Grand Canyon Trail Run

I ended up driving more than twice as long as running today, but it was definitely worth it! The grand canyon is actually really far away from vegas... about 275 miles, but with the 75mph speed limits and straight-as-an-arrow highways its not too bad a drive. i ended up getting to the Canyon at 10am, where the temp was only 42F, but the sun was shining brightly. My plan was to run down the South Kaibab trail to the River trail, and then over to the Bright Angel trail to head back up. The Tonto trail was another option, a little shorter so it would make a nice bail out if needed. the route is reported as 16 miles, so i figured it would be about 4 hours to do. unfortunately i didn't bring out any of my gel flasks, only a waist H20 holder, which only has pockets big enough for a set of keys. I got pretty creative and managed to rig up a batman-esqe utility belt by electrical taping everything i needed to the belt (sunscreen, ipod, keys, 2 gu's, light gloves, vaseline (for blisters...) and my phone(for the camera). worked like a charm, nothing shaking loose or falling off the whole trip.
I started off heading down the S Kaibab trail, which is known to be steeper and has no water available. That alone makes it the best place to start. The way down went well, my knees felt fine, the footing was good, and i was feeling good as well. It only took a little over an hour to get to the bottom, ie junction of River and S Kaibab trail. i didn't even realized i had missed the Tonto trail, but that was ok, i was feeling pretty good. The river trail was really cool, as it shadowed the bank of the Colorado river, from a height of 100ft or so. I took a quick break here, had a gu and emptied out my now pink shoes. The River trail was only about 2-3 miles, but it was the only flat ground i saw all day. A nice relief and chance to get the legs used to running, not just pounding downhill.
The Bright Angel trail is the heavily used touristy trail...and there were alot of folks on it today. it is also less steep (but a little longer) than the Kaibab, so it makes sense to head up this way. Water is also available at the Indian Garden (11mile mark) so definitely best to have this at the end of the day, instead of 4.5 miles in!
Running a canyon is alot different than a mountain run. on a mountain you do the uphill first, so you're fresh. you have to be careful on the downhill, because you're tired and thats when you can get into trouble...but with a canyon its the opposite. the downhill is no problem because you're totally fresh....but then you've got to head back up! Going up the bright angel trail was about 6.5 miles of climbing gaining about 4,500ft. it went by rather quickly (not easily, but it really didn't seem to go on for ever) i was only really hurting for the last mile, or 15minutes so....could have been the altitude, the 3 hours of running, or the fact i was working off of breakfast plus 200 calories....anyway 80% of the uphill was great, just that last bit was tough....


here are a couple pics from today..

and a video while running...a little bumpy...




Tomorrow I wake early and start to ride towards California while R4wh rides towards Nevada....hopefully we'll meet up along the way.....because if we don't i'm gonna be screwed....