Hayden Hawks: The Beast of Black Canyon Hayden Hawks: The Beast of Black Canyon

I’ve just been reading about Utah, and it turns out you guys use some interesting words.

Oh, yeah. Utah is a unique place. 

The ye olde word Ornery gets thrown around a lot, right? 

Yeah, we don’t say Ornery, though—we say Awnery. Some other weird ones are, like, instead of saying Mountain, we’ll say Mou-in. We take out the T—

You just ditch the T?

Ditch the T, and a Creek is a Crick. 

I actually wrote a list of Utah words. Let me read them out and you say what they mean.

Okay.

Spendy.

Spendy?

Yeah.

Spendy means, like... Does it mean expensive?

I guess. I don’t know. I just saw it on reddit. What about ‘Oh, my heck’? That’s a thing, isn’t it?

We say ‘Oh my’ for everything, man. Utah is a big Mormon state; there’s tons of Mormons, and they typically don’t swear. So, instead of ‘Hell,’ they’ll say ‘Heck.’ Or they’ll use words like ‘Shiz’ or ‘Flip.’

What about Sluffs?

Sluffs?

Yeah.

I don’t know that one, bro.

Jockey Box?

Jockey Box?!

[laughter]

I’ve never heard that one either.

Man, this is going really bad. What about ‘Biffed’?

Biffed is like if you fall down or you mess up something—you biffed it.

Zoobies?

Zoobies?

Zoobies. I sound like I’m making them up now. 

Nah, never heard of Zoobies... But I’m in Southern Utah, and Northern Utah is completely different to Southern Utah.

That means all my fun ice-breaker questions are biffed. You grew up in Utah. Are your folks from Utah?

Yeah, my parents are originally from Utah; they're from near Park City. But my dad joined the Navy straight out of high school, so they moved around a ton—we lived in Virginia, we lived in California, different places.

Lots of different schools?

Yeah.

Having to change schools often and make new friends, was that good for your confidence? You seem like a pretty poised dude.

Yeah, I'd say so. But I also think that's just something my dad instilled in us when we were younger, like, confidence and a strong work ethic, you know; you don't get anything for free, and you need to make sure that you're putting in a solid effort each and every day.

Right, right.

Like, if my dad came home from work and me and my brother were sitting on the couch watching TV, he'd be like, ‘Come on, boys, we're going outside to go do something.’ 

What kind of stuff would you do?

Well, my dad would take us out into the mountains for a week at a time, and we’d just have to go out there and survive. 

You mean he’d just drop off in the woods to fend for yourself?

[Laughs] No, no. He would just make us do everything, like, he wasn't the kind of person that did everything for us. We had to learn how to do stuff for ourselves. And I feel like that made me who I am today. We'd go out and do these big hunting or fishing trips where we would backpack from lake to lake, you know, fly fishing the whole time. So, I kind of grew up loving the mountains, loving the outdoors, and spending a lot of time with my dad and my brother. And I still like being outside as much as possible. If I'm indoors too long, I get super stir-crazy.

Sounds like you had a similar upbringing to Scott Jurek—he grew up fishing and hunting. I told you how he said he’d had a dream where he was running alongside you at Hardrock or something, right?

Yeah! He’s such a good dude. He's actually stood up for me a couple of times, which is pretty cool. 

How?

Like, I got called out right before Western States [in 2024] for being too competitive; they took this quote out of context and said something like, ‘Hayden Hawks doesn't want any friends on race day. He's here to win.’ And people kind of took this the wrong way. But then they interviewed Scott the next day, and he was like, ‘Dude, I back Hayden, because that's how you should be, like, you should have that competitive fire, that competitive spirit. That's what makes the sport.’ And then he was like, ‘You should’ve heard the things that me and Hal Koerner and these other legends of the sport used to say to each other before Western States. We didn't have media to cover it back then, but we were super-competitive and were saying way worse stuff than this.’

That’s so cool.

Yeah, man, I was like, ‘That’s so cool. Thanks for standing up for me.’ I really respect Scott a lot. He’s just a good example of someone who’s not only a good athlete but also a good person.

He rules. Okay, so congrats on a great 2024 with UTMB and Black Canyon.

Thanks, dude. 

I really wanna focus on Black Canyon because this is our Arizona issue, so I have a few questions to help our readers win it in 2025.

Okay.

So, maybe we start with the obvious differences between UTMB and Black Canyon? I mean, Black Canyon is a desert race, right? UTMB is a mountain race.

