Ryan Hall leads a group of ultrarunners through 21-25 miles of Grand Canyon terrain, discussing pacing, heart rate data, and custom gear while navigating steep descents and river crossings. Hall's heart rate peaks at 200 bpm during the run, and the team tests PATH Projects apparel and a custom-cuff trail shoe inspired by Nike and Hoka designs.
Chapters
Trying to keep up with Ryan Hall in the Grand Canyon. Didn't we say no 5-minute miles, Ryan? So sick, dude. How are the quads? Ooh, they are cooked, my friend.
We were the last people to see Brian.
Yeah.
Time for another snack. Yeah, boys! You get it.
I've done this 10 times in the last 10 weeks, and I am stoked for today. Oh, I love it. I was like, I can't even picture getting a blister in these shoes. It feels like it would be perfect.
That's Thomas's idea right there.
Yeah, the upper is— like, I love these shoes. They feel nice, and they're perfect for the canyon. Thomas, how Apprehensive but excited, I guess.
Looking forward to— it's like I'm already thinking about the finish.
We haven't even started yet.
I know, like, let's see some mountains and some canyon walls and have a couple beers and we'll be good.
Yeah, I shouldn't be in front.
I was getting caught up in the big conversation.
Official starting point.
One of my favorite things about nature is being out when it's totally quiet and still and you get out into the night and flip your headlamp off. First, you connect with the canyon in silence. You learn to listen. One minute, we're just gonna sit in silence. Don't say anything, don't do anything, just be here, completely here. And then we flip on our headlamps. You guys follow me down. We run the first mile and then we just connect with the canyon and then we get to Ooh Ahh Point and then it's just like party time. That's the way. What do you guys think?
Good.
Yeah, we started in the dark and then just here when it started. Sun is rising 3 miles into the canyon. How we're feeling? Dude, I'm getting hit with some heavy, like, spiritual energy. Oh, it is like freaking— I don't know, there's no words, bro. I don't know.
So all the vibrations in our atmosphere are getting funneled down, and now you're going below Earth's surface, honey. So you're getting like stuff that's like being filtered a lot more than normal. I've had experiences out here where I was with someone and he described the exact vibrational tone in the exact place that I was, but we were there at different times.
Really?
Yeah.
And I didn't tell him about it at all. And I went through that same place and I heard the same exact sound.
What a trip.
Yeah.
Like hold on to the main—
what you're—
and I know places where you can go.
So sick, dude. This is nice that you're actually able to run it now. Ryan, what are you at heart rate-wise now?
156.
Yeah, that's inaccurate. That's inaccurate. What's your max?
I think I get my heart rate to about 200 still.
Damn, that's wild.
If my legs aren't fresh, way less than that.
Yeah.
Dude, I'm feeling that high pitch now, what you're talking about. Totally had like a high-pitched noise.
Just hit you out of nowhere, huh?
Yeah, just right there. What was it?
Did you hear it?
I don't hear it. Not right now.
How many feet have we descended now?
Almost 5,000.
Yeah, I think it's like 48 in like 7 miles. Yeah, 8. Yeah, hey, don't shortchange it. That's the problem. We all have different numbers. All right, made it to Phantom Ranch. We're about 8 miles in right now. I will say we're going a bit faster than I was thinking. So there's two groups right now. There's a fast group in the front, and I don't know why I'm in the fast group. How you feeling, Dave? Doing great, man. Yeah, I got a beautiful morning. Look at them flying. Love it. That was fun. Excellent. That's a bit of a downhill. A little bit. It could have been steeper.
How the quads?
Oh, they are cooked, my friend. Absolutely cooked.
Tried ice cream.
I run, I'm a sugar person. The rest of the day I'm not.
Peeps in the car. All right, let's do a group shot. Beautiful trail.
Rhythm Falls.
There we go.
Look at that.
Epic, epic waterfalls here.
Wow.
Wow. That was impressive. It really feels like you're alive and awake. Yeah, Brian. Yeah, yeah, good job, guys. Yeah, we made it. How's that feel, Matt? That was worth every, every step. Yeah, back there to get to this. Yeah, Thomas, tell me a little bit about this collapse here.
