Zion 100

It has been a long time since I posted a race report on my blog. It’s about time! I recently finished Zion 100 held near Zion National Park. I had finished nine different 100-mile races in Utah but had never run Zion because of conflicts each year.  This year I could finally make it and signed up with a few days to spare.

At the end of 2018, I managed to finish my 100^th 100-miler at Across the Years on their flat course in Arizona. But I still was battling a bone injury in my left knee that wouldn’t let me run very long on trails. I could run on the treadmill or on the flats. In February, I attempted running 100 miles at the Grand Master Ultra in Arizona on flat sandy trails but stopped at 75 miles because of crippling knee pain.

I went back to the doctor and had another MRI. He told me he could do another procedure with long healing but either way he said, “you have run your last 100-miler.”  I chose to be patient and hope for further healing. This was the same doctor who in 2003 told me to stop running because of my other knee. That was before I had attempted my first 100-miler, so it has been tough to take his advice.

More healing came. On March 18^th I decided to try a test 6-mile run on trails and it went well. A six mile run is one thing, but ultradistance is another. My motivation for getting out to do training runs has been low over the months because of the pain involved, but perhaps now I could finally do some good training.

By the end of March I started to run more consistently. But even if my knee would be fine, my back muscles were sadly out of shape when attempting climbs. Once I hit age 59, I discovered that flat very long training runs were not enough to strengthen the back, and now at 60 it was worse.  So, I went to work, hit the hills and did some weight training. For the first seven day of April I ran 70 miles and climbed about 7,000 feet, feeling much stronger.

So, perhaps foolishly, after just one week of hard training on steep trails, the most since a week in October 2017, I signed up for Zion 100 held on April 18^th. I traveled to Southern Utah the afternoon before and stayed at the new Zion’s Camp and Cottages in La Verkin owned by my friends. I love staying there on my Southern Utah trips because they are always so quiet, affordable, new, clean, and I sleep very well there.

Zion 100 is run on the desert mesas outside of the national park, above and to the east of the cities of La Verkin and Hurricane. Even though it is in the desert, it is truly a mountain run with about 11,000 feet of climbing along the way. I had expected a lot of dirt road running, but most of the course is run up on the mesas meandering on slickrock loops used by mountain bikes. The result is a very technical and rather slow course with stunning views along the way.

The start was in a town park in the town of Virgin. The entrants list was not published online as far as I could tell and I was stunned at how many runners there were in the race. There were 262 100-mile starters and 331 100K runners for a total of nearly 600 runners on the same course for the first 50 miles or so. That was a disappointing discovery because I love the solitude of smaller 100-milers.

I enjoy competing, but after my last failure, I pulled back expectations and set my goal to just finish, hopefully around 30 hours or so.  We started in the dark at 6 a.m., a mass of runners with headlamps that exited the town of Virgin and ran south toward Gooseberry Mesa. Our first major climb of 2,500 feet in three miles came fast. I purposely held back, took it fairly easy. The knee was fine but the back complained. Most of runners in the  pack were bundled up in warm clothes but I didn’t because I knew it would feel warm on the climb and it did.

I arrived at the top, at Goosebump (mile 5.2) in 1:20 in 160^th place. All of the drop bags were in a disappointing random heap and it took a couple minutes to find mine. My stop was for about five minutes as  I refilled my bottles, dropped off my light, and ate. The next segment was fast rolling dirt road. I  discovered that I had dropped too far back in the pack. Many of the runners around me started to walk on mild climbs. I decided to step up the pace and count all the runners that I passed for the next 6.2 miles to Grafton Mesa. It was great fun and I passed about 85 runners catching up to others who were keeping steady runs going.

I overheard a runner explaining that for the next 17 miles or so we would be running on challenging slickrock. I had not expected that. It was rather slow but fun single-track trail or marked routes up and down slickrock. The knee didn’t always appreciate the hard slick rock but it behaved.  We did fun loops on Wire Mesa and Grafton Mesa overlooking beautiful valleys  and then returned to Goosebump (mile 34.4).  I had been running for eight hours and it was 2:00 p.m.  I knew my pace was slow but everything was going fine.

After a ten minute stop to eat well, I was off for another long 11-mile slickrock loop on Gooseberry Mesa.  The views looking down below to La Verkin, Hurricane,  and snow-covered Signal Peak in the distance were stunning. But then things fell apart. Perhaps I ate too much. I started to feel sick and sore.  My pace slowed to 20-minute miles including some short rest stops. People asked if I was okay as they passed by. All the running up and down slickrock was taking a hard toll on me.  But once I slowly reached the high point of the loop, also the high point of the course, the gradual downhill helped and quickly the sickness went away and I started to have great fun again.  That is typical when running 100-milers. You can have the lowest of lows and the highest of highs within the same hour.

The weather had been absolutely perfect. In past years this race had been plagued by hot temperatures but it was constantly cool with only a few short stretches of annoying wind gusts.  Off in the distance I could see rain showers but somehow, we were able to dodge them all and I never felt any rain.

I arrived again at Goosebump (mile 45.7) at nearly 6:00 p.m. I had been running for nearly 12 hours but I felt great. As I was finding my bag, Danny Widerburg of West Jordan, Utah yelled out to the runners there, “See that guy in the orange shirt, he is running his 101^st 100-miler.” I blushed and waved.

For the next segment, we descended back down the high mesa on the trail we had climbed up during the morning.  I ran with Danny and we had fun talking for the next hour. Our pace was as slow as the others around us but I really enjoyed getting my mind off running and swapping stories with Danny.  He eventually went on ahead but sadly wouldn’t finish, going 100K (62 miles).

