So yea... where to start...
I had originally wanted to sign up for the inaugural Cocodona 250 but I chickened out and told myself I wasn't ready seeing as though my longest race to date had been 50 miles. I knew originally I wanted to look for a longer race than anything I had tackled up until that point. I'm not fast so a 100 miler to me is still a "race" whereas the longer events are more of an adventure of sorts. In the end, I signed up on Christmas day as a present to myself. Emily, my wife, surprised me when she wasn't annoyed with me signing up for such a big event without talking it over with her first... love you!
Originally I had planned on flying solo without crew or pacers but with a month until the start of the event I sent out a text to a group of buddies telling them about the Cocodona. One of the guys, Ian, who has been one of my best friends since before we could buy cigarettes' (not that we ever smoked) got the A-OK from his wife Sarah who would have her hands full with their young son and infant at home. Ian was new to crewing and I was new to overnight events so it would be quite the learning curve for both of us.
There had been wildfires around the original start of the race so about a week before the start, the Aravaipa Racing team would have to re-plan the first 60ish miles of the race having us spend a great deal of time in the Prescott Valley area.
We had rented a van when we got into town and went to Walmart and purchased a small $10 air mattress and a cheap pump as well as some soft coolers, camping chairs and a bunch of junk food that we ended up barely dipping into. Since we were new to something like this we figured we'd plan for the worst. For us, it was very much overkill... We ended up giving most of our food and drinks to a group of kids hanging outside of our hotel after the race as well as the chairs and other larger items to a guy at the carwash when we were cleaning out the van's interior. That AZ red dust gets everywhere.... I had brought most of my gels, cliff bars etc. with me on the plane but I was so sick of gels by the end of day one that I ended up taking most of it home with me anyways. The aid station food held me over quite well from stop to stop with some small supplemental calories on the trail.
Start - Kuebler Field to AS1 Iron Springs ( 0 - 11.2 Miles )
The start time of the race was 10am which felt weird being used to starting super early for just about any ultra out there. We had 5 days ahead of us so starting super early was pointless and I actually liked this better in the end. I never sleep well the night before a race anyways.
Obviously with this being the beginning of the race, the excitement carried me the first 11.2 miles without any troubles. It was warm because of the later start time but I was keeping up on hydration well. This was more of a conga line than anything. It started out on a single track trail for a couple miles and eventually we crossed a road and took that up into a neighborhood. These were super easy miles without a lot of standout features so the details in my mind are lacking.
AS1 Iron Springs to AS2 White Rock ( 11.2 - 17.9 Miles )
I chose not to stop at Iron Springs. It was a small aid early in the race and my pack was still quite full. I had left the start with 4 liters of water and plenty of food. The miles leaving this aid station were a little more interesting as we were finally starting to get further out into the country and the landscape was starting to change into something far better to look at. This was the first time I would see my crew, Ian. It was nice catching up and talking about how well the race was going. It's one thing to be thinking it and another having someone tell you how well you are doing and that you're right on pace.
AS2 White Rock to AS3 Finch Wells ( 17.9 Miles - 31.9 Miles )
Finch Wells was a little aid station along a dirt access road that you essentially spend a lot of time descending down throughout day 1. It made for quick miles but I think this is where I did some damage which would lead to some pretty severe knee pain later on in my journey. I did not spend much time at this station either, just a quick refill and I was on my way as this was in the heat of the day and I wanted to keep knocking out the miles.
AS3 Finch Wells to AS4 Skull Valley ( 31.9 Miles - 36.5 Miles )
These miles were reasonably flat and fast as the dirt road eventually levelled off. Aravaipa had drones filming a chunk of this portion for their live feed which was fun to dance for. It was a pretty uneventful section but I felt like I was crushing these miles so I was really happy with this section solely due to how quickly it flew by. Skull Valley felt like the first "major" aid station of the journey with tons of food and parking. It was by far the busiest of the aid stations up until this point for me as a huge chunk of runners had taken their first real breather here as the sun went down and I was still well in the middle of the pack.
AS4 Skull Valley to AS5 Finch Wells ( 36.5 Miles - 41 Miles )
Leaving Skull Valley I was riding a pretty incredible high for so early on in the race. The sun had just gone down and the night sky was starting to fill with stars and the further I got from the light of the aid station the more I started to realize how remote we were. I spent the next hour or so just moving by the light of the moon avoiding my headlamp. Since this was an out and back, there were still a decent amount of runners coming into the aid station so I tried my best to not scare them in the dark.
AS5 Finch Wells to AS6 Copper Creek ( 41 - 48 Miles )
I stopped for a short time at Finch Wells for a quick snack and I was on my way. The crew at the aid said something along the lines of there being a couple miles of downhill and then we would be climbing for a little bit. I moved most of the first half of this portion on my own without my headlamp eventually running into Scott Meyers with whom I shared most of the early part of the night with. This was my first race going through the night and having someone there was a great help for me as it took my mind off of everything. We did get a little turned around at one point. When you're coming down the access road towards Finch Wells for the first time you hug the right side of the road the entire time. Heading back from Finch Wells later in the evening you are on that same road for quite some time but end up veering off to the right. We thought we had missed it or had gone down the wrong path so we stopped and consulted the GPS's which were not a big help this time around. Not long after stopping another two runners came up on us and said we had it right and we continued on to Copper Creek aid station. This little stretch after you peel off of the access road was a little more technical because everything up until this point is pretty smooth dirt road and nontechnical trails.
AS6 Copper Creek to AS7 Whiskey Row ( 48 - 60.7 Miles )
We entered Copper Creek a little after 11:30pm and at this point the runners were starting to spread out ( in my small world view in the middle of the race) as this aid station maybe had 5 or 6 other runners here getting warm by the space heaters. Scott and I both don't eat meat and asked for avocado wraps but someone may have mislabeled them at some point as this would be the first time I had eaten meat in a couple of years. I was a little worried that it may mess with my stomach but in the end I was fine. Scott and I ended up splitting up from here and immediately leaving the aid you have a little climb. I had taken in a decent amount of food and water at this aid and I felt like I was just sloshing around for the first couple of miles. After that this was a very slow section for me but based on my game plan I was still 40ish minutes ahead pulling into Whiskey Row around 4:20am (anticipated 5:05am). As my first time going through the night I really didn't know what to expect and my memory of the later miles of this section are hazy as I had been going pretty solid for 18ish hours. Coming into town was a pretty welcome sight! You pretty much enter into a neighborhood and then make your way into the city center. There was a local pizza company with an open flame oven making pizzas for all of the runners at this aid. I ate my pizza and immediately passed out in the back of our van where we had placed our twin size air mattress in the back and cranked up the heat. Ian set an alarm for an hour to wake me up but I had awoken ready to go before the alarm sounded. Having not had any experience with sleep deprivation I was expecting to be quite drained starting "day 2" but honestly it was not as bad as I thought. I woke up and felt revitalized and ready to go. There was only one problem... as soon as I stepped out of the back of the van I felt my shooting pain from my knee.
