Monday, June 9, 2025

Rampart Range Road Unsupported FKT

 About two weeks after Utah 115, just as I started jogging slowly to get back in motion, an idea came to me.  

The weather was cooler than normal for this time of the year and raining a lot more than normal as well.  I have had my eyes on doing the entire 57 miles of Rampart Range Road (RRR) for the past year.  As far as I can tell from Strava and FKT sites, only four people had done it, and all had done it in the supported style.  

The issue with unsupported style on the RRR is a lack of water source.  RRR mainly follows the spine of Rampart Range and most streams originate somewhat downhill from the road.  Topo map does show some small creeks that start within a couple hundred yards of the road but those are all seasonal.  The only truly reliable source is at Rainbow Gulch where about half a mile down the Rainbow Gulch trail is a significant perennial stream that drains into Rampart Reservoir.  This water source is 39 miles from the start of the northern trailhead.  

RRR is a perfect supported style route since the dirt road is wide and graded so any vehicles any easily navigate it and follow along a runner to provide water, food, supplies and pacers.  The ideal time to run the RRR in a supported style is in late October or November, before snow coverage and RRR closed for vehicle traffic for the winter.  For unsupported style, perhaps early April would be good depending on snow condition, since RRR opens for vehicle traffic sometimes in April.  No one that I'm aware of has done unsupported style and generally there are no condition reports for that time of the year for the middle section of RRR to provide any historical experiences.

Two weeks after Utah 115, I started to feel normal except for a bit of lingering hip soreness, a left heel blister had popped cleanly and healing, and a right heel blister that did not pop so was still covered under the callus.  I decided if the blisters and hips continue to improve during the week, I would give RRR a shot on Saturday while the weather was cool and road was wet.  A damp road significantly reduces dust from car traffic.  

It rained hard every day during the week and by Friday, I was feeling like I could give it a go.  Saturday's forecast was pretty good.  Majority of RRR was at 9,000 to 9,500 ft.  Forecast for the 9,000 ft elevation was a low of 41 and high of 65, sunny and slight chance of rain in the afternoon.  

I wanted a 5 AM start so to not have to use lights and also to maximize the daylight running time.  I went to bed at 9:30 PM on Friday night, only to wake up at 11:40 PM and could not go back to sleep until past 1:30 AM.  My alarm went off at 2:15 AM.  

I had tried an Osprey waist pack carrying two 24 oz bottles during the week, but they bounced too much without cinching the belt tighter than comfortable.  So I had to load everything into the Salomon Adv Skin 12 pack. 

My pack load:

Rear main compartment:

  • Two HydroPak UltraFlask 500mL bottles with caps, each mixed with two scoops of Tailwind. 
  • 2.5L bladder filled with water.
  • 4 bags of Tailwind powder, each bag has two scoops (100 calories per scoop)
  • 4 Lara Bars (100 calories each)
  • 3 Cliff Bars (250 calories each)
  • 3 Roast Beef Sandwiches ( 370 calories each: 2 slice of bread (70C each), 2 slice of cheese (80c each), 3 slices of meat (70C/3 slices))
  • Full emergency kit including bivy, emergency headlamp, knife, water purification pills, duct tape, Band-aids, parachute cord and blister kit
  • Fenix Headlamp
  • Garmin InReach
  • Toilet Paper
  • Wet-wipes
  • Water filter with 1 liter soft flask, empty
  • Waterproof pants
  • Rain jacket
  • Battery and cable
  • Pole quiver
Front pockets:
  • Two Salomon 500 mL soft flasks, each mixed with two scoops of Tailwind mix.
  • Left side has gloves, buff, arm sleeves, AfterShokz and phone.  
  • Right side has medicine kit (Tylenol, Ibuprofen and Salt-sticks) 2 Lara bars, 1 Cliff bars.  

