I’ll start with a brief introduction to this lesser known race and my preparations for it. Desert R.A.T.S. is a five stage (6 day) race along the Kokopelli Trail in the desert/canyon regions of western Colorado and eastern Utah in the United States. Stages have generous cutoff times and range in distance from 9 miles (14 km) to 52 miles (83 km) for a total of 148 miles (238 km). Racers are required to carry mandatory equipment and sufficient food and water for the day’s stage but do not need to carry all of their supplies for the entire week. Duffel bags with racer’ supplies are transported to camp each day where tents, hot meals and coffee are supplied by the race organizers. This makes the race a bit different than Marathon des Sables or Racing the Planet events. Also, water is unlimited but check points (water stops) are few and far between, requiring packs to be heavy with fluids. This year the race is in June, so temperatures could reach 120f/49c degrees in the canyons. Luckily, some camps are along the Colorado River, allowing for a nice cool dip at the end of the stage. Hopefully I won’t float away while bathing.

I completed this race during its inaugural year in 2004, so my preparations this time have been guided by some experience (in other words I learned from my mistakes) although I still wish I had more time for training. I have been running with my pack, running long days up to 44 miles (71 km), running moderate distances on consecutive days, running in heavy clothing to help my body acclimate to heat (it has not been very warm here), and training myself to eat and drink often. I have not done enough of any of that though. Oh well, that’s adventure.

I’m carrying a La Fuma Active 20 pack which hugs the back and prevents the dreaded bounce, which caused many pack blisters to other racers in 2004. I’ll be wearing Montrail shoes and Injinji tsoks (those socks with the little individual toes to prevent blisters). Have a full blister kit in my duffel and a smaller one in my pack as well as a full medical kit that I am bringing to help others (as I am trained in wilderness first-aid). That kit will not go in my race pack though, so injured runners will have to get to camp before I can help them. I have the capacity to carry 145 ounces (4.3 liters) of fluids, packing a spare CamelBak reservoir in my duffel in case I spring a leak and will also carry plenty of electrolyte capsules since I often look white with salt at the day’s end. Plenty of other stuff to talk about, but I’m sure the important things will come up in my reports throughout the week. Can’t wait to get there and meet some friends for a cool pre-race beer and some good stories! I’ll post again as soon as I am able, perhaps after the race briefing on Sunday evening.

 

Spent a pleasant afternoon sipping cold beer and watching soccer at the Slick Rock Café. Enjoying it all to the fullest for soon I will be out in the heat and sand enjoying life in a different way.

Check-in started at 4 PM. It was a relaxed affair – a time to visit with old friends and meet the others that I will be running with for the next six days. Plenty of experience in this group, some who have run the Marathon de Sables, Sahara Race, Atacama Crossing and other stage races. Some have run Badwater, Multiple 100 milers, expedition adventure races and so on. Some are from colder climates and may struggle with the heat. It will be an interesting week with many variables testing us all.
Tomorrow we meet at 10:30 AM to board the shuttle that will take us to the start. Under a blazing sun at 1 PM we’ll be off to cover the first 19 miles (30 K) on a narrow trail above the Colorado River. It’s the first leg of our running journey that will eventually lead us back to Moab at the end of the week.

-The racers come from all over the United States, including Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Minnesota.
-Each racer is required to carry 1000 calories in reserve. One runner is opting to carry his calories in the form of a flask of Olive Oil.
-10 days after the conclusion of R.A.T.S., one racer will be competing in a 400+ mile-kayaking race on the Yukon River in Canada.

 

I started out too fast for the heat - a mistake I seem to keep making. Due to some others making wrong turns, I found myself in second place overall for a while, but the pace was too much and I had a tremendous meltdown - leg cramps, followed by dizziness that made me lie down on the side of the trail for 20 minutes. Every time I tried to rise I felt faint and had to lie back - a great case of heat exhaustion. Finally, I was able to move and half stumbled to the finish, crossing with a dramatic leg drag. Somehow I still bettered my 2004 stage time by nearly 40 minutes. Others were not so lucky. One competitor got way off course but still ended up finishing well; others took wrong turns too, which put them at the finish too late to continue tomorrow officially. There were scrapes, cuts and bruises, dehydration, cramping legs - lots of fun stuff!

Dinner this evening was excellent, including a blackberry shortcake dessert (or maybe that was a mirage), although some appetites are slim right now. Tomorrow we rise at 5:30 am and prepare for a long day in the sand.

One racer said that she, at a tough point, thought: "I don't do this because it's easy." My motto for tomorrow. And my strategy: go slowly, eat, drink and finish within cutoff. Time to get to
bed...

