Bryce Canyon 60k Race Report

As I climbed the narrow, winding, mountain road the sky darkened and the snow began to fall. The higher I got the larger the flakes, the deeper the slush and before long my small rental car was sliding about on the road. I slowed to a slippery crawl behind a large truck that was turning around. I had no idea how much higher the road would take me and if a truck was turning around, so was I. Back down to Cedar City I went to find a hotel for the night.

My plans for the Bryce Canyon 60k included arriving in Hatch Utah, close to the race start, two nights prior to the race so that I would have an entire day to relax, put up my feet, hydrate and eat well. Google maps taking me through a snowy pass put a damper on those plans. An unexpected cold front moving in meant I had to hit the Goodwill store in Cedar City to purchase some extra layers for the race.

But I really can’t complain. My race buddy Sarah flew in the day before the race, drove through snow, slept about 3 hours, and got up to hit the race start with me at 5am. I had at least a half a day to relax and an extra night of solid sleep.

The race start was pitch dark and an icy cold 27°. We huddled around a fire with other runners waiting for the gun

The first four pre-dawn miles of the race were all uphill so we started out walking to warm up. At mile three things got steeper and narrower and icier. It was slow going with a steep drop on the right. The sky was getting lighter but it didn’t feel any warmer. We had yet to shed layers and Sarah was wearing a thick wool sweater and cap. I was careful to blow the water back through my hydration pack so the water in my tube wouldn’t freeze.

As the sun rose and our noses and fingers thawed the expansive beauty surrounding us hit with full force. There was snow on the rocks in the distance and sparkling prisms of frozen dew on the grasses.

That morning, I had been distressed to discover that I had put my shaker bottle in my drop bag and that it was on its way to mile nineteen. I had nothing to mix my morning protein shake in so I ate a tiny bit of oatmeal and a couple bites of leftover rice and egg. Not my normal fuel for an ultra. That, combined with the altitude (most of the race was between 8000-9000’) had me dragging right from the start. Once again, Sarah is the most understanding and easy-going of race partners, walking with me when I needed to walk. And I needed to walk a lot.

Our 60k had started just 15 minutes behind the 50 milers and at one point we were only seeing 50 milers on the trail. Not a single other 60k runner. We thought we were lost. The course map I had downloaded did not correspond to the aid station list that was with it and a runner we stopped gave us faulty information so we thought we had missed a turn. We did NOT want to be on the 50-mile course. We were so distressed to think that we may have to put in extra miles but we rounded a corner and there was the right aid station at 13.1 miles. We weren’t lost! As a bonus, our crew Hannah and Patrece, showed up when we hadn’t expected to see them until mile 19. I finally shed a layer, donating my Ocean Vodka jacket to a helpful volunteer. After a brief break we headed out on the next segment of the race that had a deceptive uphill grade so we did more walking.

Although the sun was out it was still cold and I wished I had simply tied my jacket around my waist instead of leaving it behind. I still had a tank top, a long sleeved shirt and a wind shirt on. My fleece headband never left my ears and my gloves stayed on.

We had some bad news at the start of the race. The aide station at 29.6 miles was inaccessible to our crew. The road in was too muddy and they were not allowing anyone other than the aid station volunteers in. This meant that we had to decide at mile 19.1 whether to head for the finish or drop out. We had hoped to have the option to drop at that last aid station. 19 miles was too short but we didn’t know if we could finish 37.28 miles. Patrece has a big 4WD truck so she said she would try to sneak in the muddy road and would be there for us if at all possible. We just weren’t done yet, so we soldiered on. And boy, were we glad we did. The next 10 miles were the most spectacular of the entire course! Neither of us had ever been to Bryce or Zion or anywhere like this and we spent a good deal of time shooting photos. It was super fun rolling single track and the footing was easy going.

When we reached the 29.6 mile aid station (we're calling it 30) the volunteers tried to convince us to continue on but whispered to us that our crew had arrived and was parked down the road. Patrece and Hannah had made it through the mud and trenches to deliver us from having to climb another 1000 feet of elevation and still risk a DNF if we didn’t make the cutoff. It was my 60^th birthday, I was undertrained and tired, I still had 5 vacation days ahead of me and I didn’t want to be nursing blisters and sore muscles for the rest of the week. We opted for Mexican food and cold beer and we bailed at 30 miles feeling good about our decision and feeling good about making it through those miles.

I had made this run a fundraising event for Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and would like to thank everyone who helped me raise over $1900 to support their work. I ran in honor of a friend, Leslie, who passed from metastatic breast cancer, and another friend, Susanne, who is valiantly soldiering on with cancer, all the while focused on helping others with their own cancer challenges. 

As I ran I had the usual monkey mind rattling in my brain saying, “I’m NEVER doing this again.” And as usual, a week later I’m contemplating my next endurance adventure. HUGE thanks go out to Patrece and Hannah for their support. This race would not have been as fun without them. And HUGE thanks to Sarah for always being up for an adventure and always being patient with my slow pace. And many thanks to Vacation Races. They put on a fantastic, well organized and supported race with great trail marking. 

Goodbye for now. This is Adventureye, signing off until the next crazy scheme plays out.