Grand Canyon Rim2Rim2Rim Adventure Run Report

Grand Canyon R3 Adventure Run
March 5, 2021 at Grand Canyon National Park
Race Result: COMPLETE (you go in the canyon you get your butt out)
Distance: 45 miles on Garmin - don't trust GPS
Time: 14:37:58

Strava - https://www.strava.com/activities/4897387456

GoPro Race Video - working on compiling footage

Google Photos Album - https://photos.app.goo.gl/JYk3S6AXiDXiPcQk7

 

Races haven't been my thing lately. I've posted reports of my struggles at the Barkley Fall Classic 50k, my DNF at Georgia Death Race, and my most recent race at Black Canyon 100k. All of these events have been things that I felt were outside of my ability at the time, but I signed up for anyways because I love a challenge and wanted the extra motivation to push myself in training. Sometimes you have to go through a lot of setbacks and learning experiences before you really know what you are doing and get things right. After a while, you figure out what works for you, and sometimes you just have a perfect day and everything goes right. This was one of those times, well for the most part. There is no talk about what a DNF for this adventure run looks like - if you go down into the canyon, it's up to you to get your butt out of the canyon.

When we planned the Grand Canyon for a stop on the RV tour around the country, I figured I had to make a run-venture while there. I joined several Facebook groups dedicated to hiking and running in the canyon. I figured the Coconino Cowboy loop - a route regularly run by Jim Walmsley - would be a good one to tackle. It's about 20 miles, down Bright Angel (9.5 miles / 4400 feet down), up South Kaibab (7 miles / 4800 feet up), and finishes with a 3 mile run along the rim trail. I kept the rim-to-rim-to-rim in the back of my head though, knowing its about similar total stats to what I did at GDR (42 miles, 10,000 feet elevation). After spending a few days there, I knew that I was going big and I wanted to tackle the whole thing.

The Plan
Something I usually do when planning for ultra races is break it down into small sections, either based on where aid stations are, or the major climbs/descents. This helps my mental approach it as I can just focus on a smaller part of the race instead of thinking of the entire massive undertaking. For this run, the obvious sections would be based around where I could refill my water. Checking the NPS website, I knew that water would be available at Phantom Ranch, Manzanita Rest Area, and Indian Garden Campground. I tried to come up with a guess as to what pace I could manage, not wanting to push things too hard early on and really suffer on the return trip, but also wanting to make good time so I didn't spend too much time in the dark at the finish (which tends to be the worst part of long distance trail running for me). I also planned on taking 5 minute mandatory breaks at each water station, to not only refill water but also to stretch, rest, eat some extra food, whatever I needed to do (in hindsight probably should have planned a little longer b/c I usually ended up taking about 10 minutes at each one).

 

My time estimate put me somewhere around 13.5 hours. That seemed reasonable to me, thinking that the trail was similar to the 42 miles with 11k vert I did at GDR around 14 hours. I felt like I was in much better shape and with more experience and knowledge, this run would surely feel much better. As for fuel, I wanted to be sure to have at least 200 calories per hour, and I would be using Gu Roctane that worked so well for me at Black Canyon 100k. That is 250 calories when mixed with 20oz of water, so I planned to drink one of those for each of the seven sections (along with another 20oz of pure water), and then packed several of my usual trail snacks to supplement - mini Snickers, fruit snacks, trail mix, honey buns, and potato chips. Altogether I had somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500 calories.

 

The last thing to figure out was what to wear, and I somewhat screwed this one up. Thankfully its easy to remove layers but I way overdressed and had to carry unnecessary stuff all day. I wanted to be prepared in case things took longer than expected and it got cold. It was only 23 degrees when I started, with predicted temps up to 60, and they say it can be about 20 degrees warmer at the bottom. I wore my running shorts with built in compression over my running tights, a long sleeve tech with short sleeve tech shirt over, and also had my windbreaker jacket. I wore my PYRC hat with a buff around my neck to use as a face covering when I was near other people on the trail. In hindsight, I easily could have gone without the running tights and long sleeve shirt.

I wanted to get an earlier start but didn't get things around quickly enough in the morning before we had to get the kids set up for school. So I ended up catching the 5:45am shuttle from the Visitor's Center over to the South Kaibab trailhead. I was surprised to be the only person on the bus with it shaping up to be such a beautiful day. A short ride and walk up to the trailhead, and I was heading down the trail right about 6:00am.

