Training Log Archive: Bash

Angel's Landing, Zion

We had a midnight flight home from Las Vegas so we checked out early and took a park shuttle bus to the Grotto, the start of the West Rim Trail.













After ascending Walter's Wiggles, a series of 27 steep switchbacks, and scrambling up some rock, we arrived at Scout's Landing.











Audrey and I continued to the top of Angel's Landing, a rock formation with a spectacular view in both directions along the main Zion valley. It was a 45-minute return hike / scramble on rock with steep 450 meter drop-offs, sometimes on both sides. In many places along the route, there was a chain to hang onto although it was a two-way path so we often had to let go and move to one side to let people pass in the other direction.



Apparently, 6 people have died on this hike since 2004. We saw some tourists with inadequate footwear and limited hiking experience so that's not surprising. I didn't feel unsafe on the route itself but there was a risk in sharing the route with so many other people who might slip and bump into others.









I didn't take too many photos on the climb up. Here's Angel's Landing.













I took a few more photos on the way down. Unfortunately, I crunched my ankle on one of the big steps down. It didn't bother me until an hour later, which was good timing, given what I had to do to get to the bottom.







We met the others at Scout's Landing and went back down to the Grotto, running a lot of it. We all felt pretty good after yesterday's long run. I guess post-race hiking is the secret!

Zion "50K"

Our vacation had been built around the Zion ultra but we didn't treat it as a race since we wanted to play outside every day. Our half-day on mountain bikes yesterday ensured that our legs weren't fresh but we looked forward to a fun run with aid stations.



We started near Virgin, UT at 6 a.m., an hour before sunrise. We ran the first few kms on paved road then got onto a dusty desert double track. Browner and I ran together for the first 5K, then I eased off in anticipation of the steep 450 m climb up Gooseberry Mesa.



Between the dark start and a weak phone battery, I got 40+ photos that only show the race course from 8K to 34K. The landscape was beautiful! The climb was steep and the trail was often eroded and rocky so it took extra effort to pass people who were fading.









We were supposed to get a few hours of steady rain but it mostly missed us. The dark, stormy skies were spectacular. There was a wind warning and it built up as the day went on; there were times when I ran off-trail away from a cliff edge in case I got blown off my feet.







There was an aid station on top of the climb, then we ran a 20K loop on top of Gooseberry Mesa. It was really fun and interesting up there! There were sandy trails, large areas of rolling slickrock and slabs of rock with stunted vegetation like Georgian Bay. We mostly ran on mountain bike trails, some of which are rated double black diamond and go along the edge of the cliff. I think running was safer for me and I would *love* to run around Gooseberry Mesa again.



























Yes, this is the trail.





Halfway around the mesa at the 17K mark, there was an aid station with a 750 m out-and-back run to a lookout. I saw Browner returning as I was going out, and she saw Mrs. Gally, Dee and Aud returning when she was heading to the lookout.

At the aid station, I filled my bladder with "water" that turned out to be an unidentified lemon drink - maybe Tailwind or Gatorade - and I packed along a peanut butter sandwich that turned out to be a tortilla stuffed with refried beans. Loser!

We descended the mesa on the same steep trail we took up. I'd brought poles that were mostly unnecessary but they really helped on the climb and descent of the mesa. My quads weren't sore the next day but I did lots of running with both poles in one hand.







Things levelled out around 30K and I stopped to reapply sunscreen and remove my arm warmers, which had been rolled down to my wrists for a long time. The rolling ATV trail at the base of the mesa had terrific views of desert vegetation with snowy mountains in the distance. I got exactly one photo before my phone inexplicably died. My best guess is that a recent operating system update changed some settings. It lasted more than 18 hours and 150+ photos and videos at Transgrancanaria.



We ran into the same trail system where we were mountain biking yesterday. It was nice that it felt familiar. Here are a couple of photos from yesterday showing the area.





From 38K to 46K, it was mostly a fun, gentle downhill with bits of rocky footwork. I caught up with Browner just before we crossed the highway and started climbing again. We chatted a bit, then she cranked up some tunes, started singing out loud and left me in her dust!

The race organizers had provided conflicting information about the course so I'd written them and confirmed the distance was 32 miles, i.e. 51.5 km. This was not true. I'd paced myself to push the "final" 10K and completely ran out of steam - not to mention fuel in my body - when I reached the 51.5K mark and saw the race course snaking across the desert with no sign of a finish line - ugh. I scarfed down some desperately needed food, gulped down some water and plodded on in a pathetic walk-run. Most people think it turned out to be 55K.

It wasn't my most energetic finish and I was thinking "meh" until just now when I checked my official time and saw that I was 2nd of 24 in my age group and missed the win by 80 seconds (my photography penalty). Audrey, Mrs. Gally, Dee and Browner were 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th of 30 in their age group - well done.

Thanks to Simpy for greeting us and taking this finish line photo. :)



Speaking of Simpy, he toughed it out through the 100K race the previous day and placed in the top half even though he felt awful.



Nathalie Long and James Galipeau ("Relentless" on AP) ran the 100 miler and Nat placed 3rd Female in her first 100 miler. So Canadian adventure racers represented!

Yumi finished her first ultra although we're not sure if we've won a convert to the sport.

We had a big group dinner at King's Landing restaurant at our hotel. Nice to catch up with everyone and pig out.

