Another Grand Canyon Run

In a special travelogue edition of the Fitness Disrupted podcast, Tom takes us through his second rim-to-rim-to-rim Grand Canyon run that presented a whole new set of experiences and challenges. Listen to his journey and takeaway some tips on how to deal with adversity on your terms; and yes, even enjoy it! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. As
I stand here doing this podcast, as I do, I

(00:21):
don't sit. I stand in my studio. I am really
sore walking up the two flights of stairs to my studio.
It's painful, painful in a good way. That good sore
that anyone who's done a hard event, hard hard workout

(00:41):
knows what I'm talking about. My quads or shredded as
I like to say. And going downstairs, I'm doing it sideways.
And I've been doing that for a couple of days now,
because it is Tuesday. And on Saturday, I did my
second Grand Canyon Run, second run across the Grand Canyon

(01:05):
and back with a little change. As I will tell you,
and some of you may have listened to my first
podcast about doing my first Grand Canyon run, known as
the Rim to Rim to Rim. So you run across
up to the top, then you run back down and

(01:26):
back to the other side, and that was incredibly special.
The event and the podcast came back a day earlier
than I did for this one, and I recorded that
podcast right away, and I did the same for this one,
but I'm a day at an extra day that we
built in just in case the weather went a little

(01:46):
wonky and we needed to move the run forward today
back a day, whichever way you look at it. But
that's what today's podcast is about. I'm feeling beaten up.
It's so good. I warn you, I'm still mentally out
of it because it's it beats you up psychologically as
well as physically. But another one of the most incredible

(02:09):
experiences I've ever had, and that's what I'm all about,
is collecting experiences and connecting all of it to everything
that I talked about here on Fitness Disrupted, living our
best lives, being healthy, controlling what we can and there's
so many different topics that I've already talked about, but

(02:32):
I will hit on in this podcast as well. The
biophilia hypothesis did a fit tip about that hydration. All
of that stuff goes into what I just did. And
that's the final thing too. You know, when I first
started in this industry, So these are the ways I'm
going to separate myself. The education, the experience, and walking

(02:55):
the walk. I'm fifty three people. The guy ran with right,
and then I say ran with, traveled with, started with
and a phenomenal ultra runner, really smart. He's the one
who does all the logistics for these runs that we've
done now twice. Because I just like to do these things.

(03:18):
I'm not a big one for the specifics the details.
He is. And so that's what today's podcast is about
to tell you all about, basically my race report, even
though it's not a race, and that's a really important
part of this experience is that a race. It's not organized.

(03:41):
We chose to do this on our own, as others
do as well, and there was no official start line
or start time or finish line. There's nothing to compare
to it, and that's what makes it so awesome. All right.
So this podcast, hope weeks like all the others, but

(04:01):
in a very specific way, hopefully entertains you, educate you
as well. You can learn from my successes as well
as my lessons learned, not failures, lessons learned and I
never stopped learning. Those of you who are runners at
whatever level can learn a lot from my successes and

(04:23):
my lessons learned. And for those of you who don't run,
hopefully it can be inspired to challenge yourself. Podcast I
just released I think it was last week on why
you Need a Missaggi. This was one of my miss
Aggies for this year. Challenge. All right, quick break, when

(04:48):
we come back my Grand Canyon Run race report, Take two.
We'll be right back, and we are back talking about
my very recent Grand Canyon run, so recent that it's

(05:15):
it's it's a little it's a little hard to stand
right here and do this, but it's going down the
stairs that's the challenge, right, Even the up not as
bad as the down, And anyone who's run run uphill
downhill realizes that, right, And there's a scientific reason for that.
I've talked about that the east centric contractions of your

(05:35):
muscles going downhill, your quads are essentially breaking, you know,
the breaks for your legs, and that beats the heck
out of your body. And that's one of the reasons
this run is so challenging because it's like running into
a bowl. Right you started, Depending on where you start,
let's say seven thousand feet, you drop down thousands and

(05:56):
thousands of feet right away, so downhill then you go flat.
So let's call it to make it simple. Seven miles downhill,
seven eight nine miles across depending on what route you take,
and then seven or eight back up, and then you
do it again, you go back and so that again.
For those of you who didn't listen to the original podcast,

(06:18):
have no idea what I'm talking about. You go to
the Grand Canyon and there's a handful of people who
have a bucket list challenge goal of running in the
Grand Canyon, and there's many ways to do it. There's
a Rim to Rim where you just run across and
I say, just let me take the word just out
of there, So anywhere from to about twenty four miles.

(06:39):
There's two main trails. The Bright Angel which is the
one I did last time, and that's a little longer
twenty four miles across, but a little less crazy on
the down as a result, so longer miles and less
steep incline as a result. But the one I did
this time was the South Kaibab, which is three miles
shorter across, but a faster ascent and descent. So catch

(07:04):
twenty two right. So many people their goal is to
do the Rim to Rim and you can hike that.
It can take about a day for most people if
you're walking, and then they have a bus I've never
done it this way, but they have a bus supposedly
that you can time it perfectly, and then you have
to go back. I think it takes I don't know,
four or five six hours or something like that to
get back around. But that's what some people do, the

(07:25):
Rim to Rim and then you can do the full
Rim to Rim to Rim, and there's people who do more,
by the way, but those are generally the two. They're
now called the R three and the R five I
just found out, which is easier to say than the
R two, R two R. But if you take the
Bright Angel Trail four miles across back forty total, that's

(07:48):
what I did last time, and it was insanely amazing.
I've done so many races around the world in so
many different formats, from triathlons to running races, to adventure
races and now these ultra marathons. Some of the ultramarathons
are organized. This is not there's just people who show up.

