Moab Run the Rocks

A text comes in from my friend Shelley “what are you doing March 7-9th?”

She calls me immediately, giggling, and I can hear she’s not alone. She’s in the car with Julia and Jenny and they are bursting with excitement. Shelley announces that Jenny had won a race entry for Moab Run the Rocks but wasn’t able to use it, so she gave it to Shelley instead. But then Shelley won an entry for herself, and how lucky am I that she chose me as her plus one.

“But I don’t want to steal you from Tania!”

That problem was short lived as Tania quickly bought an entry for herself.

Cue adventure planning.

Shelley went all out and booked 4 hotel room options and wrote out all possible flight configurations and I pretty much went into shut down mode. This ‘free’ trip was getting pretty costly, especially once you factor in the brutal exchange rate. Then the chaos south of the border and pressure to boycott all things American had me questioning if this was a good idea.

But it’s Moab. And Moab doesn’t feel like it’s a part of this planet, much less a part of the dumpster fire of American politics. And then an even better travel plan began to take shape. We would borrow my parents new camper van named Thor and make it an epic road trip, eliminating the need to spend money on flights, rental cars, accommodations and expensive meals out. I’ve always wanted to be a camper-van-trail-runner and as Shelley and I set out early Wednesday morning before the race it looked like that dream was about to come true.

Usually I get chauffeured around by Kirk who loves to drive (while I nap) but this time I was behind the wheel for most of the 22 hour drive down there. We broke it up with a short couple hours of sleep outside Salt Lake City which was followed by a harrowing snowy drive over the pass after Provo. I’m not usually phased by winter road conditions, but this felt pretty sketchy driving such a heavy, 2 wheel drive beast.

Needless to say it was pretty exciting to make it safely to Moab and of course I fell in love all over again with that town. I’ve been lucky enough to be there twice before, once with the family to mountain bike before running Rim2Rim2Rim of the Grand Canyon and once for a completely spiritual desert experience while running Moab 240. Both those experiences were so incredible that I sort of wanted to leave those memories untouched, and never come back. But here I was, ready for a whole new way to experience the place that has shaped a part of who I am. There’s something about that orange dust that just sticks with you.

We stocked up on groceries, sure to do our best to only purchase non-American products as a part of our own quiet political rebellion, and then drove Thor to the tiny airport outside Moab to pick Tania up from the airport (she couldn’t get away early enough to drive with us).

We spent the rest of the day traipsing all over those desert rocks, hiking around Dead Horse Point and finding Mesa arch. The sky was moody grey. So different from the usual clear blue over orange rocks I’ve only ever known. We were having such a great time we opted to skip the pre race meeting and happy hour. It was just too intoxicating being out there, barely a soul in sight, knowing we had the freedom to stop wherever we wanted to sleep for the night.

Once the sun set, the clouds cleared and the wind died down, and we parked at the campground that was the start/finish line, also known as ‘Chillville’ in TransRockies lingo.

All three of us had plenty of room to sleep because the bed can be made up as a king sized and we are all petite women. And damn was that ever handy to get to sleep in, avoid the long line of cars trying to get to the race, and stumble out of the van all ready to run.

We met up with Edmonton friends Jen and Soren at the start line. They were both running the ‘full pint’ with me. For each of the three days of the stage race, there was a ‘full pint’ option (19k, 39k, and 22k) or a ‘half pint’ option (14k, 28k, 12k). Shelley and Tania were doing the half pint, and started their race a bit later then I did. The tried and true TransRockies formula we knew so well from running the six day stage race in Colorado in 2023, was happening again. This time surrounded by millions of strange rock formations instead of the Rockies. The start line energy was intoxicating as ‘Highway to Hell’ sent us off into the desert, the sun gaining power even though the air was quite cold.

The distance passed too quickly that first morning. I was so excited to be running those trails again I didn’t want it to end. The La Sal mountains were in full view in the distance and I couldn’t stop gushing over how beautiful it all was. I crossed the finish line minutes after Tania did and she came rushing over to pull me towards a new friend she wanted me to meet. “Kevin wants to meet you! He ran Moab 240 too and wants to talk about it”

I get it. I want to talk about it too. Even though this weekend is a completely different type of event and I wanted to be fully present, I couldn’t help but stare out at those mountains and remember what it was like to climb Geyser pass, over 3000m, after already covering 200 miles, and know that I still had a long ways to go. How deep I had to dig to keep forward movement, to maintain singular focus for 101 hours. Of course I wanted to talk about it. And as we both stood there in the busy crowd, music pumping and beer already flowing (was it even noon by then?), I immediately recognized someone else who was as enamoured with those La Sal’s and the whole experience as I was. But it felt out of place to be nostalgic, and there was plenty of good times happening all around me that I was also pretty pumped to start making new memories.