All of us are doing the Zion Ultra tomorrow but we wanted to go mountain biking anyway. We chose the JEM trail system south of Virgin, which included some of the trails we would run in our race. For future reference, my favourite trail - probably everyone's favourite - was Goosebumps, which was so twisty, rolling and fun that I didn't stop to get a photo.



I rented a nice full suspension Trek Fuel EX 7 from Zion Cycles. It was fun to ride although on tight curves, I noticed the difference in steering a 29er with wide bars vs. my own 26er with narrow bars. There were a couple of places where I almost went off on the tangent of the curve.



The riding was super fun!





Dee downloaded the Trailforks app, which would be handy for future mountain bike trips.











I had embarrassing crash to the gravel while standing still, which doesn't make a great story. I misjudged my bike's geometry while clipping in and went down hard, scraping my right arm, bursting a blood vessel in the palm of my left hand and bruising my shin. The fast, bumpy, rocky downhill ride back to the car was painful for my hands but at least I didn't damage any body part that will have a major role in tomorrow's race.









They had special cattle guards for bikes.



Yumi is a novice mountain biker so at the start of our ride, we purposely avoided a section of the JEM trail that travels close to a cliff edge.



She eventually struck off on her own with the plan of riding mostly gravel roads and dirt ATV tracks. As we rode back to the car on the cliff-edge trail, we were horrified to find Yumi riding there after being directed to the trail by another rider.



Fortunately, she - and the rest of us - survived. It's a nice trail but there are a few sketchy spots where a mistake could mean death. Luckily, Mrs. Gally, who isn't keen on heights, got a flat right before this stretch of trail and ran around on the road.



Fun day even though it wasn't the best taper for an ultra. It was my first single track ride in about 6 months so I probably used some dormant muscles. :)

Time deducted for photography and conversation.

I'm told lots of things stay in Vegas but we did not! Before leaving town, Browner, Dee, Mrs. Gally, Audrey, Yumi and I had breakfast near our hotel, the Excalibur, which is known for its tasteful, low key architecture.



My credit card may have been skimmed at the restaurant. Starting the next day, the crook made four transactions totalling $5200 and my credit card was cancelled. I'm always impressed at how well my bank knows me. "Sure, she might suddenly show up in Utah and visit a bike shop and liquor store but she would never spend $3700 on UFC tickets." In fact, Tickets.com thought it was suspicious too so their fraud analyst cancelled that transaction without checking with me or my bank.

We drove 2.5 hrs to Springdale, Utah, the entrance to Zion National Park. Before dinner, we had time to hike the Watchman Trail near the park gate.

















Then we returned for Happy Hour on our balcony.



The view was amazing! Browner did yoga on the balcony in the mornings.

I'd write more about what we did today but it stays in Vegas.

If you weren't refreshing Twitter all weekend, here is a Barkley Marathons update:

1) John Kelly has become the 15th finisher since the race began in 1986. Last year he was the 3rd and final runner to head out on Loop 5 but he fell asleep just beyond the gate and lost so much time that he had to withdraw. He finished at 59:30, just half an hour ahead of the 60-hr cut-off at 1:42 p.m. today.

2) Five runners completed the Fun Run, which involves navigating 3 loops of the course for a total of 60+ challenging miles that must be completed within 40 hrs.

3) No women completed the Fun Run this year and no woman has ever finished the full Barkley. :(

4) Many of us were cheering for former adventure racer Gary Robbins to become the first Canadian to finish Barkley after he came close in 2016 but got lost on the final loop. He had logged some fantastic training, including thousands of feet of climbing on a Vancouver trail. He and John Kelly ran the first 4 loops together, then did the final loop in opposite directions, as required by the rules.

Sadly, Gary was not an official finisher. He arrived 6 seconds past the 60-hr cut-off with all the book pages (proof of reaching CPs) in the correct order. However, he arrived from the wrong direction after getting turned around in the fog and descending the wrong mountain, which would be grounds for DQ even if he arrived on time.

For a couple of gut wrenching videos for any endurance athlete, see Gary's finish partway down this page. What a class act! Canadian Running Magazine will post more details here as the story gets sorted out.
http://runningmagazine.ca/2017-barkley-marathons-r...
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UPDATE: Canadian Running Magazine has posted an updated story that explains things in more detail and provides some of the dialogue that was difficult to hear in the videos. UPDATE #2: Oh, and here's the link! :) http://runningmagazine.ca/story-ages-known-details...
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Unless you were following really closely, you would have missed a major controversy. Crews and spectators aren't permitted to access the runners except at the base camp and the tower, and they aren't permitted to receive aid anywhere except base camp. Canadian Running Magazine and Salomon Running posted a video of Gary talking with support crew who had apparently come to see him at a location where media were permitted but not crews. It's confusing because these are all experienced people who should have known better, and it's hard to imagine that his crew would do something to get him in trouble. Maybe they had some special permission but that is also hard to imagine. I'm sure the story will come out. The video was taken down quickly.

He didn't receive any physical aid but as he ran by, he described an alteration to be made to a particular pair of shoes for the next lap. He spent 55 minutes in camp at his next transition between loops so he didn't gain any time advantage from this. He was so sleep-deprived and focused that he probably didn't process the fact that his crew shouldn't have been with the media at that spot. There was an outcry from a vocal minority and if he had finished, it's quite possible that Laz would have DQed him. One year Laz DQed two finishers because they traveled 200 m on the wrong side of a creek in a 60-hr race!