Black Canyon 100k

It seems that the more ultras I participate in, the less I stress about doing them. I guess that's the natural progression of things, right? I didn't decide to participate in the Black Canyon 100k until a few weeks before the race, and the last race I ran was Bear 100 (where I ran 10 miles to my first 100 mile DNF). After my DNF at Bear 100, I took my training down to about 20%. From October through December my weekly mileage was at maintenance levels only. I put on weight (10 lbs) and was definitely running slower.

I hadn't completely stopped running, so I decided I just needed to increase my weekly mileage to 50-60 miles per week for a few weeks before the race. I only managed a few weeks at my normal volume, but I felt like things were coming back quickly and I was feeling good. As far as goals were concerned, I had never run 100k before, so I really didn't have a goal time to shoot for. Last year, I crewed and paced my friend Greg to a 13:53 finish and we both agreed that we would both be faster than he was last year. I decided to just run my race and let the time be what it was going to be.

The morning started off cool (for Arizona) with temperatures in the low-40's. The race check-in was held in the Mayer School gymnasium this year, so it was a lot more pleasant than last year when we were all hanging around outside, shivering until the gun went off. This race provided a last chance entry into the 2015 Western States 100, so there were a lot of high profile, elite runners on the scene. It was pretty cool to see Hal Koerner and Kaci Lickteig (among others) at the start of a local race.

A few minutes before the start, we all made our way out to the track and lined up in the crowd. I've learned over the last many races to line up somewhere just ahead of the middle in order to avoid trying to beat the conga line to the single track. It really wasn't necessary at this race as the race begins with a lap around the school track and then follows the town road out to the Black Canyon Trail single track. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed right from the start and a few of us got to do a lap with Hal before he hit the road and vanished.

Greg and I took off at a nice, maintainable pace around the track and to the trailhead. Soon after reaching the trailhead, Greg and I had caught up to the lead female pack. Running in the group with Kaci Lickteig, Leslie Howlett, Katie Desplinter, and a couple others would (and perhaps should) normally be a warning sign. There are just certain people who, if I catch up to, should be my warning sign that I'm going out too hard. The pace really felt good though. The trail was very runnable and it was easy to settle into a moderate pace and cruise.

That morning, I had a standard pre-race breakfast of oatmeal and a banana. The drive to the start was about 45 min, so I took the time to hydrate. The problem was that the food wasn't moving through my stomach, and my gut was uncomfortable aside from my digestion problems. Before the first aid station I was already wishing I had access to a bathroom, but not seeing one, I kept pressing forward. I was ahead of the lead pack of women at this point and kept the pace up through the next section.

The sun had broken the horizon and these Arizona hills were spectacular. The temperature was perfect, but it was easy to tell that it was going to heat up significantly before the end of the day. I was making sure to drink so I didn't fall behind on hydration, but I couldn't eat anything. My stomach still felt full -- nothing was moving.

I came into the next aid station well ahead of my projected pace but the pace still felt good. I swapped bottles, put on some sunscreen and turned around to head out when I saw a PORTAJOHN! SWEET! I'm saved! I'll spare you the gruesome details, but let's just say I did my best to recreate the bathroom scene from Dumb and Dumber. By the time I finished up, the lead pack of females, and Greg had passed me and left me a minute behind. I immediately started off down the trail to make up lost ground.

It didn't take too long before I found myself running behind Leslie Howlett and Katie Desplinter again. I wasn't going to pass them. The single track wouldn't let me, and the pace was excellent. We ran in a slowly expanding group, with Kaci taking off ahead, all the way to the next aid station. I still wasn't eating, and after my crew took care of me at the aid station and reminded me to eat, I decided I would have to get some calories into my system before the next aid station.

Greg and I started running closer together and started the climb out of Beaver Mines aid. The thought of eating something was enough to make me nauseous. "I'll give it more time," I thought to myself. Besides, I'm still taking in calories in my Tailwind. I was starting to slow down on the hills a little, and was feeling a little sluggish where I felt like I should have been jogging uphill. Walking was a nice break though, and Greg seemed to be going at the same pace. Besides, it was nice to have the company.

