Wes your ability to bring us along on your adventures is incredible, I said it before and I'll say it again! Your positivity paired with your genuine humble appreciation and gratitude for others is a trait we can all aspire to chase! Well done sir and Thank you!
I’m so glad I found you! I was searching for videos of Antelope Canyon 50m as I am getting ready to run my first ultra on March 9th. I really appreciate you sharing your experience! Must’ve been brutal with the rain and mud. Now I know I have to get ready for a sandy Trail, and a huge possibility of rain throughout the course. Any additional tips will be much appreciated!
I'm s glad you found my video! You'll love Antelope Canyon, the views are worth the challenging course. I think you're on the right track, be prepared for sand, hot, cold, and wet, you can certainly get all of it. Keep smiling even when it gets hard, it is supposed to be hard. Good luck!
That ladder section would have really been a mental hiccup for me. Great effort and great attitude with the ladder. Also great idea making the aid station list your homescreen on your phone! I'll be doing that at my next race! Thanks for the awesome content.
The aid station list was helpful, I encourage you to try it too. I realized for next time: include not just the segment mileage, but also the total mileage for each aid station.
The video is amazing! I ran the 55k, took a lot of pictures, but while I was taking a shower, my mom threw my hydration vest into the washer with my phone inside, lol!
Oh no! Sorry about your phone! But also, does that work to put the vest in the washing machine? I sometimes hand wash mine, I think I’d worry about the machine damaging the vest.
Another great video Wes. What an incredible race! I've never seen a landscape like this in a race, it was beautiful. And I've never seen a ladder quite like that before either! It was also interesting to see what a difference the rain made to the running conditions. Well done on filming and still managing to finish well up in the race
It was good experience to run in rain down there. The sand was better, but the mud on the page rim trail got worse when wet. Still, a fun adventure overall. Gorgeous landscape!
Congrats Wes, and thanks for bringing us along with you. Smart idea saving images of useful information to your lock screen at 5:45; I will remember that!
Thanks Dan! Next time I will improve the lock screen idea by not only including the miles between each aid station, but also including the cumulative miles.
Gotta love the ultra trail community, during a run your like “ ya I’ll have some bacon” great stuff. Road marathons wouldn’t dream of it. Hahah have a great week everyone 🤙🏽
Hi Jeff! The ladder was new this year, apparently in past they descended into the canyon a different way. I do hope future runners of this course experience a revised course without that bottleneck.
Loved the video Wes! I really think this is one of the most scenic 50 mile courses out there… kind of a bad year for it with the weather, but glad to see you made the best of it and still had a good experience. Thanks for the shout out in the description as well! Do you use some kind of a chest mount for your footage at the aid stations?
Thanks my friend! I often use my vest’s chest straps to hold the camera while I’m doing stuff at aid station. One of the sadnesses of my favorite pack’s last update was they changed the chest straps, making this use impossible. So I gave up on that newer vest and I’ve stocked up on the old model. :)
Yay, Wes - I have been looking forward to this! Thanks for sharing... laughing at the comment about the rain LOL. I also thought the rocks looked cool when wet :) Good luck for Cocodona!
Wes! What a great journey. You really captured the experience. It was great meeting you on the trail and I hope to run (pun intended) into you again in the next one. You got me thinking about those 200+ runs now...
Another awesome video! Great job capturing the course and on your run too. I said the same thing you did while I was out there “such a beautiful course. So much sand too. I don’t think I knew about that when I signed up” 😂. Looking forward to your next adventure.
Nice - Congrats! I loved Antelope Canyon last year...for the first 40 miles lol. The 60 miles around Page however were brutal! We had 60-70% DNF.... What do you use to overlay the map? That's a very nice visual help!
Absolutely gorgous. That loose sand can really drain the strength out of your legs. I live near the biggest inland dune area in the Netherlands and know it's great strength training.
@@wplate Absolutely. It really sucks some times. But it can be really nice. Especially along the coast area. Ran a very challenging trail last month (Run the Festung). You can check it at my channel Diemenrunners
I was happy in the end to have had the experience, I am always worried in the back of my head that Cocodona could be wet. Having this experience with rain in the desert now gives me a tiny idea of one kind of scenario. 😬
This is my second vacation races race, the first one was Zion 100 in 2019. Both races had a similar feature, where they were absolutely beautiful, but yet surprisingly difficult!
salut wes merci pour ta super vidéo . j habite dans le sud de la france et j adore regarder tes vidéos elles sont inspirantes et motivantes ,j ai démarrer le trail il y as 1ans et demi es ce que tu penses que c est un peu tôt pour faire des 50 miles ?
It might be too early, but it might also be ok, it depends on you. I started trail running in early 2014, ran my first 50K in Oct 2015, got injured in Jan 2016 which slowed me down (I needed to be slowed down, I was pushing too hard), then I finished my first 50M in summer of 2017. But your story is different. Depending on your current base of training, 50M may not be a huge jump. I hired a coach to help me train for 50M, that made a big difference for me. If you have a coach, they can also give you advice based on their knowledge of your situation.
The rain really helped the sand. The day before the race, I previewed the last couple of miles of the run, and the soft sand was really difficult to move in. With all the rain that same sand was easier to move across.
It is better to have rain, makes for better running, firms up the sand. I live in this sand, running and hiking is best when it's cooler also, and I love it when it's snow and raining
agree! We had really good weather for most of the day, I definitely prefer it a little cooler and the sand was so much more maneuverable when it was weighed down with rain. I would love to see it down there with snow!
Really a big fan of you and your videos and like how kind you are to every single person you meet. After your Bandera video I know your are no superhuman and can suffer on this long runs just like me. Just one thing that seems stupid to me. I think you ha stomach issues at bandera and now again. Maybe bacon is not the best nutrition plan for you? As a guy with foot problems in this races i am interested if you could solve your foot problems from last year and what are your solutions. Best regards from a fan from Germany who is running his first 50 miler in three weeks.
The bacon was fine, the problem during antelope Canyon was actually more related to my respiratory issues. I’m working with a new allergy doctor to try to figure out a medication that will reduce the mucus production while I’m running so I’m not coughing as much. Additional problem is that sometimes, while trying to clear my throat, I actually trigger my gag reflex. No fun. After cocodona in 2021 on my feet were pretty banged up. I had bad blisters and that lingering injury led to the DNF at scout mountain. I think 2022 I did a lot better, I was able to recover more quickly from each 200 in my feed them a lot better.
The 100 milers were tough people! I had couple friends finish, I'm so impressed with them. The slot canyons were cool, but I really loved the views near the river. The river, the bends, the cliffs, the mountains behind, all really cool.
If I could hack and cough less, I would! I started seeing a new allergy doctor and we’re trying medications to see if it helps the mucus production. This is real.
