| Arizona | Utah | Colorado | New Mexico |
|---|---|---|---|
| Map | Map | Map | Map |
| Elevation Elevation (for Half) |
Elevation | Elevation | Elevation |
| My Stats | My Stats | My Stats | My Stats |
So, what is this? The Quad Keyah, means "the Four Lands" I believe, in Navajo. It's at the 4 corners monument which is in Navajo country. It's where 4 states all meet. You can run a half or a full in any of the 4 states. The order will be Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico going in counter clockwise order. I will include a link to something HERE
Due to Covid restrictions, you can no longer sign up for a 1 day. Instead you sign up for the series and just run whichever day/state you want. The money will be considered a donation.
The nice thing about this is that I can do 4 states in 1 shot. Well, actually 4 states in 4 days but no crazy travelling in between. Save money on airfare and other things etc.
The bad thing here, besides the obvious doing 4 Marathons in 4 days, is that the website is so sparse with info. There are no elevation maps. There are no maps. If I understood correctly, then there's a trail option and a pavement option. Each day, at the start, you decide which option is for you. I thought I read that there is a 1 mile option for a state. Maybe that's an option for all 4? Maybe that's the pavement option? I don't know... What I do know is that there won't be too many people doing this race which SUCKS. I have always said, "Bring a friend, make a friend". That's the recipe for success. Well, not bringing a friend and not really sure if there will be an opportunity to make a friend... I tried Michelle Frew who was really excited about this but she can't this weekend. Oh well. On another note, it's 4 days in 4 states but the truth is is that I already have Utah. That's ok...
Few people, 2 options (pavement/trail), not everyone will be doing the full and I can see myself out there for a long time by myself. What I also know, and perhaps it's the trail option, is that we will be doing 4 loops in each state. Some loops will be long enough so that 4 loops will be enough while some loops will require a mini-loop as well to finish it off.
Oh and I read that at least 1 state will have some "tough" elevation to conquer (times 4 of course).
I finally found a race report on Monday (2 days ago) and it says something about being 6,000 above sea level. That's gonna suck too. The air is thinner at that elevation. Sami showed up at the pool on tuesday and she told me that her friend went to Colorado and had to stop every 20 feet to breathe. The Fred's did a Marathon in Colorado and it took them forever... And they were selling canned air. What did I just get myself into?
In any case, here's where I am at this point in terms of logistics... Right now, I'm flying to Dallas, Texas. There I will switch a plane to Durango, Colorado. I land in Durango at 6:30 pm local time. Grab a rental car and an hour drive to the hotel. I hope to be at the hotel by 8:30-9:00 pm. Probably get squared away and goto sleep. Thursday, drive the 40 minutes to the Monument, run, drive the 40 minutes back. At that point, I will HAVE TO do laundry. I don't really have too much of winter gear and I will need all of it... Did I mention that in the morning, the temperature will be 20 degrees going to 50 degrees? That 20 is colder than NYC weather.
So, after the race, shower, laundry and eat, sleep, repeat. I did NOT give myself time to acclimate to the air. I'm away from the house too long as it is. The one luxury I did take is after the last race. Instead of finishing Sunday and heading straight to the airport, I will head back to the hotel for shower/laundry/food and rest. I will fly out VERY VERY early Monday morning and the more and more I think it was and is the right way to go here.
I'm nervous.
I was hoping every night to write about the race but that didn't happen. So once again, I'm on a plane. Let's do this...
The website as sparse as it is, had somethings wrong so I just gotta get through that but first, the logistics... Landed 30 min early which was awesome. Very small airport. Haven't gotten off on the tarmac in a long time. Got my rental and there's an ice scraper in it (weird) and drove the hour to the hotel. The roads were empty and very dark. Drove with highbeams on while scanning for deer. As is, a rabbit decided to cross the road while I was doing 65. I swerved but still heard a hump. Sad. Hotel was quick and painless too. Got ready.