AS7 Whiskey Row to AS8 Iron King ( 60.7 - 74.2 Miles )
Where I'm from in Southeastern Michigan, we have plenty of trails but not much vert. I had done some hill work but definitely not enough as I had managed to irritate some pretty important muscles in my knee. I'm not a doctor but the best we are able to surmise with the help of a PT friend and a picture phone was that I had strained my popliteus. Not a very major injury which rarely requires surgery with the recommended treatment being a combination of rest, ice, compression and PT. Since I was only 60.7 miles into my journey it was fair to say I was far from being in a state to properly take care of this problem. I pulled my calf compression sleeve up over my knee and I left the van in a hobbling state...
When you first start moving your body is super stiff. Watching people leaving the aid stations after they've been laying down or sitting down is pretty fun because most people have a pretty messed up gate until their body warms up to the idea of more prolonged movement. My body was combatting the movement like everyone else's but with the added knee pain I was pretty alert within a block or two of the van. Whiskey Row is located in the middle of downtown Prescott so exiting the town you spend a couple miles following a highway and into a suburban area until making your way across another major road and entering a park. These neighborhood roads are pretty hilly still! The park trail is quite flat and spread out which made it a pretty fast section for a lot of people ( not me ). My knee was acting up pretty bad but manageable and eventually you leave the nice trail and make your way into the Dells. This only made me more ware of the pain! The trail through the dells is like a mini scramble... not on all fours necessarily but ups and downs with the rocks making my poles a necessity to add insult to injury. Howie was waiting early on in the Dells snapping some cool pics of the runners (see above) with a great view in the background. The dells didn't last a crazy amount of time and it ended up dumping us right back onto that original clean path. The dells and the following miles have very little to no shade so I was lucky to be moving through this area relatively early in the morning. This trail eventually parts ways with the park and continues along a new construction neighborhood for quite a while eventually taking you down to a less remote area arriving in Iron King aid. It was full exposure all the way to the aid station so I had been drinking water non stop.
AS8 Iron King to AS9 Fain Ranch (74.2 - 79.4 Miles )
I took some time at Iron King to sit down and re-access the knee situation. I had been pretty nauseous since leaving the Dells from the pain and what felt like at the time... a constant reminder of how far from the finish I really was. To be fair, I had passed my longest Ultra to date by approximately midnight the night before so not a bad day for me... By this time, I was craving apple juice or orange juice at every aid station and Ian was starting to really be put to the test. As a patent attorney, Ian's a very meticulous person who appreciates the little details that most people ( including myself ) don't even notice. He had created quite the foot routine by this point.
Each time I entered a "crewed" aid station, Ian would take off my shoes and socks and take a look over my feet for hot spots or blisters. As my feet had a chance to air out, he would work on refilling my pack with water and calories planning the amount based on the length of the each next section. He would add Tom's blister shield to each pair of socks and my shoes and we would rotate my shoes each time I came into an aid. This early on in the race we were just starting to dabble with KT tape since we had no experience using it before. I don't typically get blister in the lengths of races I was used to. I had a small blister forming on my little toe at this point because it likes to hide under the toe next to it and my feet had grown quite a bit in size. We ended up wrapping that little guy enough that it retained a round shape rather than the wedge shape that it had been mushed into. It really wouldn't end up bothering me much for the rest of the race.
Leaving Iron King, you end up following a major road for a little bit veering off onto a smaller side road trading the nice side walk for the road side. You end up crossing a major road a mile or two from getting started entering Fain Ranch. Fain Ranch is kinda wild when you think about it. It's pretty much as far as the eye can see... and you have to cross it. The grass has a whitish look to it and you're watching out for cow piles for most of this journey. It starts out pretty cool but turn monotonous quickly. This area is the first time you get introduced to the ladders that were created for you to cross the dozen+ barb wire fences in the following miles. They weren't bad to cross but they weren't helping you speed wise. This section seems to go on forever until you finally pull up on a large parking lot holding the Fain Ranch aid station. I got here around 1:30pm on day two and it was starting to get pretty warm. This aid station had no real shade to offer! It's just a large parking lot so I laid down in the shade from our van while Ian checked out the feet. I was starting to turn numb to the knee pain at this point but the fluid sac that had been building on the back of my knee had grown large enough to be visible... oh well... whatcha gonna do?
AS9 Fain Ranch to AS10 Mingus Mountain ( 79.4 - 91.6 Miles )
Fain Ranch aid was the first aid station that I started to put more thought into my nutrition. My fluid intake had been pretty solid the entire race but I was struggling to go through any of the calories that Ian had been so kindly packing for me. I made it my mission to eat something of reasonable substance at each aid station starting here. Unfortunately, leaving FR, you end up spending a bunch more miles on similar cow pile paths with Mingus Mountain in the distance seemingly never getting closer.... until it does and it's in your face. At some point, climbing over all of the ladders for the fencing I would run into Nick. Eventually you get to leave those paths and jump onto a dirt access road that follows the base of Mingus and we would spend the next mile or so on that. While we were walking up a hill, you could pretty much audibly hear a pop and Nick yell and start limping. He had a blister that spanned much of the pad of his foot and it finally popped. Pretty gross haha. We pulled over and both opened up the med kits that we had brought with us. He was able to take care of most of what he needed to with what we had but it wasn't a cure... There was tons of fluid in the blister and when it popped it released into his sock. Luckily I had a spare pair on me. He took the socks and I headed on my way.
These longer ultras are weird in a way because you have a goal in which everyone shares.. but everyone is experiencing different things at different times and no one expects you to put your day on hold while they are going through something tough or vice versa. If he had asked me to stay with him I would have but the dudes a trooper and didn't need me so I moved on and he would pick up and start moving on soon after that anyways.
