Going out west where the wind blows tall: Zion Half Marathon

As a geologist, there is something pretty damn cool about being in a desert, walking, running, and hiking on rocks that formed in a desert 180 million years ago. That's the trip that is Zion National Park.  The Commander and I were there for the Vacation Race Series Zion Half Marathon, and we spent a couple extra days hiking the park. Here is how it all went down.

We are in a desert. These rocks were deposited in a desert 180mya. That's deep (metaphysically speaking).

We had a bit of a snafu right off the bat. My personal assistant screwed up by booking a late arriving flight the day before the race. The problem is that the closest airport is in Las Vegas, NV, which is an hour behind Utah and two hours away on top of it. As a result there was no way we were going to make it to the race expo to pick up our race packets before they closed. Luckily, our buddy Silver was there and after haggling with the volunteers, acquired said packets and saved the day. Side note, I fired my personal assistant. However, since my assistant is just another form of myself, I had to rehire him to book accommodations for this weeks race at Greenwood Furnace, and Timp Trail Half in Provo a couple weeks later. He's on a short leash though, one more fuck up and he is out for good.

Also while travelling, we received an email letting us know that they were expecting high winds by about noon (30 mph, with gusts up to 45mph) at the race location. The race director (RD) made the decision to move the race back an hour to a 7:00AM start in the hopes of getting most everybody across the finish line before shit got real. My understanding is that the race is normally run on a road, but due to construction a rancher was kind enough to let us run on trails on his property.

We dern ran up there. Photo courtesy of the Commander at 70mph

For us this amounted to a 10:30 PM arrival at the hotel and a 3:45AM alarm to get up and get going. It was strongly suggested that we leave no later than 5:00 AM to get to the race on time. It was about a 10 minute drive to the switchbacked dirt road leading up to our playground and there were a lot of people. The race sold out, there were over 2700 runners and many a spectator so you can imagine the bottleneck. Indeed, there were cars coming in still as we were lined up at the start line. The bonus of the early start was getting to watch the sunrise over Zion as we waited to take off.

Sunrise over Zion. Photo Courtesy of Silver's mama. Thanks mama Silver

Usually, my plan is to just go out there and run my race, but the more I have run, the stronger I have gotten, and the more competitive I have become. I mostly still want to just run against myself, and that will always be the case, but after a few top three age group finishes, I kind of got the bug to try and get there more often. The race offered place medals to the top five in each age division so goal A was to finish in the top 5 in my age group, goal B, top 10 in my age group, and goal C was just to finish in under two hours. Goal D was to meet Val Kilmer but he wasn't there so that went by the wayside. Since I am entirely incompetent when signing up for races I some how gave them a time that put me in wave 5, however the RD suggested that anyone planning to run under 1:55 go in wave 1. Silver and I decided to go in wave 2 so we didn't get in the way of elite runners and the commander decided to run in a later wave.

Three amigos ready to toe the line

We took off a couple minutes after 7:00 and began our race. The course was largely dirt roads, nice and wide, some dirt access, 4-wheeler type roads, and some areas were just field with pink and silver flags marking a route through. The course comprised a large outer loop, a bit of a shared section, and then a smaller loop.

Zion Half course map

If you are a central PA runner, you would have found this course to be pretty flat. The race listed the gain at 686' but my watch threw 839'. Either way, not too bad. The altitude did have me worried though. I hadn't run at this elevation since the Yellowstone Half Marathon in 2016. I wasn't adversely affected then, and I didn't think it would be a problem, but one never knows until one hacks up ones lung.

My elevation profile depicting a bonus 200' of gain

I started out strong but about two miles in my left foot started to get pins and needles which lasted for a few miles before finally going away. I've been reading and watching a lot about alpine climbing. One of the effects of altitude I have heard them talk about a few times is that pins and needles feeling you get when you appendage starts to fall asleep. Perhaps I was feeling an effect of the altitude, perhaps its just that my left leg has been giving me trouble since March, either way, it didn't slow me down too much. I pushed on. On approach to the first hill, I looked it over and decided it was worth running up. Generally I feel that running hills is a waste of energy. In the equation the time gained isn't worth the energy expended. Early on in my training I would run up the hill, be utterly spent, and have to walk the flat at the top. In effect, I am doubling my slow pace, because I can't run up a steep grade much quicker than I can power walk it, and then I am walking a flat I should be running. Its disaster for time. However, these hills were not too steep and I was confident I could keep running when I topped out so that's what I did. It was a plan that worked well for me.