Yeah, and Black Canyon is a lot more runnable. You're running through the heart of the Arizona desert, through the cactuses, and it's just a really cool race and course in general. And it's fast. I mean, it's fast from the gun. Like, you get a lot of young guys coming into Black Canyon, and it’s their first 100K, and they’re coming from the track, or they're coming from road running, and they have a ton of speed. So, they’re just hammering it from the start. And you're like, ‘What is going on?’ Like, ‘Are we running a marathon today? What are we doing?’ 

But wait, you busted out in front of the start, right? 

I wasn't in the front, man. I was maybe top 10, top 15 somewhere. There was this guy, though, I forgot his name, this young guy who just took off on like one of the initial downhills, busting out like five-minute miles. And this was like, you know, mile 10 or mile 15 into the race. And I was like, ‘What are we doing, guys? We got we got 60 miles to run!’

[laughter]

But I came on at the last 40K, and I actually think where I ran the fastest split ever was from 60K to 100K, and that's kind of where I broke open and won the race.

There was a two-hour delay at the start, right?

Yeah.

How did you deal with that? I know from my own experience that delays at the starting line are anxiety-inducing because everyone is already nervous to begin with.

I don't know, man, I'm a pretty chill guy. I don't really get too nervous. Like, I get nerves, of course, everybody does. But I think I've been in the sport for so long and I've learned how to control them. 

Right.

So, that morning, I woke up, started getting breakfast, started preparing to drive up for the race, and then I got the message that it was going to be delayed for two hours or whatever it was, so I just went back to sleep.

[laughter]

No shit? You went back to sleep?

Yeah. I'm not a morning person, to be completely honest with you. I was kind of happy because I think it got pushed from, like, a 7 AM start to a 9 AM start, and that's usually when I run, like, nine or ten o'clock. So, I was like, Hey, this is perfect, man. And it also worked in my favor because it was warmer by 9 AM, and I don't really like running in the cold.

You’re not a morning person?

No, not at all.

Would you describe yourself as a little ornery in the morning?

[laughter]

‘Awnery’. Yeah, I don't know. You should ask my wife, see what she says.

[laughter]

Okay, help me win Black Canyon. How do I train? What’s the best strategy?

Well, I think the race is won or lost in the last 40K. So, if you don't have legs at Black Canyon City, which is the 60K mark, you're screwed. You're not going to be able to win the race. And this is the thing about Black Canyon: the first 60K is very runnable. The last 40K is pretty mountainous; that's where all the hills are, and that's where strength comes into play. So, I think a lot of people go into Black Canyon with tons of leg speed, and they're running on the roads, and they're running on the flat—and that's like somewhat necessary to be able to be comfortable in the first 60K—but I would say don't forget to do vert.

Don’t skip the hills.

Right. Don't forget to get up in the mountains. Have fun. Keep some vert in your training and don't forget your strength, because that strength element is so important, even in a fast, runnable race like Black Canyon, because the last 40K of that race is strength. If you don't have leg strength, if you can't climb and descend really well, you're not going to do well at that race.

And that’s where you excelled in 2024.

Yeah, I trained both elements, and also, like, I'm a I'm a mountain guy, I really like being in the mountains.

What are you pressing at the moment?

What am I pressing?

Yeah, on the leg press, bro. What are you pressing?

[laughter]

I meant like strength with running, bro, like hill repeats.

[laughter]

No, I am strength training. I train three days a week. But, you know, I guess I'm pressing like, I don’t know, five hundred pounds.

[laughter]

Did you know you were going to break the course record, or was that a happy surprise?

It was a bit of a happy surprise because they did change up the course a little because of the weather and stuff. 

They changed it?

Yeah, they had to, which made it a little bit long and added a little bit more elevation gain. So, I was like, I don't know if the course record is possible now because the course is a little longer than I thought it’d be.

Oh, so were you thinking about the course record before the race?

Well, I thought it was possible because I had actually gone down and done some recce on the course about three or four weeks before. I ran like the first 60K at course record pace as a training run before Black Canyon, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm in good shape.’ It felt really comfortable to do that. But then when they had to change the course, and when I saw the weather was just going to be terrible...

How bad was the weather?

It was probably some of the worst weather ever for Black Canyon. It was really cold to start and windy, and there was snow on the ground. So, I wasn’t sure it’d be possible. But, yeah, I was really happy to get the course record at the end. I mean, I barely got it, but nonetheless, I got it. To be completely honest with you, though, I think course records are a bit irrelevant in trail running because the courses change so much. Like, UTMB has changed so many times—how do you expect to get a course record on a course that's changed?

