Antelope Canyon 50 Miler Recap Part 2

We were lucky that the race start was only a 15 minute drive from our hotel, so we were able to sleep until the very last minute.  Race start was at 5:45, we left our hotel at 5:15 and made it to the start with ample time.

It was still dark as all the runners were gathering. There were half marathon, 50 miler and 100 miler runners all gathered around bon fires that were set up to keep us warm. We had ideal temperature in the low teens.  After the announcements and Navajo blessing was made, the buzzer went off and off we went into the darkness.

Start Line Selfie

The 50 mile racers were off first. There were probably about 300 people who were running this distance. The course starts out in a flat section in the desert for 5 miles on a sandy double track with a little slick rock and a slot canyon mixed in. The sun came up pretty quickly after we started.   Around mile 4 we go down into the first slot canyon which leads to the lower Antelope Canyon.

First of Many Aid Stations

You can see from the photo the other runners coming down behind the aid station.

Yummy Food

We knew that we would come back to this aid station, so we continued running into a very sandy open wash for about 3 miles before we got to the entrance of Upper Antelope Canyon.

This was the first of of a few canyons the we would be running through.  The sun was still coming up so the lighting was not the best for photos, and we were technically racing, so we had to keep on moving and parts of the slot canyons were so narrow that we had to run in single file.

Once we came out of the slot canyons we went back to the Antelope aid station for the second time.  This section was quite flat and mostly soft sand.  After stopping at Antelope aid station for a quick washroom break and to grab some food we headed back in the direction to where we had started. After about 4 miles of the running we split off from the where we had come from and head towards Horseshoe Bend/Waterholes Canyon leg.  

Not Even close to being done

Horseshoe Canyon

Running towards the famous Horseshoe Bend was the highlight of the race. We were all looking forward to seeing this magical place.  On our way there we stopped by Slickrock Aid station which was a mile into the desert running through more soft sand.  Like many runners, we stopped and spent some time taking photos and trying to take in the views of the canyon and the Colorado River below.

Jumping for Joy!

The next section had us weaving through slickrock, which is like sandpaper along the rim of the Colorado River.  This area is usually not travelled much by people and was challenging due to the constant elevation changes and change in the terrain that we were running in, from slickrock to soft sand.

Heading down into a Slot

After crossing back over the highway we fuelled up at Waterholes, we headed down into another slot canyon we we continued to run for about a mile before we exit and head back towards the city of Page on a LONG, exposed and sandy traverse which took us along Horseshoe Bend and Slickrock Aid stations for a second time. 

Climbing out of the many Slots

Once we enter Page, we climb up a plateau where the city is built. This route ties into the  single track  of the Page Rim Trail.  This is a 10 mile loop with beautiful views of the city, Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam.

This is final 10 mile leg offered us great views as the sun was setting.  My buddies and I watched the sunset as we headed towards the finish line.

What an amazing race with some of the best friends a gal can ask for.  Overall, the race was very well organized. Nutrition was good and the support crew were great.  Looking forward to the next race.

Antelope Canyon 50 Miler Recap Part 1

I am terribly late on this recap, but I have been so lazy after coming back from the race. My daughter has been asking me weekly on whether or not I had written my recap, as I think she may be the only one who reads this blog :)

The Antelope Canyon 50 Miler happened to fall on the start of Spring Break for the kids, so it was a crazy week or preparation to get the house in order before leaving as well as packing up for the race. It was all a blur.

My buddy had come over earlier on the week and we were able to prepare all our nutrition packets that we would have in the drop bags as well as planning on what we would need to have in each drop bag during the race.  We had to have all this prepared as we were flying in the day before packet pickup and would not have time to set up as if we were at home.

We flew out Thursday morning to Phoenix.  My original plan was to fly into Las Vegas, but the night before,   I checked the flight loads and the flight to Las Vegas was now oversold, but the flight to Phoenix had seats open.  We were travelling standby on my passes, so our seating would based on whatever plane had seats available.   The problem was that it was leaving earlier than our Las Vegas flight.  I frantically messaged my girlfriends and hoped they would get my message because I would be showing up earlier to pick them up.  Luckily, when I showed up to their homes, they were up and ready to go. I drove quite fast to the airport and we made it to our flight with minutes to spare.

