R2R2R

Five days after the bailing 64ish km into the Trans Zion I ran the R2R2R in the Grand Canyon. 

Going in to the run I knew I'd have to be a little more focussed in terms of hyrdrating properly, to avoid a repeat of the debacle in Zion. But with the water sources spaced so conveniently on the main corridor trails in the canyon I knew this shouldn't be a problem.

I camped just outside the park and downed some coffee and a clifbar on the drive in. Starting out at 5:30am was cold and dark, but far from solitary: within the first 30 minutes I'd passed a total of something like 30 people, nearly all of them hiking in big gangs. Once the sun rose, the views were incredible and stayed that way for the entire day. Every single metre of the route was amazing, from the sweeping views close to the rim, to the choked sections down near the river. It was incredible and lived up to all expectations.

Its been nearly four weeks since the outing and I figure its better to simply publish these photos now than wait until I have time to write up a proper report on the day. A few quick facts: I started on the North Rim and ran up the South Kaibab Trail, which I reached in 4:20 before turning around and returning the same way. My roundtrip time was 10:00. 

I drank a total of 12 litres of water! (I didn't think this would be possible, but I didn't have any stomach sloshing or discomfort- this felt like about the right amount of water for me given the heat. Interesting to note that this was about 3x more than I drank on the TransZion attempt).