Grand Canyon R2R2R Part 1

The alarm went off at 3:15 am, just three days after Big Sur marathon. It was cold and dark as I changed into my “race day” outfit. My pack was already completely full, I had prepared it the night before.

The four of us spoke in hushed tones, double checking our food supply for the day. When it was time, I made the call for the taxi to take us to the South Kaibab trailhead. At about 4:30 am, on a Wednesday, we took a selfie, clicked on the headlamps and headed down into the canyon.

We were giddy with anticipation of what the day might bring. Laughing and chatting, we ran down, switchback after switchback moving to stay warm in the pre-dawn chill.

As the sun started to rise, we watched in awe as the sky slowly changed, lighting the canyon below. What beauty!  We couldn’t help but to stop and take photos to capture the moment.

At about two hours in, we still hadn’t reached the river. We were too distracted with photos. We were already too relaxed, stopping on the trail for every little thing instead of focusing on the enormous task ahead. I stated we were already behind schedule and we needed to actually run the rest of the way down. I’m pretty sure the others thought I was being overly anxious. We weren’t trying to set a record or anything (not that we could if we tried!) we were just out there to do a thing and have fun. But there is danger in being too carefree. Especially in a self-supported endurance event. We only had so much food on us. There were only so many water sources. And our headlamps only had so much battery life.

I tried to relax and enjoy the scenery, this was the Grand Canyon after all! We made it to Phantom Ranch in about 2.5 hours. After not seeing anyone else on the trail, it suddenly seemed a busy place with sleepy campers mulling about. We checked food and water and headed off in search of the North Rim.