I was able to rent a car in Phoenix while waiting for board the flight, thank goodness for technology.  We arrived in Phoenix, picked up our rental car and I started the four and a half hour drive up to Page, Arizona.  The view are stunning, but we ended up driving into the sunset and arrived to our hotel in the dark.

We woke up to beautiful views from our hotel.  Since we had arrived in the dark, we had no idea what was around us. It was incredible to see the views before us. It was stunning.

After a lovely local breakfast, we headed out to find to expo. The location had been changed, but we had no idea as were were not emailed. We showed up to the expo which was where the start and finish line of the race would be and saw no one. We saw that people were setting up the area for the race but no expo. Thankfully, we found another racer/volunteer to directed us to the new location.  They had changed it because of how windy the area was.  We decided to get out and take some photos, as I figured we would be staring and finishing in the dark.

Can you hear that wind? It was so windy that our car and clothes were full of sand from it just blowing around.

Goofing around at the Race Start

Thankfully,  Page is a tiny town and the race expo had been moved to the local community centre which was 5 minutes away.  

We got there just in time to catch one of the Navajo elders doing a welcome.  We picked up our bibs, dropped off our bags and did some souvenir shopping and headed back to our hotel to relax. We stopped into a local grocery store to pick up some breakfast items and we each got a pint of ice cream for a treat.  

Can you See Our Drop Bag? 

Course Map

On our drive back we found a lovely look out and drove out the check it out. Once again, amazing views. I couldn't believe all the beauty around us.

When we finally made it back to the hotel, we each dug into our ice cream containers and ended up being so stuffed that we didn't even have dinner that evening.  I'm not sure if it was a good idea, but we would find out soon enough.

Week 14 - 11/02/2019 - Peak Week

After taking a nice rest on Sunday, we were back at it Monday with some speed work.  This week our buddy had some 400m repeats for us. The work out was essentially 4x400 with decreasing rests.  Running fast has never been my strong point, but I have to keep reminding myself that it SHOULD help me.

Tuesday morning we wake up to some more snow fall and to find out all the school buses in our region have been cancelled.  After, we dropped the kids off at school, I was off to meet up with the run crew for a road run. We ran for 1 hour and 4 minutes and covered 9.01 km.  As I am checking my Garmin statistics,  I see that the day before at speed we ran 1 hour 4 minutes and covered 9.02 km.   I'm going to assume that I should have covered more distance the day before.  I'm going to assume that it was because of the snow that had accumulated  on the roads.  Can anyone shed light on this?

Wednesday ended up being another snowy day,  so I decided to take it inside on my beloved treadmill. I was also keen on catching up with my latest addiction of watching Game of Thrones.  After 1:45 and 2 episodes of the show, I was off to run some errands before the kids got home.

Valentine's Day was on Thursday and it was also the day before our longest run of the training cycle. I decided to take it easy and really rest the legs, but all I could think about was how LONG the run was going to take and if I could survive.  I took full advantage of the day off and rested and enjoyed a nice dinner with hubs and tried my best to sleep early.

Valentine's Meal with Hubs

After dropping off the kids at the bus stop,  I hurried home to pack up my stuff for the long run and was out to door to meet up with my friends for our long run.  30 miles was planned for the day or whatever we could get in before I had to be home to pick up the kids from the bus stop.

New Altras for the Long Run

My girlfriend had planned our route.  The run was going to be on road as we were limited on time.  We ran locally and then onto some country roads before heading out to our pit stop at the school where my training partner's husband is a teacher.   She had sent him to school with extra supplies for us to refill and refuel.  Her planning was perfect as we arrived at the time she had told him and we were able to refill all our bottles, use the washrooms and change out whatever we wanted to drop off.  We had probably run around 35 kms at this point.