The base of Mingus is pretty cool and quickly turns into a nice climb. It was one of the easiest major climbs of the race because the pitch wasn't crazy and it just maintained a steady uphill jaunt which helped to pass the vert here like a treadmill set on a consistent climb. I had been in pain but in a good headspace climbing Mingus but eventually it levels out somewhat and you're on a road at the top (or what you think is the top). Other than the knee pain, I think this is where I have my first "low point" of the race. The roads up there felt like false flats and would continue with a little bit of vert for quite some time. This is where I would make a new friend Fan Yang and we would spend the sunset together zombie walking into the aid station. It wasn't necessarily lack of sleep that would zombify us but the knee pain for me and he was in quite a bit of pain as well. We were passed by a handful of other runners as we continued our journey looking like extras from The Walking Dead. We made our way to the camp but the marking here was pretty poor here. We had to ask quite a few people for directions. He would continue on as I made a my way directly to the med station. The pain after the climb was the worst it had been the entire day and this is where I would meet my Trail Angel... One of the medics at the aid station (which sadly her name is escaping me) had been a massage therapist for twenty years. She had me lay on the bed and told me that this would not end my race unless I let it. It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. She worked on my legs for a little bit and sent me packing after letting me know that she'd be waiting at Fort Tuthill where she would be available to help again. Leaving the med station, it would be the first time I could "walk" reasonable close to a normal person since starting the climb up Mingus.
I caught up with Ian and told him that I wanted to try and get some more sleep. I rolled into camp around 8:30pm so it was dark and cold which for me are ideal for sleep. I laid down for 20 minutes but could not fall asleep so I woke him up and let him know I wanted to get moving. He jumped up and scrambled to get his gear check in and sent me on my way. Apparently, the views from up here are quite amazing but seeing as those I would descend in the dark I would miss out on that. Another weird thing about long races is that people faster and slower than you will experience a completely different race as they will end up going through the same section as you but at different times of the day and night.
AS10 Mingus Mountain to AS11 Jerome ( 91.6 - 108.7 Miles )
The descent down Mingus in the dark is actually kind of rough and I would have much preferred to do it in the daylight but my Kogalla RA light would end up saving my butt. The growth is pretty tight on the trail with a steep drop right to your side as you are doing switchbacks down the mountain. There were times where it levelled out a bit which helped my lower back from taking the constant beating of trying to put the brakes on as I descended. This night seemed to drag on forever winding in and out what seemed to be the ridgeline but it was hard to tell in the dark. Eventually I crossed over a road and ran into two others on the trail. One of them was a runner who was having some severe planters fasciitis problems and the other was a pacer who randomly came to the race to help people with their goals. From my understanding, he was running in and out from Jerome all night helping those in need into the aid station. Pretty awesome guy if you ask me. He was focused on the other guy but they both were cool with me tagging along and I was happy to have some company. We continued to zig zag around the ridgeline eventually making the descent out of the woods onto the dirt road leading into Jerome. Finally reaching the road, those two were rejuvenated and started pushing for the aid station but I wasn't able to keep up. My knee pain was now sitting around a 9 with that awful decent and as I finally made my way through town and over to the aid station.
I had had enough. I limped up to Ian and told him that I was done.
I want to dive into the crew aspect here because my original intent was to do this race solo and if I had done that, there was no way that I was making it to the finish line in '22 and would have to try again the following year. If it is your first 200+ race I would strongly recommend bringing someone.... anyone... Just having someone in your corner can make a big difference. It's like a boxer and their coach. While you, the boxer, are bloody and beaten in the ring, you get to make your way to your corner for a moment of relief while your coach reminds you of all the important things to keep in mind. Ian excelled at keeping my spirits up, keeping me eating and hydrated as well as shifting my focus from the grander race to breaking it down by sections. ( How else do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time... ) If it weren't for Ian coming, I guarantee I don't finish this race. Ian had been hanging out with other runner's crew people while waiting over the past couple of days and he had received some advice from some more seasoned crew people. That being, if your runner ever calls it quits, make them take a shower and a 4 hour nap and then ask the question. We did exactly that. We checked in my tracker at the Jerome aid station and found a cheap little hotel outside of town (who charged us an additional $35 for an early check in.... it was a little after 6am at this point) and I took a shower and went down for a 4 hour nap.
In the meantime, Ian re-examined our situation and came up with a new strategy to finish. While I was asleep, he had gone to the drugstore and picked up a knee brace, ibuprofen, acetaminophen and some topical arthritis medication with lidocaine as well as redoing our time sheet for finishing. I had been moving pretty slow for the past day and did not hit my goal of 50 miles per day on day two but with my 70ish miles in the first 24 hours, I was still sitting ok at the moment. As long as I kept moving at or above 3mph with aid station stops of less than 30 minutes with two more hours of sleep I would finish with a couple hour buffer.
When I awoke before my alarm went off ( which would become a theme for the entire race for some reason ) Ian was back and ready to show me the new strategy. He handed me the laptop and as I read he would reapply my KT tape and get me ready to go. We then got in the car and headed back to Jerome. I was feeling great and the topical had done enough so that I could walk again and eventually jog once the medications kicked in on the inflammation and pain. The knee brace was also a big save because my calf sleeve alone was not cutting it! We had lost about 6-6.5 hours between the drive, sleep and drive back which was all accounted for in Ian's new plan. We got back to the Jerome aid station, got my tracker and in a completely different headspace, I was ready to go again.
Ian had single handedly saved my race.
Find your "Ian" and bring them with you!
AS11 Jerome to AS12 Dead Horse Ranch ( 108.7 - 117.2 Miles )
Leaving Jerome you exit on the streets of the town hugging the ridgeline of a large valley. The town sits about half way down the descent which I did not realize in the dark/sunrise upon entering the city. I also was ready to quit and didn't care what was next... You'll end up taking this old road through a little neighborhood and when the houses end you enter this pretty steep section where you can see for miles.
I took this hill faster than I anticipated but with quick foot work it's actually pretty fun. Not really much for roots but there are plenty of rocks and tons of broken glass. The road looks like it was abandoned back in the late 1800's. One of the best ( and worst ) parts of this road is how far you can see and how far you have to go. This road eventually dies into another larger road which takes you into the small town of Clarkdale. It was nice spending the afternoon passing through town and waving back at the many confused onlookers in town. The only person that waved to me who looked like her knew what was going on was a local policeman. Maybe as the Cocodona 250 grows, the locals may start to engage more in the race! Clarkdale passed pretty quickly spending most of the time heading right down the nice sidewalks of main street eventually dumping you onto a small trail at the edge of town that leads into Dead Horse Ranch State Park. The park is beautiful with well maintained trails that leads right up to the first river crossing of the event. The Verde River isn't all that large but there's no way you're crossing without getting wet. With the next aid station being approximately 2 miles further up, I leapt right in with my shoes on while Anastasia Wilde ( one of the great event photographers ) was in the river taking pictures ( see below ). The river was cold but I think I was passing through here around 3pm so the heat of the day was taking its toll. What a welcome relief! I hadn't smiled in a while but this was one I couldn't hold back. I was finally back to making progress without the nausea of the days before
After the river crossing you end up in this beautiful cottonwood tree (assuming that's what they are since the town next to Clarkdale is called Cottonwood ) area of the park and in early May, the trees were snowing. If I had the time I would have loved to sit down and have lunch here with the nice breeze and shade from the heat. I took a video of the cottonwood snow in the wind and sent it to my family... pretty serene area. One of the prettiest of the course. These miles pass pretty quick with the changes in scenery helping it feel like you are moving pretty well. Leaving this area the trees start to disappear and you end up in more of a high-desert type space with all low bushes and a small single track that takes you right up into the aid station at Dead Horse Ranch State Park.
