R2R2R Race Report - Paige Boldt

Paige Boldt

Oct 23, 20x20 Rim to Rim to Rim (R3) Race Report 

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/athletes/13795809

WOW! This was quite an experience. Something I will always remember. I have outlined after this summer my preparation, nutrition, gear, etc for additional summary. 

We started the day at about 3AM from bright angel; we decided to do bright angel because even though it was 2 miles longer the ascent on the way back would be more forgiving and the logistics made more sense. We had a group of 11 people, mostly Rob’s EN Triathlon team. We all decided to do our own thing, and from the start I was running solo. Gabe’s friend Kevin and his wife were also there and are experienced trail runners. They passed me on the descent and rapidly flew past me. I was amazed at how fast they could descent. Truly remarkable. I did end up passing them around mile 16, so this was one of the first times in the day where I interacted with more people than deer so that was fun. I went past them and then saw them again at the North Rim but then after that I did not see them. I finished in 11:06 moving time and 12:18 elapsed time, which was the fastest out of the group. My total miles were 47, many of the group had 50-55 miles, which shows the GPS variability. Tim Cronk had the least amount of breaks. Rob had the longest breaks. Peter had to stop at the North Rim due to ITB issues and Scot Imlay also stopped at the north rim due to altitude sickness and significant vomiting. 

I remember when I started I was concerned after the first 1-2 miles. My feet were already feeling the rocky surface and the descent. It was less running than I anticipated; well very slow running rather as you have such uneven surfaces. Now you must realize that I am lame Michigan flatlander, so I am not used to anything technical. The descent does seem relentless, it is about 7 miles so be prepared for that. I remember when I saw a flat surface or even a climb I was like “thank god, anything but descending.” You’d think that would be the easy part, but I think the descents were very challenging. After the 7 mile descent, the rest of the way up to Manzanita is also uphill. Deceivingly uphill actually. I just listened to my body and hiked more than I had planned in this section but also knew I wanted to finish strong and still had a long day ahead of me. Given we started in the early hours, I used my headlamp for about 3.5 hours. It was lonely at times; I usually train in a group so that was different for me. Being solo in the pitch dark on a narrow trail that I had no idea what the footing was like was mentally exhausting for me personally. At one point just past Indian Garden, the trail ran through a creek and I could not see the trail in front of me very well, so I got our my GPS file on AllTrails and that helped verify I was on the right path. 

Once the sun started to come up around 15-17 miles, I felt more energized. The beauty of the canyon was magical and it so peaceful. I was not taxing myself so I had lots of energy to enjoy my surroundings and focus on being thankful for my health. I tried to think of all my family members during this time. Anytime I felt my effort increasing I would repeat in my mind “this is easy, you are strong, you’ve got this” over and over. I must have said that thousands of times in the course of the day. I think flooding is a helpful mental technique for any athlete. If you repeat this over and over the negative thoughts do not have space to enter your mind. I find it rather effective. It does take practice and intentionality but I did this a lot on the R3. 

Once I got to Manzanita I knew the next 6 miles were going to be rough. I kept telling myself, be prepared to feel like garbage from climbing but also from the elevation gains. I knew this would be the hard part of the day. I remember at several times feeling frustrated that the ground was so uneven and several very large steps to navigate over. I tried to embrace this but my feet were very sore and I was craving a clear path to simply run on. But none the less, I tried to shift my focus away from that negativity and focus on the task on hand. The ground surface was not something that I could change, but my attitude was. About 1 mile maybe even less I did see Sherpa Brian who ran down to meet me. This was clutch, it was so nice to have company for like 20 minutes. It lifted my spirits and once I got to the car I chugged water and then quickly descended. My goal was to keep moving - I did not take long breaks as I had a mission to tackle still. 

After leaving the north rim, I knew I just needed to survive the descent. The descent is what was bothering my patellar tendon and my quads so I kept telling myself to focus on getting to Manzanita and if I made it there I was golden. That attitude helped, so I just focused on that section and zeroed in on it. Once I got to Manzanita I stopped and refilled waters then tried to eat some food as I did not tolerate my PBJ at the north rim. I stopped again at Ribbon falls at the creek on the trail. I loved filling my filter bottle in the creek. Something about being one with the canyon and just drinking from the flowing creeks was very satisfying. The water tasted more pure and it was colder. 