Total water carried including Tailwind mix carried is 4.5 liters that weigh 10 lbs.  Total pack weight including hike poles is around 20 lbs.  Probably could shaved the pack weight down to around 15 lbs by only packing food.  With the amount of vehicle traffic on the RRR, most of the emergency stuff are really overkill.  But this run is also a good dress rehearsal for the White Rim so I decided to go with the a setup close to the White Rim setup.  The White Rim self supported setup would only add Kogalla waist light, one 18650 battery, and more food.  The White Rim unsupported setup would added another 8 liters of water which is 17 lbs. and also would have required a bigger pack.  

Jade dropped me off at the northern trailhead off Hwy 67 at 5 AM.  To our amazement, there was a telephone booth there.  We tried it and it had a dial tone.  But we didn't have the two quarters required to make a call.  That would have been fun to do.  

Old School!

At the start

I started up the RRR at 5:12 AM.  After a hundred yards or so, the pavement ended.  The first ten miles of the road gently gains 1,400 ft from 7,600 ft to 9,000 ft.  I alternated between walking the hills and slow running the flats in this section.  

Since the water had to last for 39 miles, I settled on using the Tailwind bottle as the water pacing tool.  One 500 mL bottle of Tailwind every 9 miles.  Since I tend to sip the similar amount of water after each sip of Tailwind, I figured this will get me to 36 miles with around half of liter of water left.  That should be enough for the remaining 3 miles to Rainbow Gulch.  

Food strategy is 200 calories per hour.  I had thought the roast beef sandwich had around 250 calories.  After the run I checked the nutritional content of the labels and found each sandwich had 370 calories!  I decided to eat the sandwich as treats at mile 15, 30 and 45.  

The pack was definitely heavy with weight mostly rear biased.  I could feel the rear weight of the pack pulling the front of the pack up a bit.  

There were many campsites in the first 6 miles and a surprising amount of vehicle traffic that early in the morning.  They were mostly driving very slow and respected my space.  I also noticed many drivers looked like teenagers.  Maybe this is a good spot to teach a teenager how to drive?  

This area of Pikes National Forest has many cool rocks, maybe left over Pikes Peak granite?  

One of many cool looking boulders along the RRR

Sunrise hitting the forest

I'm very very long

What surprised me was the mile markers.  Not sure if this was new since I certainly have not seen them on the southern portion of the RRR.  

Only 50 miles to go

Shortly after the road split at Devil's Head Lookout Tower at mile 9, I finished the first bottle of Tailwind and stopped to swap with one of the full Tailwind bottles from the rear pocket of the pack.  This took a bit of time but really helped with shifting the weight forward and making the pack more comfortable.  Hindsight, I should have used the Zpacks Multi-Pack to bring more weight forward for balance and comfort.

At mile 14, I couldn't resist the temptation anymore and ate the first sandwich a mile early :)

A bit of downhill!

Found a good view point, there weren't many in the first 20 miles

At some point, Pikes Peak makes her first of the many appearances.  This run is akin to a love affair with Pikes Peak.  Really couldn't get tired of look at her from different angles and lights.  

First glimpse of Pikes Peak

Perfectly framed by the road

Shortly after mile 20, I heard moving water then a stream that's running off to the left of the road.  This definitely wasn't expected.  On the topo map, dotted streams are intermittent streams or ephemeral streams.  This stream was marked with dotted lines on the topo map and the only one that crossed the RRR.  The previous week of rain must have saturated the soil quite a bit to make this stream flows so much.  


I had to make a decision.  By now I had consumed over 2 liters of liquid.  More importantly, the rear of the pack is around 5 lbs lighter than when I started since I had shifted both full bottles from the rear to the front and had drank just over one liter of water from the bladder.  The pack at this point actually felt fairly comfortable and the comfort level would continue to improve until Rainbow Gulch at mile 39.  If I refill the water from the stream here, the pack would instantly be uncomfortably heavy again.  Essentially I would increase the total carrying to an additional 5 lbs for 19 miles.  But this would also eliminate the one mile round trip detour at Rainbow Gulch.  

I decided to refill here, deal with the weight and skip the Rainbow Gulch detour.  The water was a bit muddier than I liked and soon I realized a feeder crossed the road into the stream and added mud from the road surface.  Fortunately it didn't clog up the filter and the resulting water tasted fine.  

