Black Canyon 100k (Race Recap)

Black Canyon City, AZ

Saturday, February 18

Weather - Sunny and warm

Shortly after running Cowboy 200, I was with a group of friends celebrating our recent race finishes. A friend of mine ended up having to DNS at Javelina (literally the night before the race!), and was looking for something to spend his race credits on. I thought Black Canyon sounded like a fun race, so I offered to join him for the race. Long story short, he ended up not going, and after a bunch of back and forth about whether I was even going to go, I headed to Arizona for more Cocodona "training."

Race Day

Somehow, I actually slept well (and fell asleep quickly!), so that was a bit of a surprise. Luckily, I had gotten everything ready the night before and I was ready to go on time. We had about a half hour drive to the Anthem Outlets, where we needed to catch the shuttle to the race start. The drive was uneventful, and we were parked on time. Plenty of buses lined up (a big fear of mine is that the buses will be gone or full, so this was nice to see). We got on the first bus, and the driver told us we still had plenty of time to use the (indoor) bathrooms and that we were leaving at 6:30. In my head I thought we were supposed to be leaving by 6:20, but it wasn't a big deal. We ended up not leaving until 6:40, however. The drive was a bit longer than I expected. Shortly before arriving I realized I couldn't find the keys for the rental. THANKFULLY, I had realized this BEFORE getting off the bus AND that I found them on the floor under a seat a few rows up. WTF.

Additionally, the buses dropped us off late, we didn't get there until 7:27 for a 7:30 start! And all of us over course still needed to use the bathroom again.

Start to Bumble Bee (First 20ish)

None of us were especially worried about starting after the gun since supposedly we were going off chip timing (spoiler, my official time is gun time, not chip time). 

I used the bathroom, went with Caolan to drop off the finish line bag and jogged to the track for the (delayed) start. We had been hearing all weekend about how cold it gets waiting around at the start, and this turned out to be a non-issue for us. It was a beautiful morning - and I was surprised at the muddy track and hoped the rest of the course would not be like that.

We were all warned to not go out too fast in the beginning. The course is a net downhill, and not a "ton" of climbing on paper, so I had opted to travel without my poles, and hoped that if I saved my legs the climbing at the end wouldn't be that bad. I started the race in multiple layers on top (Rabbit EZ tee, Rabbit High Country short sleeve, and the Patagonia Airshed Pro).

Thank you, GU rep, for the hat. It helped immensely!

It was nice that the first few miles were on pavement. I ran everything in the early miles, but I definitely feel like I was taking it easy. I made it until maybe mile 5 or 6 before I got warm enough that I wanted to take off the Airshed (and put on sunscreen). Timed it nicely with a slight uphill.

The first 20 or so miles were definitely my favorite on the course. Not too rocky, very runnable. The only issue I had was with people wanting to pass and either not saying anything, or just kind of jumping around me. I do wonder what happened to some of those guys, if they ended up blowing up later or not. 

Photo Cred: Jesse Ellis

Photo Cred: Jesse Ellis

Things were going wonderful until Bumble Bee, when the wind picked up (and my cough got much worse). Plus, that's about where the beginning of the "real" climbing started, and honestly, where the course really got rocky. I don't think I really took any pictures that really capture just how rocky this course was, but I know I'm not alone in my opinion here!

I can't remember which aid station it was, maybe Soap Creek, but I actually ended up using my ice bandana. I got really hot, which I don't think I was quite expecting. Caolan was heading out as I was coming in, and it actually took me a really long time to catch (and pass) her.

Photo Cred: Scott Rokis

Also a bit of a surprise to me were the water crossings. They weren't horrible, and honestly, during the day, I welcomed being able to dip my hat and cool down a bit. 

This hill was actually huge, believe it or not

The "best" parts of the back half of the course were the water crossings, and when we actually had fire road. We did, however, run into some guys on ATVs that kicked up a lot of dirt (and really made my cough bad), but otherwise, at least that was somewhat runnable. 

Photo Cred: Jesse Ellis

Came into the aid station at Black Canyon city and put some stuff I didn't think I would need into my one drop bag and grabbed by Kogalla, shoving it in my pack because it wasn't going to be dark for a few hours. Caolan came into the aid station shortly after I did, but I didn't see her again after leaving here.

I managed to latch onto a gal and her pacer leaving Black Canyon City into the Cottonwood Gulch aid station. It really made the time pass a bit. 