AS12 Dead Horse Ranch to AS13 Deer Pass ( 117.2 - 130.5 Miles)
DHR Aid had a pretty sweet vibe going and I ate a ton of the aid station food. I had arrived before Ian because I was moving faster than anticipated now that I had my renewed sense of determination ( and drugs ) arriving around 3:30pm on Wednesday. I didn't spend much time at the aid after Ian arrived - he jumped right into the gear check and filled my pack and I was on my way. This section would be my favorite section of the entire race. It was fun, fast, beautiful and crossing the half way mark would put me on a new high for the next couple of hours. This was pretty much a mountain bike trail that had a few technical areas but all in all was a pretty sweet trail.
The terrain would change from small bushes to red rock to a grey brown dirt all within a couple miles. You end up passing through a million gates out on this trail with the small expectation that you shut the gate fully behind you. It was super honor-system based which is pretty unique these days. It felt like every gate had it's own makeshift lock, not one of them the same as the last. I ended up spending some miles with a guy whom I can't remember his name but he had done a crazy amount of major ultras so it was fun listening to his stories as we passed the time. We ended up passing by the Dorannosaurus Rex about a mile from the aid station but he was running real low as the sun went down as we passed him so we kept our pace jogging it into Deer Pass.
My favorite pic from the halfwayish mark
AS13 Deer Pass to AS14 Sedona ( 130.5 - 144.9 Miles )
We ended up getting into Deer Pass around 9pm after the sun went down and this aid station was a pretty hoppin' place. It turns out that one of the other crew people that Ian had become buddies with was Dorannosauras's soon-to-be wife, Renee. Congrats by the way! Seeing as I was about to head out into the night and he was coming out of a low I asked him if he wanted to start the next section together and he agreed.
Ian had already taken care of my feet and pack by the time he had rolled in so I waited for Renee to patch up his feet as he doesn't normally get blisters but had some nasty ones coming into Deer Pass. So I went to the grill and got us a couple of burnt grilled cheese sandwiches and we headed off into the night. Early on into this section, Dave and I would get super lost so we headed up the hill as best we could off trail to try and see some headlamps but weren't able to see anything or hear anything when we yelled into the night. We spent about a half hour wandering in the night texting race command pictures of us being lost as well as sending some sarcastic remarks about the path that we had taken, "10/10 would not recommend #graduatelevel", as we ended up taking what seemed to be a dried up riverbed down the hill which ended up turning into a dried up waterfall that we had to climb down in the dark. In the end, it didn't matter as we were having a good time and race command wasn't too worried about our position or if we were cheating and taking a short cut. Dave was in the DOD so we talked about all the things he'd seen and we generally just screwed around eventually running into the third person to be inducted into our goofy group, Tom. When we ran into Tom he was coming the wrong way down a path that was not part of the race as well so we were all finally back on trail and grouped up. Tom was covered in Vaseline which had soaked its way through his shorts on the front and back. The red dust from walking and the dirt from sitting down would get globbed up in the sticky Vaseline and give Tom a permanent look like he had just shit his pants. It was a great ice breaker and we had made it the butt of many of our jokes for the evening.
Earlier in the race someone had told me about a method they used to pass the time and make light of the amount of times you would stub your toes on rocks as fatigue set in and you weren't able to pick your feet up as high. The game was pretty much this... Anytime someone kicks a rock they have to name it and yell that name out as loud as they can without hesitation with the only stipulation being that you would go alphabetically. We got pretty deep into the alphabet this night. We would also yell out "Fuck you Jamil!" pretty often at the top of our lungs when we kicked rocks hard enough. It had become a staple shout in our evening. Sorry, Jamil!
For being a longer 14+ mile section through the night, most of this section passed by fairly quick. It was somewhat technical but pretty reasonable and not a bad section to do at night. However, at night you do miss out on a lot of the stunning views coming down into Sedona. At one point you come out of the trail and cross a road where there was a mini water station set up which gave us hope that we would soon be done with this section but we had to jump back on another trail which took us out and around town descending and eventually ascending quite a bit until we were able to come out back on another street. Again, making our way onto pavement gave us some false hope that we were very close to wrapping this section up. Fatigue was starting to set in after having one of the longest "highs" of the entire race and as we waddled down this neighborhood road for what felt like miles. I was over it... Mentally I was toast and I felt like I was sleep walking. Luckily I was with Tom & Dave so I had friends to look out for me but I pushed ahead trying to get to my crappy air mattress as fast as I could. After winding through the neighborhood streets for a little while you eventually take a turn down into a parking lot behind a building and then up into what I believe was a park/trailhead. We had to look around for a little bit to find our way. Running on empty, the trail felt like it would never end and eventually it spit us out onto a highway and with a few more right turns over the next mile or so we would end up at the parking lot aid station in Sedona. I face planted as soon as I got in around 4:30am.
AS14 Sedona to AS15 Schnebly Hill ( 144.9 - 161.2 Miles )
I got another hour of sleep! Just like before, I would wake before my alarm and be ready to go. From Ian's pre-race research into sleep, it's best to not sleep for too long and to wake before hitting REM sleep. He was right. Other than my 4 hour "I quit" sleep, I would get less than an hour each night waking up ready to go but my whole body would be super stiff for the first 15 minutes or so. I would end up leaving Sedona as the sun rose which finally revealed the beautiful surroundings around me. We had to exit the aid the same way we came in and follow the same route we had come down back into the same trails we had seen the night before eventually taking a turn staying on the trail network for quite some time. It wasn't until I saw these trails in the light that I could fully appreciate them. They were super cool and would have made for great practice runs any other day... I had been cursing them just a few hours earlier.
The trails would weave in and out but the markings here were clear enough to not go down the wrong path. This trail would end up taking you out right at the foot of some very tall rock structures which people were climbing with ropes as I was passing by. The trails here were pretty cool following the edge of the "mountain" or whatever you want to call it but would eventually dump me out onto a road I would follow for a short period of time. The road would lead down into a small park where I found a picnic table that I was able to sit down on and stretch. The descents were doing a number on my lower back and my knee still. I knew the second river crossing was coming up soon so I ate some food and pressed on. The trail from the park to the river was beautiful.
