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.

Back to Work and into Week 5 Antelope Canyon Training Cycle

After two weeks off, it was back to work for me. I was looking forward to escaping the cold Canadian winter, but not the long flight there and back.  My trips to Hong Kong are usually 3 days in length, two of those days are spent in the airplane.

Monday was another speed session. This week we did 4 laps of just under 1 kilometre around the school.  I have a love hate relationship with speed work because it hurts so much, just like hill training. This week was not my best performance, but happy to have 3 out of the 4 laps under 5 minutes per kilometre. I am still chasing down the rest of the group and always wanted to throw up at the end of each loop. 

I had set my alarm to wake up early to try to get in a short run on the treadmill before my flight to Hong Kong, but I ended up snoozing and only getting in some stretching and strengthening work in before it was time to head out for the morning flight to Hong Kong.

When I arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday, I knew that there was no way I would be able to do any kind of exercise. The flight to Hong Kong was exhausting.  Maybe it was because it was the two weeks off from flying. I ended up sleeping from the moment I got into my hotel room to until the next day. It was the first time that I had slept so much on a layover.

I woke up early Thursday morning in Hong Kong and headed out to do my usual Lion Rock Hill trail run/climb.  Hong Kong has an extensive trail system that is easily accessible by public transit and for people of all ages and athletic abilities.  Lion Rock Hill is a mountain that is about a half hour train ride from the hotel.  Lion Rock is the 52nd highest mountain in Hong Kong standing at 495 metres high.  I was pretty tired from the get go, but always try to do the hike from one side of the mountain to the other in 2 hours.  The trail is usually quiet in the early mornings, but can get busy as day goes on. This morning was quiet. The first section of the trail is fairly flat and is near apartments, so there is usually quite a number of seniors out for their morning walks.  I start at Ma On Shan Country Park.

My Strava Stats

I will write another post on this hike as it deserves it's own post.  I eventually end up at the start of Lion Rock Country Park and this is where the climbing starts.  This is a fairly quick but quite painful climb. I like to call it nature's stair climber. I do my best to keep moving. I run the flats as much as I can and crawl up the steep climbs. 

As this is the wild, there are animals that can be seen along the trails. It's usually monkeys, but on this run, I ran into a wild boar. I was coming along the side of the mountain in a flat section and could hear rustling in the bush.  It sounded louder and heavier than usual and sure enough the boar popped out onto the side of the trail and I stopped in my tracks. I was all alone and was frozen. I decided to step back and give the boar some space, but the only say to continue on the trail would be to pass the boar.  I didn't want to go back as it would only bring me back down the mountain, so I stood back and waited until I heard the rustling and snorting get further away.  I dashed across the trail and continued to climb the mountain.  I wish I had my phone out to snap a photo, but was I was freaked and in shock.  

Endless Mountains 

Taking a quick Break

Once I made it to the top out of breath and exhausted, I took a moment to take in the spectacular views. It was a pretty clear day as there had been cold front that had come through Hong Kong that week. Winds were from the north which was chilly for locals, but for this Canadian gal, I was loving the "warm" temperature. 

More Views

It always amazes me how they built this city in between all these massive mountains.  When I first starting flying to Hong Kong 14 years ago, I never knew that there was such an extensive trail system. I always just thought of Hong Kong as a big metropolis.  

After a quick water break, I headed back down the mountain to get back to the hotel to get ready for my flight home.

It was SO HARD getting up on Friday. We had decided to do one of our long runs this week on the road. We were supposed to run 32 kilometres , but it was pouring rain for the entire run. We ended up with 27 kilometres. I was completely exhausted and many thanks to my run buddies who kept me company and moving for the entire time. I'm sure they would have finished much earlier as they are much faster runners, but they stayed with me and encouraged me to finish.  We were all soaked to the core after 3 hours in the rain.  Everything was numb.  I headed home to a hot shower and a quick nap before picking up the kids from school. Mom life is never ending.

Smiling because I'm DONE!

The alarm went off at 5 am Saturday morning for another long run. My buddy picked me up and we headed out to pick up another buddy to run some road and trails. 

Dawn

I am very fortunate to live close to some trails. There are paved sections that lead into the woods. I was hurting from the previous runs.  I'm glad I had friends who showed up at my door and dragged me out. Once I started moving it wasn't so bad. Thankfully there was no rain and it had warmed it a little bit. The rain had washed away most of the snow.  It was nice to be back in the trails.

I was elated to finish this week of training. Three days of hard running had be completely bagged. My legs were sore and my body was tired.  I was ready to take Sunday off.   I was off to more mom duties before a night to celebrate a friend's birthday and another week of training done.

My Clan 

How was your week? Anyone race? Are you ready for the Christmas Holidays?

