Just a heads up – from about 2020 onward the posts on this blog are much less frequent. Keeping it up to date is just too time consuming. Big adventure runs still get posts…sometimes. But the “places” tags aren’t as comprehensive as they once were.
After years of staring up at the ridgeline extended south from the Mount Timpanogos summit and curving southeast up Provo Canyon, I finally traversed it. It was significantly rougher going than the ridgeline that extends north from the summit. The day was beautiful but I moved slow and the hours took their toll. In the end it was about 17 miles with over 6,000 ft. of climbing. Map and route details on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15642067179
Robert’s Horn looms over the Mt. Timpanogos Trail from Aspen Grove and I’ve passed by it many times on my way to the main summit. Today, I decided to forego the Timp summit and to do this subpeak. It was great to get away from the crowds. Once I broke off from the main trail just past Emerald Lake I had the mountain to myself and didn’t see another person until I got to the Primrose Overlook. How did I get there? After summiting Robert’s Horn I followed the ridgeline north for a little over a mile and then turn east to follow a diverging ridgeline down to the overlook. A bit schwhacky at places, but gorgeous. My plan had been to then take the Hartsky’s Cutoff back down to the Timpanogos Trail and then follow that back down to Aspen Grove. However, I was low on water, it was getting warm, and the cutoff “trail” looked very overgrown. I’ll get that another day, perhaps. I instead took the Horseflat and Lame Horse Trails back down to the Aspen Grove trailhead.
Another birthday outing present to myself. This time I eschewed the main Timpanogos Summit and shwhacked my way up to East Peak – a seldom-visited spot on the east flank of the Timpanogos massif. Accessing it from the Aspen Grove trail was easy. Instead of going back the way I came, I descended southeast off the saddle below East Peak into the Stewart Falls drainage below Big Provo Hole and Cascade Cirque. If the descent down from the saddle hadn’t taken so long I would have gone up into one of those two. The “trail” down from there connects with the Stewart Falls trail but it is really overgrown. Maybe that’s good though. It deters people from heading up that way and keeps it remote and quiet for the few adventurers that do. Gotta get back up there soon.
A good portion of my teenage years in Bellingham were spent mountain biking on Galbraith Mountain. Back then it was a bit sketchy. You had to climb over some fences, ignore some “no trespassing” signs that others had assured you were put up by curmudgeons and weren’t valid, and regularly get lost in the labyrinth of trails up there. Now it is public land and VERY well-developed with signage and such. It’s nice to see it being managed and accessible, but I kind of miss the rough days of the 1990s. This was my first time riding up there in about a decade. I’ve run there a few times in recent years, but hadn’t ridden. I borrowed a cousin’s full-suspension. Ken, a childhood friend who shared most of those teenage adventures, joined in. Fantastic day.
When it stays light until 10:30 PM up in my hometown, you’d better take advantage and do some evening hikes. This was a new one for me. I never explored this area on the east side of Lake Whatcom when I was a kid. Just gorgeous.
Was going for the summit but by the time I hit the meadows below the traverse to the saddle, I was just feeling hot and crabby and tired. SO…I called an audible to check out the B-25 crash site, which I hadn’t done before. Very cool. The mountain was a beautiful as ever. You can read a bit more about the crash on the Intermountain Histories project that I manage and edit.
The southwest ridge approach to Big Baldy is a beast. I love hitting it before it gets too snakey. Took Matt up for his first summit. Found a horned lizard on the ridge.
Didn’t I swear I would train before doing another 50k, self-supported or as a race? Yes. Did I train AT ALL for this? Nope. Still great.
What to do when the only time to squeeze in a run on some nostalgic desert trails mid-day in a million degree heat…
Frosty hike with the Mrs. up to Pine and Cedar Lakes in my hometown Chuckanut Mountains. Absolutely gorgeous.
I have been eyeballing the Timpanogos ridgeline for years, but have only ever done the main summit. After years of plans falling through, I finally did some of the north ridgeline today.