First day was actually Arizona and was NOT 4 loops and a baby loop. Actually it was 5 loops of 5.25 miles each. Every day, there were actually 4 races going on. There was the half and the full and each had a pavement option or a trail option. The pavement option was simply going 1/2 mile on the pavement, making a U-turn and then heading back. Do that either 13 or 26 times. Y-U-C-K!!! The other option was the trail... We all started together, on the Arizona part of the monument and got on the pavement. Once we got to the fee booth, the pavement people continuued on for another 1/4 mile while we split to the right and into the trail. I should mention that my definition of trails was very different. I expected a forest and trees and green stuff. The website had pictures of desert trails. Donald and Hammad told me that they do have trees. They were wrong. Our trails were in the desert. Right away, we started climbing. Some of it was dirt trails. Some of it featured loose sand. Didn't matter. At the end of the day, we climbed to approximately 2.5 miles. Tom told us, we would see the U-turn from afar. It was far. We just kept climbing and the higher we went, the elevation percent rose. I usually don't drink a lot during races and I usually get dehydrated but I was determined to get ahead on that. Between not drinking, the effort, the climbing and the fact that we were above sea level, I expected bad dehydration so after the first loop of every day, I would grab a gatorade bottle and everytime we climbed, I nursed a little. The views were spectacular. I finally got to the top. I turned and ran back. You run almost all the way down to the pavement. Last minute, you hook a right, get on the pavement and continue to the same damn U-turn that the pavement people looked toward to. Turn around and run back to the monument. Do a loop on the inside and your first loop is done. We did 5. The halfers did 2 full loops like that and then their third was to the aid station on the climb which was at about 1.5 miles. Then they would turn back, finish their loop and finish.
At the beginning of the second loop, I started working with Rad, a polish runner. We ran and walked the up and ran down. Loop 2 done. Loop 3, he wanted to attack the hills. I'm an ultra guy and know better. I walked and ran the uphills and made friends with Dave. He knew a good thing. I told him he can go whenever he wanted. His response was, your uphill walk makes me sometimes need to run to catch you so I am good. We did loops 3, 4 and 5 together. Rad kept attacking the hills. We kept getting close to him. We finally caught him at the pavement part of the 5 loop. I don't think he appreciated that. He took off. I opted to walk a 1/4 mile and then to run the last 1/4 in. We finished something like 5:39, only a minute behind Rad. He was hurting. We weren't. In my head, I gave him an A for effort but a D for execution. He attacked the hills with a strong run. I attacked the hills with a strong walk. I could have out sprinted him at the end but it would have been stupid as we still had 3 more days. My point is, he worked harder for naught.
Due to covid restrictions, instead of fresh food and congregating, they gave you a doggie box with stuff and asked you to leave. The box was Meh. I drove back. I stopped at Wendy's and got a spicy chicken sandwich and 2 baked potatoes. I ate the sandwich, showered, then ate my potatoes while doing the laundry. Basically eat dinner as early as I can for my stomach. Breakfast at 3am and dinner at 4:30-5pm and nothing except liquids after that.
Small tangent on some people I met... Chicago... I forget her name right now but that's what I called her anyway as she was from Chicago. She has never done a trail Marathon before. She came in first for the females in the trails. She did 3 days in the trail but the last day, her feet were trashed and so she did the pavement. She came in 1st for all 4 days. She was awesome. Rhonda sported a Pistol Ultra shirt so we kept greeting each other. Friday, I introduced myself. She was awesome. She would alternate between trail one day and pavement the next. There was a dude who didn't realize he signed up for 4 days instead of 1, so he decided to do 4 days. He would alternate between 1 day trail and the next day pavement. The 2 male leaders in the trail were phenomoneal, every day racing each other...They were native americans and EVERYONE knew them over there. I also met a dude name Phil. He wore an Ironman hat so I talked to him. Turns out he didn't want to be called an Ironman because he DNFed. Good guy! First day he was ahead of me until the last loop. No other day was he ever ahead of me again until the last day. Last day he beat me. Good for him!. Man hug... Good guy.