On the way back, it was a struggle in the box of the canyon. I had heard stories of the box and how people break down in the box. I remember thinking at 30 miles that I felt great and that this was going to be awesome. But, the heat and the cumulative stress from the day must of caught up to me. I stopped at Phantom Ranch on the way back and this is when the pain train started. I had their lemonade but stomach issues started. I forced myself to eat still but could not eat while running anymore so I had to stop anytime I wanted to take nutrition in. I remember thinking several times that even if I just hiked I would still finish in a respectable time but I also did not want anyone to catch me either. Even though it was not a race - it is always a race. No competitive endurance athlete is content when someone passes you. If you are, then you are lying or just simply so type B that I give you kudos. Anyways - you get the point. Body was struggling but still had motivation to push forward. 

Once I got to the last 1/6 of the race (for how I broke it up, as you will see below) - then I knew I was going to make it. I did start to break down a bit more and could not take any solid nutrition the last 4-5 miles. I was getting very nauseated and several times, particularly the last 2 miles I just wanted to vomit. I think I would have felt better if I did. Not sure if it was elevation or just pushing body or a multitude of things. My pace slowed drastically and the last 4.5 miles from Indian Gardens felt like an eternity. I was sick of stepping over rocks and I just wanted to be done. There were also more people in this section so I wore my buff over my face at times which was another layer of difficulty but was trying to be safe. At this point in the day, I decided pace meant nothing and to simply just put one foot in front of another. I tried to envision finishing and focused on that. I also made it a goal to not let any Hobby jogger pass me on the ascent. I did have 1 dude with an army pack pass me, I ran in a few sections to keep him in sight and after about 1 mile he eventually took a break and I passed him. Other than that, I can proudly say that I do not recall anyone passing me even though I was on the struggle bus. I did take more breaks during this section. I remember one distraction I had was to sit and look out at the canyon and told myself - look how epic you are- you are about to complete running through this massive canyon twice. The positive attitude helped when the body was struggling. I think for anyone out there completing this there will be a point where the body is angry - you must use your mind to overcome that and reframe as much as possible to stay the course. 

After I completed this, I did not anticipate anyone to be at the top so was anticipating somewhat of an anticlimactic finish. I did see Heather, Tim Cronk’s wife so I yelled towards her and that was nice to have someone to talk to. After about an hour, then Kevin and Melanie finished and after that I finally was able to gain the strength to sit up and walk back to my room. I called my family and showered and then headed back to cheer Rob in as he finished as well as the others. I was able to chat with Kevin and Melanie about our day while waiting and valued that. I was still very nauseated so I did not eat for several hours after I finished other than a gatorade and protein bar I forced down. I was so thankful to see Rob finish as well as all the others. It is truly remarkable to have all 11 of us survive the day without any major injuries. Huge shout out to our Sherpa Brian too. I am very thankful for that and everyone did so well. Honestly, most of our group had trained so hard for this. I was mostly thankful to be surrounded by such awesome people on this trip - many of which are experienced ultra runners but yet humble and kind - willing to share their knowledge with a novice ultra runner such as myself. 

1. Preparation/Training
2. Had decided to run this about 2 months prior when my marathon training led me to have a tight hamstring after one of my first speed workout sessions. Rob had been planning to run this, so when I was resting my hamstring I would just go for hikes and realized that my hamstring did not hurt and do hills repeats did not hurt it as long as I kept it slow. After a week of this, I started to realize why would I run a marathon TT when I had an opportunity to run across one of the most beautiful places twice. I decided then the R3 would be more meaningful than some random marathon time trial. 
3. Training shifted to only focus on 2 things - time on feet + how much vertical training could I obtain. I started doing back to back long run. Mostly did this about 3-4 weeks in a row; generally with 3-4 hours on Saturday with 3-4 hours on Sunday. I always tried to wear my pack and have it loaded to strengthen my core and back and simply to get used to how it felt. I also think my long 13 hour shifts as a PA helped me with lots of additional time on my feet.
4. Time on feet even included power hiking, which I practiced a decent amount. Hiking actually uses very different muscles so I tried to do this as much as possible. Power hike the climbs, run the descents. I had several weeks with 9-10hrs of running/power hiking as part of the build with my largest week at 12hrs. This is important to track time and not just distance as ultras are about time on feet - not pace. This was a drastic change in my training as I was always so focused on miles and pace.
5. The most elevation gain I did in one run was about 5,000ft. I did 4500-5000 several times. The most elevation gain I had in a week was 11,000. I had another 10,4000ft week and 2 x 7,000ft weeks. I think in hindsight I would have started doing stair repeats, for like 10 minutes after runs at least 4 days per week several months out. Even starting that 6 months out. The muscles used in stairs and climbing/descending are drastically different than running. This is worth noting. 
6. For elevation gains - I would go to Cannonsburg ski hill and do hours of repeats or even we drove up to Boyne mountain one day and did close to 5K of repeats in one day, after running 3.5hr trail run the day before. I also spend a decent amount of time on stairs - mostly the Hoffmaster stairs because the scenery over Lake Michigan was beautiful and then also utilized the concrete stairs at Division Stairs. 
7. I think Rob did more stairs in preparation than me; I remember when I did the stairs certain muscles in my feet because so sore and my lower leg muscles would hurt. A sign that these areas need to be strong for this adventure. 