Mile 4, leg is starting to not feel numb, or I'm just getting used to it, hence the contemplative look on my mug.

Coming in to mile seven was really great. It was right near the start line and the race camp so it was loaded with spectators. At that point you are just crossing over the halfway point and it was beyond awesome to have so many strangers there cheering me on as I moved through. By now though my quads were starting to burn and fatigue at an alarming rate. Much earlier than I had expected given my pace and distance. However, my ego and dudeness would not allow me to walk in front of a bunch of spectators so I pushed through it and ran on. By about mile nine I lost the mental battle. I knew that a top 5 finish in my division likely wasn't in the cards, I'd have to be in the 1:40s to do that, but top 10 was if I could hang around 1:50. But my legs just were not having it. Maybe it was altitude, lack of sleep, running hills, I don't know but that was a miserable mile and I had to walk a bit and say goodbye to my goal. No Val, No top 5, no top 10. At this point, I was really wondering if I would even make it under two hours. That's the moment I told my legs to pound salt and they were running whether they wanted to or not. So run on we did. We hit the last steep hill at mile 11. no road, no trail, just a beat down path through the field and steep. I thought it best to walk this hill. A girl in front of me was running it in short measured steps. I power walked and gained on her and eventually over took her about halfway up. She looked at me and said with exasperation "you are walking this hill faster than I am running it". I laughed and said "in your defense I am about twice as tall as you". That girl has my respect, she never stopped running on that hill. I think she was shorter than the Commander and I know it takes her half again as many steps as me to go the distance. This girl was running harder and having to do more work than me to get it done, and she did it with a smile. I'd love to be that strong one day.

Mile 11.5. Getting near the end now, thus the happy look

I only have two complaints about this race. I'll say that coming from the PA scene these vacation races do not have the intimate feel of the 200-400 entry single track in the forest races from back home. These are big. 2500-3000 people. They feel more like a road race. But the director and staff and volunteers do a great job of marking the trail and stocking the aid stations and keeping you on track. I know races are like mullets, business in the front and party in the rear, but it sucked that nobody around me seemed to thank the volunteers. It was ball shrinkingly cold out there in the morning hours especially if you were dressed for the expected temperature climb into the 80s. These people had been out there four hours in the cold, so to all the volunteers, you have my heartfelt thanks. The other annoying part was the last stretch of the race into the finish line. Anyone finishing in the 1:40-2:20ish (maybe more) range pulled onto the final stretch into a group of hundreds of walkers and joggers. I know these people are out there for fun (again, I understand races are like mullets) but for the love of sweet baby jackie chan, get the hell out of the way of the runners killing themselves to get to the finish line. I had to bob and weave around countless people to get through to the home stretch. C'mon son.

Races are like mullets. This is Joe Dirt sporting the Mississippi Mudflap

But its hard to hold on to any anger when you see that finish line looming. I pulled in, dug deep and found something, and kicked in the after burners. A girl happened to be next to me and I said, "come on, lets sprint this in" and we flew in like it was a 100 meter dash. A fist bump later and I was downing a chocolate milk and a banana with a medal around my neck, and just under the two hour mark!

Coming in hot

A few minutes later Silver came through finishing her first trail race.

Silver and me with our bling (photo courtesy of papa Silver)

___

The race story is over. But Vacation Races does a really neat thing with hikes to get race goers to experience the park. You don't have to read it if you don't want to, but if you bail now, you won't have the fulfilling and enriched experience that your friends will.

The whole idea behind Vacation Races (as I understand it) is to get people to experience our national parks by hosting race events just outside the park boundaries. As added incentive, they offer a series of Club Hikes and a Trifecta. These are somewhat involved, challenging hikes (the Club Hikes) or a series of the three places to see that are a bit easier to get to (the Trifecta). After doing one, you submit a photo with your race bib and finishers medal and they will send you some swag. The commander and I decided to do all three club hikes and the trifecta.

