Evan Honeyfield sets a NEW Fastest Known Time for Teton Circumnavigation

i caught up with evan honeyfield this year at the grand teton races. he was running his longest race to date, the grand teton 50 miler. he did awesome, went under the previous course record and took 2nd place with an impressive run. he's what we call a "marathoner".. and by that title i usually mean a very fast marathoner. if you aren't fast but you run marathons i just call you a runner, but Evan excels at the marathon distance. last week he emailed nuun / la sportiva runner luke nelson and myself of his intension to better his and luke's fastest known time on the teton circumnavigation loop i put together. i thought he might be capable of taking an hour off one of the first times laid down. at the end of the day he took 36mins off the record - impressive. his report on the run below.. congrats evan!

photo credit: Greg Norrander

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My 2nd Longest Run Ever (Again) - Teton Circumnavigation Run FKT

Before I talk about the Teton run I want to discuss a most unholy marriage I put in place that has almost bred perfection. I’m talking the combo of Nathan and Ultimate Direction hydration products. I have both an Ultimate Direction and a Nathan single bottle waist belt that both occasionally eject a bottle on the trail while running (usually steep or very rocky descents). A Nathan bottle has a gate in its ring on the lid. The Ultimate Direction waist belt is more comfortable and has a little nylon loop. Gate meet loop; the worry free marriage.

Back to the Tetons. My wife and I camped on Shadow Mountain Thursday night. I arose early, saw frost on the windshield and promptly jumped back in the sack. Finally arriving at Lupine Meadows at 8:20am I realized my mistake. Fifteen minutes after hitting the trail around 8:30am I had removed my shirt and was really sweating soon after. I relished every bit of shade cruising up Cascade canyon as I needed to refill both hand held bottles only 1:40 into the run.

The plan for the day was to carry the unholy marriage empty until I hit the descent into Death Canyon as I knew water sources in the remaining ~14 miles are suspect after this point. I also planned to load up on the Nuun after my hard lesson of severe cramping at the Grand Teton 50 miler two weeks prior.

The south fork of Cascade Canyon was once again my favorite section of the run. Hitting Hurricane Pass in 2:04 I tried to take in the spectacular view (so sorry I don’t own a digital camera) and gag down a Carrot Cake Clif Bar (the Cool Mint Chocolate is so good how could Carrot Cake be so bad?). En route to Buck Pass I started to feel light headed and took a walk or two. At Static Pass I hit a gel and started thinking about my Rossi S7s and how awesome this descent would be in 25” of blower. As the ski dream faded I dropped into Death Canyon and I filled up all three bottles as planned and then descended to the Patrol cabin in 3:31. As my left calf had felt twinges of cramping I drank a bottle double Nuuned which did the trick.

The hill leading out of Phelps Lake was like the next three short climbs – a few short walks and cooking in the sun. I took the opportunity to have some fun and run through every stream as I headed across the lonely Valley Trail. At Taggart Lake I skipped the bridge and waded across. I thought about a nice long swim and then remembered my task. I ran out of water heading up towards Amphitheater Junction (2.5 miles to go) and really started to hurt. Feeling light headed again with a touch of weirdness in my vision I toughed it home to meet my wife in 5:34:31 and pound some serious fluids.

I was hoping for about 20 minutes faster, but I think the time is actually perfect as it is still within reach of many others, including Luke Nelson, my running companion from last year’s loop. The Tetons rarely disappoint in scenery or challenge and I had a great day.

The next day I jumped into the Horseshoe Challenge 20k in Driggs, ID as my wife was racing. My warm up was the 20 feet hobble to the start line. About two miles in my legs came alive and I begin to roll. The downhill portions were a blast with some crazy windy single track. I owe a shout out to Wray Landon for helping me run the correct route as a few markers were missing. Using completely different leg muscles than Friday I was able to pull off the win. In contrast to Friday’s solidarity, it was a great social event seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Next up is miles 76 to 100 at the Bear 100 supporting Luke Nelson. I am hoping to follow that up with an Old Faithful to Bechler run in Yellowstone in early October that should include some sweet hot springs soak breaks, some river crossings, and maybe some wolves or bears. And if all goes well a rim to rim Grand Canyon run is brewing.

