Run Information
- What? Rim to Rim to Rim R2R2R
- When? November 17, 2023
- Distance: ~42 miles (68 km)
- Where? Grand Canyon, USA
- Website: Grand Canyon Crossings (AZ)
- Strava Activity: R2R2R: Part 1 - No sleep start and DNF the DNF and R2R2R: Part 2 - Redemption & Suffering
- Finish Time: ~16 hours 38 minutes
Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R)
Prologue
In November 2023, I travelled to San Francisco for work for a few days. I was due to finish on the Friday and head back to the UK, but Ian talked me in to staying an extra day and doing a long run or hike.
But what would we do?
Ian floated multiple ideas. Perhaps we’d go from his house in Mountain View over to Half Moon Bay (~60km). Or maybe we’d head north and run to Santa Rosa, and finish at Russian River Brewing Co.
But Ian’s favourite idea was doing the Rim-to-Rim run in the Grand Canyon.
Initially, we just planned to do the single leg Rim-to-Rim. As the name suggests, this starts at south rim of the Grand Canyon and finishes at north, a classic route! Later, an extra “to Rim” got added to our plans mysteriously. There is apparently some disagreement over the distance, but the traditional R2R2R route is somewhere around 75km (47m).
I was a little sceptical that we had time to fly, drive, run and return in the limited time window we had. But work was very busy and I didn’t have time to investigate it myself or look at alternative options. So I said I was in for whatever Ian wanted, as long as I got back to SFO airport in time for my flight back to the UK!
Planning for the run
Due to work being super busy, I didn’t bother to review any of the materials that Ian sent me about the run. Not a single one. I would regret this oversight later.
One thing he stressed was that the route would be self-supported with only occasional water taps/rivers on the route, so I should bring plenty of bottles. With no food options during the run, we would need to buy food before we started. But we shouldn’t expect anything to be available on the course other than water.
Ian estimated it would take us around 12 hours based on reading a few run reports from a popular Facebook group dedicated to this run. I recall him telling me the elevation gain (around 3500m) and me replying that that the time sounded very optimistic. But I didn’t do anything think too much about it, what’s the worst that can happen?
I hurriedly packed my standard trail running kit and left for the US.
The plan
The plan was as follows:
- Finish work in San Francisco around 4pm Thurs
- Meet in Mountain View around 5pm
- Catch a flight from San Jose at 9:30pm to Las Vegas, arriving around 10pm
- Rent a car and drive overnight to the Grand Canyon (4.5 hours), arriving around 3am Friday. Take shifts driving, and get a couple of hours sleep each. Pick up food on the way.
- Start the run around 4am Friday at South Kaibab trailhead. Run to North Kaibab
- Turn around, and run back
- Finish around 5pm Friday at Bright Angel trailhead
- Get to a pre-booked hotel for 6pm, have a steak and a beer, and then a decent sleep
- Up at 4am Saturday to drive back to Las Vegas, catching an 11am flight to San Jose
Spoiler alert: Things did not go to plan.
The implementation, part 1: Getting to the Grand Canyon
Thursday at 4pm rolled around and I’d finally finished an intense four days of work. Jet lag had hit me really hard for some reason - I was up most days at 2am, running the streets of San Francisco. Only managing 3 hours sleep the night before our tight schedule kicked off.
I headed to Mountain View, met Ian, and began packing our bags. I soon realised I’d forgotten my running vest. One of Ian’s water bottles had a leak. We were off to a good start.
We made it to San Jose airport on time. But our running poles weren’t allowed on as hand luggage, so we had to check-in luggage. This meant we were late through security, and ate into our eating time. We ended up sprinting through the airport with a Smash Burger in hand in order to make it to the gate on time. We ate the burgers on the plane, like the classy British gentlemen we are.
The flight was uneventful. Annoyingly we had a long wait for our luggage to arrive in Las Vegas, thanks Spirit! By the time we collected our rental car it was already approaching midnight - our schedule had just got a bit tighter!
We stopped at a large supermarket just outside Las Vegas and grabbed our supplies for the run just before the closed at midnight. Our food selection included: one bottle of Sprite (?!), water, snickers bars, bread, ham, muffins, bananas and a few other delightful treats.