It was lush and bright green because of the river which made it a nice change in color from the red rock of the morning's miles. For the river crossing, I chose to take my shoes and socks off and go barefoot. There were plenty of large rocks to balance on and stay out of the water for a decent amount and the river and it was clear enough to take your time and select your footing carefully. I had tied my laces together and thrown them over my shoulder and opted to use my poles to stay upright. When I got across I used my buff to dry off my feet and got dressed and ready for the next adventure.
I would not like the next adventure.
This ascent was steep. Maybe it was me or maybe it was the 150+ miles on my feet but it was the first time I found myself stopping and taking minute breathers while ascending the tight path. It was starting to heat up pretty quickly and the incline would kick up pretty high. I would end up playing leap frog up this mountain (Schnebly Hill... felt like a mountain to me and where I come from...) with Morgan for much of the climb and for some miles after that as we were both getting our butts kicked on the climb. After coming out of the worst of it where the Hill (Mountain.) levels off, the little single track winds around and it's a pretty cool area. With much of the steepness out of the way, the day was getting hot. Turns out... Aravaipa knew we would be chugging through our water and opted to add an additional unmanned water station out here before getting out onto the dirt road, I laid on the ground beneath the tap and let that baby flow.
The remaining miles of this section are super easy on a dirt road but it seemed to have a never ending small incline which would eventually annoy me quite a bit. It felt like a couple miles before I felt the first rollers of this road. The road would spit us out at a park entrance a ways out and after following a couple easy turns would take you back onto another dirt road. The problem with this section is not its difficulty but that it never seemed to change in scenery so progress felt very slow. Up until now my watch was dead nuts on mileage wise with the course marking and aid stations however when I got to the expected mile on my watch, the aid station was no where to be found. I had been rationing my water (for the first and only time of the race) even though I had started with 4 liters because climbing and heat are a bad mix. I was out of water... and a little bit of panic set in. Luckily, the aid station was only about another .3-.4 of a mile up the road!
AS15 Schnebly Hill to AS16 Munds Park ( 161.2 - 171.7 Miles )
I ate as much as I could here. I would end up arriving a little after 1pm and this is not a crew-access aid station so I wouldn't be seeing Ian for a while. I did my own foot check and gear check and moved on from here pretty quickly. It was hot and exposed with only the shade of the tent to protect us. You end up going right back on the never ending dirt road for a while... This would lead up to the rocky roads that even on a "fresh" day I would have trouble with my footwork. These were the worst roads/trails of the entire race.
There were plenty of people driving their ATV's around on these trails but a full size vehicle would have a pretty tough time on this. I was able to move reasonably ok over them but I don't know how the elites danced over them so quickly on tired legs. They were rough! This would go on for miles and eventually turn you back out onto another dirt road. I was happy to see the dirt road.... It was a chocolate colored dirt which was a new color to add to the palette and was pretty scenic even if there was no major standout features. This was a pretty straight shot all the way up to Munds Park with minimal vehicle traffic on the road to worry about. Just a couple trucks pulling campers into the park.
AS16 Munds Park to AS16 Munds Park ( 171.7 - 187.2 Miles )
When I got into Munds Park, I could not find Ian anywhere and luckily I had some service still and was able to call him. He would tell me he was right next to the aid station and I would tell him I was too and for about 5 minutes we couldn't figure out why we couldn't find each other. "Are your aid station people dressed like pirates?!?" It was a pretty busy aid station but not THAT busy... Turns out Ian was at Schnebly Hill, the non-crew access station! Oh well... I guess I'll eat? Yep... definitely going to eat everything.
It took Ian about 20 minutes to get to this aid and once we found a parking spot we set up shop since he would end up being here for a decent amount of time with it being an out and back. I had pulled into this aid station a little before 4:30pm so the heat of the day had died off and we were in for a nice night. I opted to take my last hour of sleep here even though it was still daylight, the elevation gain on the day had taken it's toll. The trail leading out of the parking lot was actually pretty nice and I still had a decent amount of light to work with.
There were even some soft pine needle beds that made the ground feel soft early on in this portion. My knee routine had pretty much been perfected at this point and it had allowed me to run, actually RUN, this portion while there was still some light. The trail ends onto more dirt roads which may have been logging roads or something? Not sure, it was dark by the time I was on them but they were clean and free of debris considerably lowering the amount of "Fuck you Jamil's" being thrown out this night. However... I had opted to only bring my light duty head lamp with me and within a half hour of the sun setting it was flashing low battery. I pulled over and swapped it with the spare battery and again within another half hour that one was flashing low batt too. Don't know what happened. Ian was meticulously charging everything including my watch at every aid station. I turned the headlamp down to it's lowest section and decided if it went out I would just have to make a new friend. I spent the entire "out" portion of the out-and-back on my own making my way to the hole punch without much added effort. About half way back I would run into the Dorranasaurus again and finish this section with him. He was moving the same pace as I was even with his blisters. Kudos brother!
AS16 Munds Park to AS17 Kelly Canyon ( 187.2 - 205.2 Miles )
I flew through Munds Park on my return trip stuffing my face and ready to keep chugging
along through the night. I had returned to the aid a little after midnight so I still had a long night ahead of me and wanted to get this next long section over with.
Leaving Munds Park you quickly descend into the city and follow the sidewalks for quite a ways making your way through town and into a neighborhood. The neighborhood backs up to the Coconino National Forest which is pretty cool (from what I could see with my limited view in the dark). The path leading into the forest is relatively flat and easily runnable. I had passed a couple runners taking a trail nap at the edge of the forest and they would be the last people I see the entire night. The trail through Kelly Canyon winds for countless miles. Because it's pretty far into the race, this is where I first started to see shapes in the downed trees. It was a little spooky but I kept my headphones on at full blast, turned on my Kogalla and headlamp at the same time and pushed on into the night. It was pretty uneventful through the night and I would take a handful of rest stops averaging about a minute or two so I could eat without moving. I'm sure this is a beautiful area but at night it was just spooky!
Other than my couple of "lows" I had managed to keep a pretty good mindset throughout the race. As the sun was rising on the morning of day 4, I started to lose control of my emotions... in a good way. When I crossed over the 200 mile mark, I had stopped and taken a picture to send to my family. I was feeling good, in a manageable amount of pain thanks to Ian's concoction and I was making really good progress. When I hit 100 miles for the first time, I was ecstatic. When I hit 200 miles for the first time, I felt like I had been changed. (Que Wicked sound track - For Good )
I felt this inner peace in that I could do anything. It wasn't 5 minutes after sending my 200 mile photo to my family that a song from my youth came on and I was screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs and trying to hold back tears at the same time. I'm not a person who typically shows tons of emotion but I was on this day. For that reason, I was happy that I hadn't seen another person in the past 6ish hours. I was riding high with my new sense of purpose and was taking the trail one step at a time hammering the minor switch backs that would lead me out of the woods.
