White Rim: Why Bike It When You Can Run It?

A Tale of Being Dumb Enough to Run 38 Miles in Canyonlands National Park

2024 adventure season is finally upon us in Colorado now that the temps are rising and these pesky snow storms are slowly disappearing. About two months ago my buddy Clay reached out and proposed some ideas for adventures in May. A quick primer on Clay: He and I met at a 100k race in 2022 and shared a few miles together and have stayed in touch ever since. Clay keeps an awesome balance of skiing, biking and running in his training toolbelt. On any given day each year you can find him running 100 milers, riding 100 miles, or just doing big cool ski objectives in his neck of the woods around Salt Lake City. He’s raced CCC in the alps (100Km race with 20,000 ft vert), rode White Rim bike route in an day (97 miles, 8k vert on jeep roads throughout Canyonlands NP), and can routinely be seen doing century rides (100 mile bike rides) with his friends in SLC. He is 100% a prime example of the type of athlete I aspire to become in my training and adventures.

Back to the story. Clay texted me and originally proposed a Rim 2 Rim 2 Rim (R2R2R) adventure in the Grand Canyon for the weekend of May 11th. R2R2R is a bucket list item for any trail runner and is one helluva day where you end up accumulating 40ish miles, 11k vert, and some insanely crazy temperature variations as you dip into the canyon, go up to one rim, and run things back to get back to the start. Temperatures can fluctuate 40-50 degrees and the conditions encountered can vary vastly. Unfortunately, the north rim (closest side) of the Grand Canyon was closed until May 15th and we were planning to adventure May 11th. We started tossing around other ideas and eventually settled on trying to do a biking/peak bagging adventure in the La Sal mountains outside Moab, UT. This idea was foiled the week of when we discovered that the La Sals were still pretty snowy. Clay drew up a route and proposed we drop in and run a bunch of miles on the White Rim Trail and then climb out of the canyon. The White Rim Trail consists largely of jeep roads created for uranium mining that now lay within Canyonlands National Park. We would both be bringing cars so that would eliminate the need to create a loop or worry about catching a ride. All told, the proposed route would be around 38 miles and 4,000 feet of vert. It sounded a bit crazy, but I liked the sound of it and said I was game.

We met up the night before and slept in our cars at Murphy trailhead, where we would leave my car and finish the route if all went well. We woke up around 5AM hoping to get in some breakfast before a nice sunrise start. I shoveled some oatmeal with bananas and peanut butter in the darkness. We were greeted by what looked like storm clouds just to our northwest when we stepped out of our cars. This caused us some concern. I checked my ForeFlight radar and said it looked like the moody weather should stay north of our southwest heading route if the radar proved right. We drove his car to the trail head at Lathrop and set off on our run around 6AM. It was low 40s, cloudy, and calm-the perfect weather for a desert run that was likely to have little or no water sources to filter from.

We ran a flat mile or so to get to the edge of the canyon and then began the steep descent to get down towards White Rimm. It took us a little over an hour to go the first 5 or so miles and the descent dropped us around 1700 feet in a two miles. We rolled out onto the dirt roads that joined the White Rim road around mile 6 and tried to settle into a rhythm that we looked to maintain for the next 28 or so miles. The conversation was plentiful and the miles started rolling. I decided to try out a new pair of trail super shoes (Adidas agravic pro ultras or whatever they’re called) which I had literally only done one short run in before. This was stupid but it ended up working out. They had a carbon plate which made my legs feel a bit bouncier than they otherwise would have.

Early on, my legs were feeling heavy from a hefty training load the day before which included 2.5 hours of biking and a little over an hour of running. Doubts began to creep up in my mind and I started to wonder if I wouldn’t have to bail early and ruin Clay’s key San Diego 100 training run. Around mile 10 we started to see mountain bikers along the trail stopped for snacks. We also saw some of the sick backcountry campsites that are tricky to get permits for when the weather is good. Spotting the bikers and campsites reassured me that if my legs really did give out from previous days activities or if the weather turned south we could audible. It’s always nice to have options!

There were multiple rim overlooks that provided stunning views. Something caught my eye around mile 8 or 9. I spotted movement among the bushes and told Clay to stop talking for a second and look. Two desert bighorn sheep were grazing on some breakfast. They tilted their heads when they saw us running up. Once they spotted us, they darted across the road and up some talus to the higher ground to a spot they were out of sight. From miles 8-26, we really found a rhythm and settled into a mid 8 minute per mile pace with occasional stops to admire views, nibble on some gummy bears, or chat with bikers. Many of the bikers sent words of encouragement our way and said we were badasses. My typical reply was “yeah either that or we’re really dumb-guess we’ll find out here soon!”

The cloud cover maintained, but I was still concerned my 2.5 liters of fluids wasn’t enough for what looked to be a 6-7 hour outing if everything went well. Fortunately, there were multiple off-road vehicles on White Rim that could’ve helped out if needed. By the end of our day I bummed a liter of water off of two separate MTB groups who graciously offered when they saw us running.

We rolled up to the split around mile 34ish that would turn us off White Rim road and rejoin us to my car Murphy Trailhead. We started running past day hikers after the split-always a good sign that you’re getting close to your car. We slogged the 1000ish feet vertical climb out of the canyon in about two miles and rolled up to my car physically wrecked but elated. I opened up my cooler and we celebrated with two cold powerades little league style. Within 10 minutes of finishing our run the clouds burned off and the sun finally reared its head-talk about luck! When all was said and done we tallied a little over 38 miles on the day. It was another successful adventure day, this time in the company of friends-one who I had only met once previously but proved to be a wonderful adventure companion. We covered all types of topics of conversation and the talking made the miles roll by so fast-a sign that things are going well.

Training-wise, it felt pretty stupid to run 38 miles 3 weeks before I race a 50k. Butttttt, not everything I do in my life is to optimize for my training or my next race or any race for that matter. Living-wise, it felt absolutely genius. Adventures like this with my buddies are something I covet. If I’m only training to run races that’s kind of stupid in my mind. I want to be able to do cool things with my friends in cool places-whether that’s running, biking, hiking, skiing, or other. If I can’t even use this fitness to do cool things and make memories with cool people then what’s the point? This was a fun and surprisingly smooth adventure that held a decent bit of risk with the lack of water available. Despite that, things went about as smoothly as possible and I had an amazing day with a newly appreciated friend-thanks Clay!