1. Nutrition 
2. 1 hour prior to the start I had a nitro cold brew + oatmeal with oatmilk and PB
3. I used GenUCan most of the day then transitioned to lemon lime skratch because sometimes Can can get chalky to me and it doesn’t sound appealing. I just prepared enough to refill either options so I always had the choice. Having options is key because you cannot predict how your stomach will handle the day. I refilled my 500mL flasks with either of these at the fill stations and then kept my 1L BeFree filter with water. 
4. Solid foods - my plan was to use 3 cliff bloks (margarita flavors with extra salt) OR 1/2 cliff bar OR 1 spring gel every 45 minutes. In reality, what I ended up doing was 1 whole cliff bar every hour or 1 whole sleeve of bloks every hour. The spring gels did not sound good. At times I only had 1/2 cliff bar, but if I felt hungry or could stomach more food, I certainly just ate it. For packing my pack - I made sure I had enough food for 16-18 hours just incase something bad happened. I also made sure I packed all different flavors of cliff bars, just in case I did not want one kind. This helped to have variety. 
5. Phantom Ranch Lemonade - everyone always kept talking about this and I remember telling Rob and laughing that I would not drink this. It seemed silly to me to drink something so acidic during a long day if I had not trained with it. In fact, when I ran through phantom ranch it was so hot outside and I was miserable so I did stop and bought some. It was amazing. I have no regrets. It tasted sugary so that’s probably why it helps so many people. 
6. I had packed a PB&J - something I always love on big training days but I could not stomach this, I had 2 bites the entire day and it was not appealing to be in the slightest. 
7. I also packed a cold brew nitro to have 1/2 way, but this also did not sound good to me. I was worried it would upset my stomach so I just skipped the extra caffeine. I would maybe think about carrying RunGum or caffeinated gum because I think I would have used that the last 2 hours since it was such a struggle. 
8. For water - this is more in depth but this is what I did for water consumption: 
9. Started with 1L and refilled 1L at Phantom Ranch (9.6miles in) 
10. Refilled 2L at Ribbon Falls - chugged an additional liter at the stream with 2 salt tabs then figured I did not want to stop again at Manzanita so carried the 2Ls up the north rim from ribbon falls
11. Thankfully we had SAG at North Rim, so I drank 2L with 2 salt tabs then refilled 1L in my pack. 
12. Refilled another 1L at Manzanita + 1/2L in my filter just in case 
13. Refilled another 1L at Ribbon falls crossing - mostly just needed a break
14. Refilled 1L at Phantom ranch + chugged 1 L + chugged lemonade 
15. Refilled 2L at Indian Garden + chugged 1L 
16. ***the water filter was key - I found that I liked to filter at creek crossings because the water was colder than at the water stations at the rest houses and just made the experience better to drink right out of the stream. I used my 1L filter bag to refill my flasks and every time I filled my 500mL front flanks I added GenUCan or Skratch. The key is to know where water will be on - I made a laminated cheat sheet so at all points I knew how many miles to the next water and what all my options were throughout the day. 
17. This is a side note - I only urinated twice during the day (and a third time right as I finished) so I was clearly dehydrated despite drinking so much). I also peed blood when I finished…..ultra hematuria - which is fairly common and it resolved the next day. 