South Kaibab Trailhead (SK) to Phantom Ranch (PR) - mile 0.0 to 7.1
Distance: 7.1 miles
Plan: 15min/mile = 1hr 46mins
Actual: 1hr 47mins

The main goal for this section was to not blow up the rest of my run. This section drops 4,700 feet in just over 7 miles, which averages out to an almost 13% downhill grade. Running too fast on that steep of a downhill will only result in destroying your quads - unless you are a very strong runner and used to that kind of pounding. Doing that is partly what led to my DNF at BC100K - while I wasn't flying down the hills, a 20 mile downhill run in 3hrs 40mins was way too fast for what I was doing. Don't make the same mistake this time!

Early in the morning the day before my run, quite a bit of snow came down but mostly all melted. I hoped it would be mostly cleared up and it was - there was only small bits of crunchy snow for maybe the first quarter mile. It was still pretty dark and I had never been on the trail, so not much running for the first few miles. I saw quite a few headlamps below - hikers from the earlier shuttles. What I didn't expect was at about 15 minutes in I saw someone flying down the trail a few switchbacks above me. It wasn't a minute later he was running by, in the few brief seconds we told each other we were both going for the R3 but I said I wouldn't be nearly as fast as he was!

I probably passed 20-25 hikers on the way down the first few miles. They were moving slower b/c they were carrying much heavier packs to camp down in the canyon for a few days. That's definitely something I would like to do in the future with my boys when they are older. Today was about being light and moving quickly, and having a pack that maybe weighed five pounds (with full bottles) was way easier than a 30+(??)lb pack full of camping gear and food. The sun started to give off some light at this point even though it hadn't peeked over the horizon yet. It would actually be a few more hours before I was in the sunlight. I descended so far into the canyon that I stayed in the shade from the canyon walls. It was almost like I was treated to several sunrises at different points in there.

With the light I finally felt comfortable to "run". This was far from consistent running, as the trail twists and turns and switchbacks all over of the place you can never get into much of a rhythm. My "keep it easy" strategy also dictated that I only ran for maybe a minute or two before hiking. It wasn't long before I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist. I was sweating a lot from too many clothes. I considered dropping my pants since nobody was around but decided to wait until my first break at Phantom Ranch.

The sights were so amazing that I also wanted to slow down plenty to take lots of pictures and videos. This journey wasn't about speed, I wanted to make a lifelong memory. Knowing GPS is unreliable but hoping it was at least close, I was happy to see that I worked my average pace for the section down around 15 minutes, with most miles around 14 minutes after that 18 minute first mile. I only saw one person after those first two miles, a ranger right at The Tip Off (4.5 miles), hiking up from Phantom Ranch. Soon I could see the river from above, and before I knew it I was running through the tunnel, surprising some hikers going the other direction who didn't expect to see a runner that early (they must have missed the fast guy). 

I took lots of pictures of the bridge, strolled through the sandy trail over to Phantom Ranch and once I found the water spigot, I found a bench to sit on for my break. Top priority was getting out of my extra clothes. I was able to quickly do that without anyone else walking by, and figured now was a good time to get out my hiking poles - mostly so I could use the part of my pack where I stored my poles to tie on my running tights and long sleeve shirt (should have stored my jacket there too). I only needed to fill up one bottle with plain water since I started off with two bottles of Roctane and drank exactly one. Ate a pack of fruit snacks and was off to Manzanita after a 5:04 break. I told Katie before I started that if I didn't make it to Manzanita in 4.5 hours, I would probably turn around.

Phantom Ranch (PR) to Manzanita Rest Area (MZ) - mile 7.1 to 15.6
Distance: 8.5 miles
Plan: 18min/mile = 2hr 33mins
Actual: 2hr 1min

I really didn't expect to see many people on this section. The park has signs everywhere that say hiking to the river and back in a day is not recommended, and I know not many people take on the R3. There is a campground (Cottonwood) about 7 miles from PR, but anyone making that hike as part of a multi-day R3 probably wasn't going to be up and moving by 8:00am - at least I wouldn't be. I knew I was well prepared to be out in the back country by myself, so I wasn't too worried - but seeing a friendly face is always nice.
I was pretty conservative on my estimate for this section, again not wanting to do too much to increase the suffering on the second half. This section turned out to be quite a bit easier than I expected though. The trail winds around the Bright Angel Creek that feeds into the Colorado River, first through towering canyon walls that feel right next to you on either side, until it opens up to a much wider area about halfway to Manzanita. It also doesn't feel like you are ever gaining any elevation, as it might have a slight incline for a while then a flat or slight decline for a bit. I was able to run a lot more of this part than I expected.