Anyway, back to Utah. Utah was 7 loops of 3.75 miles. We started and right away had a not long but very steep up. At the top, you then went down over a mile on this very steep portion called the moon rocks. You went all the way to the U-turn, turned and climbed right back, down that first steep up and toward the pavement. We split onto the trails again and did a "gradual" up, later that gradual up was a joke between me and Aaron, before splitting of from the first day trails. We did that until we started skirting a mountain. The mountain was on our right and one false step was the valley on your left. Don't fall! We skirted the whole mountain but then it was time to climb. Going up was NOT an option and so, they had us snaking our way right and left constantly until we were all the way up. Once there, we entered the monument, circled around and that was 1 loop. I mentioned to the timer that the loop was a little long. I got 3.90 miles instead of 3.75. I usually don't complain but 7 loops dude. When I finished my 2nd loop, he informed me that I was right. Because of me, they asked everyone and everyone said the same and so they shortened the U-turn. Cool. Rad... Rad was hurting. His effort the day before did him in, in my opinion. I was ahead of him. We kept meeting up at the same place. Me going up as he was going down. I knew he was chasing me. I was going to make him work for it. He worked at it. He never caught me tho. My buddy Dave? He had told me that he is only doing day 1 and day 4, so I was all alone for this. That's ok. My task was not to get caught by Rad. I succeeded.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Flat | Some hills |
| Some hills | Lots of hills |
| Rolling | You're climbing |
| Tough | Oh Boy!!! |
Point is, I'm not new at this. When he said, "gentle yet runnable sand", I knew what that meant. I have run on the beach before. Running on the beach is a struggle to find hard sand which is usually by the water, in which case you are bound to get wet. The dry sand is almost always too soft and hard to run on. Once again, he did NOT disappoint. Right away, leaving the monument, we went down a very steep and technical descent that was full of loose soft sand. At the bottom, we were on a dry river bed full of loose sand. We did that to the actual flowing river, turned around and retraced our steps climbing up that steep loose sand ascent. At the top, we had finished 3 miles. Now climb up and this time skirt the mountain with the valley on our right and the mountain on the left. Again, wrong step and oops... Eventually our "gradual" hill but this time down to the pavement and around the mounument and you are done. Only 5 loops this time, 3 miles of which was that loose sand or in plain english, 15 miles of loose sand with an up and down. Yuck.
Once again being chased by Rad. Never relenting. Constantly seeing him at the same time. Always smiling to him, never letting him realize how much I also think this sucks. Still, I was encouraging people, including him.
I did see my friend with the skirt who I immediatly named Tu-tu. She was sporting a different one each day. She and a friend was down by the river at one point. Her friend was busy losing weight from her shoes. Her shoe had a ton of sand in it. I'm sure mine had some too but I wasn't stopping. Rad was coming.
At one point, I met up with a couple who was doing all 4 trail halfs. They were awesome. They left me to climb up out of the river faster than me. That's cool. I get up there and before I head to skirt the mountain, I see her at the aid station. Husband was in the port-a-tent. Yes - it was a pail inside a teepee. No way, I go in there unless GI Storm. He apparently just needed to pee. I told her, I would have just gone behind it. She jokingly told me that she would never go in there either as she just constantly pees 1 drop here and 1 drop there while running. Oh boy... Well, I left them to skirt the mountain but they caught up as I assumed they would. Once caught, we found a place so they can get in front of me. We talked about me drafting behind them and I immediatly said, "You kidding? With you peeing one drop here and one drop there, I'm gonna get all wet...". She cracked up and I let them go.
Rad never caught me...
All the same characters again around the fire warming up before the race. Today, they did allow for anyone wanting just a one day, so it was a little more crowded.
Right away, a "kid" named Fletcher Kelly, kinda stuck to me and we started talking. Good manners on a 21 year old even if he is from Colorado tho originally from Arkansas and yup... Army. We started talking and we stayed together. Turns out he and his 4 buddies decided on Monday to do this race. This race being their first Marathon ever. So, since they decided Monday, they signed up Wednesday for a hard trail marathon and then immediatly did a 10 miler to prepare. Wow - so many issues here. I immediatly and cautiously asked if Alcohol was involved to which he answered, "Yes sir...". Awesome.
But they are all determined to finish as their drill sargent said that there's no way that they will finish this. Oh, to make this even "easier", they drove 5 hours on Saturday after ARMY work. One of their guys didn't sleep at all that night as he was busy puking his guts out constantly. Talk about getting dehydrated...