I arrived at Virgin Desert aid station with perfect timing as dusk was arriving. There I had my warm clothes and green flashlight for the night. My stop there was the longest of my race as I rested for 30 minutes eating and changing my clothes. I left at the 14:47 mark (8:47 p.m.) at mile 53.8.  I was still on pace for about a 30-hour finish or so. I didn’t really care about my time as long as I was well ahead of the cutoff times and I was.

Running in the dark was amazing. I had fun chasing runner lights ahead of me and passed a few as we wound down through canyons arriving at the south rim of the Virgin River near La Verkin. Even though it was dark, the partial moon shed enough light to look down the massive river gorge. We ran along the river for a while and took side routes around drainages toward the river.  Along the way I listened to various very interesting historic podcast episodes about the Jacksonian era and the space race. I wasn’t pushing it very hard but the runners behind me weren’t catching up. The 100K runners were no longer on our course so the remaining 100-mile runners were pretty spread out. My solitude had arrived.

We crossed the Virgin River over a bridge and soon also crossed Highway 9 near Virgin and headed up a steep paved road up to Smith Mesa. I was glad this huge climb wasn’t a technical trail. My Garmin watch ran out of batteries near the end of the climb at mile 70.7 after 20 hours, 20 minutes. I soon arrived at Smith Mesa about a mile later where I had my backup Garmin watch.  Good planning.

It was now 3:00 a.m. The stars were amazing above me in the sky and the temperature was still very pleasant.  I wore three shirts to stay warm but the jacket I had tied around my waist never came off.  I next attacked a six-mile “Flying Monkey” loop. At first it was fun technical trail with climbs but then it became a rutted mess for several miles, chewed up by cattle. It wasn’t muddy, but it was nasty running over those craters of foot prints. This was my least favorite part of the course.

Eventually the ruts stopped and it was time to descend nearly 2,500 feet off the mesa. I had expected a pleasant dirt road to run fast on, but no, it was a terrible, technical, dangerous trail along cliffs. Areas of the trail were destroyed by boulders and rockslides that we had to pick our way through.  I could see the lights of headlamps below also struggling. This descent seemed dangerous to me, especially in the dark, but I made my way down pretty slowly but I did catch up and pass many runners.

Finally, the sloping desert floor arrived and I could run again as the night sky was starting to brighten up.  I reached Virgin BMX aid station (mile 80) at 24:17 (6:17 a.m.) There was frost on my drop bag and it was cold. But my plan was to leave behind my warm clothes at this point and to head off into the cold morning that I knew would warm up fast just dressed in a T-shirt and shorts.  Everyone else was still really bundled up. If I dress too warm, it makes me slow down. My stop was for a long 25 minutes but it was needed.

With just 20 miles to go, I next had to face a 17-mile out and back that climbed up to a low mesa with more slickrock fun. I knew I could make it. My knee was fine. My biggest problem was terrible back muscles spasms that greatly slowed me down.  I experienced another bad low point running up a mild sloping road up to the mesa.  My miles again slowed to 20-minute pace. I couldn’t see any runners behind or ahead of me so I went at a lazy pace with several stops.  Eventually I ate more and my energy came back.  I met Robert Boyden coming back and he clued me in on the slickrock section coming up. By the time I reached Guacamole aid station at the top, (mile 85.7), I was feeling fine again and feasted on some bacon and quesadillas which brought life back into me.  Rachel Moody was there pacing a runner seven miles ahead and she gave me nice words of encouragement.

Taking it easy, I really enjoyed the quiet morning solitude on the trail winding through and over the slickrock on that beautiful mesa. Some mountain bikers came by and I saw an occasional runner coming back, but it was quiet and peaceful. Cell phone Internet signal came back, so I sent out some pictures and texts. I eventually returned to Guacamole and was able to greet dozens of runners in the back of the pack behind me including Phil Lowry and Jill Cark on the training run for 200 milers. After quickly grabbing food at Guacamole aid station (mile 92.5), I looked forward to a speedy run down the road. It felt fast, but at best was a 15-minute-mile pace.   I caught up and passed several runners with pacers moving slowly. Funny though, when I would pass them, they all woke up and moved faster.

There was an important turn off the road to a trail that I didn’t want to miss.  I saw in the distance a runner make the turn.  But then my tired mind must have went to sleep. I totally missed the well-mark turn off and it wasn’t until another quarter mile down the road that I realized I goofed. That took all the wind out of my sails.  I turned around, feeling very foolish, trying not to think about the extra half mile or so. With four miles to go I was pretty much done. My pace went back over 20-minute-mile pace, and I just looked forward to the finish. We had to make a stream crossing with three miles to go, wading in calf-deep water. My tired feet enjoyed the cold water.  The last hour was hot and mostly a death march, but I plodded along. With the finish in sight, several runners blew by me running fast but it didn’t matter to me. I made it!  I finished in 31:53 in 107^th place.  I was dehydrated badly at the finish but otherwise felt very fine.

A big crowd of cheering families and friends were at the finish, but I didn’t know anyone there.  I just quietly claimed my belt buckle, retrieved my drop bags, and went to my car to drink up and cool down. I reflected on what I had accomplished.  After all the long months of healing, I had finished my first mountain trail 100 since the 2017 Bear 100 in September 2017.  I was so happy.  Just a month earlier my doctor had pretty much convinced me that my 100-miler days were finally over and that I needed to start acting my age. But I did it. I finished a tough trail 100-miler and it looks like I was the second oldest finisher at age 60.

My friends Rich and Carolyn Murset kindly let me use a room at Zion’s Camp and Cottages to cleanup and rest a little. Then I made the long 4-hour drive home, hobbling into the house to cheers from my family.  My 101^st 100-miler was in the books.