Bryce Canyon through the Crewing Lens.

It is generous to call us a "Crew" for this race. Cody didn't really need gear or support along the way, so we provided emotional support where we could. I was excited to get back here after Cody and I came for a weekend while he tested the "under the rim" trail. Oddly, though, we had better weather for that November trip than we did for this June foray. Go figure.

Chalking this baby up to a win for a fun family get away as well as a great race for crew. Let's me show you.

A little recon the night before the race. Hoping this blows over before Cody hits the trail dark and early.

All night long the lightning flashed, thunder roared and we all tossed and turned. But then the day dawned like this:

 overcast but holding with some sun breaking through now and again. Perfect for both of our situations, really.

 After an hour or so hike on our own exploring Bryce, the kids and I headed to Proctor Aid. Ultra Adventures provided a shuttle from the parking lot to the aid station, which was fantastic as the narrow and rocky road would not be fun to navigate in our little car. Plus the kids were pretty tickled about riding in an ORV.

Once at the aid, we had a snack and then found our way up the trail to see what we could see.

Cody came through this aid pretty quickly. He was feeling the chase. Couple chugs of water, refill of bottles and away he went. 

Back down to our car. And yes, this shot was from the "parking lot"

Other side of the Parking lot, looking into Proctor Canyon.

This is the last decline into the finish line. This was really the only other place to spectate being that Thunder Mt Aid was about a mile and a half to hike in. "Kiddos" weren't feeling it... yep, it was all their fault...

This is the last incline before the above posted decline. We enjoyed sitting here and letting everyone know that the end was in sight. I can only imagine the pain at this point. This climb was pretty brutal after already doing similar climbs..a lot. Or, so I heard.

View from the trail. Believe me, it is spectacular almost everywhere you look. I was particularly lazy this afternoon and this was laid out before me with little to no effort on my part.

Smiling as he climbs his way to the finish line.

So proud of this hard days work one of us put in. Physically, anyway. 

The day after the race, we spent some time lollygagging around Bryce, enjoying another hike or two before hitting the road. We definitely recommend this destination. Rain or Shine.

Bryce 50 Mile Race Report

Bryce 50 Mile Race Report

Bryce from Inspiration Point (from the evening before the race)
All photos from my iphone (with no skills whatsoever)

Who wouldn't want to go running in this amazing place?

Too bad this was my view....

Just a few dudes' backsides in the blurry fog.  It did look cool though once we dropped out of the clouds.

Anyway, the race.  

Lets start with the course.  Its a point to point course with lots of hills and stuff.  You know, like a proper trail race.  They had aid stations every so often and even though the 100 mile runners who started a day before us nearly depleted the supplies, there was enough for us lowly 50 mile runners.  The race even took us on the famous Thunder Mountain Trail.  Too bad we ran it in the uphill direction so it became a kick your butt final hill (more about that later).

Once Matt Gunn (RD) could round up all the runners visiting the bushes for a final nature call, he gave us a brief pep talk and sent us on our way.  We started out with a brief section of dirt road to spread out the field before the fun stuff began.  I counted about 8 people in front of me and I settled in to the brisk start trying my best to chill out and enjoy the scenery.  Kinda hard to do with the misty clouds/fog creating a scene from some foggy/misty movie (insert perfect movie reference here).

A few miles of singletrack and we were soon on a serious climb on a dirt road to link up to the next trail bit.  At that point things got shaken up a lot.  Our group shrank to 6, then 5 pretty quickly.  It seemed like we would run from one sweet singletrack to another (with short dirt road sections linking them).  Trail running heaven!

Our group of 5 (Justin Nelson, Craig Lloyd, Pete Stoughton, John O'Ryan? and myself) chatted and plugged along.  I was basically at my redline for the first 20 miles.  If anyone went harder than this I would have to either let them go or I would be blowing up shortly.  In fact, I was concerned I was already over that line between too hard and just right.  But I'm competitive and I'm in the lead group.  I'm not slowing down.

Soon, we (Pete, Justin and I) found ourselves with some great views.  Actually, just Pete and I since Justin didn't stop for pictures and the others fell back.  

Smile Pete

I had to hustle to catch back up to Justin (shown above)

At this point (mile 20ish) it was just Justin and I left to lead this thing.  He was running the (up)hills better than I, but I was running the downs faster to catch back up.  We ended up staying together for the next 10 miles or so with no idea where everyone else was behind us.

About the time the sun came out with a vengeance, I decided the race was on.  Time to start pushing hard.  The only problem was that I was already pushing the hardest I dare given the distance still to cover and the fatigue settling into the legs.  

Heat, dirt, rocks and miles of singletrack bliss.  

I dropped off my jacket, arm warmers, gloves (never needed them) and camera at the Proctor Aid (mile 33) with my amazing family out to cheer me on.  Time to shed weight.  I didn't stay long (sorry guys) as it was time to get racing.  I hit the climb hard out of Proctor and tried to hammer the downhills while working my way through lots of the 50k runners.  Running scared, I had no idea how far back justin was and if anyone was catching us from behind.  

Thunder Mtn Aid finally came into view and they great volunteers there did a great job taking care of me and getting me back on the trail for the final 9ish mile section.  This was the best part of the race (if you had a bike or a motorcycle).  For the rest of us it was a brutal climb.  The views were jaw dropping (but I didn't take any pics since I ditched the camera to save me a few precious seconds).  Once the climb was done we encountered endless washes to zig zag through.  Seriously, there were something like 30 of them.  More than that maybe?  I kept sneaking glances over my shoulder, (did I mention I was running scared?) but didn't see any threats.  

Finally, the finish line and my wonderful family came into view.  I can stop running now!  Now that is worth celebrating! 

I WON!!!  

8:24 with 8000' vert

I even made it to the car before the rain and another thunderstorm started up ( I sure lucked out there).  Justin battled it out for 2nd place with Greg Norrander only 23 seconds behind him.  Great job guys.  Results here.  Strava data here

Ok, so I had to put some good pictures in this post so I begged Beth for two.  Here they are. Stay tuned for Beth's pictures (once again way better than mine)!

Awesome course, great race, good times!  Hope to be back again...maybe next year...