Greg and I maintained a pretty regular pace through the next two aid stations. It was nice just being out on the single track running with my friend and not worrying too much about the "race" aspect of the experience. During the segment before Black Canyon I somehow lost Greg. He normally passes me with reckless abandon on the downhill, so when we hit a nice long section of downhill on a Jeep road I figured I had better hit it hard just to keep up with him. I should mention here that I often find myself talking to no one but myself on these races. It doesn't start out that way, but apparently when I'm running and talking, that's about all I can focus on. I ran to the bottom of the hill, talking to Greg the whole way. When I got to the bottom, Greg was missing. I turned and looked up the hill, but didn't see Greg anywhere. After walking for a bit to give him time to catch me, but not seeing him, I decided to resume my own run and head to Black Canyon.

The weather on the course was starting to heat up and I was slowing down in response. The river crossing before Black Canyon City was exactly what the doctor ordered and I spent some time wetting my clothes down and dipping my hat into the cool water. I was trying to keep up to a female runner who had gotten turned around on the course, but she jogged up the next hill pretty easily (it seemed) while I resorted to a power hike/slow jog combination and she was soon out of sight.

I the out-and-back to Black Canyon City aid station is an interesting section of trail. It was on that segment when I got to see all the runners who had passed me and how strong they were running. The girl who had left me far behind on that hill was on her way out of the out-and-back well before I got anywhere near the aid station. The stop at Black Canyon felt long overdue. I had my crew and wife and kids at the aid station to help. Ice water was poured on my head and I was able to get some Coke and some PB&J sandwich squares into my system. It was now after 2:00 PM, I still had not been able to eat anything and I was definitely feeling it.

I picked up my pacer, Devin Barry, at this stop and warned him right from the start that my energy was plummeting but that I planned on pushing through. We hiked up the out-and-back section and made it down to the river in good time. This would be one of the last crossings of the race, so I again wet my gear down and started up the long climb. The climb was brutal. I was definitely in the pain cave at this point. My energy was extremely low and I still couldn't get more food down. I kept the Tailwind flowing, but it wasn't getting me enough calories. At one point I think I told Devin that I wanted to find a nice shady area to lay down and nap. That's one thing about running in Arizona -- there's practically nowhere to lay down and nap in the desert. You'll either get stung, bitten, or poked. And there are no nice grassy meadows. The only option is to keep on moving.

Devin and I hiked/jogged all the way to the next aid station (the Zane Grey aid station) where I quickly grabbed another seat and started working on getting more calories into my system. I'm not sure how long I spent at the aid station, but I'm sure it was too long. That folding camp chair started feeling really comfortable...

I finally got some energy back and could feel it slowly increasing as I went. I was able to move a little faster on my way to Table Mesa and made it my goal to get there and back out on the trail before sunset. Devin and I talked about races we'd done, the races coming up, Cardinals trade decisions, hunting, and a whole lot of other subjects that really helped to keep my mind off the pain. We did manage to jog more than walk and I got into the next aid station where I picked up Deron, my headlamp and headed back out onto the trail -- well before the sun went down.

The trail on the last section of the race quickly turned into the typical Phoenix area trail -- rocky and rough. Fortunately, this is what I usually run on so it wasn't that much of a shocker for me. As painful as it was, I was still able to move pretty well. I'll be the first one to admit there was a fair amount of walking involved, but we had a good pace to get me to the finish around the 13:30 mark. Deron and I are so closely matched in our running ability that it gave us a lot of races and runs to reminisce about as we made our way through the dark on the rocky trail. We were passing runners, mostly back of the pack 50k runners, but there were a few 100k runners in the list as well.

My daughter Kassi had been training with me on some of my runs leading up to Black Canyon. She would rid her bike and then join me on a short run on a loop back to her bike. Deron ran off ahead of me and met Kassi and Scott at the finish where they both ran back out to meet me and run across the finish with me. It was so awesome to see Kassi and Scott's excitement to be a part of the race. Running across the line with my kids somehow managed to make me forget all about the pain I had been pushing through for the last many miles.

I managed a 13:34:55 finish. I know that with better conditions (lack of GI issues, better fuel management, etc), I could have managed a sub-12 hour finish. I might have to try that next year. I ran the race with my Altra Superior 2.0 shoes, Injinji heavy socks, North Face shorts, Brooks Thunderbird Trail Runner tech shirt, Western States 100 Buff, Garmin Fenix 2, Headsweats iRun hat, and Inov-8 RaceUltra hydration vest. I used Tailwind Nutrition for my whole race (supplemented with Coke and PB&J sandwiches).