What an amazing adventure Grand to Grand Ultra was! It was by far the hardest thing I have ever physically done. But there wasn’t a moment that I wasn’t happy to be right where I was, even when I was tired, sore or grinding through the challenging terrain and conditions. I went into the race with few expectations, my first goal was to finish and my second goal was not to finish last. I was able to finish 23rd overall out of 51 who started and 30 who finished.

My focus from the start was to break the race down in to small bites, only focus on getting from check point to check point. Take each step one at a time and stay in the moment and enjoy the moment, the challenge and not worry about what challenge may be next. Mission accomplished!

I was blessed and fortunate enough to spend the 6 weeks prior to the race visiting and training in amazing National Parks in northern Arizona and southern Utah. For this Florida boy training in the race environment helped so much to prepare me for the week (Plus I got to spend time and train in the most amazing and beautiful places). Although a lot of the terrain we had to cross was unexpected, a lot of deep sand (did I say a lot? There was always more ….) besides the sand dunes, descending and climbing on scree, bush whacking off trail, and avoiding cactus (most of the time). I was confident and physically well prepared.

Since this was a huge challenge I decided to hired a coach to help me prepare. Up to this point I had learned to train from a few books, podcasts and You Tube videos (like a a lot of people I’m sure). I choose Jen Segger (@jensegger), she is one of the coaches listed on the G2G web site. She is a seasoned and successful adventure and ultra racer. She did a great job helping me get physically ready for the G2G race by adding structured workouts, tips and guidance, She was definitely part of my success and would recommend her.

But by far the best part of the week were the people, race participants, volunteers, camp crew, staff made the difference. Most days after a few hours on the trail you end up around the same people because of your speed or race strategy. This gives you an opportunity to get to know some amazing people from all walks of life and different parts of the world while passing the time as you traverse amazing landscape.

The support at the checkpoints from the volunteers and medical staff was amazing, every time I entered a checkpoint I would leave feeling renewed, motivated and ready from take on what ever challenges were ahead on the next section.

The camp crew worked their butts off every day breaking down the camp and moving it to another breathtaking location and would help welcome the race participant back into camp with crazy enthusiasm.

In the end the support and camaraderie was amazing from everyone. It felt like we were all on a team working to complete the challenge together. I think there is a pretty good chance I will return to the Grand to Grand Ultra again.