(08:12):
You get out there, you travel out. We flew from
the East coast to Phoenix, drove three and a half
hours hotel room, did that on Friday, got up Saturday
morning and ran and there was a handful of other
people there with us, and that's just kind of crazy.
When you start doing things like this. As you meet

(08:32):
other people who do it, like marathoners, will experience that
whatever your sport is, triathlons, whatever you're you're specific, that's
just my world. And then you start to think that
it's normal that everyone's doing it, and you realize no,
but there's other people who are doing this as well.
Generally they do it in groups of like two to four.

(08:53):
The person I travel with again is faster than I,
and I didn't want to make him wait for me.
His goal is to go fast, wants to see how
fast he can do it. So we start together and
that's pretty much it. We see each other as he
passes me coming back, and then we see each other
at the finish. So many people think it's a race,

(09:14):
it's not. Many people think that we are running together.
We are not. And that's important because even though there's
other people scattered on the trail, you may not see
a person for hours, and I will talk about what
happens because it did if you run into trouble. And
so this is a solo run for me and for him,

(09:37):
and that makes it so incredibly special because it's so
challenging mentally and physically to think you're gonna be out
there in the Grand Canyon by yourself running across and back,
and it scares the heck out of you. And that's
what makes it so amazing. I'm just gonna abuse those
two words over and over. It's amazing incredible, all right.

(09:58):
So now you get the general idea, hopefully if you
didn't know what the rim to rim to Rim is,
and now'll give you a specifics. So, like I said,
we flew out Friday early Friday morning. He's got the

(10:20):
you know, five six hour flight. But the great thing
is as you fly west, you get the time is
on your side, especially when you cut it that close,
and that's what works out really well for us. So, kid,
did we get into town. I think we got an
earlier sometime in the afternoon on Friday afternoon and checked
into the same hotel right outside the canyon. It's real

(10:44):
tough to get hotel rooms. Uh. The guy I run
with does all the the booking of everything, so he's
telling me, like the ones in the park like crazy,
and we saw so many tours when we did this
last it was during COVID and so there were no tourists.
Foreign tourists couldn't come, and now was filled. You know,
you heard French and Spanish and Italian everywhere, which is

(11:04):
very cool. So stayed in the actually did two hotels
last time, but we stayed in the same one we
started in last time, which is just outside the canyon.
Went to the same restaurant, got the same plane pasta.
I had a huge, um, huge dish of spaghetti and

(11:24):
meatballs and bread. Keeping it simple. Loading up on the carbs. Yes,
you have to go into these events with your fuel
tank at the top. And I actually for the couple
of days prior eight a heck of a lot more carbs.
So there you go. For those of you who are
endurance athletes, runners, whatever your sport is, if you're exercising
for a long period of time, yes you still carve up.

(11:46):
You need to make sure that your energy stores are
topped off. Carbs are our friend, especially if you're doing
something like running all day. And so I did what
we did last time. I stuck with what worked right,
same hotel, same dinner. Uh. And then the beautiful thing
again with the time change, is we tried to get

(12:06):
we did get to bed super early because we were
getting up three am. Three fifteen am. All right, So
what I did the night before is always important, right
on so many levels. So eight dinner, went back to
the hotel basically said to the to Bill that, uh,

(12:27):
you know, CEO, what time you want to start? He's
always making the executive decisions with all that stuff, so
he said, you know, out the door at four am.
I was like, all right, good to go. And that
meant getting up around three fifteen to make sure I
could get everything done that I needed to. It's a
little more time than I need, but something inevitably goes wrong, right,
So forty five minutes pretty perfect for me, especially to

(12:49):
eat something because that's important too. Even though you carve
up the night before, the breakfast is super important for
many people. This is so highly individualized, and that will
also be a theme of the show and all shows. Right,
But when it comes to nutrition, super individualized doesn't mean
a carb is not a carb and protein isn't uh,
it doesn't do what it does. But we all experiment

(13:12):
with different things and see what works for us and
then we stick with it. But carbs, by and large people,
regardless of the new stuff you here is what you
want to fuel up your body with. Alright, So back
from dinner and then it's preparing. So I want everything
as prepared as ready to go. So I wake up
in the morning and I can't forget anything. Really, everything

(13:34):
I can do the night before, I do everything. So
that includes packing a ridiculous pack. Right, and if you
want to see that, I put yes on my Instagram
account Tom h Fit. You can see so much of this.
I will remind you at the end. Um, you can
see what I packed the night before. Took a picture
of that on the the bed, two beds and the

(13:56):
other bed. I just use as my staging area for
all of this stuff. Be there's a lot of stuff.
It's not a race. There are no aid stations. That's
frightening to someone like me who has spent decades doing
marathons and uh, you know iron Man triathlons where you're
paying a lot of money to have it totally supported
all the sports, drink and fuel you want at the

(14:18):
perfect spaced intervals. Iron Man, the brand generally does it phenomenally.
You know, every hour on the bike, basically you're gonna
hit another aid station. And during the run. You know,
it's every couple of miles, not even and so for
this you gotta bring everything. You gotta bring everything. And
also there's no dropping out. In order to drop out,

(14:41):
what do you do? You know, if you're on the race,
and some of these races are multiple loops, many people,
if they're having issues, they drop out after a first
loop or second loop or first leg, whatever it is.
You can't do that here. So that's what makes this
so unique. And I need unique by the way I
collect experience is and it's rare for me to repeat

(15:02):
certain things. But that's why this was different from the
get go. We weren't going to do the Bright Angel Trail.
We were going to do the South Kaipop, which is
twenty one miles across, a little shorter, a lot steeper
at the start, and then it hooks up with what
we have done before, so you basically start differently and
then you end up on the same trail to go
up the to the North Rim and then back down.