I had survived the night, my first night alone.
Wanna know the best part about long ultras? It's like Michigan weather. Wait 5 minutes and it'll change. When I was about a mile out of the aid station I went from the highest of highs to a super low as my energy just tanked. It was a long section and I wasn't taking in enough calories. I stumbled into the Kelly Canyon aid and when the volunteer rushed up to ask what I needed I said a "Blanket" which she happened to have in her car. I laid it out on the ground about 50' from the aid station and tried to sleep but my mind wanted nothing to do with it. It was just before 8am and after laying on the ground for 20 minutes trying to sleep ( to no avail ) I folded the blanket and took it back to the very helpful volunteer and thanked her. This was another non-crew access aid station so no Ian to right the ship. I still had plenty of water from the night so I snagged some food and was on my way.
AS17 Kelly Canyon to AS18 Fort Tuthill ( 205.2 - 213.6 Miles )
It was a pretty pathetic crawl for me heading out of this aid station. I was a little delirious but lucky for me the path wasn't very technical. These are some "missing" miles in my mind after the aid station and it wasn't until you seem to enter into someone's back yard that I seem to remember anything of this section. This little trail follows around someone's property cutting through to another highway that you cross and meander for quite a ways on some really nice trails dumping you out onto the backside of Fort Tuthill Park and nearby aid station. The moment I stepped onto this trail I started having some pretty crazy Deja Vu. Deep down I could swear that I had been here before and everything looked incredibly familiar. This lasted all the way to the aid station where I told Ian that I had been here before and couldn't figure out when. Spoiler alert.... I have never been anywhere near this place. Come to find out, Deja Vu is something pretty common for ultra runners to experience with sleep deprivation. I didn't know that at the time and it was driving me nuts trying to figure out how I could have experienced that section before. If I had known better it may have laid some precursor to what would come later in the night.
Photo Credit: Anastasia Wilde
This aid station is by far the largest and in an actual building. It was the second and final time seeing my medic-savior who worked on my legs once more. I arrived a little before noon and it was pretty warm. I had built up some pretty good methods to ignoring the knee pain but all things equal, I was in great shape, back to having a positive mindset and eager to tackle the last day.
AS18 Fort Tuthill to AS19 Walnut Canyon ( 213.6 - 229.4 Miles )
Leaving Fort Tuthill you follow a nice sidewalk that leads you out of the park and under the highway across some really nice trails. You end up crossing another road and following one road down a short ways linking up with the Flagstaff Loop Trail. Super scenic trail which was pretty well maintained. I had joined up with a couple new faces, Tony & Nicole. I quickly learned that Tony was the guy who started in cowboy boots and jeans and made it like 4 miles before his feet were destroyed. I can't believe he finished at all starting out like that but apparently he pulls these stunts all the time and always figures it out. We stuck together for a couple miles but they were cruising at a pretty good pace and my stomach was starting to turn for the first time of the race so hung back as they pushed on. They were the ones drinking fireball yet I was the one who couldn't hack it... At some point they pulled over to use the facilities and I passed them up. Tony and I would end up finishing back to
back so we never got too far separated. The trail would slowly descend putting me on a pretty flat single track that was a nice walnutty brown (Walnut Canyon) soft dirt which was a stark contrast to the light colored grass surrounding the trail. This was a very beautiful section of the course and for me, that made the miles click by a little faster.
There were a few ascents going up the canyon but none of it was as tough as Schnebly Hill's ascent. This was a pretty popular area for residents as I passed many of them on the trail. It was only an hour or so before sundown when I was starting to bonk on top of the canyon heading through it's winding trails.
The elevation change at this point is mostly done but I felt like a cold-blooded reptile that was reacting to the loss of the suns heat. None of my food sounded good and I was only a mile or two from the aid but feeling like it would never come. I ran into a fellow racer named Abraham who had pretzels... PRETZELS! My favorite! This was exactly what I needed to get to the aid. Thanks Abraham! We moved somewhat together for most of the remaining distance as I just tried to keep him in view because he had unknowingly become my pacer.
The sun was setting as we entered the Walnut Canyon aid station around 8pm. Walnut Canyon aid would be the last crewed-access aid station until the finish which didn't hit me until I was there. I didn't have to eat the aid station food this time around. Ian had brought me an Impossible Whopper, large fries and large coke. This was calorie overload for me and I was happy enough for it. This is my typical vegan post race meal as I'm driving home from whatever event I was at. A welcome surprise!! We were parked next to a fellow Michigander and his crew, Paul who I hadn't seen since the first real incline/ascent on day one. We chatted with his crew for a little bit while he got one last sleep in. His alarm was going off as I was preparing to leave. Ian wished me good luck and sent me on my way with one last check of the feet and gear. I was feeling pretty good but feeling the exhaustion of the past few days but with only 20 miles to the finish. All I had to do was put my head down and get it done. Or so I thought...
Caution... dry weather can cause nose bleeds! I looked like shit here but I was still smiling over my Burger King.
This was equivalent to my final meal on death row...
AS19 Walnut Canyon to AS20 Mt Elden ( 229.4 - 242.4 Miles )
I left the aid station and headed down the dirt road that connects the aid station which you're only on for a short little stint taking a right onto a trail that comes up on you pretty quick. Only a few hundred feet onto this trail it widens up to what looks like a two way dirt highway but its really sand. I wasn't a mile from the aid station when my gut told me to pull over and use the sitting rock method for evacuating bowels. The only problem with doing this in the dark is that it doesn't matter how far off the trail you are, your headlamp gives you away. I ended up having a yelling (because of the distance apart, not out of anger) conversation with some poor soul who was checking in to make sure I was okay and not lost off trail.
I jumped back on the trail and chose to stick to the center of the highway and stay out of the sand. My knee was a little bit angry with the situation but I was keeping it in check. Once this larger path condensed down to a small single track you enter through a weirdly positioned gate which is hard to see in the dark. I would run into Brian at this point and he was looking pretty solid running at a much better pace than myself or any of the other runners I had seen as of late. He told me he went down the path I was heading down and it was the wrong way as he zoomed by me faster than I could keep up. I eventually lost him in the night. I walked for about 10 more minutes before deciding to consult the GPS. Yup, just as I suspected... definitely not on the right trail. I walked off trail towards the noise of the highway for a little while since I knew we would be crossing under the highway to leave this area. Once I was thoroughly lost I called Ian with my one bar of service and told him what had happened. He wisely told me to call race command to let them know what happened and for them to make the judgement call for me to possibly have to back track to where I left trail or if I was ok to continue on my own path towards the highway. They had politely informed me that I had added plenty of extra distance in my confusion and that I would not have to go back and to link up with the correct trail as soon as I could. I was only a couple minutes walk away at that point.