At one point when crossing over a bridge I noticed there was another runner maybe a few minutes behind me. I wasn't trying to "race" him or anything, but he kept me moving at a good pace, because every time I looked back he was running, so I felt like I could run some. Eventually he caught up to me and we shared a few miles. I learned he had done R3 once before, and had another try that had to abort because of a nasty storm they saw coming in. We eventually parted ways once the trail actually had a few bigger climbs, but I thank him for pushing me to keep moving at such a good pace.

By the end of this section, I knew there was no doubt that I was going to continue on. I got there under four hours! I had built up a really nice cushion on my initial plan, which was a big mental boost - and I knew I could take it easy on the next brutal uphill section to the North Rim. I had a few feelings of a cramp coming on in my left hamstring, so I topped off my water bottle and downed the whole thing there, before refilling both bottles with Roctane. There was nowhere on the North Rim to get water so I wanted all the calories and electrolytes I could get. Ate some shot blocks and a handful of trail mix, a 5:53 break, and I was off for the last section before turning around.

Manzanita Rest Area (MZ) to North Kaibab Trailhead (NK) - mile 15.6 to 20.7
Distance: 5.1 miles
Plan: 20min/mile = 1hr 42mins
Actual: 2hr 13mins

What goes down must come up. Is that how the saying goes? Things are quite different in the canyon and this was the time to pay up for all that easy downhill and flat-ish running for 15 miles. Over 3800 feet to gain in just over 5 miles. I've done 15% incline miles on a treadmill and they aren't fun. A good workout is usually maybe 2-3 miles of that. Now I had 5+ miles of that to do on a trail - which is always harder than road/treadmill - and that's all after I'd been running for almost four hours. It was time to stick to the game plan and shift things into low gear and just grind this out to the top. This was probably the most beautiful section, as you climb high enough to have amazing views of the canyon back to the south, and you get up into the forest area with the pine trees and the canyon walls of red and white.

The trail itself, namely the footing, was anything but beautiful! Aside from the tough incline that taxed my legs something fierce, I also had to deal with snow and water puddles and muddy areas from the melt. The one good thing was that it was not quite cold enough for that melt to turn into ice. I wish I had researched this section a bit better, because there are some landmarks that would help to break up the climb into smaller checkpoints - Redwall Bridge (2.7 miles left), Supai Tunnel (2.0 miles left), and Coconino Overlook (0.7 miles left). I tried to remember from Jim Walmsley's R3 FKT report and video if he mentioned any of those points, and how far they were from the top. I couldn't recall, but for some reason got it in my head that the tunnel was 1.5 miles. Just past here I saw the speedster from the morning, he was now only 3 miles ahead of me - I would have expected much more based on how fast he started. Maybe he was racing down SK and took it easy after that. I saw the guy I ran with through The Box with about a mile left, we wished each other luck and enjoyment for the rest of our journeys.

You can imagine my disappointment when my watch hit 5.1 miles and I wasn't up there yet. I knew not to trust my GPS - but I couldn't even see the top yet! There was one nice thing though and that was that there were a decent amount of people on the trail, who had hiked up from PR or Cottonwood, and it's always a nice reprieve from suffering alone to share a quick word of encouragement with others. Finally, I saw the signs and reached the top, 6 hours 13 minutes! This was almost exactly what I had planned and I was very proud of this - but I still had a looong way to go to get back. I took a nice long 15 minute break to relax and stretch and eat some food, but there was no place to fill up water and I only had 10oz left for the return trip to Manzanita so I needed to get moving. Good thing it was a nice downhill and I would just have to ration out a drink each mile. I had one of the hikers that was up at the rim take a pic of me at the sign, opted not to do a snow angel that I had been considering heavily during the climb, and I was off for the second half of my adventure.

North Kaibab Trailhead (NK) to Manzanita Rest Area (MZ) - mile 20.7 to 25.8
Distance: 5.1 miles
Plan: 15min/mile = 1hr 16mins
Actual: 1hr 27mins

The first few miles was getting through the sloppy trail again. Early on I encountered a handful of hikers on their way up, and I stepped off trail (uphill has the right of way) into the snow drift and a few times sunk into the snow up to my knee. It felt nice and cool but didn't want to do that too often and have my shoes and socks get wet - probably too late for that anyways with all the water puddles around. Despite all the snow I was still getting pretty hot and sweating, so I grabbed a handful of snow and stuck it in my hat (like I've done with ice during hot summer runs). Not a whole lot of excitement on this section, really just approached it like I did my initial descent many hours earlier on South Kaibab. The first two miles I didn't run a single step, but once I made it past Supai Tunnel and the trail cleared up, I resumed my easy running/fast hiking and got back to my 15ish minute miles for the last 3 miles.