(15:24):
So packing food and hydration and what I have after
getting into this couple of years ago. The Ultra Marathon
is the longer distance events is a running vest and
that's got to carry everything people, and these are phenomenal.
And I remember back in the day when I would
see people with even the belts, even the handheld I'm like,

(15:46):
oh my gosh, that must be so so much of
a pain, you know, heavy to carry. Let's not feel good.
These vests are amazing at holding what you need to. Yes,
there's weight to them, but they don't bounce around. And
I couldn't possibly do it without it. Because I was

(16:06):
loading in just over five thousand calories of fuel and
that was gels that was semi solid blocks is what
they're called. So gels. I had about fifteen gels and
that's a hundred calories apiece. I had blocks I was

(16:27):
going to try to avoid brand names wherever I can
um and that was about two hundred calories. I think
it's six of those, so six by two hundred. And
then I had a sports drink powder, which is essential
not just for calories, but more for the sodium the electrolytes,
and I'll get back to that. Had six packets of those,

(16:48):
so that's another twelve hundred calories because about a hundred
per serving in each pack. And then I had some bars,
six bars at two fifty so those bars were like
the most workally dense thing I had. I prefer fluid first,
gels second, and solid third. And that's most people. Your body,

(17:08):
especially when you're running, but when it's exercising, doesn't want
to have to digest stuff. And that's why it's so individual,
and that's why you have to experiment, and that's why
it keeps changing. Just when you think you've figured out
your nutrition plan, it might not work, and that it's
because of a variety of factors, including the heat and
many other things. So you never quite figured out. You

(17:30):
come close, and you get really better at it. But
I was starting with five thousand calories. And let me
give you a last little math. I'm not a big
math person, but this is where it's crucial, and I
love that. Actually, my son had a math project where
he said he had to ask interview someone about how

(17:52):
they use math in their daily lives, and this was
one the example I gave. And so for me, it's
I need flee three hundred calories per hour and this
run can take gosh, I wasn't gonna do it in
twelve but let's say twelve to seventeen hours. And if

(18:12):
you slow down and you're you know, taking breaks and
things like that, you know, quick bathroom breaks and stuff
like that. And this is it's not a race. You
can't go too fast. I mean there are people that
do obviously, But I had extra fuel just in case,
and that's really important because you want to run out
of fuel as I did. Uh so five thousand calories

(18:35):
and then I have so much. I had a head lamp,
which I had to start with because we started in
the dark. I have extra batteries, super important in case,
you know, you finished in the dark, which I did
last time. Spent three or four hours in the dark
last time, finishing poles, running poles, which I had never
used before the first Grand Canyon run. I definitely needed

(18:55):
for this one, and I would never do this without them.
But let me say this, all used them the first time,
didn't use them this second time, and that blew me
away because coming out of the canyon and even going
downhill sometimes they saved my life and I can't imagine
climbing out without them. But different things work for different people,

(19:16):
and that is such an important part of this whole show,
not just this episode Fitness Disrupted in general. I give
you things that are based on science. I give you
things that I have tried as an experiment of one.
I will tell you what's worked for clients over the years,
and then you figure out what works for you. I
carried poles. Bill didn't. At the end, I said, are
you sad that you didn't bring them? He goes no,

(19:39):
I said, I could not have done it without it.
So that is just one example of you do what
works for you. You'll mean people say, oh, no, you
have to do this, and fitness, you have to wear
these shoes, you have to do this. Oh you have
a foot pain, you have to get inserts. No, might
work many many layers to all this stuff. All right,

(20:01):
all right, quick break, when we come back, let's just
get into it. Let's get into the run. All right,
quick break. When we come back, am getting up four am,
hitting the trail, we'll be right back, and we are
back talking about my grand Canyon run. I'm still a

(20:24):
little out of it, as I said in the intro,
takes a while to recover, not just physically but mentally.
It's scruling and and the psychological part is it's more
of what I do it for than the physical. And
anyone who's done something like this, and at any level,
whatever challenges you mentally and physically knows what I'm talking about.

(20:48):
And when you start something like this and you finish
something like this, you're a different person. Then that's why
I challenge you to do something like this, And that's
why I really don't like the diets and the programs
that make you feel bad about yourself because you did
what they said to do and you didn't get the

(21:11):
long term results you were promised. We'll get back to that,
all right. So I went through most of I think
I'm forgetting anything. Uh well, A lot of people ask
how you carry the fluid. So I have to sixteen
ounce soft bottle soft flasks that sit on my chest
and they have these great little tubes that come off them,
So you just put pop that tube in your mouth,

(21:32):
right chest, left chest, and you've got sixteen ounces on
either side. Behind me, I have a huge reservoir for fluid.
I didn't fill that up, and I'll tell you why
in a second. I did the last time, and that
made the pack really really heavy. But for this run,
there are two stops to um what do you want

(21:53):
to call them? They're not aid stations, but they're stations
along the way. First ones about seven and a half
miles where there's water Phantom Ranch, and then eight and
a half miles after that there's a place called Manzanita.
When you take the South Kaibab Trail. Actually when you
take both, it's just the starts a little different. And
so that's where you fill up, refill with your water
and with my sports powder. I would mix the powder

(22:16):
in with the water, and I started with the sports drink.
I choose sports drink over water until I can't, until
I can't literally stomach it anymore. Because the sports drink
is giving me fluid, It's giving me energy through the sugar. People,
the sugar is good for this. This is what it's for.