 

After a few minutes in the shade of the vehicle I trudged on, the thought of the cold river near camp acting as my primary motivator, at least that will cool me down. Hours passed, at least it seemed like that, and finally I could see the tops of the cottonwood trees that marked the location of camp. After 8 hours 35 minutes, I crossed the line and immediately sat in the shade of the canopy but my core temp was not changing quickly enough. I headed to the river, not very far away and immersed myself in that wonderful cold Colorado snowmelt. I felt like a new man! I was able to eat, drink and laugh with the others. Everyone who started the stage finished, even with the high temperature and wind, although, others had struggles as difficult as mine.

Later that evening, it seemed that my core temp was still not regulating well and I would feel increasingly hotter. I slept poorly and my stomach was having problems. Two stages down, two difficult struggles, but I'm still in this race. Tomorrow is the short stage and some time to recover and prepare for difficult days to come.

Stage 3 - 9 miles/14k - 96F/36C - Windy

This morning I felt fairly bad and was able to eat only a small breakfast. Coffee didn't even help. Very glad that today’s run is short and that we will get time to rest, relax, soak in the river again and prepare. I need to gather myself and get stronger for stage 4. At the start line, I thought about taking the day slowly but my legs felt good and I wanted to go. So I sped ahead into second place and dueled with Jeff B. over the next hour, pulling away from him with a push over the last 2 miles. He said that he tried to catch me and that every time he got to the top of the next small hill, I would already be at the bottom. We are both quite glad that we didn't have further to go. I end up running the second fastest time ever on this stage. Hope I don't pay for this tomorrow.

The remainder of the day was very relaxed. I was able to eat - actually craving food all day, drank well and started passing fluids a bit more regularly. Did laundry, checked course directions and maps, packed for the big day and joked about my "wet neck sausage", which has become an ongoing bit of comic relief (my "wet neck sausage" is a bandana filled with cooling crystals that expands when wet, and looks like a sausage...) Oh, and let me say that I surely do love shade.

Wish me luck, if the temps stay high, it will be devastating in the canyons!

 

This expedition stage covers 52 difficult miles (84K), climbing canyons up and up into the LaSal mountains. There is a 20 hour time limit, which seems generous, but some runners will need most of it. Night travel is allowed during this stage and since it occurs over 8000 feet elevation it can be particularly cold, especially in contrast to the hot canyons that one travels in the day. There are 3 checkpoints during this stage where gear is checked and runners can resupply water, sports drink and gel. Luckily a rest day follows this potentially brutal stage.

The other racers who did start this stage got a treat of cooler temps and cloudy skies, reducing the earlier fears of spending hours in sweltering canyons. Actually, the cooler temps helped a racer from Alaska post a good time and move into second overall. The overall leader continued his streak, despite being off course for a few miles. Other racers struggled with stomach problems, extra distance due to wrong turns - including one who covered an additional 8 miles, cold temps in the mountains and assorted other problems. A few more dropped. One racer told me that he was descending towards the stage's end during the night and was very, very relieved to see the lights of camp getting closer. When he reached them he realized that the lights belonged to a different camp and he still had some distance to travel. He let out a loud scream of misery. To think that relief has been granted and then to have it snatched away, promising only more misery. Why do we do these things? I suppose it's because the most revered accomplishments require suffering. Succeeding in the face of pain and misery is the sweetest success.

Stage 5 - 25 miles/40k - 91F/33C

Yet another racer has fallen to our special illness, and he only had this last stage left to complete. Even with this crippling intestinal flu he decided to start the stage. Good for him! After only a short distance he realized it was too much to ask of an ailing body. I also attempted this stage, even though I was still feeling some affects of my recent bout with flu and I stopped at 18 miles (29k). The downhill running in particular was miserable on a bloated, fluid filled digestive tract but I will skip the ugly details. Beautiful stage though, rolling a bit through the mountains and then dropping through the red canyons and slickrock toward Moab where we started days ago.

All in all...
* Only 38% of those that checked in last Sunday officially completed the race. The others either got the flu, had other medical issues or family emergences or did not make time cut-offs. This was the lowest finish rate ever for this race.
* None of the experienced stage racers finished. For all finishers this was their first stage race.
* Allen Belshaw, of Colorado, USA, had the overall winning cumulative race time of 24 hours and 18 seconds which is a new record. It is also the first time that one person won all of the stages, breaking records each day. Well done Allen!

In closing, at first I was disappointed at having to drop due to an illness brought to camp but today I realized that it is the nature of stage races, the nature of adventure itself, to present a myriad of variables for individuals to face - some of those variables, like illness, end races sooner than others - but it is still part of the race. That really makes stage racing fascinating - to see who can survive ALL of the challenges over an extended period of time - the survivors are the winners. I didn't survive this one but I'll have another race.