For many runners, finishing a marathon is a once-in-a-lifetime feat. For a smaller percentage, it’s a multiple-times-in-a-lifetime accomplishment. And for an even tinier group, it’s a multiple-times-in-a-day achievement.
Members of that last category include participants in the Grand 2 Grand Ultra (G2G), an annual 170-mile ultra race (an ultra distance is anything longer than 26.2 miles) that starts at the rim of the Grand Canyon and finishes at the Grand Staircase. The 2018 edition of G2G kicks off this Sunday, September 23, and will feature six brutal stages over seven days—including a double marathon on day three—for a total ascent of 18,041 feet. Even more impressive, the race is self-supported, which means athletes must supply their own food, equipment, and bedding—and carry it with them as they tackle the course in the Utah and Arizona desert.
“Make no mistake, it’s tough,” warns a tagline on the race website. Though "tough," is a relative term, in the context of this race, it’s undeniably an understatement. Participants run through narrow canyons and atop sand dunes, and climb up rock walls. They dodge local wildlife—like snakes, scorpions, and camel spiders—while battling dehydration, hunger, blisters, and the intense chafing that comes from running that far and that long. In other words, it’s an extremely demanding race, which requires an equally extreme level of preparation—physical, mental, and otherwise—to endure.
Pro ultrarunner Jax Mariash is up for the challenge. The 38-year-old Utah-based athlete hopes to win the female division of G2G, and with her impressive resume—in 2016, she became the first woman in the world to complete the 4 Deserts race series Grand Slam Plus, an ultra-endurance marathon series held in the largest deserts on the planet—she’s a top contender. We caught up with Mariash to learn more about what drives her and how she’s been prepping for this grueling course.
“I actually dropped her during the race and ended up getting a medal for the 8 and under age group,” Mariash tells SELF. “I feel in love with running from that day forward.” She ran cross-country and track in high school, and soon after, expanded her racing to include triathlons and duathlons (biking and running). She competed on the pro circuit for both triathlons and duathlons for nearly a decade.
But then, about 10 years ago, Mariash realized that she missed running by itself. So she pressed pause on her multi-sport lifestyle to focus exclusively on road running. She immersed herself in the local running community of her then home of Boulder, Colorado, and founded a local track club. After moving to Hood River, Oregon, and missing the camaraderie and motivation of Boulder’s tight-knit running community, she signed up for the 2013 Silver Falls 50K Ultra, a 31-mile local trail running race.
She ended up having a “really good time,” and got second place overall. “I thought, Maybe I’m good at this stuff, and that’s when my ultra career started,” Mariash says. In the time since, she’s traveled around the world, completing ultras in Antarctica, Sri Lanka, Gobi, Namibia, Chile, and elsewhere.
This past summer has been an especially busy racing season for Mariash. In August, she did the Leadville 100, a 100-mile, single-stage ultra in Colorado known for its high elevation and grueling climbs, and started the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), a 106-mile single-stage race around the highest mountain in the Alps, though she sprained her ankle at mile 2 and dropped from the race at mile 19.
Ten days before G2G, that ankle is still swollen from the sprain, but thanks to a combination of time spent in a compression boot, regular icing and elevating, physical therapy, and other treatments, she insists it’s “perfectly fine to run on.”
In addition to winning G2G, Mariash’s goal is to be one of first women to complete a self-supported stage race on every continent.
Mariash wakes up between 4:30 A.M. and 5 A.M. every day to squeeze in training alongside her day job (she’s the founder and owner of STOKED Roasters, a coffee brand with multiple retail shops). “Lately, I’ve sacrificed my social life a little bit,” she says. “Every day, my schedule is planned out to a T.”
To prepare for G2G, where she’ll be carrying a 22-pound backpack, Mariash has been wearing a 42-pound vest for 4 to 6 hours each day while she works, and occasionally, a 22-pound vest while she runs and hikes. Though her training is a bit off for this race because of her ankle injury, she typically aims for 3 hours of exercise a day, which includes a combination of running, hiking, biking, and strength training. With running, some days are interval training, some are short-to-medium distance (between 4 and 15 miles), and some are long (between 16 and 40 miles).
On the strength training front, she does bodyweight exercises for 10 minutes every day, focusing primarily on core, hip, and butt moves, like planks, push-ups, squats, and side shuffles.
In a self-supported stage race, “you can’t get away with just running,” says Mariash. You have to be strategic about the details—particularly what you put in your pack.
The ideal pack weighs no more than 7 kilograms (about 15.4 pounds), with water adding an additional 3 kilograms (about 6.6 pounds), says Mariash. The pack will get lighter as you go and use up your food supply.
Participants will bring required gear—items deemed necessary by the race officials include a sleeping bag designed for 32 F temps (or lower), a compass, whistle, small knife, two headlamps, an emergency blanket, food totaling at least 2,000 calories a day, and more—and then "luxury items." Mariash’s luxury items for this race include a therapy ball to roll out tight muscles, ankle tape for her recent injury, a pillow, hair ties, a comb, lotion, glitter eyeshadow (more on that in a minute), an iPod, and one extra outfit to change into at the end of each day.
Then, there are the “little tricks” that make the journey more bearable, says Mariash, like putting a special type of athletic tape on your shoulders and feet so that your backpack and socks won’t cause chafing. “If you get chafing out there, you are screwed,” she says. “You are trying to prevent it in any way possible.”
In an ultra race, particularly an ultra stage race, “there will always be adversity,” says Mariash. “But how you deal with it is what will make you come out on top.”
To prepare herself for the inevitable challenges ahead, Mariash has been meditating every night as part of her training. “I pick a different affirmation and visualize success and winning,” she says of these sessions. “Mind training is as important as physical training.”
Her overall strategy is to eliminate self-doubt. “The second you doubt yourself, you give them [your competitors] the race.”
When you race in such tough conditions for such a long period of time, there are periods when it “gets dark in your mind,” says Mariash. In these moments, pep talks may not be enough, and runners must find other ways to pull themselves back into a positive mindset. Her solution is to “supercharge” herself with small trinkets, like the unicorn (her favorite animal) and Wonder Woman (her alter ego) patches that she fastens onto her Camelbak for mid-race inspiration. She’s also considering getting glitter nails ahead of time and wearing rainbow glitter eyeshadow and warpaint every day during the race for an added pick-me-up.
Music can be another powerful motivator, says Mariash. She’ll turn to her iPod when she wants to “jam out and run fast,” listening to everything from electronic to pop to “old school stuff,” like “Shoop” by Salt-N-Pepa.
With running, you feel “really free,” says Mariash. “The human body taking you to beautiful places is so cool.” She loves the self-sufficiency of long runs, where “everything you need is on your back,” and "you’re out in nature." For Mariash, running, even with all of its dark and painful moments, provides "a place of solitude, peace, and meditation,” she says. “It’s like going to play outside.”