I didn't end up needing my head lamp until maybe a mile outside of the Cottownwood Gulch aid station. The section there was SO long (almost 9 miles) and I had run out of water and I was really hungry. Plus, I wanted to dump some silt out of my shoe. I asked for some potato soup and it was so hot it scalded my mouth, so that didn't make me happy. It was unfortunately also a long section to Table Mesa. I had honestly barely looked at the profile, and it seemed like we were going to have "Batman ears" of a climb, small descent, mini climb, and then (in my head) a downhill finish. I actually spent a bulk of this section on the phone with Ben. I don't necessarily remember why, but I was just in a segment where I wasn't with a lot of people and I was moving really slow and I was getting super annoyed at being passed by so many people. 

My headlamp was hurting m y head, and I actually ended up putting it away and just using my Kogalla. My quads were pretty thrashed, but Ben said it would be ok to take a few Aleve, so I did, and when they actually kicked in, I felt pretty good and finally did some "running." He said through the phone that it sounded like I was running pretty fast, but in reality I was doing like 13-15 minute pace. And this section was SO rocky. Initially I didn't think I was going to stop at the last aid station since it was only a few miles from the finish, but I did end up stopping to top off a bottle and I grabbed some coke. Out of the aid station was at least a dirt road, so I ran quite a bit there. Then it got all rocky and fucked up again. And there were these weird light up Hoka signs that made it seem like we were a lot closer to the finish than we really were. I did manage to pass a few people in the last few miles though, which was nice.

I was really REALLY happy to cross the finish line with a new 100K PR (I've run faster within longer distances, but for a technical trail 100K - this was the fastest!)

As soon as I crossed, I grabbed a half a grilled cheese and some tomato soup, then I sat by a heater while I waited for Caolan to finish.

Official Time- 16:36:11 (not chip timed)

Antelope Mesa (7.71) - 1:39:02

Hidden Treasure Mine (12.92) - 2:45:45

Bumble Bee (19.39) - 4:15:36

Black Canyon City (37.49) - 9:03:54

Table Mesa (51.03) - 13:10:24

Doe Spring (58.68) - 15:41:12

Garmin Time - 16:34:14
Garmin Distance - 62.39

Elevation Gain - 5,875'

Miles 1-5 - 11:41, 13:10, 13:05, 12:36, 13:50

Miles 6-10 - 12:31, 13:10, 14:14, 12:28, 12:28

Miles 11-15 - 12:24, 12:06, 15:05, 13:08, 14:07

Miles 16-20 - 13:34, 12:51, 13:25, 14:00, 19:16

Miles 21-25 - 14:42, 14:19, 14:19, 18:24, 14:23

Miles 26-30 - 15:02, 14:23, 15:03, 15:14, 15:52

Miles 31-35 - 16:19, 21:27, 14:51, 15:07, 15:30

Miles 36-40 - 16:57, 13:52, 22:27, 14:56, 17:19

Miles 41-45 - 17:30, 15:43, 14:45, 16:43, 17:12

Miles 46-50 - 17:07, 27:09, 18:04, 17:25, 20:03

Miles 51-55 - 24:01, 19:36, 20:51, 20:59, 17:19

Miles 56-60 - 15:40, 17:58, 16:55, 16:44, 15:22

Miles 61-62.39 - 15:18, 14:50, 15:56

Of Note:

• The whole shuttle bus thing was a cluster fuck. I'm still not sure why we were all on the bus and ready to go and then sat there and ended up being dropped off late. Pretty unacceptable. ESPECIALLY since we had to pay EXTRA for the shuttle, on top of a $300 race entry. I didn't need a WSER and wasn't that close to missing it, but for people that were on the cusp of getting a qualifying time, I really hope they are able to get their times adjusted. 
• Unlike Cocodona, I got zero blisters here. I don't know what was different about these trails, but zero problems.
• The aid stations were "fine." My bottles suck, because they are so narrow that it is hard to fill up, and I'm not used to running trail races that are so big that I have to do it myself (first world problems). The food options were the same as Cocodona. Trail mix, fruit snacks, blah. One aid station had chicken salad on a pita, and that was the best. Everything else was uninspiring. And again, the scalding hot soup at one.
• Course was very well marked. I didn't encounter anything that was confusing.
• Historically, I can be co-dependent on poles, but I was actually fine without them. Not sure they even would have helped with how rocky the course was.
• Unrelated to anything, I was REALLY surprised about the number of people that had full crew and pacers. Just weird for this distance. 
• I LOVE the buckle. The shirt is nice. Plus, we got a cute "dry bag" with our gear in it. Sorry no pics of any of either of those. 
• I don't need to come back again, although it was really nice running in bare arms/legs.