Canyons 100M Race Report

My intent for 2023 was to try some new races, and that left me looking for a 100-mile race in April / May with 20,000+ feet of vertical. The new 100-mile distance at Canyons was an intriguing option, featuring 24,000 feet of climbing, a taste of the Western States Trail, and a 4,000 foot net uphill course.

After signing up, Canyons became a UTMB World Series Major race, one of their 3 continental championships. That meant the field would be stacked with runners looking to punch their ticket to UTMB. Then as the race approached, the higher altitude parts of the course were still covered in snow. They had to do a major re-route, making it 17,000 feet of vertical instead of 24K.

Finally, a few days before the race, forecasted temperatures spiked with projections of 90+ degrees. The course was now way outside my wheelhouse (fast and runnable vs. steep mountainous terrain), the competition would be fierce, and I’d be facing serious heat with no heat acclimation. It was going to be a wild ride!

With fellow Uphill Athlete coach Alyssa before the race

On my shake out run the day before the race. Pretty nice …

Miles 0-14: California Love - 2Pac

We started at 9am from downtown Auburn, and it was already getting toasty. I had a blast running out of Auburn on the Western States trail in reverse. The views of the American River Canyons were stellar as we descended to No Hands.

We ran some punchy climbs up to Cool # 1 at mile 6.5. I blasted through the aid station, filling up 1 bottle and putting ice in my hat for the first time.

An 8-mile loop would take us back to Cool, and I synced up with a runner from Ireland. He was a super nice guy, and it was great to pass the time chatting about his visit to the US, races we’ve run in Europe, my coach Damian Hall and what a boss he is, and who knows what else. Meeting new people from all over the world is such a cool part of this sport.

Views of the American River descending to No Hands

The back half of this loop featured a long climb in the exposed sun. I backed off the pace, making sure to play the long game. I ran out of fluids well before the aid station and made a mental note to bring more with me between each aid station going forward.

I arrived at Cool # 2 still well up on splits. I took an ice-cold sponge bath, drank some cold Coke, filled bottles, and put ice in my hat. All was well.

Miles 14-48: Heat of the Moment - Asia

And then it suddenly wasn’t. Temperatures were through the roof, and I was overheating and bonking. I ramped up the electrolytes and quickly realized I had a problem. For some reason I only had 9 Roctane Caps for the whole race, 3 of which were already gone. The remaining 6 wouldn’t even last me for the next few hours in this heat! Despite my multiple overly detailed spreadsheets, I really managed to screw this one up.

I got to Brown’s Bar and hunted for electrolytes. There weren’t really any options, so I dipped some watermelon in salt. I did the usual routine of Coke, sponge bath, and ice in the hat. I didn’t feel great, but there wasn’t much more to do, so I trudged up the steep climb towards ALT.

These next 25 miles were in the heat of the day, down low in the canyon, and often in the exposed sun. The canyon seemed to trap heat, and it felt like an oven. Now I can finally sympathize with how Western States runners feel in the canyons.

I completely blew up on the section to ALT. Runners were flying by me left and right. I threw the race plan out the window and focused on what I had to do to finish this thing. I had to conserve the few electrolytes I had, get in as many calories and fluids as possible, and bide my time until night and cooler temps.

I was reduced to a hike on much of the section into ALT, including lots of easy, runnable miles. My stomach was bloated, making it hard to eat or drink. I knew it was the lack of electrolytes, but I couldn’t really do anything about it with my supplies.

I took a long time at ALT to try and sort myself out – a crazy amount of time for me this early in a race. I took an ice-cold sponge bath and the sat down to get in some cold ginger ale and watermelon with salt. I refilled supplies, took another ice bath, put ice in my hat, and made my way back out. I again didn’t really want to leave, but there wasn’t really much else I could do other than sit there for 7 hours and wait for night to fall …

I was still going slowly as I continued to fight heat, cramps, and electrolyte imbalance. It’s times like these that you wonder what you’re doing out there. I haven’t suffered this much in a race that isn’t Tor des Geants in a very long time.

But I also trusted in my ability to turn things around. I knew everyone was going to struggle with these conditions and there had to be a lot of people out there writing checks they couldn’t cash. If I could stay patient and be smart, I had to believe I could turn it around in the second half and salvage a good race. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

By Brown’s Bar 2 and mile 30, I felt like I had dug out of the worst of it. But I was also 1h10min behind my target splits and had lost 42 places on the last loop, dropping me back to 82nd place! I had to push that out of my mind and just do what needed to be done.

I got back to No Hands, and we started what should have been an easy 4 mile section to Mammoth Bar, but we were just roasted on the 2+ mile road climb in the exposed sun. The heat was punishing, and night couldn’t come soon enough.

A saving grace was linking up with Sean, a super nice guy running his 2nd 100. He was in astoundingly good spirits and even claimed to be feeling “good” and “better than expected.” That made one of us, but it was enough to snap me out of my pity party and stop whining. On top that, he is running TDS this year, and chatting about UTMB always makes me feel better.

The descent after the road section was harder than it should have been down these rutted out mountain bikes trails. We arrived at Mammoth Bar, and I took another long stop in aid. The next section would be at least 2 hours and still in the heat. Despite feeling like I was bleeding time in aid stations, I had to make sure to keep taking care of myself.