(22:36):
And the electrolytes the salt, which is crucial to me.
All right, And so I started with the two chest
ones filled and then I knew that I would refill
in seven and a half miles. All right, cut to
the chase now, right, So am get up good to go.
I brought oatmeal with me the night before. I put

(22:57):
it in a cup. I have to do nothing other
than things that I couldn't do the night before. So
the oatmeal brought it with me. Plain oatmeal, super simple,
slow releasing carbohydrates, easy on my stomach, and I throw
water in it. I throw it in the microwave for
one minute in the hotel room. Boom done. I've been

(23:18):
at places where there is no microwave, so what do
you do? Use the coffee maker, put water in, no coffee,
heated up, boom. And there's been times where they didn't
have that, and I just did it cold. Not a
big deal. Many people aren't fans. But it's just fuel.
It's just fuel, all right. So did that and then
I coded myself. This is important because chaffing, as I

(23:39):
wrote about uh in both of my you know, the
Marathon Method book in the Twelve Weeks Tray Athlete, chafing
is an endurance athletes worst enemy, right. You get those
blisters and they just haunt you, especially if they come
on early enough an event like this or you know, yeah,
in an event like this, even though to not an

(24:01):
event per se, but you don't want that to happen.
So over time you realize where your hot points are.
You know, last time I had major chafing right underneath
my horry monitor band, right in the middle of my chest.
And I know that women often get that from coaching
them years ago. I should have kind of thought about
that with sports bras and stuff during marathons and events

(24:23):
like that. So I coded myself my toes, outside of
my toes especially, and other spots on my body, even
upper body where my arms swing and things like that.
Why don't I tell you this because, as I will
say shortly, I had no chafing. That's unheard of for me.
So I'm getting better at that. We learn over time.

(24:44):
Experience teaches us so much. Okay, all right, good do
my oatmeal. Put everything on my water bottles by the way,
with the sports drink already done, I just have to
put them in the pack. So every single thing I
could do the night before I did, because I've forgotten things.
You get up, it's three o'clock in the morning, granted

(25:06):
at six am back home, and I'm only a day
into traveling. But to every single thing the night before
you can. It goes for just about everything, all right.
This goes for getting up early to work out. I
did that podcast. Your brain knows when the alarm goes off.
If you're just able to pop up and you've laid
out your clothes and your sneakers and whatever else you need,

(25:28):
and you're that much more likely to do it and
not hit snooze. All right, So I got everything ready,
got out to the car, jumped in, drove just a
couple of miles pitch dark, and part we had to

(25:57):
walk because Grand Canon a little tricky on parking and
things like that. So walked a couple of miles to
the start, headlamps lighting our way and by the way,
what info here? Don't want to bore you with too
much of it. Degrees at the start, which freaked me
out because I did look the night before and actually

(26:19):
got backtrack, sorry skipping around still a little out of
it really important the night before, how did I prepare? Also,
I had my pack totally done. I got like, you know,
I'm gonna get to bed at about was my goal,
and I said, you know what, I'm gonna watch a
video because everything is out there. People. This is so important,

(26:40):
so many levels as well, because I had never run
the South Kaibab trail before, and Bill and I start together,
but I have no sense of direction, as I talked
about in the last Grand Canyon Run podcast, and he
does so sure enough, I google South kaibab Rim to
Rim to Rim run videos and I watched a couple
and they're amazing. People brought go pros with them, edited together,

(27:04):
narrated it, and so now I see where I need
to make turns and things like that, what I'm gonna
experience that I didn't experience last time, and that is
really mentally helpful. The day of and when I got
to those spots that I had never been to before,
many times in the dark, I've already seen it, I

(27:25):
knew what to do. So we have so much available
to us thanks to technology. I mean, how many times
have I talked about that, fitness tech, all that kind
of stuff, And so I took advantage of that and
I felt better about the directions and knowing where to go.
But let me say this, it also freaked me out.

(27:48):
It freaked me out. A lot shows all about me
being as honest as possible, and I've done a lot
of races. I've already done a lot of events, and
I did this one time prior and this was to
be shorter instead of but it freaked me out because
running in the dark isn't my favorite thing with a

(28:10):
head lamp on, and if anyone has seen what it
looks like at the Grand Canyon when you're dropping in
their cliffs where you fall two ft or more or more,
and they're narrow. It's challenging, to say the least. And
so even though I watched those videos and felt good
about navigating, I actually sat there the night before, right

(28:35):
before I went to bed, and thought, maybe I won't
do it. I've done a lot, and I've done this before.
I did this event before. It's amazing, but it was
really hard, one of the hardest things I've ever done
in my life, so longest I had ever exercised in
my life the last time I've done it, So I knew,
as amazing as it was, how much I was gonna suffer.

