Little Grand Canyon Marathon

The Little Grand Canyon Marathon is a small treasure. Several hundred runners in the full marathon and in the half, all headed mostly downhill to the finish in one of the most spectacular canyons I have ever seen.

My marathon:

• I finished in 5:03:28, according to my own watch (official results are not up as I write.). That’s OK for a mile-high marathon on gravel roads.
• Nothing hurts! Well, maybe the right ankle hurts a little. I’ll have to take that to a doctor someday, but s/he will just say “let’s immobilize that for six weeks” or some such. I’m not in the mood for that yet.
• The temperature was about 35 at the start (!) but quickly rose to about 70 at my finish. The sun was brilliant throughout, and felt very good at the beginning.
• I discarded a garbage bag after three miles, and a long-sleeved shirt and gloves after seven.
• At one point I was seven minutes behind a 5-hour pace (according to my wristband), but picked up a few minutes later.
• I took six Clif Shot “mocha” gels, each delivering caffeine (the remaining legal performance-enhancing drug), at miles 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 21, and 25.
• At the alternate water stops I took salt tablets.
• NO CRAMPS! This is because I took enough water, and especially because of the salt.
• The race is almost entirely on gravel roads, so I wore gaiters and didn’t get even a grain of sand in my shoes. The girls had the same delightful experience. See Dirty Girl Gaiters.
• Hip flexors started to bother around mile 10, but quieted down and weren’t a problem during the remaining race.
• I was unimpressed by the scenery in the first half of the marathon, but very impressed by the last 10 miles. The half marathon starts at the midway point of the marathon, and only runs that impressive part.
• Finished: marathon number 46, state number 29.

The Little Grand Canyon Marathon Itself

The good:

• It’s well organized. For example, the water stops are EXACTLY at miles 3, 5, 7, etc., and so are the porta-potties.
• Registration was simple, and packet pickup was very quick.
• The venue is exceptionally beautiful. We ran on a road surrounded by high cliffs, above ancient cuts made by prehistoric rivers, with a full spectrum of colors.
• The cliffs and were so close that we could literally touch them, and in at least one case we ran UNDER a slanted cliff face.
• Post-race food was great: Water melon and snow cones at the finish (and lots more), taco/bean salads at the post-race feast back at the start.
• Although there are hills, most of them are DOWN, especially in the last 10 miles. It’s a point-to-point race, and runners get bused back up to the start.
• There is no time limit - in fact, prospective runners are invited to walk! I think this is wonderful, especially with such enjoyable scenery.
• Mile markers counted DOWN the miles, rather than up. E.g. 10 miles to the finish. I enjoyed this, even though it meant that the mile markers were off 0.2 miles from what they would have been.
• Discarded race clothing, left at an aid station, was automatically brought back up to the start area where it could be reclaimed. I took advantage of that, recovering a long-sleeved shirt and gloves after the race.

The not-so good:

• I can’t remember when I have eaten so much dust. Runners share the road with motor vehicles, and there were many, dozens, car after car, especially in my last 13 miles, each raising its own cloud of dust (cough, cough). To be honest, this detracted substantially from my enjoyment of the beautiful canyons. The problem is the runners themselves: many of them apparently had friends drive down the dusty road to the finish, pick them up, and drive them back up to the start, presumably so that they wouldn’t have to wait for a bus to take them back. In so doing, they blew TWO clouds of dust at each of the runners still on the course.
• In a few places, the heavy automobile traffic itself was an issue because of the narrow roads. I did stop a couple of times, off of the road, to let cars pass.
• We stood around at the START line for about 30 minutes, freezing, waiting for the race to start. I’ve never been so happy for a race to start.
• As of Sunday morning, the day after the race, results were still not posted. Compare this with many modern marathons which post results as they happen. It’s a simple matter of uploading to onlineraceresults.com, which is free.

Bottom line:It’s a good marathon, and the organizers work hard to make it good. I recommend it. I had hoped that it would be one of my top favorites, but because of the traffic and dust it wasn’t.

Found in a local grocery store. The beer is actually pretty good: