Zion 100 Course With Biggest Running Group Ever

I am deeply, madly, wildly in love with running on trails. I love trails more than Justin Bieber loves hairspray. I love trails more than Miley Cyrus loves being repulsive. I love trails more than Whitney Houston will always love you. (Ha ha! I just hijacked your brain and got that song stuck in there!)

What's fun is sharing some of the awesome trails in our area with people who haven't experienced them before. I put an open invite on Facebook for anyone to come and run one such trail, the Grafton Mesa Loop this past Saturday. We had 19 runners there! That is the most people I've ever run a trail with outside of a race.

All of the following pictures are part of the Zion 100 course. Grafton Mesa is one of my favorite places to run. It starts off with a long, steep climb but these guys weren't deterred.

There is some huffing and puffing to get to the top but in comparison to some of the other climbs in the Zion 100 Grafton isn't too bad. After a mile or two we made it to the top of the mesa. Check out this fine group of folks who survived the climb and made it to the top. (That guy holding the dog on the right is Jud. He didn't carry that thing on the run. That dog ran the whole 8.5 miles on a challenging trail!)

After reaching the top of the mesa we pulled over for a few minutes and watched a beautiful sunrise lighting up Gooseberry Mesa:

And then, just in case the legs have a little juice left, there is some more climbing:

The route back around the loop involves going down something called Crybaby Hill. I took no pictures on the decent because it is so steep that I was just trying to keep my feet moving one foot in front of the other without tripping and doing a two mile somersault down the hill. Me and Cherie celebrated finishing the loop. My seriously funny friend Turd'l was just a tad late on the jump. (Sound familiar?)

I had so, so much fun running with these guys.

My friend Rick Whitelaw signed up to run Zion as his first 100. He wanted to check out some other sections of the course and I wanted to get in more miles so we planned to continue running after Grafton. Our next spot of the course was the Guacamole Trail. This is Rick enjoying his first view of the mesa rim:

Here are some of the amazing views we enjoyed out on Guacamole:

There are little pools of slick rock all over the trail. I've been here after a storm when the pools are full and it is just amazing. We still found a few that had water in them.

You can see that this trail skirts right along the edge of Zion National Park:

Our last destination was the climb up Smith Mesa which is positively insane in the membrane. It is vertical. It climbs straight into the sky. In the 1950's the military tested jet propulsion by launching monkeys over the cliff to test ejection seats. Hence the name of the trail that climbs to the top of the mesa is.....The Flying Monkey Trail.

During the Zion 100 there was an actual flying monkey at the top. You can see the picture HERE. I caught this little arch on Saturday which I've never seen on this trail before:

I learned this about Rick after many miles, many hours of running, and almost 4,000 feet of climbing: Rick is ready for the Zion 100 in April.

The view near the top is a bit difficult to enjoy since your lungs will feel like they are full of molten lava. But it is about as good a view as you'll find anywhere.

It's easy to see why people are eager to come and run this race.

Guacamole Trail Section of the Zion 100

I have had the pleasure of surviving running the Zion 100 both first year and the second year since the race was born. The Zion 100 is incredibly challenging and stunningly beautiful. I am blessed to literally have the course in my back yard and almost every mile I run in training is a point somewhere on the course.

On New Years Day I ran a section of the course with a seriously fun group of friends. Our route: The Guacamole Trail. (Mmmmm. Sounds delicious!)

A few sections of the trail wind along the edge of the mesa. I caught Colleen and Cathy admiring the view.

The majority of the trail is on rolling, twisting slick rock akin to slowly forcing your legs through a meat grinder.

One of the things I like about the Guacamole Trail is that each run is like a scavenger hunt. Much of the route is marked by little rock towers so sometimes it takes a minute to spot the next tower. Scavenger hunts are fun!

For me the highlight of the trail is Zion National Park looming on the horizon. The views here are beautiful.

I think this picture gives the best idea of what you're in for with the trail. You can't get into rhythm with running because of the rolling rocks. It's a unique and rewarding challenge.

Don't let these pictures deceive you. Although there was plenty of running, there was also a hefty supply of laughing, joking, and fun. Running with such a fun group of friends makes the miles fly by. That is until the girls decide they want to plank across a deep crack in the Earth. (The crack in the picture looks way scarier than the fact that it's only about five feet to the bottom.)

At the end of the run someone suggested we better take a jumping picture before we go. Did it take seven tries before we got this one? Yep. Was it worth it? Undoubtedly.

In order of appearance, this is Ben (clearly in the midst of a back spasm), me, Dustin, Lyle, Colleen, Anna, Jud, Cathy, and Kristal. Everyone in the country would be runners if they knew it could be this fun.

New Race: Antelope Canyon 50 - This Is Going To Be EPIC!