(29:00):
So I thought, I don't have to do it. I'm
perfectly fine with flying out here and yeah, sitting around
in the sun. Well, Bill goes and runs, but of
course I didn't. But we all have doubts, no matter
how many events, no matter how many things we do,
And I just want you to know that that's normal,

(29:22):
especially when you're doing something that's really challenging. It's like
jumping out of a plane. You're not a little scared
you got problems. We all have problems when we're doing
things like this. I always say it's therapy in a
in a sense. But yeah, So I went to bed
and I thought, we'll see woke up. Good to go.
All right, So back to where I was, we're walking

(29:46):
to the start. We get there. Wow, I'm getting the
feelings of those butterflies right now that I had just
thinking about starting, because you know what's ahead. You know
how challenging it's gonna be. You've on this before. It's different,
but you've done it before, and so you're super excited
and you're just super freaked out. And four thirty pretty

(30:13):
much on the nose. Bill and I look at each other.
We're right at the trailhead and I said, see you
see you tonight, Well see you along the route, but
you know, back at the where we started. Right there,
that's where we would end up meeting. We'd see each
other as we passed along the way, as he was
coming back because he's faster. But that's it. We start together.
I see his head lamp just disappear into the darkness.

(30:36):
I just say that out loud. Freaks me out. Ah,
And then we're off And so it's pitch dark. Now,
what was different about this one? Even starting at four
thirty The last time we ran it was May, and
so this time it wasn't gonna be as dark as long,
and we did start a little earlier. I think we
started three am last time, and so it has about
an hour of me running in the pitch dark four

(30:58):
ft you know, trail at most parts really steep drop off.
The great thing about running in the dark is if
you don't look to your left or you're right, depending
on where you're running, you don't know how crazy it is.
So that's a blessing. And then the most amazing part happens.
The sun starts coming up. It's incredible, and that's where

(31:24):
you go. I know, I am suffering. I don't know
how many of you listening have been to the Grand Canyon.
I had not been until I ran across it the
first time. It is mind boggling. It's overwhelming. It's I've
been to many places around the world that are spectacular,
and you know, this takes your breath away. And so

(31:46):
running far and probably about an hour, and it's slow
going down, slower than you would think, so you know,
not quite seven miles yet wasn't that phantom ranch yet.
But the sun's coming up, and it's just this is
why you do it. And so I'm feeling good. I'm hydrating,

(32:09):
I'm taking in my gaels, I got a plan. Everything's working.
And by the way, twenty degrees at the start. I
started with a long sleeve shirt over a short sleeved
shirt with arm warmers, so basically two layers. And I
knew that I was going to take that top shirt
off and just stuff it in my pack. Really lightweight
one from a race, so I think it was a

(32:30):
marathon shirt. And uh, about half hour in, I took
it off and I said, gloves on. It was cold
at the start, but not as cold as I would
have thought. I'm not a big fan of the cold anymore.
I've trained in it and raced in it for years.
But about yeah, half hour forty five, maybe an hour in,
I took the top layer off, stuffed into my pack.
Now was just t shirt arm warmers that I eventually

(32:52):
rolled down to my wrists. Arm warmers are amazing and
and lake gloves. And it was gonna get up to
ninety four so degrees to degrees, all right, So feeling good.
Feeling good. And this is what I have learned to
do from all these races, is just being the moment,

(33:15):
so you don't think ahead, as hard as that could be.
You should go how do I feel right now? And
you want to enjoy it? And I know so many
of these concepts I'll talk about in these race reports.
Event reports are so simple, but I say it all
the time. The answers are simple. It's the application that's difficult,

(33:36):
and so being in the moment and just enjoying it, saying,
oh my gosh, I'm running in the Grand Canyon. How
lucky am I? They have fortunate to be healthy enough
to do this, and at fifty three, how lucky am I?
And also I've worked for it, by the way, to
feel as good as I do. And that even surprised
me because as the day progressed and the miles clicked off,

(33:59):
I was still feeling great, no blisters my back. You know,
I'm carrying a pack. I expected more. Last time. I
definitely felt more. Granted it was heavier, but suffice it
to say, the body felt amazing. And that goes for
muscular lye, that goes for energy wise. You know, there's
a couple of times. If you do this enough, you
go I need a little bit more, you know, start

(34:20):
to get light headed, but you feel like, yeah, the
energy stores are going down, so boom. I would take
another gel or block or some sports drink or all
the above usually and you're good to go. So I
went through that first aid uh eight station. So so
many races I've done. It's so weird. You know, it's
a Phantom ranch, which is just a ranch, a bunch

(34:41):
of buildings. There's some toilets. There's actually a little store
and they sell lemonade. I'll get back to that, but
that's about seven and a half miles in. That's where
you're fuel so fill up your water bottles, use the
bathroom if you need to boom. Then you're off. There
was another eight miles and so that's basically you know,
five three five miles down down hill. Then it slowly

(35:01):
levels off to Phantom and now you're running through the
canyon another eight and a half miles to the next stop,
and the whole way the most amazing run, feeling amazing.
I saw a couple of people, but not many. A
couple other people, some hikers who already in the in
the canyon. You know that you can camp there one

(35:23):
or well, maybe four other runners, but generally you know,
two together. And then it was just me, and it's
the sound of the Colorado River, and it's the sound
of your footsteps, and it's the sound of my poles,
you know, as they say, pickpock pickpock in the in
the dirt, and you run across the Colorado River and

(35:47):
you run through a couple of tunnels and it's magical.
And it's getting hotter. It's now eating up. So I've
got the T shirt on, I've got the arm warmer
rolled down, and I'm going this is gonna be a
hot one. It's gonna be brutal, much hotter than the
first time. I was feeling great. I was feeling great,

(36:10):
and then I started having an idea, a choice, because
these are all when you're in your head. You're just
in your head. There's no there's nothing like spending twelve
plus hours. Last time, it was seventeen just by yourself,
talking to next to no one other than the occasional

