Trans-Zion Female FKT and the BoSho Marathon.

On Sunday, April 21st Bethany ran 8:32:10 for the Trans-Zion route, running from the East entrance to Lee's Pass at the Kolob entrance.  This represents a 37 minute improvement on the previous record of 9:09 set by Krissy Moehl last year.   Above is a video compilation of the adventure with a new iPhone recorded banjo/mandolin composition by yours truly that I think can give you a better sense of the day than a narrative account.  This route is an approx. 48 mile spectacular and varied traverse (my GPS had us at 49.2 total) across the length of Zion National Park that in my experience is rivaled only by the Grand Canyon double crossing in terms of sheer beauty.  Bethany started at 7am at the East Entrance Trailhead.  I met her at the Grotto which she hit in 1:40, then making her way up the West Rim trail.  She hit the West Rim Trailhead at around 4:30 flat where we had stashed some resupplies (water jugs, some gels).  Hop Valley Trailhead at approx. 6:00 flat.  Bethany ran smoothly and controlled throughout without any major lows despite temps reaching 80 degrees mid-day and getting pretty low on fluids over the last 5 miles.  Although I myself only ran the last approx. 38 miles with her I was pretty worked and dehydrated by the end.  Yep, she's pretty tough...

In other (and less exciting) news, I won the BoSho marathon the weekend prior in 3:54, having been back running for 7 weeks.  This is a classic local event on the trails I regularly train on (a robust 6,800ft of elevation gain over the 26.2 miles) and I was psyched to take part and to put down a solid aerobic effort - even the first 30 minutes of which exceeded anything I've done in the past 6 months in terms of intensity - without injury (knock on wood).  Full results here.