Starting at the Timpooneke Trailhead, I went up the Timpooneke-Chris Flat trail until just before the Julie Andrews Meadow, then veering off the trail and up towards the NE ridge of North Timp. There was a “trail” that was fairly easy to follow, but wildly steep. Moving through some scrub oak and aspen for a while, the ridge eventually opens up to wide open terrain, with just rocks and grass to navigate. A couple miles up the route enters some jumbled rocks and approaches cliff bands to the right of the Grunge Couloir. There is a nice rock ledge-easy to attain- that backtracks to the right and safely wraps you around the other side of a little ridge. From there, it is a mostly straight-shot up the NE ridge. There are various scree shoots, ridgeline trees to get around, and small rock sections that require hands but don’t really count as “climbing,” but it is otherwise pretty simple. Standing on the North Timp summit felt great. There is a summit registry in a mailbox, but it is hard to find an open page to sign! I wonder if someone should take it down, replace it with a new one, and digitize the entire old one and put it online.
From North Timp, I bounded on down the ridgeline to Bomber Peak and then on to the main trail saddle. Up to that point, I only saw 2 hikers who were making their last push up to North Timp from the opposite direction. I saw a few people between the saddle and main summit, but had the peak to myself. The descent was fairly uneventful. I didn’t bomb has hard as previous trips. Next, I need to do the rest of the ridgeline to the south!
I did this loop a few years ago and was excited to try it again. I did it solo this time and chopped about an hour off my elapsed time.
I began at first light at the Aspen Grove trailhead and headed up. I didn’t see another person until just before Emerald Lake-about 90 minutes and 5 miles into the route. It was a beautiful morning. Perfect weather. Cool with a little breeze. There was still some snow on the traverse across the rockslide field between Emerald Lake and the saddle. To be honest, it is probably easier to cross on the snow than bare jumbled rocks.
A few sprinkles swirled around as I moved across the snow field, but nothing too bad. Winds picked up once I hit the saddle and I wrapped buffs around my hands as I worked my way to the summit. Brrr! I saw a handful of people on the way to the top, but there was only a father/son duo at the summit. I’ve been lucky to have the summit mostly to myself most trips. Only once have I experienced a crowded summit.
I didn’t stay long and bombed on down the Timpooneke trail. There were some more people on the trail for the remainder of the descent, but it still wasn’t too many. Temperatures rose and I descended, but I felt good and planned to refill my water at the Timpooneke trailhead. Unfortunately, when I arrived I found the water spigot capped (due to COVID-19, I presume). Uh oh. I still had some water, but not a ton.
As I started the 5 miles up and over some backside trails to complete the loop back to Aspen Grove, my feet started to hurt and throb. My shoes were too tight, but just wanting to finish I pressed on. I probably should have paused for a minute to loosen them a bit. I knew I had some sodas on ice in the car too, and with water running out I was anxious for a cold drink.
In all, it was an amazing day. Gorgeous. Not a bad way to celebrate my 40th.
Two recent trips up my favorite loop – once in each direction. Water infrastructure work at the top of Battle has turned some of the trail into a dirt road. Bummer.
Masks on and armed with gallons of hand sanitizer, we met some old family friends and their kids to explore a bit of Rocky Mountain National Park.
This was my wife’s true first “summit” hike. It was longer than she thought, steep, hard.
Work took me down to the Swell, so I kidnapped the kids and brought them along for an afternoon at Goblin Valley State Park.
Up the SW ridge, down Dry Canyon. Big Baldy is still as steep and gorgeous as ever. I think the downhill hurts more than the climb though.
Some book talks took me to Texas, so I took myself to Palo Duro Canyon. Wonderful chilly morning out to the Lighthouse and back.
The Provo River Parkway Trail is exactly 25k long – Utah Lake to Vivian Park. That seemed predestined to be run as an out-and-back 50k. This is the longest pavement run I’ve ever done. Ouch.
