Moab Red Hot 50K+ Race Report (Long)
Over President's Day weekend I ran in the Moab
Red Hot 50K+. The "+" is because it was actually
longer than 50K - it was more like 54.7K(34 miles).
Since I haven't seen any other reports on the Ultra
list,I figured I'd post my own.
The race started at 8:00 AM at the Gemini Bridges
trailhead, ran along Little Canyon Rim Road and
Metalmasher, before heading back onto Gemini Bridges to
the Gold Bar Rim Trail, Gold Spike, and the Poison
Spider Trail. About 14 of the miles were run on the
uneven slickrock, and the rest was a combination of
loose sand and packed jeep trails.
As usual, I started out too fast, running the
first couple of miles just behind the front of the pack.
I saw all of the usual ultrarunning suspects from Salt
Lake City, and met a few others from the Boulder,
CO area. Knowing that I was aiming for a 5.5 or 6
hour finish I figured I should slow down my pace.
Just after aid station 1 I met up with Dave Hunt
and he was nice enough to let me run with him for
a few miles while we climbed up to the Canyon Rim
Overlook (mile 10). Dave talked to me about
ultrarunning, gave me a few training tips, and
chatted with me until we finished the uphill climb.
When we got to the top of the climb I fell back a bit
to conserve energy and look out at Arches National Park
from our viewpoint on top of the Metalmasher trail.
Since Dave had left me behind at aid station 2,
I was on my own and running on a combination of slick
rock and sand. My left knee, which I injured skiing about
a month ago, was starting to ache, so I slowed
down my pace until I got to the third aid station.
I filled my water bottle, grabbed a couple of PB&J
sandwiches and took off.
With my knee aching I decided to start a combination
of running and walking, especially on the downhill sections.
After about a mile and a half of downhill (and dodging ATVs)
I turned off the Gemini Bridges trail, and onto the Gold
Bar Rim Trail. The Gold Bar Rim Trail is primarily known for
jeeping and mountain biking, not running. That
became very apparent as I scrambled up uneven slickrock
faces and navigated the course.
Let me tell you about running on slickrock. It's hard.
Really hard. And not just "hard" like difficult to do,
but "hard" like running on a very hard surface, like a
sidewalk. There's absolutely no give, and it
just pounds your body with every step. You have to
watch every footfall, and keep an eye out for what's
coming up, because the terrain is very uneven, and the
next step could be down a small hole, or up and over a
rock band. Tripping and rolling your ankles wasn't
uncommon.
The constant pounding was really starting to take it's
toll on my body. My left knee and lower back were killing
me, I kept looking for places to sit down and stretch, but
I knew if I stopped I would have a hard time getting back up.
It was only four miles between aid stations
3 and 4, but it was taking a very long time to get there,
I wasn't running at all, just walking. I was in pain,
and thought I might have to drop out.
Finally, I got to Aid Station 4, and just in time
because my water bottle was nearly empty. I shuffled up
the rock face to refill my bottle, and sat down to watch
other runners come in. As I sat there, I contemplated
dropping, but hated the idea of hitching a ride to the
finish, so I sucked it up, and continued on. The cold
water from the Aid Station helped a bit, and I started
running again, but the downhill slickrock was still
pounding my lower back, and I was feeling
pain in my knee for nearly every step. Other runners
would pass me and give me encouragement, but I was wasted.
The trail map made it look like the leg between Aid
Stations 3 and 4 would be a flat, or mostly downhill
run, but it turned out to be series of short, steep
uphill climbs. It was until I I got to
Bootlegger Canyon, that it started to head downhill, and it
transitioned onto dirt. The soft dirt gave me a little
extra spring in my step (quite literally), and I started
running again. I was starting to feel pretty good until I
got out of the canyon, and hit another stretch of slickrock
. I decided to sit down and stretch a little bit
before carrying on.
The stretching didn't really help, but I could see
that there was shade and dirt ahead, so I started off
again. At this point I was running on the Gold Spike
trail, and it was flatter and more even than
the Gold Bar Rim Trail, but it was still slickrock.
Thoughts agai turned to dropping out at Aid Station 5,
but then I came up on a rim and could see all the way
out past the Behind The Rocks Wilderness
area and to the La Sal Mountains, and it gave me
strength to continue. I kept up my walk/run pace for the
last couple of miles of the leg until I finally saw the
last aid station. I ran up a small crest to
the aid station, and downed nearly half a water bottle before
sitting down for a few minutes.
As I sat at the aid station I asked a volunteer for
the time, "Exactly 2:00" she said. I couldn't believe it
- I was hoping to be done in about six hours, but I still
had six miles to go. By now I was determined to finish, so
I took off again with another runner, and we
climbed up a few slickrock faces until we got the
Poison Spider Trail.
Dirt! The trail was dirt! I was in love, and I took
off, the pain in my back and knee was gone as I ran on
the soft, forgiving dirt. It felt good, so I kept what
felt like a fast pace, and started heading
down the trail. I was starting to pass other
runners that had passed me on the slickrock section;
we would shout encouragement to each
other as we pressed on. Soon I was starting to pass
hikers who were
coming up from the finish line - I knew I was almost
there. Running down the switchbacks the Colorado River
came into view, and I started to have thoughts about
jumping into it's blue water and cooling my
body down. I kept running, and I came out onto a
flat section of trail. "Just a mile to go I told
myself" and I started around a bend,
but then I heard someone shout my name "It's Lander!".
It was Lissa, and she was waiting for me at the finish
line! I was there!
I didn't get my 6:00 hour finishing time, but I wasn't
too far off considering how difficult the course was.
I think I finished around 7:15, and I completed the
last leg (about six miles) in just about an
hour - very fast considering how slow my previous
14 miles were. I made it, and I was happy.
-kris lander