(36:31):
you know, passer by, which is maybe every hour two hours.
At that it's just you, and it's unbelievably especially and
I feel sad because so many people come remotely close
to experiencing things like this. You know, it's to work,

(36:52):
it's to school, it's just there's no downtime, and it's amazing.
And so as I'm running and I'm approaching mile fifteen
and a half, basically that last stop before you climb
up and out of the canyon up to the north
rim and then back down, I thought, you know what,
I don't know that I'm doing that part and you

(37:14):
wait a minute, Tim, You're not gonna finish. You're not
gonna do what you set out to do. I get it,
I get it. But I thought, you know what, I
feel so good thirty two miles instead of forty one,
and that nine miles is exponentially hard. I know what
it was. I've done it before. I've already done forty

(37:36):
And so I was debating, do I run to this Manzanita, stop, refill,
and turn back around and go back. I went back
and forth for a while, and again, always honest social
media friends, they're like, wait, you went there to run
across and back. Well, yeah, things change. And so this

(38:02):
is the most important part, I would argue, at least
for me, of this podcast is what I think is
what do I need? What did I need? Did I
need to go to the top again? Did I need
to go Oh yeah, I did run to room to
room again, not that day. What I needed was to

(38:24):
enjoy it in a different way. And the forty eight
mile one I suffered, and there was a lot of
slow running and a lot of walking up steep parts,
and that last section up and out and then back
down to get across for the first time, that's just

(38:45):
hiking straight up and then running straight down for the
most part. So what do I need. I want to
enjoy this. I want to have a great run and
a fifty k thirty two miles. It's pretty dark good
And I also knew the heat. I also knew there
were factors that we're going to come into play. And

(39:09):
so as I approached this final stop where I would
have to reload with the water and actually load up
my backpack the back flask, the huge one with water
because there was no water at the top. Least that's
what they told us. It changed, but it was going
to be a different nine miles. And so I got

(39:30):
to that station and there was actually like twenty people,
so there was more people that started, and they went
down the other trail, the bright Angel that we had
started on last time. And when you run uphill like that,
you know you're gonna pass people and then trade off
and slow down, and you're gonna be around people more.
And I thought, you know what, it's the final thing

(39:51):
to help me make my decision. I thought, I'm banging left,
I'm going back, and all those people are gonna be
ahead of me or behind me rather and I'm gonna
go ahead and I'm just gonna enjoy this like never before.
And it was the greatest decision I had made in
a long time of racing and doing events, because it's

(40:16):
what I needed, it's what I wanted. I had already done.
I knew what that experience was. I'd been to the
top already, and I wanted it a different experience. I
wanted to run more, I wanted to run faster, and
I did and it was amazing. And so when everyone
else turned right, that was at that stop. I went

(40:37):
left and I spent the next see let me do
the math here, three or four hours all by myself,
running and enjoying the canyon and in pure bliss. And
it was different from the last time, because by that
point I had gone up and back and I couldn't

(40:58):
run as fast and remotely that I was doing this
time because they was so beaten up from doing that
nine mile climb up to almost it was eight thousand
feet eight thousand feet and then back down. So we
make choices, my choice, and that's what I love about

(41:21):
these type of events. Listen. I love the organized events too,
and I love going fast. I've accomplished a lot of
those goals most you know, sub three hour marathon, subten
hour iron Man one, a small marathon, all those things
have been there. And I would argue that's the problem
is so many of the people I know who I
raced with, who don't necessarily do what they need or

(41:43):
what their body needs or what's healthy for them. And
I want what's healthy for my body and healthy for
my mind. That's it. And so if you think that's
making an excuse, so be it. But I would argue,
especially with social media and times being posted and things
like that, and caring what other people think about the

(42:05):
choices you make, that's a huge problem. And so I
had the greatest mile run, I say, because the wheels
fell off. The wheels fell off bad, and that's a

(42:27):
really important lesson to all right, let's take on more
break when we come back and pull it all together
and finished this all up talking about my Grand Canyon
run six miles of I can't believe how good I
feel at fifty three running in the Grand Canyon. And
then boom, we'll be right back all right, talking about

(42:57):
running across the Grand Case. There's so much here? Is
this so complicated? And I've said I think I said
it in the last Grand Canyon Run podcast. I don't
write race reports, or didn't write race reports like most
people do, and you know, tryathlons and marathons, and I
always wondered why and and never liked as personal it's personal.

(43:19):
And then and then you realize, like I don't like listen.
I think a lot of people just especially when you're
starting out, there's a lot of excuses, right, this one wrong,
this one wrong, okay, But this podcast has allowed me
a different medium, in a different way to do this,
and I love now this being the second time doing
this right after when it's fresh, when I'm still literally

(43:41):
sore from the run. And so that was the theme,
like what do I need? And I want you to
think about that when you're doing things, when you set
goals for yourself too. It's never linear. And I am
not saying quit people, it's the lad don't misinterpret. I

(44:03):
say get what you want and do things differently. That
was huge for me. Been there, done that, and thought
I was gonna do it again. But it wasn't enough
variation for me. And there was other factors. The heat.
I knew. Listen, I could potentially run into problems. All right,
I gotta move on because this is like So I
turned back, had the most amazing four or five hours.