Onto the driving segment! The next four and a half hours were spent driving overnight. Mercifully, Ian did most of the driving, as I was already a zombie thanks to the jet lag. I managed about 45 minutes sleep in the back of the car.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 5am. One error we had taken in our schedule was forgetting about the timezone change from Nevada to Arizona. We were an hour behind due to luggage & driving, and effectively 2 hours behind start time when you factor in the timezone change! It was bitterly cold when we stepped outside. We had a quick breakfast, got changed, found a working toilet and then called the 24 hour shuttle to take us to the trailhead.
We were finally got started around 6am Friday. At this point I’d had less than an hours sleep in the past 28 hours, and about 4 hours sleep in the past 52 hours. For his part, Ian had run a 100 mile race less than two weeks earlier, and he’d definitely not yet recovered from that.
Waiting forever for bags
The implementation, part 2: South Kaibab trail to North Kaibab trail
The initial descent on the South Kaibab trail was in the dark, so we couldn’t see the famous Grand Canyon views, only never-ending switchbacks. It was bitterly cold - it couldn’t have been more than a few degrees celcius. So we started in jacket, gloves and cold weather kit. Predictably this came off after a few kilometers.
Whilst the trail is well trodden, there are still lots of large steps and rocks that make some sections difficult to run. Regardless this wasn’t our first trail run, and we set a good pace towards the Colorado River crossing.
As the sun rose, we began to see views of the Grand Canyon, impressive sights Each time we thought we’d seen the bottom of the canyon, we’d find that it was a false bottom (is that a thing?) and it was actually much deeper.
Just under 2 hours later we reached the bottom. It’s only 10km to the bottom, so in hindsight we were surprisingly sluggish, perhaps one too many photos on the way down! We ran through a tunnel, across a bridge, and almost immediately into a pack of donkeys that were being used to ferry supplies to the nearby campground.
There was a water point shortly after the bridge. The water tasted very chlorinated.
We ran through the nearby campground and Phantom Ranch. Campers were preparing their breakfasts and beginning their days. We missed the water points here (this would become a theme).
The running at this point was generally pretty flat. The trail was well maintained and singletrack.
Around 20km into the run we stopped for a sandwich break. Ian made some improvised ham sandwiches. We realised that this was pretty much all the food Ian had, apart from a few gels. We also assessed our water situation: we both had around 1.5L on us, and we only had about 15km til the turnaround point. There was due to be a water tap there where we could refill. So we decided to ditch 500ml to save weight. Oh boy.
The time is now around 11am, and the sun is starting to hit the bottom of the canyon, so we’re really warming up.
From about 20km the trail starts to ascend gradually and then becomes steeper from 25km onwards. The turnaround point is around 37km.
This is where we really began to suffer. The heat, combined by the incline, meant we burnt through our remaining water faster than expected. We passed multiple water points, all of which were out of operation. We opened my emergency Sprite and finished that. Ian’s lack of food meant he was eating into my stash.
The ascent from 25km to the turnaround point at 37km lasted forever. Yes the views were great, but we didn’t care at that point. We were suffering and not enjoying it.
During the ascent, Ian and I had The Talk. We both agreed we’d had enough and would finish (i.e. DNF) at North Kaibab, and just complete Rim-to-Rim. The idea of turning around, running the same distance again, with very little food, and little likelihood of making our steak/beer plans at the end, did not appeal to us.
Eventually, after a 5 hour ascent, we made it to the North Kaibab trailhead. My watch read about 37km. The time was around a little after 1pm. We’d taken 7 hours to do Rim-to-Rim. We were done.
There was no running water at the North Kaibab trailhead, which was annoying. But since we were quitting at this point it didn’t matter.
It was only 37km back to the Grand Canyon Village, so we figured a shuttle/taxi wouldn’t be too bad. We were very wrong. The geography of the Grand Canyon meant that it was a 4.5 hour drive from the North Kaibab trailhead back to the South Kaibab trailhead, where our car and hotel was. We tried hitchhiking, but nobody was going in our direction. We tried phoning a shuttle service, but they had a reduced service for winter and did not run on Friday. We also tried paying $300 for an Uber, but no drivers were available.
