Zion Nat’l Park Traverse 2012, aka “The Trans-Zion”, BPL Group Run-Round #2

for those who aren't aware, Eugene leads guided tours at Disney World during the non running season.

Watch button activated, interest high,
depending on what date you all come up with.
the later you can make it the more likely I'll be able to show.

I am highly interested in this. I did most of this traverse a few years ago. We did the 39 mile option ending at the Grotto.

Eugene- was hoping you would post this up- I'm in :)

if it can be pulled off late Sept/early Oct the better for me (mid October and later gets into our big game season and I can't get time off)

also have been reading two school of thoughts on east bound vs west bound- many feel east to west there is less climbing, but the tough climb comes near the end of the run (Grotto to East Entrance), others west bound feel that getting the tough climb out of the way earlier (Grotto to West Rim Trail) is better

one other possibility is to do both, have two groups going opposite directions- this would make shuttling easier

anyway I've been wanting to go to Zion for a long time, hope this is the time

Mike

Oh yes. It's on and I will be there.

As mentioned before, I would be good with either the last weekend of September or first weekend of October.

I'm guessing it would be a similar affair to the R2R2R: get in Thursday night or Friday morning, hang out, run Saturday, and head home Sunday?

Something to shoot for :
new FKT on Zion Traverse, May 3 ?

New Zion FKT

I'm in. Any weekend is good for me as long as I have a few weeks notice.

I'm getting excited already.

BB

Last weekend of Sep. or first of Oct. is also ideal for me as well. I have a 50 miler the 3rd weekend in Oct and would like to have a small buffer to recover before going into that, but if necessary, I would totally pass on the 50 to run the Traverse with all of you.

Any idea when the peak time is for Zion traverses? Mid Oct?

Dan recently sent me a link from folks that are starting to offer support for adventure based running and apparently they plan to offer run support in Zion the second week of Oct.

For some reason the Paul Simon song "Still Crazy" popped into my mind, unbidden, when I read this. No offense intended.

When I did this before I had a non-running friend meet us at the Kolob Reservoir road crossing with aid. We also got water from springs at Potato Hollow on the West Rim. And of course Zion Canyon could be another resupply point.

Awesome, another crack at the ultra distance, and with an awesome crew again. Super stoked. Zion looks amazeballs.

Zion To do list:

shift my schedule
beg my wife
heal my knee
trick my boss
keep up with Wisner

I got this.

My Zion to do list (strangely similar to Adan's):

Beg wife: Done.
Vacation Time: Done.
Heal my knee: in progress
Keep Adan from getting faster than me: TBD

Excited already.

begged wife- shakes head :)

vacation- got a lot of that

injuries- hopefully not too many between then and now

I'm half way of thinking about driving (although flights to Las Vegas are usually very cheap), have a new Tacoma that would be fun to drive down

also excited!

I would love to be apart of this. I am quite new to trail running and I am not sure if starting a training plan now would give me enough time to get up to ultra distances by Fall (but maybe I am thinking too conservatively). I have done two 10K races, fastest time was 7min pace and I have a half marathon trail race over Mt. Greylock (MA) next month. What are your thoughts? Is this achievable for me? I think I have a good base, I just haven't done this long of a run in one go.

Angelo – its not about speed so much as it is about survival.
if you are healthy and already in good shape then 5 months should be bordline enough time to get in the kind of shape this event requires.

I would not be concerned about 7min pace 10k's.
rather get out there and slowly jog/power walk 20 miles, then 25 miles, then maybe even 30 miles.
do this at least once every 2 weeks. do it every week if you are in good enough shape so that you won't injure yourself.
do not be concerned with time on these runs, just be concerned with doing them, with maybe a 5-8 lb pack on your back.

I was (am :)

If we run east to west, there is a good bail out @ the Grotto, still a long way (~37 miles), but less than 47 :)

I say go for it!

Thank you for the support. I am going to mull it over, look over logistics ($$) and hopefully I can join you. Watching the thread and will keep an eye on what date you pick.

as you check into logistics, assuming you're flying (kind of a long drive for you :)), look into flights into Las Vegas- you can often find cheap flights to Vegas and you're only 160 miles from Zion NP

should we at least tentatively set a date? last week of September work? I know a few guys have something going on in late October, having a month in between might be more advantageous than 3 weeks????????

Is this still happening?
Anyone out there wanna do it still?

Craig- I'd certainly like to do it. I'm wondering if we would be better off waiting until spring. It's a fair bit of travel for me (and expense), I have a better time convincing the boss if the adventure runs were to happen once a year :)

My thought was maybe we can pick a different spot each year to get together and run- this would certainly be a dandy, no doubt about that.

How's the IT coming along? I'm making some progress w/ my achilles (and possibly underlying problem of overly tight calves).

My Bridger Ridge Run is one month out and am planning a full course recce for the weekend following this one.

Mike

I am interested in principle, but have Wasatch Sep 7-8 and will probably be a physical and mental blob for a few weeks after that.

by the way is the Craig Wisner with the IT problem the same one who just spent a hardcore week in the Sierras ?

Thanks guys….The IT band *seems* under control now. I can manage 35+ MPW and it did really well on some steep quad-buster stuff in the Sierra.

So we'll wait and see if anyone else rears their head for this run and see what they have to say…Seems like it's losing momentum. We'll see.

As for spring, I was thinking about the Rae Lakes loop, but it's all flexible.

Hope you're doing good guys.

there's a good chance John and I will be doing Rae Lakes Loop in about 4 weeks (Aug 10-12) if anyone is interested.
we are looking at an East Side approach via Onion Valley. but the extra 12 miles and 4,000 of elevation gain is a bit daunting, so not certain of which approach we'll use.

Craig- glad the IT is doing better! I'm pretty flexible as well. I'm definitely down for a spring run- Rae Lakes would be just fine by me. Guessing it would probably be pretty late spring (even early summer?) for Rae Lakes?

Art- how is your achilles coming along?

Mike