The vehicle traffic pretty much died down after mile 12.  I only saw a few motorcycle riders, two gravel bike riders and a handful of cars during a 15 miles stretch.  Things changed rapidly as I approached the junction with Mt. Herman Road.  Not only vehicle traffic increased, they were also fast.  I even saw a couple pickups sliding around bends.  The road is no longer damp after baking in the sun all day and this caused a good bit of dust with each vehicle flying by.  This area also allowed shooting and for about 3 miles from mile 33 to mile 36, I felt like I was in a shooting gallery.  I could even identify the magazine size by the shooting intervals.  It also felt hot even though the temperature was only in the mid 60's.  The higher elevation and cloudless sky meant more solar exposure.  The vehicle traffic continue to increase until mile 40 at Rampart Reservoir entrance.  

I was very glad to run past this sign

The trees opened up quite a bit after mile 30 and there were many views of Pikes Peak.

Shortly after Farish junction

Close to Rainbow Gulch was a section of wide open views

After the entrance of Rampart Reservoir at mile 40, traffic disappeared.  It was finally peaceful and the increasing cloud cover had decreased the apparent temperature to a much more comfortable level.  

Peacefulness amount the young aspens

Getting cooler

I ate the last sandwich at mile 43, anticipating the upcoming downhill where I would not want to slow down to eat.  I had saved the last two bottles of Tailwind for the 11.2 miles of downhill.  

Finally just before mile 46, I went around a left bend and arrived at a summit point.  11.2 miles and 3,000 ft of descend lies between me and the finish at Garden of the Gods.  

First view of the Colorado Springs, from the final "summit"

RRR courses its way down the spine

I put the poles away in the quiver for the last time and focused on my leg turn overs.  To my dismay, my body refused to go faster than a 10 min pace.  Mostly I was stuck between 10:30 to 11 min pace.  

Williams Canyon basking in the setting sun


I texted Jade just after the Queen's Canyon overlook with about 3.5 miles to go and joked to her that my ETA is 7:43 PM and 30 seconds.  Somehow she thought I was serious!

Somehow I beat my WAG ETA by 3 minutes and finished at 7:40 PM.  There were still quite a bit of tourists at Balance Rock, and Jade wasn't there yet.  I called her and she said she was 8 minutes away with freshly made Vietnamese food in the car for me!

Going through my pack that night, I had two Lara bars and one Cliff bar left.  The main bladder had maybe 5 oz of water, and one soft flask of Tailwind was half empty.  So the tally of the total run consumption:

Food:
  • 4 Lara bars (400 calories)
  • 3 Cliff bars (750 calories)
  • 3 roast beef sandwiches (1,110 calories)
  • 5.5 bottles of Tailwind (1,110 calories)
Total: 3350 calories, averaging 231 calories per hour.  This beat my goal of 200 per hour mainly due to under-estimate the sandwich calories!  This also explained that I did not experience any bouts of low energies.

I started with 4.5 liters of water (counting water in the Tailwind mix).  At the mile 20 creek, I filtered 2.5 liters of water into my bottles and bladder, and drank another 300 mL of water directly from the filter. At the end I had perhaps 400 mL of water left.  So the total water consumption was 6.9 liters, averaging 475 mL per hour in this condition: 41' to 65', sunny, light breeze and cloud cover in the afternoon.  Extrapolating this to 30 hours will require just over 14 liters of water.  So an unsupported White Rim with 12 liters will need to occur in cooler weather, while a self supported run could be done in similar condition as RRR on Saturday but the water stash will have to be more than 1 gallon each.   

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

 2025: Knee injury, Utah 115

I have been following the Grand to Grand Ultra stage race for a few years.  Last fall, I saw they have announced a new event, the Utah 115 that runs on the Grand to Grand course, with 50 hours cut off.  I love the town of Kanab and this sounds super intriguing.  A few miles of the course even go through the Pink Coral Sand Dunes, aka MDS style.  I signed up despite the fact it's a spring race and I'll have minimal time to train and prepare due to ski season.

After hiking the 33 miles Hermit loop with Amelia in November, I started running a decent amount but without serious training.  Both Alex and Amelia had signed up for the seasonal BEAVO snowboarding program which meant we would be going to Beaver Creek every weekend in January, February and the first weekend in March.  On January 12th, the second ski weekend, I crashed badly at Royal Elk Glades and immediately felt a good amount of pain in my left knee.  My friend Luke who was an Army medic for over 20 years assessed my knee and after resting for 10 minutes, I was able to cautiously ski down the mountain mainly using the right leg for control.  After a visit to the ER and PT, they diagnosed me with partial torn MCL and started physical therapy one week post injury and started a slow walking/running program.  I was able to return to the slopes with my family two weeks post injury limiting myself to easier runs initially.  For the next two months, I did PT daily for both legs and felt both legs getting stronger.  I was also able to start running daily by the end of January during the week days.  

Since Utah 115 was not a high elevation race and did not have a massive amount of climbing, I decided to train mainly on local trails such as Ute Valley for the rocks and Falcon Trail for the sand that I was sure to encounter during the race.  I had figured there were about 4 miles of Sand Dunes, maybe 10 miles of sandy tracks, 5 miles of "cross country" aka bushwhacking in the 115 miles course.  Due to a surprise family visit and a wedding in March, I was not really able to train much in March, therefore dedicated April to serious training.  

I end up running about 230 miles in April and increased my long to to a 3x of Falcon loop at 39 miles and focused on walking more than running.  I felt my cardio was good and ready, but wasn't sure if my legs and feet would be up to the 50 hours of pounding with only five weeks of true training.  I also wasn't confident that my stomach was properly trained either.  

I reserved a room at a historical house right next to the race start.  Two weeks before the race, Jade and kids surprised me by making plan to come with me to Utah to support me, and Amelia wanted to pace me on a segment.  Then I got a cold 10 days out and and truly tapered by sitting on the couch for a week taking meds and blowing out stuff from the sinuses and lungs.  

We left Wednesday and arrived in Kanab on Thursday while driving through some amazing scenery along Utah Byway 12.  

Looking down toward Calf Creek canyon along Highway 12

The course is setup as an out and back with the outgoing section doing an extra side loop through Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Elephant Cove area.  


With Jade crewing, I decided to have her meet me at Yellowjacket Road at mile 26, Clay Flats at mile 52 with plan for a nap, Clay Flats again at mile 76, and Yellowjacket Roads at mile 91.  This way, Amelia can pace me from mile 76 to mile 91.  

I had setup our Suburban with a solar panel on the roof and an alternator charger charging the EcoFlow battery, which then powers the 12V cooler, microwave and Starlink.  This way Jade can track me via my Garmin InReach in areas without cell phone coverage, and can heat up food for me at aid stations.  She had fried rice, chicken nuggets, Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, ramen noodles, salami and watermelons all ready to go in the cooler.  

The race started Friday morning at 7 AM about 100 yards from our rental house.  Jade and kids came and watched the 40 or so runners took off down the road.  The course ran on streets for just under a mile before hitting the trailhead.  Since I still wasn't 100% recovered from the cold, I decided to take this super easy and jogged at a relaxed 12 min pace near the back of the pack while chatted with two Korean runners, Sean and Jae from California.  


Cruising through Kanab toward the trailhead

I got my poles out when we hit the trailhead.  The trail meandered through the bottom of a canyon toward the cliffs.  It was very runnable.  Then we hit the Cliff Trail at mile 2 and it became a scramble as the trail gained 500 ft in half a mile.


Cliff Trail

Looking back toward Kanab from Cliff Trail.


At mile 3, the course gained the Mesa top and hit a sandy double track.  I expected this part to be sandy so wasn't surprised and felt a bit of novelty running on the sand.  


Soon we had our first gorgeous view of the sandstones.


And more sandy tracks followed.

The first aid station was an unmanned water station near mile 6.  I topped one bottle and followed 3 other runners into a sandy ditch.  Hmm......  There were no trails.  I didn't expect to start cross country until mile 35 or so.  We took turns leading as each leader would lose the path indicated by pink flags and another runner would find them.  The cross country continued for over a mile until it climbed up a hill side dotted with boulders to another sandy track.  


Pink flag indicated the path through this "cross country" section

Sandy track continued for another 5 miles until it descended to a crossing of Kanab Creek slot canyon section next to the first manned aid station at Best Friends.  This was certainly more sand than expected.  

Kanab Creek flowing through the slot canyon by Best Friend aid station at mile 12

The next two miles were pleasant uphill firm dirt road climbing past Angel's Rest Animal Sanctuary before turning back to sandy tracks and descended to Highway 89 where a race marshal helped with the crossing.  After the crossing, the course once again bushwhacked through half mile of weeds on sands until it entered Cave Lake Canyon Resort where I blissfully ran on a paved road for over a mile before the course turned sandy once again.  


Cave Lake Canyon

Nice shelter in Cave Lake Canyon

The path rises toward the canyon rim

Once the course climbed out of the Cave Lake Canyon, it descended a sandy track for a mile and arrived at Hancock Aid Station at mile 19.  The 50 miles race (they started at 9 AM, two hours after us) leader caught up to me at this aid station.  Tessa would go on to win the 50 miles race outright, beating the fastest man by over an hour.  


Tessa passing me shortly after Hancock aid station, in another short cross country

After Tessa passed me, it was a monotonous 7.5 miles of sandy track stretching as far as I can see to the next aid station.  I really struggled through here.  It was hot, not a soul out there, and chasing Tessa for a few hundred yard was not a good way to start this section.  

Tessa is somewhere in this picture, far away

About 3 miles out from the next aid station, the two leading 50 miles men caught up to me and inquired about the Tessa's lead and condition.  I told them she looked happy and and wished them best of the luck catching her.  One of them mumbled something like "she's like a Dauwalter".  

A mile later, I looked up at the next hill and saw Amelia standing on the top.  She had backtracked on the course for almost two miles in her sweat pants, crocs, and a can of 7-UP to find me.  Fortunately she had listened to the pre race briefing and knew to follow the pink flags.  There were other colored flags out there, probably BLM markings.  

We mostly hiked the 2 miles together to Yellowjacket aid station at mile 26 where Jade and Alex had setup my own aid station with a shaded chair and hot food.  


Amelia and I coming into the aid station, 8 hours into the race, at 3 PM

I ate watermelon and Jade also heated up a Jimmy Dean's sandwich, which was delicious!  I also dumped the sand out of my shoes and socks for the first time and was surprised how much sand got in despite the gaiters.  What I did not do, was to also take the insoles out to dump the sand.  

I loaded up the Kogalla waist light and my headlamp and refilled the Tailwind packets.  It would 25 miles before I see Jade again.  As I was heading out, Amelia chased me down and gave me a zip lock of salami! 

The course followed the road for about a mile before turning into Pink Coral Sand Dunes.  I followed the sandy track into the park and looked up at the nearest steep wall in and saw some foot prints, and wondered who in their right mind would want to climb such steep sand dunes.  Then I got closer and saw a pink flag on the top of the steep dune.  

First steep dune

As I got near the top, I discovered I was not making any progress to the top with normal hiking steps.  It was time to improvise.  The technique that end up working was like this:
  1. Plant both poles as deeply as possible about 18 inches in front of the feet.
  2. Sprint 5 quick steps until the feet are at between the poles, drive the last step in as deep as possible to stabilize.
  3. Move the poles 18 inches further and repeat.  
This was exhausting but at least it worked.  I would eventually catch another runner before the end of 3.5 miles of dunes.  This section was gorgeous but I absolutely trashed my hips here.  





By the time I existed the dunes and hit the mile long sandy track toward the next aid station, I was demoralized and in pain, and could feel sand rolling under my feet inside the shoes.  When I arrived at Pink Coral Sand Dune aid station at mile 31, there were five runners there, all busy dumping sand out of their shoes.  I finally realized I needed to also remove the insoles and found tons of sand trapped under the insoles.  