Evan H

Luke Nelson & Evan Honeyfield Break Matt's Teton Circumnavigation Speed Record

on the way home from my mnt bike ride yesterday i got a call from luke nelson. i posted on friday that luke had contacted me that he and even honeyfield would attempt to break my speed record circumnavigating the tetons. below is their report.

Saturday the thirteenth of September started to the sound of my alarm clock at 4:30, "this is insane", I thought. "Who in their right mind gets up at 4:30 in the morning on a Saturday, after a very busy week, to drive 2 and a half hours, to go run all the way around the Tetons". "You are not right mentally," I told myself as I got in the shower to wake up before the drive. I had packed the night before so I hopped out of the shower and after kissing my wife on the cheek, loaded in the car and started driving. From Pocatello it is about 45 min. to Idaho Falls where I picked my running partner for the day, Evan Honeyfield. As we drove to Grand Teton National Park Evan told me that this would be his first time running an ultradistance, but he has a 2:28 marathon pr so I figured he would be fine. I am also pretty much a virgin to ultrarunning only having ran over the 26 mile mark 3 times previous, and all were shorter than 34 miles. We had decided to do the route from the Lupine Meadows Parking lot and run counter-clockwise, the same direction that Matt, and Jared Campbell had ran it. We pulled in to the parking lot at 8:00 and with in few minutes were ready to go. We took the start pictures: insert p8100148.jpg, p810049, and p8100147 (evan on the left myself on the right). (The one that has the glare did 0:00:00)

We started off pretty conservative, and since we didn't warm up like you would for a race we were a little slow going down the parking lot and down the road for a bit before we turned off and went past the Moose Ponds. It was pretty cool and the long sleeves that we were wearing felt pretty comfortable until we got about to Inspiration Point, it seemed like somebody turned up the heat as soon as we began to climb away from the lake and into Cascade Canyon. Things went very well all the way up Cascade, but we slowed a bit after the turn up the South Fork of Cascade. We passed several hikers on this part of the trail that were carrying pretty heavy loads and appeared envious of the very light loads that we were carrying (Evan had an Ultimate Direction single bottle waste pack, and I had two Nathan handhelds that we filled up fairly frequently from the abundant water throughout most of the run). As we neared Hurricane pass we passed a group of backpackers that we studying the map, plotting their travel for the day. As they looked up to see two runners we were positive that they were thinking "what the...?". Things continued to go pretty well all the way up Hurricane which we topped at 2:15:03 were we met some very friendly and encouraging hikers. Things started to get interesting for me as we began to climb towards Buck pass on the Shelf Trail out of Alaska Basin, I had been working very hard to keep up on gu and water but I started to feel heavy legs and the suffering began. We topped Buck Pass at 2:56:55 and as we climbed towards Static Pass? the wheels came off my bus. We crossed a couple of small snow patches and I was forced to powerhike because I just had no gas. I popped some gu roctane and water, and by the time we topped out I felt much better. The descent into Death Canyon went pretty well, fatigue did bring some stumbles and a rolled ankle for me, but neither of which slowed us down much. We crossed paths with lots of day hikers as we neared Phelps Lake and got plenty of odd looks as we motored by. We saw a bull moose just before the lake, which was cool, but we didn't stall long to sight see.

Things got really interesting as we started on the Valley Trail, I had been told that that section was "flat as a pancake and you can really cruise." It was pretty flat but neither of us had much left in the tank, the easiest traveling part of the trail was really hard. At Taggart Lake we switched to hike to ascend to the lake, and then struggled to regain a solid pace around the lake. Both of us really hit the wall climbing to Bradley Lake and alternated walking, shuffling and running frequently. It got pretty ugly as we climbed to the Amphitheater trail, at one point after walking for quite a while we approached some other hikers and Evan started to sprint like a madman at them, he motored past them and kept going nearly to the junction with Amphitheater Lake Trail. I was really energized to hit the junction and started a very determined pace towards the parking lot 1.7 miles away, right near the end it Evan hit a wall harder than he had ever experienced. He said that he felt like he was hallucinating and was amazed that his body kept moving. I had made a small logistical error that may lead to some confusion, due to our light loads neither one of us had the ability to carry the camera, so as I passed the sign where we began the run I stopped my stopwatch, sprinted to the car (halfway down the parking lot) and hurried back to take the picture with the time of day. The stopwatch read 6:10:11 and the time of day read 2:26 (after retrieving the camera from the car).

