The 2019 Antelope Canyon 50 miler was my first ultra marathon, and was a bit of a rude awakening. While I went into this race feeling as trained as I possibly could be (for my 1st 50 miler and relying on training plans of back to back runs instead of super-long single days of running), I knew that I was going to be at a disadvantage from not having trained with sand. I'm more centrally located within North Carolina and a beach run just wasn't a convenient option for training. Still, I ran our local state park which is hilly and, I had previously thought, pretty strenuous. AC put that to shame!

The race itself didn't feel overall hilly in terms of running elevation, but the challenge was more around the terrain. The 50 miler takes you through about 30 miles of deep sand, a little less than 10 miles of rocky areas with uneven ground (petrified sand dunes, slickrock, etc) and quite a bit of climbing... like hands and knees, might be sliding backwards as you're trying to move upwards climbing. Scooting down on your butt and praying for your life climbing. It was certainly an adventure. Of course, the last 10 mile loop is a mostly hard packed dirt trail. Saving that last part for your weary legs was a slight blessing though as you look over the cliff side at the drop from the Page Rim trail, it definitely still seems daunting.

The race day logistics went fine overall. There weren't any spectators along the way aside from at aid stations; much of the land is private, Native American owned and requires special permits even to be on it. That in itself felt pretty awesome as we had hours (and I mean, hours) to enjoy it during the race.

The 15 hour time limit seemed generous, but after losing a lot of time on the technical terrain, and let's be honest, posing for pics with some of the incredible backdrops and enjoying the variety of foods at the aid stations, I realized I was cutting it real close to the cutoff. I had to haul butt to make it across the finish line in time, but I successfully did.

I loved the finisher medal and the bottle of sand that the 50 milers could choose between. I opted for the sand as a more unique award for an ultra race experience. The medal itself was beautiful though and unlike anything else I would have had in my collection.

The aid stations were well supported and had a good variety of foods. Only one had started to run out of items during the race, but aside from that you had your choice of sweet and savory. Quesadillas, PB&Js, chips, turkey roll-ups, pretzels, swedish fish, m&ms, etc. The drop bags were also generally efficient though I heard of couple of participants had issues where their drop bags were not at the designated aid station; mostly from being sent back to the finish line before the second loop had been completed. Thankfully though, it didn't sound like a lot of people were facing that problem.

My only other issue was in the final 10 mile stretch, especially when running in the dark (as many of the 100 milers then had to do for the remainder of the night), finding some of the trail markers could be a challenge. It can be a little disconcerting when the trail itself isn't clear with the limited light to then wonder if you're still on it.

Aside from that, this race was a once in a lifetime experience for me. It was the most challenging thing I've ever done but the sense of accomplishment from surviving such a feat is pretty amazing. It definitely gave me the bug to start looking into my next ultra adventure. I have more details on my experience on my blog: http://fitnewtonblog.com/antelope-canyon-ultramarathon-recap/