Zion 100- April 8, 2016.

Zion was not a planned race for me this year. In fact I had planned to take the year off. We came back from Africa with a +1 on board. 10 weeks later with a misadventure that landed me in the ED and in emergency surgery I was depressed and my body was rebelling.  The hormonal changes had me putting on 15 pounds in 2 weeks and growing chin hair. Mentally I was in a dark place. Because you're not supposed to tell anyone that you are pregnant until after the first trimester very few people knew. This left me very isolated and grieving in private. 

The end of January rolled around and I decided that I needed to make a change. I turned to the trails because they have always helped heal me. I started to look for a race to sign up for, but I had missed most of the lotteries and everything was already full. Then I came across Zion. It was a race that hadn't grabbed my attention before because I tend to like big mountains with lots of elevation change. While Zion didn't meet this criteria it was a place I hadn't been before and looked beautiful so I signed up. From 5 to 100 miles in 10 weeks..... totally doable. 

I started up a boot camp class and did a couple local 10Ks in the 2 months leading up to Zion. The boot camp added a lot of functional strength and my running form slowly started to come around. By race day I was feeling about 75% of normal and felt like I could pull this off. They say it's better to be under than overtrained. I definitely met this criteria. 

The week leading up to the race I got an email from the race director with a weather forecast of lots of rain. We were offered transfer to another event if we chose because the entire 100 miles might not be runnable if it rained hard on the fragile desert soils. I thought is really amazing of them to offer this option. I chose to go ahead and race and see what happened with the weather. I tend to like crazy weather when racing anyway. We camped at Zion River Resort on gravel (hurray for good drainage). It didn't rain at all leading up to the race, but during and afterwards it was nice to have a dry place to sleep. 

After the long drive I went out for a shake out run on part of the course that I would hopefully be on during the night.

Photo doesn't quite capture how beautiful this section is. This is from Virgin Desert aid station back to finish.

This is the same section as above. Running on a cliffside in the dark during an epic rainstorm on tired legs kept me on my toes during the race. 

Race day started with clear skies. The race starts with a big climb up Flying Monkey Mesa. The history behind this name is interesting and kept my mind busy during the first climb. http://www.flyingmonkeymesa.com/#!about_us/c1ztv 

I felt like I pushed hard enough to get in front of most of the congo line but not too hard to burn myself out. It already felt hot to me (anything is hot coming from Tahoe in early April). The loop on the mesa was uneventful and then we plunged back down Flying Monkey. About this time I noticed that my pinky toes were hurting. I went with the Hoka Clifton 2. I had been running in the original version for over a year and loved them, but had failed to notice the significantly smaller toe box on the new version. I had old version of them in my drop bag at the Goosebump AS (miles 35,47,68) so I planned to change my shoes there. This left me with 20 or so miles to deal with the pain. I changed my gait a bit which ended up biting me in the butt as the day went on.  The changed gait started causing leg cramps that would bring me to a walk and eventually a stop. I sat down at the Guacamole AS (mile 15) and used a stick to try and roll out my legs. I hobbled around the Guacamole mesa hoping that things would get better. This was definitely the lowest point in the race for me. This mesa is largely slickrock with lots of little ups and downs that beat me up. The route finding between flagging and finding the white paint on the rocks was slightly difficult and mentally draining. Between the heat and cramping legs I was starting to dread the next 75 miles. I took my time on the descent back down from Guacamole Mesa to Dalton and then began the climb to Goosebump.

The climb up to Goosebump was murder. The sun was beating down and my legs weren't cooperating. I think we climb 1500ft in about a mile. There were ropes set up in sections to help with the descent back down that we would be doing in about 33 miles in the dark and rain. I finally made it to the top and sat down and changed my shoes. It also started raining at this time. The shoe change didn't fix things immediately, but about 10 miles after changing them (plus the cooler temps) my legs and body started coming around. I was picking up Ryan as my pace at Grafton Mesa (mile 53) where we would have a steep descent and the last major climb back up the Mesa. It was getting dark, the rain really started coming down, and I was loving it. The worse the weather the better I seemed to feel. After picking up Ryan I never got passed and kept moving forward in the field. The descent back down Goosebump was sketchy but we hit it before it got too wet. I can only imagine how it was for runners further back. 

I love night running! With my running buddy behind me we cranked out the miles and soon we were through Virgin Desert Aid station for the last time (you go through a total of 4 times with various loops). I was one of the lucky few that made it through the whole course. As the rain continued they ended up shortening the course and sending people back to the start/finish from Virgin Desert no matter where they were on their 3 loops. It was the right call to make as running on fragile desert trails when wet can destroy them. 

I was flying (or so it felt like) at this point and trying to break 23 hours. The course had other intentions for me though and the last 5 miles were a slip and slide in the mud and the finish never seemed to get any closer. It was a full on downpour at this point and sliding down small hills on my butt seemed a smarted option than trying to stay upright. Soaked from head to toe we finally crossed the finish line in 23:10. 

Hurray for the campground having hot showers. We went back to camp and crashed for a few hours before heading out for an afternoon "hike" in Zion NP.

Note the tarp over the tent. 

The Narrows. We will have to go back someday and check it out. 

The next day we packed up and headed out to Bryce NP. On our way out we stopped at the Canyon Overlook. 

The race organizers offer discounted entries if you go to certain placed the day after the race. I totally forgot to send this in to them though. 

Bryce Canyon was beautiful and I hobbled though some more hiking. Not to shabby for the day after a 100 miler. 

Zion 100 ended up being much more difficult that it looked on paper. I was very happy with my choice (or lack of choice) of this race. I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for an early season 100. My time on the dirt ended up helping me heal and get back to feeling more normal.