Week 4 Antelope Canyon Training, bring on the Christmas Parties

I can't believe that we have been training for 4 weeks now. But, my body is definitely starting to feel it.  I had enjoyed the week at home the week before and was looking forward to this week as well. There was also a sense of urgency as I knew it was my last week off before heading back to work. I was trying to make sure I had everything done for the holidays and the family before flying out for the next two weeks.

Training has been coming along. I actually ran every day this week except for Sunday

Monday speed session was awful and that's just me being honest. I don't like speed work. I always want to die and I know that you should push yourself hard, but many times I give up before I even start.  Feeling like you want to drop dead and puke at the end of every lap is not what I enjoy any more.  I am hoping that I will embrace it again. We met up at my friend's place to run laps around the school. We did one warm up lap and then 4 laps around the school. We ran one of our friends home and finished with another lap and a cool down.

Laps are just under 1km

Tuesday was pretty much a write off. Husband bought us a new t.v on the Black Friday weekend and delivery was scheduled for today, but the window was ridiculous, 9-5. Seriously,  who sits around the entire day waiting for a delivery. I was rather disappointed as he had bought the television from Costco and I would expect better service.  I decided to use this day as a catchup day and rest. However, I got restless and ended up running for an hour slowly on the treadmill while watching Netflix. The delivery ended up being a complete mess and we would never recommend Costco for this service again.

Wednesday was a gorgeous day..

Sunrise

My buddy was free for a run so we met up for a quick easy run on road and trails of Milne Park

Rouge River

Milne Park

It was quite wet and soggy as the trails did not have a lot of traffic in parts. We ended up forging our way off the trails for part of our run.

We also discovered bike repair/aid stations that the City of Markham had placed at certain trail heads entering the paved parts of the trails. The stations had tools as well as a bicycle pump for anyone to use free of charge.

Fixit Station

Thursday was to be an easy day but I just had to take advantage of having the week off, so I was able to convince a buddy of mine to meet up with me for an easy 10km.  Have I mentioned that this awesome run buddy is a grandma in her 60's and can run the pants off of me. I was struggling to keep pace with her. I would have considered this my tempo run :)

Friday was long run 1 of 2. The training plan calls for 15 miles. We had decided that it would equate to about 3-3.5 hours in the trails. We headed back up to Durham Forest to explore the trails. As we were running through the trails, we commented on how lucky we were to actually live so close (20 minutes drive) to some of these trails that we run in.

It was the coldest day of the week on Friday and I was not sure how to dress as it was the first super cold day of this training cycle.  

Felt much Colder

The trails were covered in snow, but there were bike tracks that we were able to follow along to the section markers.  My toes were frozen and all I could think about was whether or not to tell my friends. I figure they were just as cold as I was and since they didn't say anything.  All I could think about was what would happen if my toes froze... would I have to amputate them?  Thank goodness after 4 km's of running before I could start feeling my toes again.  The trails were quiet and we only bumped into 1 cyclist.

Fat Bike Treads

We found new trails that we had not run in before and ended up a the base of a local ski resort. If you look closely at the map, you can make out 2 ski resorts on the right side. The ski resorts had their snow making machines working hard to get ready for a weekend of skiing.  Tough run and was exhausted when we finally finished.

That evening the run squad had our Christmas get together. We got to just chill and relax. I've been so blessed to have met these ladies. We have spent many miles pounding the pavement and exploring trails. I am lucky to call them my friends.  It was so nice to be able just to catch up and chat since most of the times I'm trying to keep up with them and barely able to speak because I'm so out of breath.

Missing a few Ladies

Saturday, I was up nice and early to get in long run number 2; 11 miles.  My buddy picked me up at 5:30 and we were off to start in the dark. It was actually a bit warmer than Friday's run, but not by much. The light snow was pretty, but my legs didn't want to move at all. My buddy and I usually run the road which is a pretty big hill for about an hour to kill some time while the sun comes up.

Rouge River

Fresh Snow

Hair is frozen

Are we done yet???

Sunrise and Stairs

This run was actually really nice with the fresh snowfall. Even though my legs were toast, my buddy was nice enough to keep the pace and keep me moving. The whole idea of having the 2 back to back long runs is to run on tired legs and I was definitely feeling it today. All I wanted to do was to walk, but we both had to be home at 8:30 to get to our mom duties, so I had to get moving.

After a day of driving the kids to all their weekend activities, we headed out to Rockwood to another Christmas party.  I was so happy to be done with Week 4 of this training cycle that I just ended up passing out by 9pm. Thank goodness for sleepover parties where you can just eat, drink and fall asleep.

Kids and Ugly Sweaters

Mom's 

Dad's

Finished week 4 with 72.86 km, 2 Christmas parties and a full belly. Vacation is now done and back to work next week. Mileage will go down as I will be flying for 2 days out of the week.

How was your week? Do you run in cold weather? Do you like it? Anyone racing this week?

Thanks for reading... :)