(44:25):
Then the wheel fell off. Ridiculously hot. I sweat out sodium.
I sweat out salt like you wouldn't believe. If you
want to see what it looks like, go to my
Instagram account. I could not believe my black shirt how
much salt was on not just the front but the back.
So go to tom h Fit if you want to
take a look and see exactly what it looks like

(44:46):
to sweat out so much sodium. All right, I think
I was experiencing some heat stroke. I was super lightheaded
as I started climbing back out. So I got through
Phantom Ranch. By the way, I'm just going to skip
ahead a little bit here. Uh stopped the Fandom Ranch
stow and they had that store. Let me just say that.
And I stopped and had lemonade because everyone said you

(45:08):
have to do the lemonade if you're running across, and
I didn't do it the first time, or maybe we
it wasn't open. I didn't get there in time. Anyway,
these runners, when you read and talk to other runners,
they say, yes, you have to try the lemonade at
Phantom Ranch, especially if you've been running for hours and
hours on end. It's the greatest thing you've ever had.
It's five dollars and cents for a cup, although refills
are dollar. So I did because I don't care about

(45:29):
the time, and I need the fluid and I want
the experience, and so did that. So the last five
miles was brutal, just like it was the first time,
but totally different as well. So first time it was dark,
it was snowing, and I was beaten up, senseless my

(45:52):
legs and everything my body because I had gone the
full forty eight. This time it was the heat and
the speed in the sodium, and so cramped unlike I'd
ever cramped calf cramps, quad cramps, abductor abductor cramps. I
just stop fine shade every fifteen minutes. I didn't think

(46:12):
I could finish, but you have to. And there would
be hikers because now I'm getting close where people had
walked down into the canyon, you know, a couple of
hours and then would walk back out. And there was
one father and son who ended up next to me
as I was I can't imagine what I looked like
trying to stop my full body seizure. Basically at that point,

(46:36):
because I was out of sodium, and I bring salt
tablets with me, by the way people salt stick things
like that, wasn't enough and I lost one one fell.
So suffice it to say, I went from oh my gosh,
I can't believe I feel this good too, Oh my gosh,
I don't know how I'm gonna get out of here.
And that's the opposite of what I've talked about, what

(46:57):
I've experienced in most events. It's that you're doing a race,
you're doing an iron Man or something, and you're you go,
oh my gosh, I can't believe how bad I feel.
And that's the lesson. As you learned you can feel,
so you just keep moving forward and gets better. Well,
yes and no, sometimes yes, sometimes you know, and this
is life. There are obstacles, and that's why I do

(47:18):
these things, as crazy as that sounds. Do I want
to be in suffering like that? No, but I'm not
going to go through you know, the couple of hours
that I dealt with this, with the cramping and the
trying to take in the little bit of salt, but
I was running low on fluids, and so suffices to say,

(47:43):
for the next couple of hours I suffered and did
not think that I was gonna make it out because
the body was seizing up, the legs would not work,
and then a hand started cramping. I've never had hands cramping,
and that was obviously a factor of using the poles.
But I did it, and it took forever, and it
was a new level level of suffering that I had

(48:05):
not experienced in that way. And I know somebody going,
why would you possibly do this? Why is that fun?
Because when you get out, when you finally get out,
and by the way, like three times, I thought it
was at the top, and this is the steeper part.
Even Bill who's seasoned ultra guy was like, that was

(48:28):
the hardest climb out that he had done. My tone
swelled up, said like heat stroke, signs of that. So
I was finding shade. I was stopping for a couple
of minutes to recover, watch my heart rate go down.
The goal is just to finish people. It is not
a race, and I don't want to, as crazy as

(48:50):
it sounds, hurt myself. And so you learned the techniques,
you know that you need to to finish to get
through that obstacle. And it seemed like an eternity every
time you turn their switchbacks and you look up and
you go, oh my gosh, and then you stop looking
up because you can't believe how much farther you have
to go. And when it's that's steep, it's just brutal.

(49:15):
It's basically if you do step ups for exercise, it's
five miles of step ups and there's sections where if
you slip, you've got problems. But I finished. I finished quick,
couple of points. At one point I stopped before the

(49:36):
insanity started, right before the insanity started. Because I've been
at so many races around the world and events where
people just go fast and they look around like New Zealand,
South Korea, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and I get it again.
You're there to race, You're there to race, and I've
been there, but I always want to experience where I

(49:58):
am and take it all in. And again, this isn't
a race. It was even easier to do those type
of things like stop. And at one point I stopped
and just sat on this cliff looking at the most
amazing view I've ever seen, and I experienced silence like
I had never experienced. I understand the term deafening silence.

(50:24):
It was actually unnerving. The wind would come and go
during the run. The wind had stopped, so there's no
sound in your ear of the wind. There was not
a bug, be a bird. The river was way down below,
couldn't hear it. And it was spectacular. And those are

(50:45):
the moments I take away, not only collecting experiences, collecting
moments and as crazy as it sounds, that moment of
silence that was unlike anything I had ever experienced and witnessed.
You know, as I was looking out on with the insane,
excruciating pain of the cramping, I want both. I want both.