It is a bit blurry when you think about it.

I just focused on winning, man. I go out there, I focus on putting my best effort out there, running my own race, seeing what I'm capable of doing. And yeah, like, maybe I have a plan and some time goals, but I don't really like to focus on that. I focus more on my fuelling; I focus on the little elements that really make the biggest difference and I see what happens. And it seems like any time I've focused on trying to get a course record in the past, it never worked out.

Really?

Yeah, and when I actually don't focus on it and just go out there and have fun and race and push and compete—that's when it always comes.

Tell me about your fuel strategy.

Well, I think we’re seeing this high-carb thing going on right now in the sport, and it really does work. Like, I think at Black Canyon, I averaged around 110 grams of carbohydrates per hour, which is a pretty high number, but I think if you can really get your fueling down, it'll help you, especially because, as I said, that second part of the race is so much more difficult than the first. So, if you're on top of your fueling in the first part, you can do well in the second part. 

Right. So, fueling and strength is key.

Yeah, and I think all you can really do is run to your fitness and what you've done in your training, y’know? If your fitness level is high enough, that's all you can control, so just, like, enjoy it, man. I mean, it's pretty cool running through the Saguaros and the cactuses and seeing the desert—the desert is so different, right? Like, I think a lot of the time our sports is so focused on mountains, and it's like, yeah, mountains are great—I love the mountains, I live in the mountains—but the desert has so much beauty in it of itself that people forget about. And it has such a cool history and everything else. And it's pretty cool to take that all in and really experience it.

So, train well, figure out your fueling, and then just enjoy the scenery.

Yeah, just enjoy yourself. It's beautiful out there.

How was it coming back and racing again after knee surgery and, for readers who might not know, what was wrong with your knee?

I had a patellar tendon issue. At 2023 Western States, I fell. Well, I kind of had the injury coming in before that. I had this really bad patellar tendonitis that I couldn't figure out. There was this little bump that developed underneath my patellar tendon, and I was like, ‘Man, what's going on?’ Anyways, at Western States [2023], I fell in the high country and smashed my knee into a rock, and I felt something go. And the pain in my knee became really, really bad, like, pretty much unbearable. I walked the next 30 miles, just trying to grit it out, trying to find a way to finish the race and see if I could stay in contention for top ten or something. But I just couldn't.

That sucks.

Yeah, I ended up just walking a large portion of it and then finally got to Michigan Bluff, and they pretty much told me I needed to drop out, but I had to make the decision. So, I was like, yeah, I think I'm done. Anyways, I went into surgery after that, and ended up being a blessing in disguise because they took some MRIs and some X-Rays, and they found I had this massive bone spur that was popping up underneath my patellar tendon. It was just rubbing on my patellar tendon.

Ugh.

So, any time I bent my knee, it would just rub on the tendon. And when I fell, I actually fractured that spur.

Oh, perfect! 

Yeah, so we ended up doing surgery where they cut the patellar tendon and went in and shaved it all off. They took the fractured piece out. And we were hoping that it would bring [the knee] back to normal, and, yeah, it's been great. I'm still dealing with a little tendonitis here and there, and I do strength training and work through it, but it's a lot better than it was before.

Did they let you keep the spur after they removed it?

[laughter]

No, they didn’t.

See, that’s bullshit. You grew the damn thing—you should be allowed to keep it.

Exactly. I could’ve made a little necklace with it or nice bracelet.

[laughter]

So, are you heading back to Black Canyon this year?

Nah, I'll actually be in New Zealand from January to March. 

Doing what?

We're going down there to escape the winter. I got a good buddy that comes and trains with me here in Utah, Dan Jones. He's like a pro as well; runs for Adidas. He was fourth at Western States and fourth at CCC.

Cool.

Yeah, so me and him are good friends, and we’re going down to New Zealand. This is my second time down there soaking up the sun, training, getting fit, doing a bit of diving, and, yeah, just escaping the hard winter here in Utah. Actually, right before New Zealand, I'm going down to Costa Rica for a week to do this really cool film project to help out these kids down there. Hoka is like donating a whole bunch of shoes to these Indigenous kids in Costa Rica, and we're going to be doing workshops and teaching people about health and wellness. There's a lot of opportunities outside of just winning in this sport, and I feel like that's something I've tried to take advantage of in my career.

Nice one. 

Yeah, it’s pretty cool.