I will say this was probably my favorite section of the day. The North Rim definitely has the best views all around. The views going up are amazing but you don't get to see the canyon - just the rim up above. The difficulty of the climb makes it a bit less enjoyable too. Coming back down, you have wide expansive views of the canyon many thousands of feet below. And much less effort is required. I wish this part didn't go so quickly, but I still had almost 20 miles to go and didn't have any time to waste. It was almost 12:30pm when I left. I was hoping to get back down to Phantom Ranch around 4:00pm, which would leave me almost 3 hours before sunset (just before 7 o'clock).

Because of the slow going first few miles, I didn't get back to Manzanita until around 2:00pm, and had now fallen behind my schedule by about 20 minutes. I really wasn't worried about it though, it wasn't like there was a race cutoff I had to chase somewhere and I might be facing a DNF. Adventure running is a lot different than racing! There is no DNF in the canyon! I decided to take a bit longer break again because I had been really light on fluid intake and hadn't eaten anything for an hour so my energy level was pretty low. Two other hikers were resting there and we had a nice chat about our adventures, and I broke out the big guns - it was time for a honey bun! I also downed another whole bottle of water then refilled them both. After a 12 minute break I was off for the easy downhill run but also had to go through The Box, which is the hottest part of the trail, during the hottest part of the day.

Manzanita Rest Area (MZ) to Phantom Ranch (PR) - mile 25.8 to 34.3
Distance: 8.5 miles
Plan: 15min/mile = 2hr 7mins
Actual: 2hr 6mins

I absolutely nailed this section. Having the knowledge of what the trail was like from the first run through, I knew exactly what to expect. The first miles felt difficult because the canyon was open and fully exposed to the sun. I felt like it was at least 80 degrees, and after putting a marathon distance on my legs, the motivation to run was lacking. I usually have a hard time eating any solid food when it gets really hot, and knowing that, I planned on just sticking to the Roctane and water for this section. That worked out well for me, and despite the heat I did still manage several short runs of 30 to 60 seconds. Whenever I had something big to step up and over, I did this ridiculous move where I stuck my poles over the step, then floated over with my weight on the poles and did this high knee step then butt kick with each leg. To anyone watching - there wasn't anyone around for miles - this probably would look really weird, but in my head it was a way to stretch my leg muscles and flex my knees and kept me feeling good (even if it was only mental).

After some amount of miles (5???) I finally made it to where the canyon narrows and the walls shoot up steeply on either side. From there you are back to running along the Bright Angel Creek again, and the temptation to jump in was through the roof. It was probably 20 feet down at most spots though, and I was already starting to cool off in the shade. I got to the point where I was only running through the sections that were sunny - so I could get back to the shade as quickly as possible.

As far as planning went, I absolutely nailed my expectation for this section, finishing within 1 minute overall of what I planned. I knew I would be able to maintain about a 15 minute mile pace even this far into the day, because I had done just that during Black Canyon where I managed two miles at that pace for mile 44 and 45. I also knew I would be riding a wave of excitement because I had planned to just hike the entire length of the Bright Angel trail. I flew into Phantom Ranch and went right passed the water spigot and had to turn back just a bit. The area was full of people and I was a pretty filthy sight, so I figured I would ask about the dumbest question imaginable - in an area of picnic tables that was completely covered in shade, I asked a table of people if there was anywhere to sit in the shade. My brain was a little bit fuzzy at that point, so I just filled up my bottles and heading up a trail a bit and found a nice flat rock to sit on directly next to the trail - I wasn't taking any unnecessary steps. My break was exactly 10 minutes, and that felt like enough to get up and get moving on the final climb of the day. I declared I was done running at this point, and would just hike up at whatever pace felt comfortable.

Phantom Ranch (PR) to Indian Garden (IG) - mile 34.3 to 39.4
Distance: 5.1 miles
Plan: 20min/mile = 1hr 42mins
Actual: 1hr 53mins

For the first time of the day, I got angry at the trail. Mostly because I hadn't looked at any elevation profiles of the actual course, just the data on the NPS site. I knew this section was going to gain 1300 feet over 5 miles, which isn't really that much - similar to the elevation change between Phantom Ranch and Manzanita. So I figured the 20 minutes per mile would be right on. The first two miles went great (18ish and 19ish minutes), with some easy rolling terrain that was gradually getting higher following along the river. This part of the trail is really sandy - almost felt like walking on the beach. Thankfully I wasn't worried about pace at this point. It was just time to grind out the last climb, no matter how long it took. I was feeling good to this point, but what I didn't count on was that around 1.5 miles in, the trail would descend almost all the way back to the river's level. This meant the next 3 miles would have all of the 1300 feet of gain, which slowed me down quite a bit.

