In this monthly article series, ultrarunner, race director, and coach Gabe Joyes answers reader questions about anything and everything running. Learn more about this ask-the-athlete column, and be sure to fill out the form below to submit your questions for a future article!
This month Gabe answers questions about satellite messaging devices, when to DNF, how trail speed translates to road, and more.
Gabe’s Tip of the Month
Are you interested in improving your technical trail running skills? Try playing a game of “hop rock!” See how gracefully you can cruise your way down a rocky trail while only stepping on rocks. Hop, dance, leap, and put all of your agility and strength to the test. I recommend doing this exercise only in short bursts (30 to 60 seconds at a time), but if you are feeling brave it can also be fun to have some friendly competition with a friend and see who can make it the furthest with only hopping on rocks.
Jenny Joyes hop-rocking in Val Veny above Courmayeur, Italy. All photos courtesy of Gabe Joyes.
Using a Garmin InReach
I keep hearing that carrying a Garmin InReach or something like that is essential for mountain running. I also recently heard about a climber in Joshua Tree National Park who wasn’t able to get their InReach to work. How necessary are they and how can we be prepared to use these tools safely? — Shelbie
Mountain running adventures frequently take place in remote areas that have little to no cell phone reception at all, so if you desperately need to get in touch with the outside world a Garmin InReach (or similar satellite messenger product) is incredibly valuable. I had a very unpleasant and life threatening accident a few years ago, where only a single bar of phone service saved my life — all while my InReach sat uselessly in my car at the trailhead. However, satellite messaging is not perfect. Most of us are accustomed to rapidly text messaging through our phones, with messages sending and receiving almost instantly. Satellite messaging does not work nearly as well — first, your InReach has to connect to three different satellites to triangulate your location, and landscape features like mountains, canyons, tall trees, etc., all can block your InReach’s view of those satellites. Once you are connected to three satellites, then your message has to travel to space, and then back down to your recipient. This can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, from my experience.
There are also a few places in the world where there is a high degree of GPS interference, but this is something I have never experienced. More importantly to note, there are also a number of countries where the devices are banned, and a number of runners and hikers traveling to India in particular have been arrested for carrying one of these devices through an airport. There is also a human component to this as well — it is easy to believe that all you have to do is turn on your InReach, press the “SOS” button, and everything will be okay. But in reality, that SOS button does not communicate any information about what situation you are in, what resources are needed to help you out, and other variables. Even if you are able to send a message for help, it is absolutely essential to be prepared to manage the situation yourself until help arrives.
In all likelihood, the time scale here is hours, not minutes. So, is something like a Garmin InReach worth it? I’d say absolutely it is worth it, because even a slow and tedious way of calling for help is dramatically better than no way to call for help at all — trust me on this.
“I waited an agonizing 90 minutes for help to arrive.” The author, having sustained a potentially life-threatening injury while on a run.
DNF or Slog it Out
If you are having a horrible race, do you think it is wiser to DNF and save the legs and energy for another day? Or, slog it to the finish in a time that’s not nearly as fast as you are capable of? — Michael
There is probably a time and a place where both of these approaches make sense. First we have to wrap our brains around why we are having a below expectations race. Acute injury or illness? Poor pacing or inadequate nutrition strategy? Or, is it really just a reflection of where our fitness is at, and a tough-to-take reality check? We also need to check in with our goals for the event, and how this event fits in the grand scheme or life.
Scenario 1: You are running a 50-mile race two months before your goal 100-mile race of the year, and your objective for the day was to have a challenging and long training run. By mile 35, you are a hot, shriveled, and dehydrated mess, that can barely move without cramping and/or throwing up. Your ambitiously chosen light blue running shorts also have a suspicious stain in the back. The 50-mile race is close to home on familiar trails with relatively low financial investment. Does it make sense to DNF this one? Perhaps. It would make sense to bow out in order to avoid what would likely be a very long recovery, to be honest about the mistakes that were made, and to come up with a plan to avoid those same mistakes at the upcoming 100-mile. Also, keep in mind that it is not a requirement to explain this to all your friends in a long Instagram or Strava post.
Scenario 2: You traveled across the country, or even to another continent, and you are racing in an absolute bucket list of an event. Perhaps you ate a few too many croissants, or perhaps those Italian runners are just that much faster than you, but either way you feel awful and like you can’t possibly go on. However, you trained hard for this event, took time off of work, your partner took time off of work to support you, spent a ton of money just to be there, and ultimately, you came here for an experience somewhere new and different. Definitely time to suck it up and finish here, my friend — even if your ego and UltraSignup or performance index takes a hit. In this scenario, also keep in mind that it is not a requirement to justify your “slow” finish to all your friends on Instagram or Strava either.
Attempting to manage a highly disappointing day (and subsequent DNF) at the 2023 The Canyons 100 Mile.
Trail to Road
Does trail running translate to faster road running? — Julia
I wish this was true! Unfortunately, the opposite is more accurate, to a certain extent. Trail running and road running might look similar at first glance, but so do tennis and ping pong. There is some overlap in skill, but truly they are just different sports with some crossover potential. Former Olympic marathoner Kara Goucher can make ticking off 5:30 minute/miles look casual, but after finishing the 2019 Leadville Marathon in fifth place called it the “hardest thing I ever accomplished.” Does that mean the first through fourth place Leadville Marathon finishers could bust out a road marathon faster than Kara’s 2:24 PR? I’d say that’s extremely unlikely.
Elite trail runners are fast, but have another level of strength, agility, and balance that elite road runners lack, simply because that is not a demand of their sport. Elite road runners will have another high-end gear for speed that elite trail runners just do not have either. The takeaway is that even though many readers here will drastically prefer running on trails compared to roads, spending some time on roads, or smooth mellow trails, can be a great way to get a little more pep in your step.
Max King is an excellent example of a speedy track runner applying those skills to the trails.
Opportunities for Growth
I have followed your remote adventures and mountain races for over a decade. Where do you see opportunities for personal growth today? — Jakub
I see opportunities for personal growth everywhere — I have never completed a race, event, fastest known time attempt, etc. where I thought, I absolutely nailed that one perfectly. This is especially true with 100-mile races, and even though I have stepped away from those the last couple of years, running 100 miles to my full potential is an alluring goal that still keeps me up at night.
The runners I admire most — from a performance perspective — are versatile and perform well over a variety of distances and terrain. I love the idea of trying to race every standard distance from the vertical kilometer to 200 miles — I could be described as “200-mile curious” — in a calendar year, and performing well at all of them.
Beyond that, I have concerns about our national parks and wild spaces being loved to death, and I have ambitions to embark on runs that highlight some of the most remote and least visited areas of U.S. wildlands.
An adventure run with Jeff Mogavero in a remote corner of Yellowstone National Park, where we bumped into more grizzly bears than people.
Submit Your Questions
Send us your questions! Use the form below, or send us a message on Instagram, and we’ll consider your questions for future articles.
Call for Comments
- How did you like Gabe’s answers to this month’s questions?
- What else would you like to see covered in this column?