Reluctantly, we realised that our best option was to turn around and hike/run back. With daylight fading in a few hours, we couldn’t afford to waste time.
Aside from Ian
Given both Sam and I are relatively experienced Ultra Runners and the total distance was less than 50 mile, it hadn’t crossed my mind that we would not finish the run.
Huge vista views
View into the canyon
Sunrise over the Canyon
Where we decided to jettison water
The implementation, part 3: North Kaibab trail to South Kaibab trail
The time was about 2pm when we turned around and began the run back. We effectively DNF’d our DNF.
The good news was that an hour’s rest and a bit of food at the top meant that we felt a lot better. Ian was very low when we hit North Kaibab, but now he was much more spritely. The bad news was that we had about 500ml of water between the two of us, and very little food.
We encountered some hikers on the descent who were just finishing. They very kindly gave us some of their remaining water, a couple of bags of sweets and - my personal favourite - a double snickers bar. This was a huge boost for us both in terms of morale as well as in calories!
We ran the whole descent. We had a new found energy, which partly came from (a) realising that the quicker we ran then the quicker we’d be finished, and (b) the sweets and snickers bars.
We encountered a hiker who told us that the Manzanita water stop that we’d written off was in fact functional. And sure enough, when we came across it, there was a tap right next to the trail that we’d missed. The water was ice cold and tasted delicious.
Back at the bottom of the canyon we continued running, only pausing for the occasional uphill sections. Our perception was that we ran way more of the second half than the first half. (We’d end up taking an hour longer for the second half, somehow).
Around 6pm we had to put the head torches on. We hadn’t been planning to put these back on, so we hadn’t packed spare batteries or torches. Thankfully nothing went wrong here.
Around 7pm we hit Phantom Ranch. We could see the guests beginning to sit down for their pre-ordered evening meals of steak and chips. I ordered two glasses of the apparently famous lemonade. Ian ordered a hot chocolate and a packet of crisps.
At this point we had a choice to make. We could take the South Kaibab trail back up (the way we originally came), which was 1300m ascent and 10km distance. Or we could take the Bright Angel trail, which was 900m ascent, but around 13km distance. We opted for the South Kaibab trail. In hindsight I think we should have gone the other way.
The final ascent was one of the most gruelling of any run I’ve done. After what felt like an hour, my watch beeped - we’d done just 1km of the ascent. Ian’s jolly attitude a few hours prior had vanished, his energy was very low. I think the two large lemonades at Phantom Ranch saved me. We just wanted it to be over. We had lots of rest stops. It felt like it would never end.
Shortly before we reached the top we encountered a lone runner, coming down towards us. He asked if we were doing R3 and whether we were just finishing. We said yes. He told us we were total studs and high fived us - that felt pretty good - we had nearly done it.
Eventually we reached the top. Ian shouted with joy. It took us about 3.5 hours to do the final 10km ascent.
We were done! Total time: 16 hours 30 mins, approx.
The pain was real
Hungry!
Epilogue
From the car park at the top we called for the shuttle bus. It took about 15 minutes to arrive. We put all our layers on due to the cold, it must have been around 0 degrees celcius.
Eventually we made it back to the car, and then onwards to the hotel. It was now around 11.30pm, so there was no food available in the hotel nor in town. Not even a vending machine. So we had another improvised ham sandwich and went to bed.
Four hours later we were up and driving back to Las Vegas. Heavy rain set in on the drive, making us thankful that we hadn’t done the run a day later. We rewarded ourselves with steak and eggs for breakfast at an airport diner.
Eventually we made it back to San Jose, and I made it over to San Francisco to fly home at 5pm on Saturday. By the time I fell asleep in my plane seat around 6pm, I’d had about 7 hours sleep in the last 90 hours, and had run 75km. I woke up as the plane landed 10 hours later!
Conclusion
Rim to Rim to Rim was a challenging run. The highly concentrated ascent was really taxing.
But we shouldn’t have struggled on this so much. The complete lack of sleep for both of us the night before, coupled with insufficient food, coupled with recent long races for both of us were probably the main reasons we suffered so much.
I’m due back in San Francisco in Spring 2024. I will be reviewing Ian’s running plans more carefully next time!