The Double Arches Club Hike

This was our first, and by far the easiest hike of the three Club Hikes. The Double Arch Alcove can be found at the end of the Taylor Creek Trail in the Kolob Canyon part of Zion NP.

Kolob Canyon Entrance Zion National Park

This was a straight forward hike up Taylor Creek to the alcove. One big highlight was calling in a tom after hearing him gobble up on the ridge. I mouth called to him and had him responding and he came in on a rope to about 20 yards before he saw us and cut and ran.

Taylor Creek Trail

lower, more open part of the canyon

one of a couple cabins built back in the day

Fecking gorgeous

Our medals had the John Muir quote "Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few are dirt"

yep, still gorgeous

me cheesin' like its my birthday at the Alcove

The Eagle Crags Trail Club Hike

This hike is actually outside of the park on public land. The hike consisted of a three-ish mile trek out to Eagle Crags, which apparently is a destination for rock climbers, specifically the Crag known as Mrs. Buttersworth. The commander and I made our way out to the base of the crags in the hot afternoon sun. While she had a great time, I managed to bust a hole in my shoe and get stabbed by (I'm pretty sure) every damn species of cactus on the Colorado plateau.

A nice hike through cactusland

Those beautiful little batteries of pain. Nailed my fingers, shins, ankle, and calves. 

The Eagle Crags Trail

Eagle Crags, the tall one on the left is Mrs. Buttersworth

Me and the commander doing the picture of us thing.

Me at the base of Mrs. Buttersworth doing the picture of me thing.

Observation Point Club Hike

This was a gnarly AF hike. on Monday we drove to the main visitors center at the bottom of the scenic drive up Zion Canyon. We took the shuttle bus to stop 5, the Weeping Rock Trail head.  Whats a weeping rock Randy? Why I'm glad you read that like you asked the question, let me tell you. Weeping rocks occur where higher permeability rocks (usually sandstones) are juxtaposed against a lower permeability rock (like a shale). Here, downward migrating water cannot penetrate the low permeability barrier rock, so the water moves laterally through the permeable sandstone. In some areas the water comes out of the rock as a spring. At these locations plants flourish in the local wet environment.  Boom, your brain just got a wrinkle (unless you already knew that, in which case, you rock). From the trailhead you hike a series of never ending switchbacks right up the canyon wall until you top out 8 billion feet above the valley floor. Here the trail joins the east rim trail where you follow it to Observation Point Trail. Observation Point trail takes you to a point where you can make observations, the East Rim trail is on the east rim, the Weeping Rock trail takes you to the weeping rock, and the people that make up trail names lack creativity.

GPS didn't do a bad job considering the high canyon walls

Weeping rock, see its wet, just like I said it would be.

Does anyone actually read these captions?

I read them, mainly to try and avoid typos

But I usually miss some

At this point you aren't even close to almost there

Observation Point

See the dude observing back there? On the Point?

The Trifecta

I cannot believe you are still reading this. You're pretty cool. Last part of the trip was completing the Trifecta. Easy one to two mile hikes to see some neat stuff in the park. 

Timber Creek Overlook

Awesome, Navajo Sandstone

Its like the same picture as above, but with me blocking part of the view

Riverside Walk/The Narrows

We didn't have the water proof shoes and pants so sadly we could only walk to the mouth of The Narrows.

Riverside Walk leading to The Narrows.

Rock Squirrel. I like squirrels.

At the entrance to The Narrows. Would have been cool to go in.

Canyon Overlook Trail

We got to drive through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel to get here. That was neat.

A view along the trail.

The view from the overlook. Pretty sweet right?

I know, another picture of me, don't worry, we'll get through it. Its the last one.

Well, that's it for this post. And a good thing too, this one was getting long and I got to run Greenwood Furnace in the morning. I have a friend running the Pittsburgh Half tomorrow, she is a badass, working her badass off to train for it. I bet she slays it. Thank you so much for taking the time to read. It means more than you know.