Took one Tylenol here and it didn't do much.  Later discovered the Tylenol bottle had expired in 2021.

The volunteers warned me to pay attention to the next cross country section.  Sure enough, I missed the turn off from the sandy tracks and had to back track a bit to find the next 2 miles of cross country.  

There are pink flags here

Finest cross country course!

I discovered with my mild color blindness and not exactly 20/20 vision, it was sometimes difficult to see the next set of flags and I would lose the course and had to back track to the previous flag to study the terrain.  Eventually a runner named Jacob caught up to me.  He also missed the turn but went out a mile before back tracking to the course.  We chatted and arrived at Elephant Cove aid station together at mile 39 near the sunset. 

I had popped 400mg of ibuprofen during the cross country and actually felt pretty good after watermelon and ramen at the aid station.  Leaving Elephant Cove aid station and jogged the next two miles down a gentle downhill sandy track.  

Ed leaving Elephant Cove aid station

More sandy track

Sunset shortly after Elephant Cove

After it got dark, the course turned east and up so it was all walking a mostly sandy track to the next aid station at Parunuweap Canyon, mile 46.  I felt so so by then, and saw a runner cuddled in a sleeping bag not able to eat anything.  I didn't want to stay long and left after some oatmeal and watermelon.  It was mostly downhill for the next 7.5 miles to Clay Flats and Jade.  I was told that not all 7.5 miles were sand.  Turned out it was about 5 miles of sand, and maybe 2 miles of harder dirt and rocks.  Somewhere along here I started to lose the range of motion in my hips and couldn't really open up the strides for the downhills so it took longer than expected to arrive at Clay Flats at just before 1 AM.

Jade had setup a sleeping station in the Suburban.  I took off my shoes and socks and cleaned the feet as much as possible, drained a blister on my left large toe, ate some food then curled into the sleeping bag for an one hour nap.  I was initially cold but warmed up shortly and it seemed I just closed my eyes when Jade woke me up, it was already an hour.  I ate some fried rice, taped the toe blister, put on pants and jacket since it was 41 degrees outside.  The original plan was for Jade to meet me again at Clay Flats on my way back.  But we improvised on the spot for her to meet at at Old Highway 89 aid station, the turn around point of the race, to take my night gear from me.  

The sleep, food and a second ibuprofen dose had worked wonder.  I actually jogged up a gentle uphill sandy track and passed quite a few runners, including Sean and Jae who were a originally couple hours behind me but didn't sleep at Clay Flats so passed me there.  It was a good run on 100% sandy tracks to the next aid station at Belly of the Dragon at 5 AM where I ate some PBJ and watermelon and then had to cross a spooky tunnel to go under highway 89.

Tunnel under highway 89

The course followed Belly of the Dragon path around the drainage then up the side hill steeply to a sandy track on the top.  The 2 miles here climbed about 1,000 ft, not a fun thing to do on sand.  The course then crossed through three beautiful canyons.  Each descent was steep, and ascent steeper.  Finally at around sunrise, I make a right turn and saw Jade and the Old Highway 89 aid station.  
Final trek through sand into Old Highway 89 aid station

Jade did not tell me that she had her own adventure getting to this aid station at 4 in the morning.  She ended up doing some off roading before finding the correct way.  Lesson learned: never follow Google Maps in the back country.  

The Koreans caught up to me at the aid station and we all had a wonderful breakfast.  I had pierogi, eggs and coffee.  They had in-and-out burgers and spicy korean ramen from their drop bags.  Our microwave came in handy for the Koreans since the hot water at the aid station wasn't hot enough to cook the ramen.  