Pit Stop

The road down to the school was exposed with no trees to block any wind and it had been quite windy for a lot of this section. I was happy to have this pit stop but looking at the time, I knew we had to get moving.  We were supposed to head back up to my girlfriends place where my car was, but I had to cut the run short and run to the bus stop to pick up the kiddies and finish my run on the treadmill after the kids got home.  My watch had died around the 40 km mark so I had no idea how much or how far I actually finished with.  My Garmin has been dying lately.   After a full charge, it will only last at maximum 4 and a half hours. I'm pretty bummed as I know it will not be able to last the race.  I had hoped to get the battery changed but it doesn't seem to be an option for this model, the Garmin 620.

I was surprised that I was not dead after the long run.  But, as a mom, there's never really any breaks. Back to wife and mom duties.  

My friend and fellow runner from Rochester had come up to celebrate Chinese New Year with us for the weekend.  I asked her to join us for our second long run on Saturday.  Hubs had made plans with the other dads to take the kids to the Toronto International Show which meant I had more time than I usually have on Saturdays to run.  I was able to sleep in a little and have a nice long run catching up with my buddy.  It was such a treat.  We met up with some of our other girlfriends for a lovely brunch.  It was a great way to end this week.  I finished the week with 94 kms.  Hoping this is enough for the race.

All Smiles after 18 km

Brunch

How was your week?

Week 13 - 02/04/2019 Build up Week

The weather finally let up for the start of the week.  We started off this week with a some speed work.     A run buddy of ours is training for her first full marathon in the spring, so we have decided to join in on her workouts.

The workout was planned at 1 km @ 5km race pace 1 minute rest followed by 500m 1 minute rest, 500m with 2 minute rest repeated 4 times.  We only mustered up 3 repeats before calling it quits.  It all seems awful when doing the workout, but always thinking you could have done more after.

No Jackets

Happy Chinese New Year Tuesday.  Another nice day to get out for a run with my buddies before a flight off to London.   We took it back on the road for a speedier run than normal run for me.   They managed to get me to average a 6:27min/km pace for almost 9 km. It's one of my fastest runs in this training cycle.  Speed seems so much harder now since I've gotten used to the trails.  Look what you get from Garmin for logging a run on this special day.  I should try to run more often on holidays.

I had planned to try to squeeze in a quick run while in London, but things didn't go as planned. My cousin had purchased tickets to see Avenue Q. Avenue Q is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics.  The layover is so short but I forged on and was able to enjoy the nice day. I spent the morning walking through the busy shopping streets of London.

Shopping for the Family

I was so distracted with the nice day and shopping that I lost track on time. I made it back to the hotel just in time to head straight back out to meet up with my cousin for dinner and the show.

New Wimbledon Theatre

The show was HILARIOUS!!! I laughed until my tummy hurt. If you ever have the chance to see it, you must go get tickets.  It is not for kids and may be offensive to many, but oh boy,  I was crying in my seat.  It ended up being a late night. I opted to sleep in before my flight instead of running to save my legs for the long back to backs runs when I got home.

Friday after dropping the kids off at school, I met up with my training buddies to head out to the trails.

Fuel for the Day

The weather had been terrible during the week.  It had started warm with rain showers, which then turned to frigid temperatures with 60 km per hour winds.  We drove out to the trail head hoping to run the first of our long runs in the trails.  We knew it would be a hard run as soon as my friend tried to drive into the parking lot. It was a skating rink and the car didn't stand a chance to even make it into the driveway.  We ended up parking on the side of the rural road and ran up and down the road for 39 kilometres.  It was the only way that we would get the mileage in as the forest was not an option.  The country road was gravel and the plow eventually came along and graded the road.  We stayed on the road as it was between the tall trees of the forest that was able to block the 60 km/per hour winds. 

As my friend said, "it was an ugly run"

Saturday morning at 5:30 we were back out to run the roads with the whole gang. It nice to have all everyone to keep the pack moving.  I was only able to finish with 30km.  I was limited on my time so finished 10km short.  This does make me nervous because I feel like I haven't built up enough mileage, but I am hoping that I can catch up the week after. 