Oh, It's like a dream come true. Actually, I'm really impressed with the way it's working. The cushioning is perfect for today, and the cuff really makes that fit that I was hoping for. It's lightweight. I mean, it feels good. We made it all the way here. We're like mile 14 and a half and ready to get the rest of the trip done.
How long did it take to develop the shoe? Because you guys have been working on it for a while. Not really.
I sketched it out last fall, August, went to China in September. There's a prototype. We tweaked a couple little things, but not much to fix. And then before you knew it, it was in production.
What was the whole thought process with the— what do you even call it?
I, I just call it cuff. Yeah, but you know, some people call it a built-in gaiter or something like that. But my thought process was like, there's two of my favorite shoes that had them. The Nike Lunar Epic early on, I really enjoyed the, uh, Hoka Tecton 2.0. And all of those shoes had a cuff and all of them fit so well and so perfectly that I was like, if I ever get a chance to give input to a shoe, especially something on the trail, I'm throwing a cuff on it. But I think it works great for the road too.
That's good. Yeah, no, no rocks, no dirt in the shoes.
That's amazing.
Yeah, the cuff really helps keep it— keep your foot clean and keep it comfortable. That's nice. We are trying to figure out where the route is, Thomas. Oh, come on. All right, boys, another thing you don't want to hear.
Oh, that's deep.
Yeah, this is not the way we got here.
Whoa, and there's rocks. There's big fucking rocks.
I'm waiting for that snake like in Star Wars to grab me.
Knees up. Got a camera on you.
Got to have the right form. So we're at Phantom Ranch right now. Everyone is here except for Ryan. So we thought he might be here, but he might have gone further to the higher waterfall. So that's the lemonade after 6.5 hours in the Grand Canyon, 21 miles in. How does it taste? I don't know lemonade could taste this good, but here we go.
Cheers!
Same here, man. Dude, what happened? And then we saw these guys.
Remember when I saw you and I was like, hey, I'm gonna go to the waterfall?
Okay, well, yeah, but then at one point we're like, this is very steep.
Yeah, I went up that way, it wasn't that way. Then I ran into some people on the way out and they showed me a map and showed that goes left.
All right, all is good. We literally, like, the first group just got out. Yeah, we just sent all them back. We're just honestly happy to see you. Yeah. Oh dude, I'm happy to be here. It is really starting to heat up right now. And so before we make the big climb, what we're gonna do is jump in the river to cool ourselves down. It will truly help get the body temperature down, but it will also help get our clothing wet, so it keeps us significantly longer cool. I'm ready to go.
Dude, definitely, it's way better. It's way better. With a wet shirt going up.
There we go. I don't know about—
uh, yeah, I mean, 7. All right, we just had a little river dip and it feels nice and cold now. And we are making our way back up. The river is all the way down. It's wild how quickly the gear is drying, and it's warming up rapidly. So taking our time, mostly hiking it back up right now. We are 25 miles into the Grand Canyon. Wearing the Wadi hooded sun shirt keeps the sun out, keeps it really, really cool. We dipped it in the river, felt nice. What a special experience here in the Grand Canyon. So we're out here because friends from Believe in the Run and Mount the Coast launched a collaboration shoot together and they decided to go into the canyon, the Grand Canyon, to celebrate and go on an epic 50K run. Brought Ryan Hall. I was excited to tag along, outfit everyone with PATH Projects head to toe. So we had the Wadi long sleeve hooded shirt, but the Saguaro hat, Pat Projects shorts, baseliners or running tights. It was really cool seeing everyone run the same outfits with the same shoes and just experiencing a day together in the canyon. This was absolutely one for the books. Oh, nice work! Nice work, man. Thomas survived. Yeah, Dave survived. How we doing, Ryan?
Couldn't be better.
Excellent. How we doing? Great. Well deserved, well deserved. Cheers! Cheers! Thanks. Nice work, everyone. Yes, thank you guys. Thanks, Ryan.
