Overcoming in the Grand Canyon
Saturday I completed the R2R2R in the Grand Canyon 15 hours and 59 minutes after I started (with my friend Ashley). As many of you know, my first attempt in September 2020 did not end well. I was helicoptered out at mile 3 rest house after having gone 45 of the 48 miles. My body shut down. But I knew I would be back.
We started just before 4 a.m. and dropped in at Bright Angel Trailhead. The way down, of course, doesn't feel like a lot of effort because, well, it's down and we were just getting started. It's still not a fast run down as there are lots of big steps and rocks to work through and we only had the light of our headlamps for a while. As we got to the bottom I saw an orange rattlesnake and it was pretty chill but it's always startling. We made our way to Phantom Ranch for some water and ate then kept going toward Cottonwood where we filled up with water again. Each stop was always lots of water. We made the climb up North Kaibab which is hellacious to say the least. That climb starts about 5.4 mile out and it's about 4000 feet in those miles. And somehow, we had cloud coverage and a cool breeze.
At the top, we sent a couple of text messages to let people know where we were, ate and dropped back in about 15 minutes later. Both of us already had sore feet and my right hip was a bit tight. Going down is super hard on the hips because there are lots of big steps to take. But I love doing this stuff...the more difficult, the better! We had moments of talking and laughing and then moments of silence when we were struggling. Ashley was the lead the entire time and kept such a steady pace and it was exactly what I needed. As we stopped descending and kept going towards the "box" (the hottest part of the Canyon), the sun tried to come out a bit and my body temp was going up quickly. And just as suddenly, the clouds came back and the cool breeze was there.
We were still taking water breaks. When we got back to Phantom Ranch, we both looked at each like, "So yeah, this is hard." We rested there just long enough for me to get in some extra calories and we started the 9 miles back to Bright Angel Trailhead. We worked hard for those miles but we kept positive and still had our times of quiet as we figured out how to keep ourselves going. We got to Havasupai Gardens campground and sat on different benches and took our time filling up water. Neither one of us were walking great but we were strong. We took off again and came across a ram that ran away pretty quickly (we probably didn't smell good). And we just kept going and going. The last 1.5 miles of that climb may have been the hardest thing I have ever done. But when we got past the 1.5 miles rest house, I said something to Ashley along the lines of we are going to do this. And we did! There are so many details to share but those will come out little by little as I'm still recovering and still pretty darn tired.
I can't even decide how I want to end this. The struggle was real but I made the choice to do this. I GOT to do this. We talked about how AMAZING it was that we can run through the Grand Canyon and there is running water for us and even bathrooms. We don't have that option on some of the trails here even! We also couldn't get over how amazing the weather was in August. I don't know how hot it got that day but I would be surprised if we hit 90 which is unheard of.
This took lots of trail miles and weight lifting to have the strength and confidence to do this. Obviously, there's the physical aspect. But without the mental game, there is no way to get through that. In reality, without the mental fortitude in life, you're going to miss out on a lot of amazing things. You must not only stop telling yourself you can't but you get to tell yourself "I will". There will always be struggles, there will always be failures and I am grateful for them. Without those, we do not learn and grow. With those, we open ourselves up to ALL the opportunities in front of us and we GET to do hard things. And hopefully we can have some amazing friends along the way. A big thanks to Ashley for being the positive, strong woman she is and for all the encouragement and smiles when I had doubt.
Yes, this was draining and yes, I will probably do it again. There is something about the Canyon....