(51:11):
It's that purification, the miss Oggi that I talked about
in the fifth tip, because when you get out, you
realize how strong you are, and all of those little
things that seemed like big things in life are no
longer remotely closed. I had a couple of incidents on

(51:31):
the plane, crazy people, all that kind of it doesn't matter.
You realize what matters, and then when you experience setback,
they're not You're like, you're kidding me. I was stuck
in the canyon with degrees, ran out of water than
sports drink and was cramping up and I had, you know,

(51:52):
hours more to go, hours hours final twist because I
didn't go up the final climb. I was ahead of
my running partner. We usually see each other on the
way back. He usually finishes ahead of me. I'm at
the top waiting for him for the first time. Now.
This guy is seasoned professional, as I said, like carries everything,

(52:16):
like has just knows what he's doing. Consummate professional. He
texts me, which is he's gotta you know that you
really have no cell service until you're just a couple
of miles from the top, and then it's sketchy at best.
It basically says he was stopping just to, you know,
gather himself, eat some stuff, and then he was gonna
be out in an hour. And then he texts me,

(52:37):
I just hit s OS on my garment. I'm having
an asthma attack. Crazy, and so here I am. You know,
Run thirty two suffered immeasurably. I think it took like
twelve and a half hours. So now we're coming towards sunset.
And I spent the next five hours dealing with park

(52:58):
rangers and helping him get out. And here's the thing.
They don't take a t v s or motorcycles down
in the canyon. They don't even come get you with
a mule or anything like or a horse. You either camp,
They come down to you and tent and a sleeping bag,
make sure you're warm, and then get you out in
the morning, or you come out. And Bill came out,

(53:21):
and so he was prepared. He had everything he needed,
and just where I thought I was done, more stuff happens.
And it wasn't anything he had done wrong. If anything,
he was so covered with everything he needed when that
emergency happened, A lot of people would have had what
he had, including the garment device and a handful of

(53:42):
other things emergency blanket, you go, I'm not gonna bring that.
I won't need it until you do. And so just
another point that things happen, and they continue to happen,
and you just deal with them, and that makes the
event that much more special, as crazy as it sounds,

(54:02):
because not only did you accomplish something, you know, another
obstacle was thrown at you and you just you just deal.
And that's what these events and that's what these miss
aggies teach us. Just be in the moment. What do
you need to do? What do you need to do
in that moment? You need to enjoy it, and I
think about what your friends are gonna think, family is
gonna think about your how fast you go or what

(54:25):
you accomplished, what you said you were going to do
and what you did. You're in control and things happen,
and so focus on the good when you're in the moment,
don't focus on what's ahead, and just keep moving forward
and challenge yourself. All right, I'm tired. It's like one

(54:53):
of the greatest lines and Forrest gumpany what he just
stops and says, I'm tired to think I'll go home now.
The problem and when you're in an uh situation. I
wanted to say ave, and I'm gonna stop saying that
because it sounds like it's a situation like the grand
can't and you go, I gotta finish. I gotta finish
what I started. And yeah, I changed what I started.

(55:16):
I would not. I'm so glad I made that decision.
It was the right decision. And I would have been
behind Bill by the way when he had his issue
and wouldn't have been able to call, wouldn't have gotten
his text, so we could have a whole another discussion
about things happening for a reason. It gets a little

(55:39):
more complicated in my philosophy at least, but amazing. Another
amazing experience. And I feel so good at fifty three
and now I'm switching gears by the way. Recovery spent
a couple of days, so it's now Tuesday again. Saturday
we ran, spent Sunday walking around. We hiked around, just
to move. Just did that uppisode on recovery. You gotta

(56:02):
you gotta move. It was painful, you know, sore. When
I say painful, it's not you know, it's soreness. So
moving is what we want to do. Low level. Didn't exercise.
Obviously some do crazy depending on you know. You don't
want to do too much, is my point. You gotta
recover shredded my quads, micro tears and the muscles. But today, tonight,

(56:24):
I'm probably gonna get on a stationary bike for an
half hour and go super easy to loosen up again,
and I'm eating better and I'm refueling, hydrating all that
kind of stuff. So important. Again, you want to see
pictures from this, That's what I kind of love. I'm
not a big fan of the social media. I gotta
play in that world, though, and what I do is

(56:46):
show your pictures like from the Grand Canyon, and again
you can see all the fuel, the pack that I
put together the night before. You can see pictures from
the Grand Candy. You can also see my shirt. It's
really it's just a great visual on why we need
sports drinks. People. When you do something like that, that's
an extreme thing, but that's what sports strengths were invented for.
You need the fuel, which is sugar, because that's where

(57:09):
you bonk, which I was doing the last couple of
miles because I didn't take in enough fuel. And you
need the electrolytes in the salt, because you're sweating it out,
and we sweat it out at different rates. And when
we sweat out too much, I guess what happens. You
cramp that. I've done dozens and dozens of races and
I'm still trying to nail it that and you never,

(57:32):
you never totally do as I said at the start,
all right, but that's half the fun. Enjoy life, challenge yourself,
do crazy things, prepare for them, but challenge yourself, and
then leave with this. I think, what do you need?

(57:52):
What do you need physically and what do you need
mentally out of it? And that's yours. Don't let social media,
don't let what others think matter, because that ruins the
entire event. If I let those thoughts creep in as
I'm doing this event, what is the point. I have
to enjoy the moment. And I see far too many

(58:14):
people doing organized events that aren't and I know from
coaching hundreds, if not thousands of people with camps and
charity events and things like that, we care too much
what other people think. It's yours. It's yours, and that's
really important. All right? Questions comments Tom h fit Is

(58:37):
Instagram and Twitter. You can message me Tom h fit
am I going back? Think I am I story for
another day. But it's different. It always has to be different.
I want you know, it has to be different, goals, different,
something different. Right. Although it's always different, you know you're
gonna have different experiences as well. Uh Tom h Instagram

(58:58):
and Twitter. You go to fitness this rapp the dot com.
Email me through the site. The micro Workout Plan is
my most recent book. Follow the show, subscribe if you
can comment, I'd love to hear from you. Challenge yourself.
We have one life. We get to control how much
we move when we put into our mouths and our attitudes.

(59:18):
And that's awesome. I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted.
Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
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