“Great to meet you Kevin. Enjoy this very different desert run”

Back to Chillville.

We stuck around to cheer on our other friends finishing up their races, and our Edmonton crew and Marty and his boy band from Saskatchewan, left the good vibes of Chillville to find more adventures at Arches National Park.

If you’ve never been, it’s an absolute must see. I’ll just leave these pictures here so you can decide for yourself.

After happy hour, the race meeting for the next day and watching the race video highlights from the morning, we found a hot tub and then steered Thor to the start line for day 2.

Day 2 is the biggest day with some decent elevation and gorgeous views. Unfortunately I was struggling to feel good. Every now and then my heart feels off. I don’t know how to explain it (and yes I’m getting it checked out) but some days I just don’t feel right. Day 2 was one of those days. I struggled to settle into an easy rhythm and my heart rate felt high the whole time. Nevertheless, climbing over the mesa and towards the trails of Gemini bridges was a stunning way to spend the day.

I made a few friends out there and even caught up with Tania at the aid station where the full and half pint distances converged. She was ready to go when I got the aid station and told me she’d start and I’d catch up. Nope. That girl took off like a shot! Running back up the mesa much faster then I could, and by some miracle, her sometimes problematic knees felt good enough to bomb down the other side towards the finish line. We were both pretty happy with our performances that day and sat around the finish line to watch the Chillville party unfold and wait for Shelley to come in.

Just another day of living the dream.

We were tired out after a big day and opted to limit our adventures to the scenic drive up highway 128 for views that leave you feeling kinda small as you stare up at the massive canyon walls on either side of the Colorado River. We finished the afternoon with a stroll through the town of Moab.

Happy hour, video re-cap from the day and race briefing for tomorrow. TransRockies sure knows how to keep that ship running smoothly.

Once again, we parked Thor at the start/finish for the next days’ race and enjoyed a delicious dinner and the starry skies.

The full pint runs 22km on day 3, and it actually turned out to be my favourite course. Instead of mesa climbs and windy trails around lil cacti, this time it took you across slick rock and very technical trails that felt like parkour at times. Also brutally hard. Like, not ‘difficult’ hard, but hard like concrete, that left my lower legs and feet feeling beat up by the end. The frequent cheer squads and fireball shots helped and before I knew it I was crossing my last finish line for Moab Run the Rocks.

Chillville was in full swing as most of the half pint racers were done well before the full pinters, but this time I was struggling to get into party mode. I was feeling overwhelmed with all that sensory input and was at a total mismatch to everyone else.

Sometimes that just happens. Meh.

The party wrapped up quickly and we sadly had to take Shelley to the tiny Moab airport. She had to fly home early because she couldn’t miss her flight to Mexico. Yes, she is very hard done by.

Bye Shelley. We will miss you. We were having such a blast with our little trio in Thor, it just wasn’t the same without her.

Tania and I had time for one more adventure before tackling the long drive home so we said goodbye to Moab and drove further to into the desert, through Goblin State park to Little Wildhorse Canyon. I knew about it because my husband and two of my kids hiked it after I ran in 2022. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to join them because my feet were so sore and blistered I couldn’t even put on shoes, much less hike the 15km of the canyon. I sat at the trailhead for hours and watched the sun set instead.

But their pictures and trail stories made me add it to my bucket list, and am I ever glad I did.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves as we hiked, scrambled and climbed our way through the slot canyon. The trail goes up Little wild horse canyon for 5 km of narrow trail, with towering canyon walls and rocks wedged into them. I did my best to not think about that movie ‘127 hours’.

Then you can follow a connector trail to Bell Canyon, an equally impressive slot canyon walk back to the trail head.

I highly recommend this adventure. It’s an easy introduction to canyoning, and out of the way enough that it doesn’t have big crowds other canyons might.

Another trailhead dinner in Thor and just another evening watching the sun disappear and the stars come out over that vast desert.

I didn’t want it to end. But we both have plenty of reasons to get home, so we steered Thor northbound, back to the country I love more and more everyday, and of course back to my family and very full and beautiful life I’ve built there.

We made it home without incident, and 100% fully convinced that van life is going to be in my future.

While it wasn’t a race I had on my radar, Moab Run the Rocks once again proved that TransRockies race series has done a fantastic job of perfecting the stage race experience. Gorgeous location, great party and of course so many incredible people we got to share the experience with.