Old Highway 89 Aid Station, mile 65 

Nothing like In-and-Out burgers that's been in a drop bag for two days

The 8 miles back down to Belly of the Dragon on paper looked good and fast.  In reality, it was cursing through deep sand, heel blister popping, pooping in the bushes, and scared for my life sliding down the hill side toward the tunnel.  It was brutal and I was beat by the time I arrived at Belly of the Dragon.  I had lost my two pocket of Tailwind somewhere and had to use LMNT pockets from the aid station.  That didn't work at all for me and after two sips that made me gag, I gave up on them. 

Descending toward Belly of the Dragon

The view was as grand as sand is soft


The climb back to Clay Flats was slow and demoralizing.  Especially since I didn't have Tailwind for calories and got two Honey Stinger waffles from the aid station as calories replacement.  I arrived at Clay Flats, mile 79, at just past 1 PM where the kids greeted me about a quarter mile out.  I took a long stop, ate a Jimmy Deans and watermelon, and once again drained the shoes.  I had one more pair of clean socks but decided to save them for the last 25 miles.  

Clay Flats family portrait

Amelia and I leaving Clay Flats

It was all uphill from Clay Flats to Parunuweap Canyon.  While climbing the endless sandy track, I sorted lost it mentally and couldn't imagine continue for another 40 miles.  Fortunately Amelia was full of positive energy and the aid station volunteers at Parunuweap Canyon were even more positive and remembered me from the previous visit at night.  Amelia was a bit shy about eating the food at aid station and I end up handing my half eaten food to her for her to get some calories in.  

The first 4 miles of the connector trail from Parunuweap Canyon to Yellowjacket was actually less sandy and on gentle rolling terrain and Amelia and I had a good time.  The forecast was for rain that night, and I mentally prepared myself for the rain gear that I would need for the final 25 miles.  We finally can see Pink Coral Sand Dunes in the distance and found a spot where the trail drops down steeply for a picture of the Amelia and dunes.


As soon as we stepped off the lip into the steep downhill, I felt stabbing pain in my hips with each step.  I felt faint from the pain at the bottom and had to take a break.  From there it was about a 400ft descent to the road and my pace slowed dramatically while the hip pain increased.  I took another 400mg of ibuprofen hoping it would shut down the inflammation.  The two miles from the onset of pain to Yellowjacket aid station were downhill and flat, but took us over an hour.  

By the time I limped into Yellowjacket aid station at 7 PM, I suspected that I was done.  My stride length had shorted to a shoe length.  Anything more would make the hip pain intolerable.  Downhills and shifting sand make it even worse.  Jade and kids helped into the car where I rested for a while hoping for a miracle but the hips didn't improve. Previously when I had hip pain, resting always helped.  I had done 92 miles in 36 hours, and had 25 miles and 14 hours left.  20 of those remaining miles were soft sandy tracks and there were about 3,500 of descent as well.  After 50 minutes, the Koreans came into the aid station and I told them of my decision to drop.  Sean and Jae continued out of Yellowjacket at 8 PM.  Sean end up dropping at the next aid station at Hancock after losing his mind in the sand cussing the entire way there.  Jae went on alone and finished in 49 hours and change.  

The next morning after sleeping for a few hours, I went back to the start/finish to cheer on the last few remaining runners, include Derek, Jae, and Jeremy.

Derek finishing

Jae finishing

Sean and Jae stayed at race provided tent.  These guys sure know how to pamper themselves.  They cooked us a yummy breakfast of pork soup, BBQ pork, kimchee and green scallions right there in the tent.  







Since we have an unexpected free day, we decided to see a couple local attractions.  

Sand Cave


The soft sand in the cave gave me PTSD!

Post race thoughts.  

Something went well and others didn't go well at Utah 115.  