This is where I first remember seeing what a toll the race had been taking on everyone. People were laying down and flopped in chairs with thousand-yard stares. After I felt so terrible earlier while people blew by me, I could slowly see the tables turning.

I managed to beg some electrolytes off a kind aid station volunteer. The volunteers at this race were the best – you could tell they were true pros, and they had a tough job taking care of so many overheated runners. After the routine ice bath and ice in the hat, I set off for Driver’s Flat.

There were some steep climbs to start this section, and I was feeling pretty good with my new buddy Sean. We passed a woman doubled over in cramps on the side of the trail and offered her electrolytes. A bit later, a runner was down and needed an evac. Someone was already with him, but we stopped to make sure race officials were notified and that all was good.

As the sun started to set, there were some dynamite views with wildflowers, the canyon, the river, and mountains in the distance. Temperatures were finally inching down. Best of all, I was finally hungry!

Wildflowers and sunset - can I just stay here for a while?

My plan was to take a longer stop at Driver’s Flat to solidify the comeback. After battling my stomach for 30+ miles, I needed some serious food. And then it was time to turn on the rocket boosters to see if I could salvage a decent race after the carnage of the day.

I came in to Drivers Flat and was back in business mode. The volunteers remarked how good I looked and that I was “still upright”. I guess that was the bar at this point. While I sorted gear, filled bottles, and stuffed my face, they found me some pasta with red sauce. It tasted amazing and went down well. I didn’t even bother changing clothes and hustled out with renewed energy and spirit.

Miles 48-101.8: Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J

We started with a road descent to the American River, and I felt gooooood. I was hitting sub 9 minute miles and it was go time.

We would run the Western States through through Cal 2 to Foresthill and back, giving us 30+ miles on the iconic course. I felt great on the flowing single track and then started hammering up the climb. A 10+ mile climb was right in my wheelhouse and just what I needed.

I still wasn’t out of the woods with electrolytes. I had a few tabs of NuuN I grabbed from my drop bag at Drivers Flat and made the dubious call to chew one of the tabs on this section. Do not recommend. While things got a bit easier at night, I had to dance with getting enough electrolytes all the way to the finish.

I passed 20 people on this section, rolling into Cal 2 fired up. I ate some food while my bottles were being filled but suddenly felt like it was going to come back up. I threw up, nearly hitting some poor dude sleeping in the dirt. I felt fine right afterwards, and it was back to business as usual.

As I rolled through the next section, I ran into fellow Uphill Athlete coach and friend Alyssa Clark, who was already returning from Foresthill and absolutely smashing it! She went on to win the race in a stunning victory.

I hammered the climb up to the road and then ran uphill at a good clip to Foresthill. I felt great at the aid station, again seeing quite a bit of carnage strewn about. Just like that, I had climbed almost 50 places and was now in 33rd.

I had 18 miles of fast, net downhill running ahead of me. The initial rush of my second wind had worn off, but I was determined to keep moving well and pick up more places. We bottomed out at the American River before the road climb up to Driver’s Flat. It was about 4am, and the sleep gremlins hit hard. Sleeping wasn’t an option though – I mean this was only one night!

I ran into several of the top women in the field and decided to hang with them for a bit to keep from drifting off. I chatted with a woman from Brazil, and we helped each other change out batteries in our headlamps.

I unintentionally pulled away and got to Driver’s Flat in 22nd place. I had two goals at this point: 1) sub 24-hour finish, and 2) get as high as I could in age group placement. Since this a UTMB continental championships, they allocate 55 age group slots for UTMB in addition to top 10 men & women. There were only 2 people in my age group that were outside the top 10 ahead of me, and one was four minutes away.

I charged hard and passed him shortly before the Clementine aid station. From there we had 3.5 runnable downhill miles back to No Hands followed by 3.5 miles mostly climbing from No Hands back to Auburn.

The descent went well, and as I came into No Hands, the front of the 25K was passing going in the opposite direction. It looked like I would run backwards through the entire 25K field!

At the aid station, I grabbed only ginger ale, on a mission to get this thing done. A super kind dude at the aid station gave me an escort through the 25K field, helping clear the way for my tired brain and legs.

Between the escort and the entire 25K field cheering for me, I joked that I felt like I was winning the race. This powered me up the climb, and I ran most of it. I hit the road through town and crossed the finish line in 23h12min, 21st overall / 17th male / 2nd in age group.

With athletes I coach, Ron & Michelle, at the finish

The carnage out there was unreal, with over half the field not finishing. It wasn’t the race I hoped for or fully reflective of the fitness I brought in, but I am happy with the outcome. It is a good reminder that with these long races, things can go very far sideways, but you can still have a good outcome if you stay patient and run smart.

I had some good takeaways for future races, such as creating more resiliency in my electrolyte plan. This race experience will also help me at future races in the heat and make me a much better coach for races like Western States.

All my salt ended up on my pack instead of in my stomach

The best thing about the weekend was that four runners I coach were at the race, and all four did amazingly well. I am also excited to have punched my ticket to this year’s UTMB and look forward to my fourth trip around Mont Blanc on September 1. Time to start training …