Cotton is the original performance fabric, and other black canyon takeaways

a race recap disguised as a gear review

One week out from my first ultramarathon, and I can still confidently say that shit was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. 62 miles is no joke, and my hip flexors remind me every day that while I may have the heart of a trail runner I very much have the muscle development of a marathoner. Hopefully four months of training will get this pavement queen a bit more prepared for downhills at States.

I’m not anywhere near as good at writing as I am rambling on podcasts and posting pictures on instagram, so I’m not going to attempt a race recap here. Instead, as a currently mostly unsponsored pro runner, I’m going to give my honest reviews of some gear I wore at Black Canyon.

ON vest

This one is more of a fit issue than a design issue. After a nutrition meeting the Tuesday before the race in which I was told one bottle was absolutely not sufficient to race 100k I had to find an alternative to my beloved Raide belt. The vest had been sent weeks before by the nice sports marketing team over at ON, and promptly sat in a poly bag in my office. A few modifications later (adding extra bungees to the front and an iron-on “ice out” patch) and I decided it would probably most likely work.

a few important modifications

My main gripe with vests is that you can immediately tell that they’re designed for individuals without any breasts. Having spent 90% of my running adult life without them, I totally understand the bias. However, what no one tells you is that taking a year off from running to get your hormones fixed will sometimes cause you to go up two full cup sizes, so I now fall in the camp of individuals who can’t comfortably wear running vests and therefore hate all of them.

The ill fit of the vest led to a lot of loose bottles on the course. Every few miles a soft flask would spontaneously flop out of its pocket like a salmon leaping upstream past a grizzly bear. It was doubly difficult to slide them in and out at aid stations without significantly loosening the bungees. I was deeply annoyed, but I realized this is just as much a me problem as it is a design flaw. So this is a plea to the vest-makers of the world; think of the moderately stacked girlies out here and please design a vest that factors in at least a few ultrarunners having tits.

Nike ultrafly 2

I wore the ON cloudultra pro at Bandera 50k, which is an absolute ripper of a shoe, and since the terrain of bandera and black canyon is similar the orignal plan was to just wear them again for the 100k. However, I strained my calf pretty bad during a technical part of Bandera, resuting in an injury lingered through the rest of the training block. The shoe has a significant rocker which is great for running fast but not great for holding an upset soleus stable. I had to find a different option ASAP since I wouldn’t be able to get through the 100k in pain.

Luckily, a few weeks ago the fine folks at ACG sent over a pair of the ultrafly 2s to test out. They felt great on my on-course training runs, and with the flatter platform keeping my soleus happy I decided to race in them. Side bonus that they were traffic cone orange and therefore bright enough for my mom to identify me on the livestream (note to any future sponsors, Anne Seidel demands neon racing kits). After blowing thorough the supercritical foam on multiple 25+ mile training runs the ACG team was able to get me a fresh pair for the race about two days before the race, thanks to the power of Nike’s overnight shipping budget. The devil works hard, but Lucy May works harder.

a black canyon training run to break in the AF2s

The only gripe I had was that the mud in the early parts of the course got absolutely glued to the Vibram outsole, 2xing the weight of the shoe. While it was certainly annoying to feel like I was clomping around for about five miles, the internal griping distracted me for about 40 minutes which was actually lovely. Hot professional tip; finding things to bitch and moan about will make your ultra pass by much quicker.

Satisfy mothtech & kit

I am an unabashed Satisfy fanboy, but I will preface this with the fact I have never in fact bough a piece of their clothing. I’m highly #blessed to be sent a shit ton of gear (see ON vest and ultrafly2 above), so I realize that running around in a band worth of space-0 and auralite is pretty elitist. Yet I am by definition an elite runner, so if I can’t wear a $150 cotton tee with holes in it then who can?

this outfit cost more than the computer I’m writing this on

I wore a combo of a cutoff mothtech top and the justice cordura tights, and felt like the moisture retention of the cotton reallly saved me once the day heated up. I know everyone loves to shit on cotton, but the fact that it never dries makes it the perfect material for racing in the desert. I’m not actually sure if the body-mapped holes do much, other than look pretty fucking cool.

Honorable mention goes to the satisfy merino toe socks I copped in Paris two years ago (Jesus Christ I’m unbearable). Multiple river crossings and not a single blister is basically the gold standard for a foot garment, plus it feels like each toe gets a hug.

Hydrapak soft bottles & flasks

Running with bottles is one of the fun new things I need to learn to do as an ultramarathoner. In every major marathon a pro runner’s prepped bottles are provided on tables every 5k throughout the course; it’s a highly convenient system, and the bottle run-through becomes a practiced skill. You NEVER stop for aid, unless you’re Sifan Hassan and can repeatedly drop or miss bottles and somehow still make up enough ground to win the race. The rest of us mortals just elbow the other twenty-something pros out of the way to snatch a 300ml hard bottle, chug it, and then toss it at at whatever spectator seems to be cheering loudest for you as a fun souvenier.

My years of grabbing bottles off folding tables are now completly wasted, and instead I have to get comfortable racing with a variety of soft flasks and bottles strapped to my body in ever-increasingly uncomfortable means. I’m already quite sensitve to sensory stimuli as a spectrumy girlie, so this is a fucking nightmare and results in me trying to carry as little as possible. I’m not even trying to be minimalist, I just HATE how it feels to be touched by that many things for so long. Hence why I threw a mild fit at needing to wear a vest, and blatantly refused to carry hand bottles.

some soft flasks ready to be slorped

The nice thing about ultramarathon is that you eventually get to a point where your body hurts so much you barely even notice the sensory nightmare. I’d been carrying two 500ml hydrapak bottles with electrolytes in my vest, along with rotating a 360ml gelflask of maurten prototype gel mix with two smaller 150ml gelflasks of hydrogel every crewed aid station (shoutout to my incredibe crew who managed these high-speed trades seamlessly). This system was working well, and with the added bonus of a mega rice krispie treat slipped in my vest at deep canyon aid I was feeling good. By the time I hit 50 I was in full grind, and needed to keep my 4 minute lead on 5th place to snag the golden ticket.

critical Rice Krispie & celsius refueling at deep canyon

It was at this moment that my coach Cliff decided that the fatigue had worn my neurodiversity down enough to handle some extra stimulation, so he strapped a soft hand bottle to me while my girlfriend was trading my two front bottles. I love my coach deeply, but in that moment I was closer than I’ve ever been to punching him right in the face. The BETRAYAL. The TRICKERY. I had gotten got.

Tragically, it was absolutely the right move. The extra 500ml of electrolytes got me over the final climb and through the last 12 miles of the race to keep the golden ticket. Did I “accidentally” leave the bottle with an aid station worker with four miles to go? Yes. I just sprinted through Doe springs and tossed it to him, and when he asked what I wanted to fill it with I just responded “Nothing, it’s yours now!” Hopefully he appreciates the souvenir.

crossing the finish line with not a hand bottle in sight

In summary,

• Black Canyon was great

• My crew was incredible and I’m deeply grateful my friends are willing to spend 8.5 hours in the desert to support me

• I don’t actually want to punch my coach

• All pics are courtesy of Austin Corbett, y’all should hire him for photo things

• Not sure I’ll do another one of these, but stay tuned if I do

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