It wasn't long after I got off the phone with race command that I would see a headlamp in the distance and make my way towards that person who ended up being none other than Paul who I had just left at the aid station not to long ago. I followed him for a while and it was clear from his pace that he was feeling really good and I was most definitely not. He would peel ahead as I slowed down to a walk as we were coming up on the tunnel under the highway.
Once through I would walk for a little bit jumping on the road crossing over the bridge and then onto the dirt road that connects back with the trail. I had pulled over at the entrance to the trail to get some dirt out of my shoe as Brian would come up on me still looking super determined even though he had just spent that same amount of time as me lost but covering more distance due to his pace. We hung together for most the night on some pretty flat trails winding in and out for hours. We ran into another couple of guys and would really push our pace as the four of us were back to running.
I was having some existential moment for a large portion of this. My senses were heightened and I was flying high. I kept taking in the deepest breathes I could as the wind had kicked up quite a bit and my sense of smell was on over drive. It was a super weird time but I was feeling great. The other two guys were keeping a sub 10 minute mile and Brian and I would slow down to a 12 minute pace and let them charge on ahead. The path to Mt Elden is a fairly easy trail but Mt Elden itself had different plans for us. When we reached the base of Elden and started our climb that strong sense of Deja Vu would come back and haunt both of us. Brian and I talked for about an hour as we made our way up the mountain side about how we had been here before and even more trippy... that him and I had climbed it together. I know I hadn't met Brian before the race but I promise you it was so real that I felt as if I knew the exact route I took and where I had placed each hand and foot. The higher we climbed the more the wind intensified (or was that in my mind?) and the more tunnel vision I would get. We had been climbing for about an hour and a half when we would eventually pull over and consult the GPS. We had recalled that we would be ascending from about 7,000 above sea level to like 9,700. We thought we were close to done... we were at 7,700 ft above sea level. This was going to be a long night.
After our break we both decided to charge forward as best we could and not wait for each other. If you had it in you, go for it. It would end up taking almost 4.5 hours for me to finish the steepest of the climbing on Elden. The wind at the top of the mountain was so powerful that you could lean into it. That mixed with the tunnel vision of my lights I would start to have some serious problems mentally. The path to the aid station once on top of Elden is longer than you want it to be. Every bit of that high I was riding leading up to the mountain was gone and I was left in the dumps once again. I zombie walked the entire top to the aid station.
AS20 Mt Elden to Finish in Flagstaff, AZ ( 242.4 - 250.4 Miles )
!! HALLUCINATION STATION, ALL ABOARD !! What comes after this is my best recollection but I still don't now what is 100% true or not. Kindly relate this to a movie with an unreliable narrator like Memento or Fight Club... except we don't talk about Fight Club.
Once entering the aid station, I went directly to the medic's tent next to the food station and informed the medic that my feet were completely destroyed. *** SPOILER ALERT *** THERE IS NO MEDIC ON THE TOP OF ELDEN. I sat down and the imaginary medic proceeded to remove my shoes and then my socks. To my horror, the bottom layers of my feet peeled off and fell to the ground like soles of a shoe leaving only the muscles, tendons and bone exposed. I lost my shit. The made-up medic proceeded to calm me down and let me know that he's seen this before and that I can still finish the race. He took my loose flappy foot soles and repasted them back on the bottom of my feet and wrapped them from toe to heel. When he was finished putting my socks and shoes on he said, "you gotta get some food and get down this mountain, you're running out of time". So I got up on my feet which felt like walking on hot coals and sat in the aid station, ate a veggie burger and got on my way. The access road down the back of Mt Elden was steep. Like wreck your lower back by putting on the brakes steep so even in my immense foot and knee pain I leaned into it and ran as fast as I possibly could. Faster than I ran the entire race... seeing 6:30 pace on my watch. This is where things get even more dicey. I don't remember anything past seeing some headlamps further down the road and running towards them.
Fast forward... the trail head off the access road. I'm woken up by Niloy ( my final savior ) shaking my body and checking my legs for damage. I told Niloy that I had quit the race, called an ambulance, called the race officials and my crew Ian to let them know I was done. At some point, whether in real life or in my dream state a couple of guys walked right past me on the ground laughing. I told Niloy about all of this and he said something along the lines of "we're only 5 miles form the finish, you're not quitting". I told him about my knee and my feet being wrecked and I didn't have it in me and to go on without me... I would wait for my ambulance. To his credit, it took a lot to convince him to leave me on the side of the road. What a guy!
A few minutes after he continued on, the pain I was experiencing started to subside. I didn't take any additional meds but it was like morphine just kicked in. I slowly stood up and felt no pain. .. No pain at all. I started to walk down the trail and then running, then sprinting. I was leaping over boulders and rocks at a full sprint catching up with Niloy and to his surprise I was trying to convey everything I had been experiencing throughout the night. We came up on two guys and I started yelling at them for leaving me on the side of the road thinking they were the ones laughing in my dream. They were just as confused as you'd expect telling me over and order that they would NEVER do that. Sorry guys...
Niloy and I continued on for a little bit and I asked him to pull over for a sec and that I needed to check something out. I proceeded to pull off my shoes and then my socks to reveal that my feet were fine.... JUST FINE.... the same KT Tape that Ian had put on back at mile 230 was in place and holding perfectly. I had hallucinated it all! I'm constantly reminded when I think back about this time of a saying from HBO's Westworld where the AI are asked if they have ever questioned the nature of their existence. I fucking have. I did not know what was real and what I had imagined / hallucinated. I had a little bit of a breakdown trying to explain to Niloy that I didn't know what was real and I'm sure I probably scared him... alone in the woods with a crazy guy. Niloy was ready to crush the last couple of miles and he took off as I was coming down off of my adrenaline rush of questioning my existence and remembered that I had a red bull in my pack. I down that and continued down the last little bit of the trails.
The sun had starting coming up and I remember that my mom asked me to give her a heads up when I was getting close to the finish so she could watch me roll in. I called her and talked with her for a little while telling her everything that had happened through the night. She told me that she had woken up at 4:30am EST to watch me finish and that triggered a memory of me "dialing" the ambulance, race director and Ian. In my memory of this, each time I had picked up the phone to call those people, my phone showed 4:31am... I should have realized something was wrong then but it didn't click until my conversation with her. I checked my dial history and had not made any other calls than the one to my mom. Well, at least I didn't have to explain my situation to the EMS people that weren't coming! At some point I told her that I wanted to reduce the weight of my pack for the last stretch and I started to empty my water and she was freaking out because she didn't know if I would get rid of everything or keep enough to keep me to the finish line. I assured her that I would keep some water still.