Things that went well:
  • G/I and nutrition.  For 36 hours I never had any nausea, and was able to eat regularly.  There were two segments that I didn't refill Tailwind.  One was from Belly of the Dragon to Old Hwy 89 where the Tailwind bag was in the wrong pocket and I couldn't find it.  Another segment was from Belly of the Dragon to Clay Flats where Tailwind was once again in the wrong jacket pocket and when I stuffed the jacket, I probably pushed it out without realizing it.  Having Jade as crew made a huge difference in food.  Mostly what I ate from the aid stations were watermelon (they never ran out), PBJ wedges and some were toasted and therefore yummy, two cup of Ramen, one was super salty, two cups of oatmeal, and handful of potato chips.  At Clay Flats at night, I asked for quesadilla and after waiting almost 10 minutes, finally received a small quarter wedge of it. After the race, Jade told me that Clay Flats aid station was running out of cheese and was rationing them.  Old Hwy 89 had good food for breakfast.  Though I wished for hot grits mixed with bacon and scrambled eggs.  They did have pierogi and eggs and coffee.  Jade prepared watermelon, chicken nuggets and Jimmy Dean cheese and sausage croissants.  The Jimmy Dean's was a big hit with my stomach, so yummy and savory.  If I have Jade crew me again in the future, I think I'll add cheeseburgers, and maybe instant grits with scrambled eggs and pre cooked bacon bits.  I do wish the race providef more savory food at aid stations.  Most of the time, the only savory food was ramen.  Did #2 at Clay Flats, Hwy 89, and shortly after Hwy 89.  All went well and easy.  
  • Gear prep and timing.  My timing sheet was pretty much spot on until my hips blew out at the end.  The gear prep worked well, never had any issues.  Kogalla battery still showed 3 out of 4 lights after a whole night (minus 2 hours of stopping at Clay Flats), so about 8 hours of usage.  I thought I had it at level 15 but will double check.  At this level, it could lasted two nights easy.  Somehow lost the blinker light on the waist belt.  Need to put that somewhere else.  
  • Foot care: this will be in both categories of things went well and didn't.  I had blisters on both heels that formed after 60 miles.  Also a blister on the outside of the left big toe, not sure what caused it, probably need to check the socks for debris before hand.  None of these really prevented me from moving forward though the heel blisters did cause some discomfort.  I did tape the toe blister at mile 52 at Clay Flats.  When I dropped at mile 92 and took off the tape, the toe was caked in dirt with glue.  It would have been a lot of work to retape the toe had I not dropped from the race.  
  • Sun protection.  The big rimmed hat worked well and the generously applied sunblock meant no sunburns at all.  Very important in a long event like this.  
  • Managing efforts.  This could also be in both categories.  Cardio wise, the effort was great and I kept my lingering cough in check.  I probably over used the hips early on.  
  • Walking training.  Focused more walking when walking wasn't necessary during long training runs really helped.  The heavier pack during the training also helped.  My race pack was fairly heavy when picking up by hands, but never felt burdensome when wearing it.  
  • Amelia was a great pacer.  However need to get her to eat more at aid stations.  
Things that did not go well:
  • Lack of training volume.  With only 5 weeks of serious training, there simply wasn't enough time on feet to properly preparing the soft tissues in the lower body for the abuse.  I was prepared cardio wise but the soft tissues take much longer to get ready. 
  • Lack of sand training.  This was more of an intelligence failure.  Not having done enough to research the course, incorrectly thinking there won't be much of the sand outside of the dunes.  The legs and hips weren't ready for the extra pushes and stabilizing required in sands.
  • Lack of sand gear.  Without sand gaiters, I should have dumped the shoes and socks more often.  Also should have brought more socks in drop bags at more aid stations.  For example, Best Friends, Pink Coral and Hwy 89 all offered drop bags.  Possibly could have used a 10.5 size shoes in the later part of the race as well.  
  • Only used the pole quivers for about a mile at the beginning of Cave Lake Canyon.  End up using poles everywhere.  The idea of putting the poles in the quiver for aid stations wasn't necessary for such as small race where there were usually less than 2 to 3 runners at the any aid stations at a time.  Every aid stations had a chair for me.  
  • The only time I felt hard in effort other than the Sand Dunes was the 6 miles of straight sandy tracks after Tessa passed me.  It was hottest part of the day, in the high 70's or low 80's, and not a cloud or breeze.   
  • The Tylenol and ibuprofen didn't work as well.  Turned out the Tylenol bottle expired in 2021, and the ibuprofen bottle expired in 2017!!!