MICHAEL Cenir of Saipan reached a personal milestone after completing the 50-mile Bryce Canyon Ultra Marathon with a time of 15 hours, 36 minutes and 46 seconds.
Michael Cenir takes on the Bryce Canyon Ultra Marathon on May 29, 2021 in Hatch, Utah.
He finished first in the men’s 20-24 age group and was 151st overall.
Held on May 29-30 in Hatch, Utah, the marathon started at Proctor Canyon before climbing 700ft over the next two miles.
The route then followed the Grandview Trail for three miles with another climb of 1,000ft followed by a break off the Grandview Trail, doubling back with approximately 800ft of vertical gain and loss.
After passing through Blue Fly Aid, the route took the runners to a gradual downhill slope (15.6 miles) and toward East Fork Aid for another three miles.
Runners completed 24.5 miles as they reached the aid station in Coyote Hollow Trailhead and made their way to Thunder Mountain Trail T’s into the Grandview Trail (31 miles).
Cenir and the rest of the competition then headed out to a 5-mile loop on the Golden Wall Trail with about 1,400ft of climbing and descent. After passing through Red Canyon aid station for the second time, the route headed south along Grandview Trail to another aid station in Hillsdale Canyon for 42.9 miles with the bottom of the plateau filled with constant ups and downs and over 800ft of climbing.
The final stretch had runners in a similar terrain — 1,000ft of climbing over 7 miles to their final aid station. From there, the race went downhill to the finish line at the bottom of the canyon.
“It was really tough,” Cenir said. “Coming into the race, I didn’t expect the course to be that hard. My total ascent (elevation change) by the end of the race was 7,445ft.”
He started strong, but gradually the hills kept getting steeper and steeper. “Despite the harsh course, I maintained a strong mentality by continuing to tell myself to go one more. After successfully climbing up each hill and making it to the summit, there in the distance I saw yet another hill but I’d have to run on.”
There were 11 aid stations throughout the course, and there were also designated stations where runners could leave “drop bags” which contained gear.
“That was very important because I used the bag to drop my cold weather gear once it got hot. At the beginning of the race, it was in the low 40 degrees,” Cenir said.
He trained for the marathon for six months and because he is a servicemember, he was already in good shape.
“What also helped motivate me during my training was joining the Saipan Runners Club on Strava. Seeing the other runners putting in the work, motivated me to keep working hard as well,” Cenir said.
“The marathon was a very humbling experience. Yet it was great as well because I was able to keep pace with other runners on the course who were feeling the same pain I was feeling. What’s really awesome is that the runners on the course cheered each other on.”
Cenir graduated from Marianas High School in 2016 and played basketball with the Rollers Basketball Club for four years. After high school, he joined the U.S. Army, got his bachelor’s degree at the University of New Mexico and is now serving as a military intelligence officer for the Arizona Army National Guard while working full time as an assurance associate of PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the nation’s big four accounting firms.