The trail dumps you out onto a very maintained public pebble path. I don't know why this was bad for me but I immediately started seeing faces in the rocks. I called my brother, woke him up and made him listen to me rants as I walked through the park on speaker phone sending him pictures of all of the rocks with faces. It wasn't until we got into town that I felt a new purpose and started to become aware that I was 99.9% there.
My rock face collection photos.... just a sampling of what I sent him
I ran as fast as I could through town doing my best to talk with the guy handling the live cam but I was focused on finishing strong! I rounded the corner and and headed down the alley where Ian was waiting for me and we hugged it out. It was just as much an ultra for him as it was for me and we were ecstatic to have accomplished the end goal and a little sad that it was over. Coolest. thing. I've. ever. done.
Flagstaff Finish!
I received my first belt buckle at this race. A heck of a first long race and a hard earned buckle at that. When you see the alley that you run down you kinda question why they would chose this silly little alley to finish and from the perspective of the cameras, it's just an alley but behind the crowd of people, it opens up to downtown Flagstaff. I wasn't aware at the time but when you finish, the photographers direct you right into the same dark photo booth that you took your pre-race photo in for an after-race photo. I loved that. What a great way to remember that experience
Photo Credit: Scott Rokis
Photo Credit: Scott Rokis
Photo Credit: Scott Rokis
So to wrap this thing up... I had a crazy time at the Cocodona 250. The day I finished I said I was good and that I had checked that off the list as if I would never do it again. As I sit here today, I can't wait to go back and hopefully use my experience from the first time to reduce my overall time and try and flip the time I spent in the dark so I can experience the second half of the race I did at night. Wes's video helped fill in many of the blanks but I wanna relive it. Cocodona 2024 baby! My lovely wife shot down the idea of attempting to do it in 2023 after signing up for the 2023 Triple Crown... yea I'm addicted now. See you there or see you at Cocodona in 2024!
Thanks to my best friend Ian who without him, I would have never taken a step out of Jerome.
Thanks to my wife, Emily, for putting up with crazy adventures
Thanks to my mom ( and business partner ) who covers my butt at work when I leave on my silly adventures
And lastly, thanks to all of the aid station volunteers, the med staff, race staff and the other runners & pacers along the way who in their small ways contributed to making the Cocodona 250 the best and craziest experience of my life.
Gear List:
Head: RunSedona boco hat / Ironman Sweat proof hat
I had purchased some pretty nice gear for the event including the Outdoor Research sun hat that Wes wears but I never ended up using it. Just stuck to my normal hats I wear on my practice runs
Shirts: Underarmor tech tee & Lululemon
Same with the hats, just wore things I wear normally. I wore my underarmor shirt for the first few days but I lost a crazy amount of salt early on so that shirt got a little crispy and would eventually swap it out for a fresh Lululemon running shirt.
Cold Gear: Lululemon Long Sleeve & Eddie Bauer Vest
This long sleeve was perfect for the weather that we encountered at night. I would throw on my vest a couple hours after sunset when I wasn't moving fast and generating my own heat. I had also brought some water proof gear including a long sleeve shirt and pants. These were way too warm to run in and I only wore them once and took them off at the next aid station
Shorts: Lululemon
I know you see a lot of Lulu on this list but guys... I swear by it. If it wasn't for the light orange color and me sitting down in the dirt in sweaty shorts making it look like I shit my pants I would have worn them from start to finish. I ended up swapping these out for some black shorts for the final night and finish line. I used body glide once a day and not a single spot of chaffing the entire time wearing those shorts.
Vest: Ultimate Direction
Same vest you see above and half of the runners wearing. Worked out really well and had a large carrying capacity. I would carry 4 liters of water from just about every aid and still had plenty of room for the other things I needed to carry. A little bit of rubbing down by the waist on my love handles but other than that it worked quite well. It was my first time wearing this vest.
Socks: Injinji + Feetures
For longer trail events I wear a pair of Injinji toe socks with a pair of my favorite Feetures over top. I have wide feet and a tendency for my little toe to get mushed under the one next to it as my feet swell. I was able to make it quite a ways into the race before having to worry about that here. We also used Tom's blister shield powder in the socks to reduce friction. I hadn't used that before so I can't tell you how well it worked but my feet would look much better than many others by the end of the race. I had a blister on the wedge shaped little toe and one on my heel. Nothing else. Mission Accomplished, Ian!
Swollen feet & blister pictures complimentary for those with a foot fetish
Shoes: Altra Lone Peak 6
Honestly, I walked into RunFlagstaff last year, the day before I was set to do the Rim2Rim2Rim solo after a short hike in which my big toe had been rubbing in the shoes I had brought with me. They fit me for a pair of these bad boys and I did the 50 mile R2R2R without a single blister the next day having never worn them before. I swear by them. Ended up going back to RunSedona and buying every Altra option they carried. I brought 4 pairs of these shoes to Coco and swapped them every aid station or so after day 1.
Gaiters: Raidlight & Altra
The first day I had my Raidlight Desert gaiters on when there was the most sand and would switch to standard Altra gaiters later into the race
Trekking Poles: Black Diamond
The collapsible BD Trekking poles are a life savor. Super light and unobtrusive. Would recommend to anyone
Gloves: Outdoor Research
Outdoor Research's gloves for sale on REI were fingertipless and held up perfectly. They kept my poles from wearing through or causing blisters on my hands. We had to burn mine after the event because of a bloody nose that was stymied by the gloves as I ran.
Sunglasses: Rudy Project
RP's Tralyx would probably look better on a fast runner speeding by you but for a 190lb schmuck like me they looked kinda goofy. What I will say is the breathability and lens tinting on these sunglasses worked flawlessly. They were brand new for the event
Neck: Buff
I always wear buffs when I run, snow or shine. For this event, the sweaty buff retained some water while I ran and acted as a low impact cooling mechanism for me throughout the heat of the day and kept my neck from getting burned
Illumination: Kogalla & Petzl
The Kogalla RA for the price is worth every penny. This thing lit up the night and we would put the battery in my pack where the weight wasn't an issue. For backup and shorter night sections, I chose to wear only my Petzl Iko Core. This was the one I had battery issues with. I had brought 3 rechargeable batteries for it
Nutrition: Tailwind, Honey Stinger, Gu
I fell out of love with gels by the end of day 1... But I think my tailwind, which we kept fully stocked at all times, in one of my chest water bottles did wonders for me because I never felt like I couldn't drink anymore of it. I went hard on the aid station food more than anything.
KT Tape: Rock Tape
Rock Tape worked like a dream. way better than any of the other brands we brought
Thanks for the read! If you have any questions feel free to reach out! -J
Photo Credit: Howie Stern
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