1. Gear 
2. Headlamp is key. Need to have one lamp that can be bright and last for several hours. I used the Nathan halo fire and at medium brightness can last 6 hrs I believe. It was great. Also charges so I carried a battery pack and small charging cord. 
3. The backup lamp was my phone, which many of guys frowned upon and recommended to carry to another back up but I said YOLO. 
4. I used the 8L Salomon S lab packs - very comfortable and I highly recommended this pack. I will say I had a few training runs where I had to get used to how the pack rubbed in certain areas. 
5. Shoes - Hoka Speedgoat EVO 
6. Trail gators - used the light weight ultra ones, worked well and highly recommend having to avoid getting rocks and sand in your shoes. 
7. Compression socks - I work ultralight weight CEP compressions. 
8. Arm Coolers - Orange Mud brand - these I was iffy on but given how hot it was I am glad I bought these right before we went. I had them on the entire day and used them for warmth at the start and then during the day it helped not having to worry about my arms getting sun burned and then I could get them wet every time I passed a creek or pack ice in them after phantom ranch which was AWESOME. 
9. Hat, Cooling buff for neck and wiping face/makeshift mask were also key
10. Charging stick + cord for my garmin and cord for my phone + cord for my headlamp 
11. Emergency Bivy - don’t be stupid - carry one. Its only 9oz and could save your life.
12. Used the black diamond carbon z poles - with the Solomon quiver attached to the pack. These were super light and very easy to deploy from the quiver when needed. 
13. You much train with poles - if you do not train with poles your back, traps and triceps will not tolerate the long day of using the poles. 
14. I think poles saved my legs drastically. I highly recommend using them for something like this. 
15. I caught myself with the poles several times. At times I had planned to not use my poles because I was running, I ended up still using the poles because they had saved me from face planting so many times. 
16. Water - flasks + filter - see above in nutrition 

1. Mental Approach
2. I broke the day up into 6 section which helped a lot. Know your landmarks well, this helps you focus on what is coming up next and distracts you from the large overwhelming feat of the ultra. 
3. Stage 1 - bright angel trailhead to the river (9 miles)
4. Stage 2 = River to Manzanita (gradual incline, but still runnable in sections) 
5. Stage 3 = Manzanita to North Rim (be prepared to feel like garbage for the entire ascent)
6. Stage 4 = North Rim back to Manzanita (technical descent - get through this and the rest is a “breeze” but knew if I completed this then the eccentric loading on the knees and quads was mostly over)
7. Stage 5 = Manzanita to River (runnable section but HOT in the box depending on the day - start heat protocol) 
8. Stage 6 = River to BA trailhead
9. I actually ended up breaking up this again into 1.5 mile sections and stopped more frequently due to not feeling well

1. Big Take Aways 
2. Poles are key - use them to save your legs and catch you from falls
3. Trail running and stairs + vert training are key to success for the R3
4. Focus on this - get out of canyon alive. If you are focused on time or are not careful you could easily trip or roll an ankle. There are no aid stations or rescue stops - you need to at all times be confident that you can get yourself out of the canyon. This means not pushing yourself too hard or “going to the well” too early and fading away. I did push myself at the end, but I knew that even in worst conditions I could still finish by hiking. 

Robert Sabo

Great write up and awesome job. I wish I could have been there with you guys. Maybe next year. I'm glad I will be able to reread your race report prior to attempting R2R2R.

Congratulations on a Grand accomplishment.

tim cronk

"From the start I was running solo" - that is complete and utter BS , I was with you for at least 3 seconds! :-)

Like I said on your Strava it was a thing of beauty watching you disappear into the night . Well done prep, execution, and write up throughout. I look forward to following what will no doubt be a very successful endurance sports career.

matt limbert

@Paige Boldt Thanks for the write up. While I have NO interest in tackling this one. I love your mental approach, how you broke down the course, and your preparation. The pictures were awesome too. Congratulations. This is a great write up for other folks who just keep finding bigger and bigger challenges.😎👊

Jeff Phillips

@Paige Boldt Epic, epic, epic, even by EN standards! Congratulations on a successful day. I'm glad you were able to find the moments to reflect on your location.

I'm considering this for 2021 and appreciate the detail you've provided!