Saturdays are always super busy here for us, so my runs are always limited.  We jam our weekends with our kids extracurricular activities.  It's all about finding a balance.

We celebrated Chinese New Year with my family Saturday night with a giant feast.  I quickly forgot about all the miles logged and stuffed my face.

Thanks for reading.  How was your week? Hows' your training coming along?

Week 12 - 01/29/2019 Zurich for the First Time

We ended up with another snowy weekend and more snow was coming for the week.  My run buddies were busy on Monday,  I decided to take Monday's run indoors and just had an hour and a half recovery run on the treadmill.  Because most of our runs have been outside, I actually look forward to my treadmill runs where I can indulge myself on Netflix for endless hours.

With more snow overnight, Tuesday's run ended up being another slow snow run around the block avoiding cars and snow banks.  Check out how we got our kiddies to the bus stop that morning.

After our run, I got a call from work with some flights available up for grabs.  I was offered Frankfurt, Dubai or Zurich.  I had never been to Zurich or Dubai, but the trip to Dubai would have taken me away from the family for 5 days. So I opted for Zurich.  I quickly made it home to pack and get the home prepared for me being away for the next few days.

Thank goodness Some Sidewalks were Plowed

I was excited to go to Zurich as I had never been there in my 20 years of flying.  I soon realised that I would have to do one of my long runs there as I would be missing a run with my friends on Thursday so I had to pack up my gear for a 24 km long run in Zurich.  I usually like to look up running routes, but did not have anytime as I had just found out about the flight.  I quickly checked the weather and packed accordingly and headed out the door.

The flight to Zurich was quiet and uneventful. I asked my fellow crew members who had been to the city about areas to run and found out that we stay in a small town outside of the city centre.  I was told that there were some trails up a mountain and a lake that I could run around.

We arrived early Wednesday morning Zurich.  It was about 2 degrees with little snow which was a nice change from the snow storm I had left in Markham.  After a quick nap,  I headed down to ask the concierge about running routes.  She gave me a small map with directions to the lake which was only about 7 km, so I decided to improvise.  A fellow crew member had told me that I could exit the hotel and see a mountain where I could just run to the base of and find a trail head.  Her instructions were pretty simple so off I went.

Snow Trails 

Made it up to the Top

The trails were light snow covered as I headed up the trail head. There were many markers along the way, but I had no idea where they were directing me to :)  It's part of the fun when running trails.

Because I had overslept, I knew that I wanted to head back down the trails and back towards the town and find the lakes before it was dark.

Bike Trails

This Way Out

Luckily, I ended up seeing some people walking their dogs and out for evening hike which reassured me that I was not lost.

I made it back down the trail to find my way to the lake with the map the concierge had given me.  I followed it to a park which was part trail and part paved sidewalk.  It had 15 stations with exercises posted.

I made it to 10 of the 15 stations before I realized that a few of the stations were beside the prison and train track. I decided to head back to find my way to the lake as it was sun was starting to set.

Finally found the Lake

The map was fairly vague and I had looped around a few times before I spotted some other runners and followed them towards the lake and the running route that the concierge had told me about. I was so relieved when I finally spotted the lakes.

Sunset over the Lake

The run had been another adventure through a beautiful city. I am so grateful my job allows me to see such amazing cities.  I had to finish the last 10kms on the hotel treadmill as it got dark.

I was able to make it back to spend Friday with the kids as they had the day off from school.  With the all the snow that we had got during the week, we decided to go tobogganing. It was nice to have the day off from running and just having fun with the kids.

But we were right back at it Saturday morning to finish the second long run for the week.  My buddy and I met up before sunrise in hopes to run trails, but ended up running mostly on the road because of all the snow.  I was happy to have some company again for a long run.

Another week was done and the snow seems to be never ending.  Zurich was a real treat and would definitely love to go back in warmer weather to run the trails again.

How was your week? Any races ?