Anyway, that's the story but they would support each other through thick and thin etc... Nice.
Well, he had plenty of questions and I had plenty of answers and so loop 1 was done. He told me that at one point, he may leave me to chase and I told him that I had no problem with that.
One of the Army kids, was super fast. He just kept going up and down like nothing. Second kid, who went to Ranger school, also fast but not as fast as the first. Still Kudos to both. Third kid was chasing the first and second but he was being chased by Fletcher and me and we were slowly catching up. The last kid, the one who was vomitting the whole night, did NOT look good. He was determined but didn't look good. Fletcher at one point gave him a sip from his bottle and before I knew it, he took a sip too. Silly silly silly. Dude has a stomach virus and you share a bottle. He threw out the bottle after that. Vomit kid eventually switched to the pavement option which was a no-no but I'm glad the timer allowed it as he looked BAD.
Fletcher and I kept inching up at Naythan Clark and unfortunatly as he was starting his last loop, he saw us about to finish out 4th loop. I was hoping to sneak up at him but nope. Element of surprise was gone. We started the last loop. Fletcher thought of attacking but didn't have it. We continuued. We got to within a 1/4 mile but he got to the turn around at the top of the mountain first and started coming down. We chased. He kept looking back. We attacked during areas when he couldn't see us because of trees but he didn't fall for that. Less than 2 miles away. We got to the aid station. We were 1.5 miles away but he had already left. I really wanted to help Fletcher to catch this guy but I had enough of this cat and mouse game. I chased Nathan for real. I'm 10 yards away and he's trying to sprint away. I keep up. I finally yell to him, "I'M NOT YOUR GUY!". He then realized that it wasn't Fletcher and relaxed. We continuued together. I hoped Fletcher would catch us but he was beat up at this point. Naythan and I continuued.
We were almost at the pavement when I saw Rad get to the pavement. Tried to sneak up on that too but he saw us. The look of "Oh crap..." on his face was priceless. He took off. All we had was 1/2 a mile left and I didn't want to sprint it quite yet. It has been 4 days... Well, we went easy for a 1/4 mile and then the kids who finished saw Naythan and started cheering him. He decided to sprint. That wasn't gonna happen buddy. I sprinted too. I overtook him. I went full blast. Into the monument and around and through the finish line. Naythan came in 4 seconds behind me. Man hug and I went out to get Fletcher and bring him in. Got him a 1/4 mile from the finish and we ran together to the finish.
It was good. Last day, they had real food. I sat with the kids and ate. And the NYer in me had no shame but to request a second helping. It was deep fried bread with cheese and veggies and it was awesome.
I have to say that the routes we took were beautiful. We saw some wild horses. Nothing else in terms of wildlife.
Other little tidbits. Larry Macon got a back injury on the first day and a friend stopped his race in the middle. Drove him an hour back. Drove himself an hour back and finished his own race. Wow. Both finished the next 3 days.
There was a native american kid there who did all 4 trail halfs. His name is Aurelius Yazzie and I just want to give him a shout out. Kid is 14 years old and lives in an area with no running water and no electricity. Awesome kid.
I didn't need to wonder long about our sand run. I had about a pound of sand in my shoes and a nice hole in it as well.
Next morning, went early to the airport and who do I run into if not Chicago. And then Tu-Tu and her friends. And other people wearing the race shirt. There we were all talking and waiting for the plane. Nice reunion. It was funny because one of them was saying that she still remembers the dude who kept saying to her and her friend, "never zombie walk... always walk with a purpose...". I took my mask off and she immediatly recognized me.
Anyway, some stupid stats compiled by yours truly of yours truly...
| State | Overall Place | Division Place |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | 12/39 | 10/27 |
| Utah | 10/29 | 8/24 (5th for Trailees) |
| Colorado | 11/37 | 10/30 |
| New Mexico | 15/45 | 14/38 |
For the entire Series:
8/39 Overall Place
8/33 Males
4/11 Trailees
4/10 Males Trailees
Lastly my friendly rivalry with Rad, who really is a nice person and a great runner... Overall after 4 days, I got him by 22 minutes and 47 seconds. He is a good guy and I think we ended up helping each other big time.