Sometimes, you just have to surprise yourself…

As in many things in life, you sometimes need to go out and try something new.  Something unexpected and perhaps a little dangerous.  Staying within the confines of the law, adding excitement will spice up the mononity of life.  Yesterday, I put all of my training to good use.  This was a run that will be hard pressed to duplicate!

Last week I did a run in the Catalina State Park in Tucson Arizona.  The park officials advised of a horse trail that was roughly 10 miles of good solid desert trail, perfect for running.  They gave me a map and I ran as they had directed me around the loop.  Driving home after the run I realized there was a much bigger loop that could be tackled.  It was just  East of this run.

Getting back to my apartment I told my training partner, Chris Gairns about the possibility of trying a run of this magnitude.  Chris, being up for anything crazy, said he was game.  We added up the mileage of the run, about 38kms and planned our weeks accordingly to fit the run in.

I’m currently training for a half Ironman in March so the week wasn’t spent resting.  I was already at the 16 hour mark of exercise before the run.  Instead of making a hard day Friday, I cut back the training a to allow the body to rest for the run.  My priority for Friday was to eat lots and drink even more water.  I wanted to make a buffer of calories so I didn’t have to dip into my body’s reserves.

Usually a long run for us would be about 2.5 hours.  This run we figured would take about 5.  The reason being simply, we were going to be running up a mountain.  Starting at an elevation of 2700 feet we were going to run up to 8100 feet and then return home.

For this long of a run, food and more importantly water are the lifeblood of keeping your body moving.  On average I burn 650 calories an hour doing a normal run.  From my previous estimate 5-6 hours, I was going to burn almost 4000 calories.  This run however was going to be far from normal.  I added a 1000 calories buffer just to be safe.  Basically twice the average persons daily in take was going to be used up on this run.

Eating the right food is crucial to keeping the motor or body going.  Eating food with simple sugars that are high in carbohydrates and low in fat are the best way to keep you going.  You want something that is easily digestiable and gives you long lasting energy.  For me I chose Powerbars and pitas with honey and peanut butter.  To add to my calories I added a gatorade mix to every bottle of water I drank.

Since we were running, I wanted to keep the amount of weight on my back as light as possible.  To do this I had to sacrifice water.  My estimate water loss was about 1L every hour through sweat loss.  This meant I had to drink this amount just to make sure I wasn’t going to become dehydrated.  For this run, that meant I had to bring 6L or over 12 pounds of water.  I decided to take two, 1L bottles and buy discontamination pills for the water.  I knew from my previous run that there was water around the Park and was hoping there was going to be some where we ran.

Saturday we got to the Catalina State Park at around 9am.  The day started off cool as most do in the desert.  We were both carrying 6-7 pounds of weight on our backs with food, water, cell phones and cameras.  Extra clothing was also neccessary because of the temperature drop as we got to the top of the mountain. 

After getting lost for the first kilometer where we crossed a river twice, we got on the right trail.  Running in soaking feet is not pleasent and you have to watch out for getting blisters.  We made sure to pack some extra socks for the trip.

The first 2.5K were up and down but running was manageable.  After this, walking was required because of the grade.  The sheer steepness had us on all fours at points, bouldering up the trail.  The next 10K was mostly like this,  taking us 2.5 hours to trek.

This was not an easy trail to follow which added to our time.  The only visual markers we had were little Inukshuks scattered up the mountainside.  Trying to follow these were tedious because of the amount of trees, rocks and cacti in the way.  We got separated a couple of times because of the thick growth around us.

Adding to the aggrevation was getting cacti quills embedded in our skin.  Especially around the shins as they were exposed. 

As the day warmed up we were able to peel off the long shirts.  At about 1pm the temperature was about 22 degrees.  At this point we were at 1800 meters and started to come across snow.  It’s a good feeling to be in shorts and t-shirt with white stuff around.  You hardly ever see that in the Maritimes!

The hardest point came at 14kms at about roughly 2000 meters in elevation.  Here the trail had hardly been used and the Inukshuks were barely a couple of rocks.  Now we were only walking as the grade was much too steep.  At 2pm, we decided that was far enough.  Daylight was also an issue as we didn’t want to be left in the dark trying to make our way back.  After 17kms, we headed back down the mountain.

We did take the time to savour the moment.  There were many breathtaking views as we climbed up.  Pictures honestly can’t express what you actually see.

Going down the same way you came up you would think would be made easy but because of the lack of direction, we got lost a few times on our journey back down.  Running however, was much easier going down than up.

The one time I was happy we took a wrong turn off the trail was when we discovered a waterfall that we missed going up.  This moutain truly has a lot of beauty and if you’re ever down in Arizona, I advise you to check it out.

Once we got down to 1200 meters, we were running 100% of the time.  Also, the amount of traffic on the trail had picked up and we were meeting up with people.  I think most of them thought we were crazy as we blazed down the trail.

The park was closing as we finally made it back to the bottom.  The trip took nearly 8 hours as it was almost 5pm as we got to the bottom.  At this point you have what is called "runners high" as you think you can do anything.  You feel as though you could run for another 8 hours.  This is replaced with "runners low" as you all you want to do is lay down and sleep.

Nutrition and water was never a problem on this day.  Both of us had escaped unscathed except for the cacti that clawed our arms and legs.

Finishing off the day we stopped by at the local supermarket and bought some food to replenish the storages.  I had no problem sleeping after this!

No amount of training that I have ever done could be equalled to this feat.  In total we ran for 7 hours and forty minutes.  We climbed/descended in total 15,010 feet; that’s a little over half of climbing Everest.  So why do it?  Cause it’s there.  I’m getting more of an appreciation of what the body’s limits really are.  I have no idea what to expect in my next crazy adventure!

Hope you enjoy the pics and stay tuned for the movie to come!

Happy (Sleepin!) Trainin

Cliff