I took a short break a little more than halfway through this section. I wasn't able to eat anything while I was moving, but sitting down and relaxing even for just a few minutes was enough to settle my stomach a bit to get some food down. Thank God for the discovery of the Gu Roctane - I will be using this as my go-to fuel in any future adventure runs or races. I drank it all day and never got sick of it, and when I couldn't handle solid foods it still provides a great source of calories. 

I kept trying to project my finish during this climb, but if I've learned anything it's hard to predict what your body will do after 10+ hours of intense activity. I had to battle some cramps, foggy brain/sleepiness, and just overall muscle fatigue for a while. The last half of this section was much slower than the first half, but I was happy to get to Indian Garden before it was dark. I had about 30 minutes before sunset, but it gets dark down in the canyon a while before that. I left IG right around 6:30pm, and thankfully at this point I had cell service and was able to text Katie that I was safe, where I was, and when I expected to finish (so she could come pick me up at the trailhead).

Indian Garden (IG) to Bright Angel Trailhead (BA) - mile 39.4 to 43.9
Distance: 4.5 miles
Plan: 25min/mile = 1hr 52mins
Actual: 2hr 10mins

Finally, one last section to go. Less than 5 miles but over 3,000 feet of elevation. At this point I was happy to be seeing a few other hikers here and there, either finishing their hike for the day, or a few that were hiking down to camp at Indian Garden. A few of them were shocked when I told them what I was finishing, but they all cheered me on and gave me great encouragement to finish. The goal at this point was simple - one foot in front of the other, one step at a time, get up to the top. Knowing there are rest houses - a.k.a. just a pit toilet I think - at mile 3 and mile 1.5, I made short term goals within this section. Get to each rest house, take a quick sit down break to eat and drink, then get moving again.

Once I got to the 3 mile rest house, the stars were coming out. For the first time in 12 hours, I put a layer of clothing back on! I had carried my jacket, gloves, long sleeve shirt, and running tights on the back of my pack since the morning at Phantom Ranch. Only now did I need to put the jacket back on to keep me warm since I was moving so slowly. The whole point was to have plenty of layers to stay warm IF I needed them. Turns out I didn't, but better safe than sorry.

Not much can be said about the grind of a steep climb in the dark when you are more than 40 miles into your day. Your muscles ache, your toes hurt, your blisters hurt, and brain might get a little foggy in the dark. I did stop a few times to just admire the millions of stars in the dark sky over the canyon. A few times I simply could not see where the trail went even though it was pretty obvious. I had to stop and shine my light all around - usually I would just see a big wall on one side and the trail just continued straight. My Walmart-grade headlamp wasn't the best, but it got the job done. 

Eventually, I would pass the 3 mile rest house, then the 1.5 mile rest house, then the 1 mile Lower Tunnel. My pace quickened with the excitement that I was almost done. The last mile or so had some snow so I walked carefully over it. I made the turn around the last switchback - where I had been watching for Katie to finish her hike on Wednesday - and I knew that she could see me now. I had less than half a mile to go and was just about finished. At the sign with the hiker that is puking his guts out because he hiked too far for the day, I had to stop and yell my favorite David Goggins saying at it - "YOU DON'T KNOW ME SON!" It is a good reminder that people should be aware of their own abilities, and a hike into the canyon can be dangerous if you aren't prepared. I knew full well what I was getting into. I knew from my past experiences that I could take down the Rim to Rim to Rim adventure run, and I had now done it! I was so thankful for a day with perfect weather, and that everything I learned from my previous disappointments had molded me into an athlete that could accomplish such a difficult feat in one day.

Food: Honey Bun and Ensure protein shake pre-run, 5 mini Snickers bars, 2 packs fruit snacks, 1 pack Clif Shotbloks, 2 servings potato chips, lots of handfuls of trail mix, big bacon double cheeseburger after finishing

Hydration: 100oz water, seven servings of Gu Roctane mixed with 20oz water - berry flavor

Gear: UltrAspire Momentum race vest, Hoka Speedgoat 3, Black Diamond Carbon Z trekking poles (used from Phantom Ranch at mile 7ish until finish), GoPro Hero 7 (video), iPhone 11 (photos)