A few years ago I had the privilege of photographing Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona. This area is on Navajo land and requires a guide to enter the area. In all my travels I have seen some amazing places but I think Antelope Canyon may be at the top of my list. The following are some pictures I shot there:

For the first time EVER a race has been permitted to happen through these incredible slot canyons! The Antelope Canyon 50 (there is a 50k and a 50 miler) is coming up February 1st. Yes - like in a month! This is historic.

The race is being put on by Ultra Adventures who also organize the Zion 100 and Bryce 100 (both of which I've experienced and are equally epic.)

For me personally, the timing for this race isn't the greatest since I have the Jackpot 100 miler two weeks later. But I just can't pass up the chance to run in a race like this.

I am equally excited that I'll be running this race with my good friends Clair and Catherine. You couldn't ask to run with a more fun, happy group.

I'd love for you to join in the awesomeness. For those of you who live a ways away, I think this will be worth traveling for. Feel free to run with our fun group. We'll be toward the back enjoying the scenery and having the most fun. You can check out the race page HERE. It's going to be epic!

Waterfall In The Desert and Something Amazing

Last Saturday I ran to Toquerville Falls. I had run 50 miles on the middle school track already for the week and I wanted, no, NEEDED to get out on a trail.

The route is an old dirt road that is absurdly rocky and technical. And it is straight up or straight down for the entire 11 mile round trip. You run and run and then out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the desert is this amazing miniature Niagara Falls! (Minus the tourists and $9.99 key chains.) Even when I've run there in the middle of summer the falls are still flowing.

I stayed there long enough to take about three pictures before heading back. I knew it would be getting dark soon and wanted to cover as much ground as I could before the sun went down.

To whoever planted that haunted house tree to scare runners at night....not cool....not cool. May you be forced to listen to an eternity of Michael Bolton music.

Some clouds had been covering the sun the whole time. But then all of the sudden this window opened up in the clouds and illuminated Gooseberry Mesa in the distance. I stopped and stood there in awe.

The whole experience was completely amazing. I thought about how lucky I was to be the only person in the entire world watching this incredible sunset from this perfect viewing area. I stood there watching for a few minutes until the sun went down and the view was gone.

I got to enjoy the last few miles back to my car with this view. It was like running through a field of Enya.

One of the things I love about trail running is that every run is an adventure. (Okay, one of the other things I love about running is that I feel a little more justified eating a fat cinnamon roll.)

Two HUNDRED Laps At The Track!!

I thought I'd change up my training a bit last week. I am blessed to be surrounded by amazing trails and amazing scenery. I am often more focused on enjoying the scenery and taking pictures than I am with running.....and my pace shows it.

So I decided I would have a week where I really focused on running. Plus I needed to do some race-specific training for the upcoming Jackpot Ultra Running Festival on February 15th. It is a 100 mile race on a two mile track. I'm super excited to try a race like this for the first time.

So on Christmas Eve I woke up really early and went over to the middle school track. The greatest thing about the track: IT'S DIRT. My plan was to just run and run for a few hours. It was surprisingly unhorrible!

It was kind of nice to not have to carry a hydration pack. I could just set some treats and my Tailwind bottles right on the side of the track and everything was always accessible.

I got in 17 miles on this 1/4 mile track!

This was such a good way to train to keep a steady, solid pace that I went back again two days later on December 26th. Mel came over and joined in for a few miles. She brought our enormous black Brillo Pad dog Aunt Jackie over too. (Aunt Jackie is a boy.)

I felt so bad for Aunt Jackie. He was clearly not having any fun.

That day I ran.....wait for it.......wait for it.......20 miles! I heard from longtime UltraRunning Magazine publisher John Medinger after finishing up. Always good for a laugh he said "Oops. A track is 400 meters. A mile is 1609.34 meters. You owe us another 0.12 miles dude!" We decided to try a new jumping picture - me jumping OVER Mel:

The next day, December 27th I went back AGAIN. I wasn't loving that quarter mile track quite as much anymore. I am seriously angry at whoever secretly shot me with a rhinoceros tranquilizer before that run. My legs felt like sludge the entire time while I got in another 13 miles. And what better way to celebrate the completion of a healthy long run than by promptly driving to the grocery store and buying a few rings of fried lard bathed in a coating of liquid sugar?!?

That put me at 50 miles on that track for the week. 50 miles = 200 LAPS. I ran another 11 miles on Saturday but couldn't bear the thought of doing another step (let alone 0.12 miles John!) at the track. Saturday's run was an amazing experience that I'll save for another day.

So after 200 laps will I be going back to the middle school track again? Definitely. When Hell freezes over. (The mornings have been very brisk lately so this could happen as early as next week.)