The Phoenix Summit Challenge

It was 9.15 pm when I headed to bed on Friday night. After roughly one hour of packing water bottles, peanut butter loaded bagels, energy gels and other "performance enhancement drinks", I said goodnight to Mike and the kids and headed off to what I envisioned being a full night of sleep. In spite of my desires, I found myself being woken up by my four year old at approximately 12.30 am. No matter Mike's efforts to persuade him, this four year old was not going to back to bed without a fight! Alas, I found myself twisting and turning in bed until almost three. Just when I had reached a level of peaceful slumber my alarm went off ...

Fifteen minutels later I found myself driving on autopilot to Lisa's house from where our journey was to begin. It was 5.15 am and we were now driving toward Papago Park West Buttes; my eyes still swollen from lack of sleep, my body refusing to accept that this was but the beginning of an 11 hour journey. Why all the preparation, the lack of sleep? The answer : The Phoenix Summit Challenge.

The City of Phoenix, along with several sponsors, has been putting together this event for the last 3 of 4 years. As the name describes it, it is a challenge to yourself and not a race but you are given 11 hours to complete it, our goal was to do it in less than 10. Upon registration, you receive a passport which explains in detail the location, elevation gain and distance for each of the 7 summits. You are to carry this passport with you at all times as it will serve as a ticket for reserved parking, food, water stations, van shuttle and a celebration dinner at the Phoenix Zoo. Our passports were to be stamped at the summit of each mountain and we had to check in and out of the mountain. For one day, my name ceased to be and I became #143.

At exactly 6 am and after having been reminded several times that this was not a race, we started the first climb. Papago had an elevation gain of 200 ft and it 3 miles long. We completed it in approx 30'57".

It is now close to 7 am and we are the Shemer Art Center from where we were shuttled to Camelback Mountain. With an elevation gain of 1,300 ft and 2.2 miles this baby is no piece of cake, particularly the way down but we did in just over an hour.

At around 9.15 am we summited Piestewa Peak, our third mountain. We took a two minute picture break and run down the mountain. At this point we were finally able to take our first break, which consisted of a 20 minute car ride to South Mountain. A precious peanut butter bagel awaited me in the car, it seemed I hardly had time to eat it and we were already at the parking lot of our next mountain and the longest of them all: South Mountain Preserve and all of the 7 miles up Holbert Trail and the paved Summit Road to Gila Valley Lookout.

We started Holbert at a fast pace and about 10 minutes into it, my body started sending messages which I refused to hear. I was feeling light headed, loosing my balance, it felt like it was an uphill death march. I stopped , gulped an energy gel and slowed down my pace. For the time being, instead of me following Lisa's insane pace, she would have to follow mine. Needless to say, we made it to the top of our fourth mountain! The slower pace and the additional carbs gave me a burst of energy so we run down the mountain but I was starting to not like this. I wanted to quit ... we were so close to home, barely two miles!

A short bathroom break later we were back in the car now headed north for the last 3 mountains. Lisa's car was a refuge , even though it was quickly starting smell of sweaty clothes and wet socks, it contained food, cold water, energy gels and more "performance enhancing drinks" AND what soon would be my new two favorite things : shot blocks with caffeine and ibuprofen!

Although the last three mountains were considerably smaller in altitude and distance, the pain in my legs , lower back and feet was growing in reversed proportion. The fifth mountain was Lookout Mountain and it was merely a mile long. The end was in sight and high on caffeine and ibuprofen we were running down it, knowing that it would take everything we had left to make it up Shaw Butte, our sixth summit.

It was roughly 2.45 pm when we reached our sixth summit and 8 hours and 45 minutes after we began our quest. Strangely enough, my body was still feeling well so once more we run down the mountain and headed to the last summit.
We were only 1.6 miles and 615 feet from completing our challenge...during the last 0.8 miles to the summit I could only recount where I had already been. In in my mind I recalled all those people that we kept running into... those with whom we had developed camaraderie. We greeted each other, cheered each other and then congratulated each other . Our total hiking time was 6.45" and cumulative time 9.43". We did it!

Now, a couple days later, I am still sore. I can't yet go down stairs without having pain and as I do, I recall that one night 10 years ago when after a long week of hikes and work outs I was complaining to Mike (then just my boyfriend) about my aches and he said - "Girl, you are whining to the wrong guy. I am in the business of making people hurt"! You all should know this has not changed. At this is how I climbed Phoenix' Seven Summits and I will probably do it again!

To view pictures click here.