keeping an even energy level during the event with little fuel. I managed to eat far less than in previous 100's and still never crash. I also have no stomach problems despite the heat (85 degrees was the high), a first for me in a 100 miler. 
• Don't hesitate to take hard terrain slowly in a longer event. Doing this early would have potentially saved my feet and kept me running more during the faster sections of the race. 

Huge Thanks To: 

• My wife, Isabel, who allows me to train pretty much to my hearts content, and was at home keeping the business running at 3CLICK Fitness during my trip. 
• My best friend and running buddy, Jeremy Eckert, who logged a good chunk of miles with me in preparation for this. 
• The volunteers at this race, they were awesome! Despite having their hands full beyond what I've experienced volunteering at a race, they held it together very well and were quite friendly. 
• My mom, Roxanne, for coming on this trip with me (we're actually just about to explore the Grand Canyon as I write this). 

Custom Zion 100 Belt Buckle 

Crossing the finish line of Zion 100