The actual time it took us to do the run was 6:10:11, we hobbled to the car after taking the pictures and sat there for several minutes trying to recover. We then loaded up and drove to the stream that the is crossed on the way into the parking lot to soak the legs for a few minutes. We then met Evan's wife at the Moos visitor center for some delicious veggies, sandwiches and gatorade.

All In all it was an amazing run, by far one of the most scenic that I have ever done, hopefully the new record holds for a little while, but Matt has already said he is going to get back out there and give it another go. I am soo glad that Matt threw the challenge out there, and it is a must do run. The next time I do it though I think I might slow down and take in some of the incredibly, awesome scenery!!

i'm impressed with the time. that is fast for 34 rugged miles, no support and 8,200ft of gain at elevation. that is a 'solid time'.

once again congrats guys! impressive effort.

Teton Circumnavigation Attempt Saturday

down from static
i was stoked to get this message yesterday:

Matt,
I first have to thank you for all of the info and inspiration that you provide through your blog. I guess you could say that I have been web stalking you for awhile. I am emailing you primarily to tell you that Evan Honeyfield, from Idaho Falls, and myself, from Pocatello, are going to have a stab at your record around the tetons. I am not really sure how the process of fastest known time really works but from what I could find out it seems like the most important part is to formally announce to the record holder your intent. We are planning on starting at the Lupine Meadows parking lot, at around 8 on sat. morning.
Thanks for throwing out the challenge,
Luke Nelson

apparently when the local paper publishes something like this, people get fired up! i think this is cool, and it's exactly what i envisioned would happen. i hope they pull it off. september is probably the best month to go for this record. cooler temps but most importantly they won't be falling into snow up to their waists. and will likely have no snow to contend with, which should make it a faster route.

i wish you guys luck - run your guts out!

ps: guys if you pull it off i'd love to post a first hand report from you on my blog.

Jackson Hole Newspaper Article

lisa emailed while i was running the transrockies that the jackson hole newspaper published this article on me running around the tetons. i did the interview the day before i left slc for colorado. kinda neat, but i am certain i have to go lower that time or it's going to get beat by some embarrassing amount.

through the associated press another version somehow made the portsmouth herald, my hometown newspaper. my sister just wrote me "Good for you! Wow, your in the local paper for something legal!" thanks lana!

Karl, IM Canada, Newspapers and Beach Peas

Meltzer's on the Move!

hopefully you've all been watching the drama unfold over at where's karl.com. my buddy is trying to break the appalachian trail record. after 14 days of tough terrain he came down with trench foot, and severe tendonitis. this put the whole assault in risk. after a few days off today he hit the trail again with his wife cheryl. i picture this in my mind being a nice sunny day hike with the woman he loves. what could be better? =)

good luck buddy! i'll be begging for updates on the trail at transrockies.

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Ironman Canada!

i have to wish my coaching client adrienne stedford good luck at ironman canada tomorrow (sunday!). she is one of those dream clients who always does exactly what i prescribe for her in her training plan. because of that, and all the hard work she's put in, she's going to amazingly well!

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Transrockies Run

i've been in slc hanging with marit for the last couple of days. i leave in a few hours for denver. sunday morning i pick up sean meissner, then we head to buena vista, colorado and the welcome bbq for the transrockies staged run. i talked to sean yesterday, he said "dood. i'm fit right now". sweet.

i was able to get 50mins of pain free running in yesterday. the calf wasn't an issue but it's still sore when i press on it. another couple of zero days and it should be ready for the anaerobic torture of the transrockie run. in the last update they have again lessened the mileage of the race. taking some 'junk miles' off the first two days. when i signed up for this race it was around 130 miles long. it's now down to 97 miles total for 6 days. every time they lessen the length our chances of doing well decrease - sean and i are ultrarunners. however after the fast hiking i just did on the appalachian trail this will be phenomenal 'speed work' for me and i can't wait to race!!

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Jackson Hole Newspaper

the jhole newspaper is going to do a write-up on the teton circumnavigation speed record i set (fastest known times site). here are the photos for the article.

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Beach Pea Bakery - Kittery Maine

marit found this great article on my best friends mariah & tom roberts. they run a well buttered machine. we spent the day with them in portsmouth after we got off the appalachian trail. they're cool.

TetonAT.com & the Teton Circumnavigation

the backcountry skiing god himself steve romeo asked me to write a quick post for his tetonat.com website on my teton circumnavigation run.. so i obliged.

also of note peter bakwin who keeps track of these records on his website fastest know times or fkt has added my route and time to it as the fastest known time - now it's on!

on my way back to the teton's i got word from jay batchen that jared campbell was going to attempt to break my speed record for the loop this saturday. there is noticeably less snow to contend with so we'll see if it gets taken down - i just think it's cool someone of his caliber is already here trying!

Teton Circumnavigation For Speed July 29 2008

two days ago i finally got trevor, melissa and evans to hammer out my teton circumnavigation route (see previous post). this was my scouting run. then i figured i'd have to set the precedent and and stir the pot a bit. i'm hesitant to call it a record. first because it doesn't sound like anyone else has ever done it for speed. and second because it sounds arogant and i don't think it's a super fast time. =) but it will have to do.


so just two days after i did the run around the tetons for the first time i went at it again.. solo.. for speed. non stop watch. self supported. no drops. i started at 6:52am and finished at 1:21pm. total time was 6hrs 29mins. i can certainly run faster. and the snow still in alaska basin made the travel very slow (i fell in up to my waist once too!).

the start location

the start with my watch reading :04 seconds (get going already!)

hurricane pass in 1hr 58min 04secs

although you can't see the terrain this is buck pass in 2hrs 47 min 59secs

i keep running the stats in my mind. 34 miles with 8,200 feet of gain. and i just can't come to terms with my time of 6hrs 29mins. i've won 50kms with 6-7,000ft of gain in like 4hrs. what makes the tetons so hard and slow? well for one it was the snow and running at elevation for me. but i'm not entirely sure.



now somebody go beat 6hrs 29 mins and make me have another go at it!

Teton Circumnavigation Scouting Run July 27 2008

i finally got it done! the teton circumnavigation run i have had in my mind since winter 05/06 and have been drooling over finally happened. i have to say it was probably the best run i've ever done. i think as of now i have to give it the top spot on my amazing run list for the following reasons: the terrain was diverse and tough (snow/scree/butter), for a short"ish" run it was hard, the views were best in this world good, the company was awesome, the tetons are truly a wild place (we saw a black bear and a bull moose).. and really how cool is it to run around the frickin tetons!?!

as i've said before i plan on setting the precedent for this route and taunting the rest of the jackson and teton valley craziest to come best my time. this run however was our scouting run. we navigated, took photo/video, talked about what peak was what, had a bonk, chatted with a few folks, etc, etc.

we added about 6 miles by running in and out of the furthest string lake parking lot. this is so we could soak in string lake when we were done. jenny lake lodge just isn't close enough to the water. the route i planned started at junction of the cascade canyon trail and the valley view trail at the north west end of jenny lake and ran counter clockwise. we then headed up cascade canyon, over hurricane pass, down into alaska basin up buck and static pass then down into death canyon and onto the valley view trail past taggart and bradley lakes all the way north back to the junction of valley view and cascade canyon trail.. what a ride.

the stats:

• 33.7miles (40 mile total with string lake)
• 8,165 feet of elevation gain
• 9hr 10min 24sec total non stop clock for just the loop (not including the string lake section)

trevor, mike, me and melissa on string lake (1min into the run - we saw a black bear about 2mins later)

running toward jenny lake at 6:35am

heading up cascade canyon to hurricane pass (we saw a bull moose!)

heading up hurricane pass at 10,700 feet

mikey evans rockin' it with buck mtn in the background

mike and melissa running down from static peak

trevor navigating some dodgy terrain

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my gear:
my shoes: montrail streakswith teko ecopoly socks
electrolytes: nuun (orange ginger all the way)
backpack: Nathan HPL #020
bottles: thermal quickdraw
filtration: i got a chance to really test the new msr hyperflow
fuel: clif shots (still lovin' vanilla)
sunglasses: rudy project ekynox sx
jacket: the mountain hardwear ghost anorak
shorts: mountain hardwear dipsea short
my post run: amazing grass wheat grass