Work conference in Vegas, finally hit Valley of Fire State Park on my drive down.
Driving home from St. George, made an unplanned pitstop in the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. Ran the Taylor Creek Trail up to Double Arch Alcove. Had the alcove to myself. Quiet. Beautiful.
I was giving a talk in St. George this evening, so I came down with enough time to go for a run. Matt was kind enough to give me a little guided tour of some trails south of Hurricane – JEM, Dead Ringer, and the infamous More Cowbell Trail. Great fun, great conversation, a bit sweaty.
I tried to push speed Up and Down the Shooter trail on Friday and I realized I was close to a Course Record for the downhill. Went back today and tried my best. The downhill is a 1.76 mile trail with lots of sharp turns and appx 600 ft descent – an average 6% grade. I averaged a 6:51 min/mile pace and just about killed myself. Unfortunately, it was 20 seconds too slow. I need to get it below a 6:39 min/mile pace. I don’t know how I could safely do the steep parts any faster. Maybe I could shave some time by sprinting the straight sections and flatter sections more. In any case – a fun challenge, but my legs will hurt tomorrow.
Driving back from a work trip in Arizona, pitstopped at the Paria Toadstools.
First Timp of the season – August 21 – and still some stretches of snow to cross on the way up to the main saddle. I was feeling good today and decided to try to push for a sub-4:00 roundtrip. I sprinted the first 1/4 mile after getting spooked by a moose. There were others on the trail that other hikers saw but I didn’t see any others. I did see a fox up in the meadow basin! That was a first. I had the summit all to myself. It was beautiful. I looked at my watch and saw that a sub-4:00 might be possible if I really bombed. I shouldn’t have sat at the summit for so long because it required a painful pace. It wasn’t the most pleasant descent. A dead sprint for the last 1/2 mile down. BUT – I came in just under the wire. A moving time of 3:59:52!
The Mrs. is a school teacher, but not in the district where I kids are students. Her school year starts earlier than the kids’ so I have them for a couple of weeks each August. Two years ago we did our first Uintas hike and we went back up again. The kids did great. They did swim team all summer and I can tell their lungs and muscles built up some endurance. We went up the Lofty Lake Loop – counterclockwise. Gorgeous. They had fun scrambling around on the rocks near the pass that drops down to Lofty Lake – spotting and chasing Pikas.
I looked at my watch and we were just shy of 11,000 feet. I convinced them to scramble up the ridge to hit 11k for their first time. We made it to a large cairn, only to find it was a sub-peak and the actual Lofty Peak was a bit further off. No matter, they were champs and excited to have gone so high. They also got a kick out of all the spiders and big spider webs between the boulders and rocks as we picked our way up and down the ridge.
At Lofty Lake I dove in for a quick dip. So cold!
The way back was fine, despite a little tired whining towards the end. All in all, a great adventure.
I need to wake up in the morning and run more often. I hate it. I feel sluggish and my stomach is off if I eat anything (a jelly donut today). But, getting back home at 9 in the morning having already banged out a great run does feel pretty amazing.
I requested a family hike for my birthday and the wife and kiddos obliged. Stewart Falls. Beautiful as always and we had the place to ourselves for most of it.
So nice, I did it twice. Battle Grove Loop. Always amazing. The Battle trail is in rough shape – high water and lots of erosion. Long stretches of the trail were literally underwater.
Visited my childhood mountain bike trails with my childhood mountain friend – Ken! So great. It unbelievable how much the place has changed. Signage, first aid stations, etc. To be honest…I kind of miss how it used to be. Less-developed, possibly illegal, and more isolated. Much more crowded now.
Switzerland is every bit as charming and picturesque as everything you’ve seen in the movies – only more-so. They seem to be trying to out-Swiss themselves to the level of self-parody. It is absolutely stunning. I was only able to run in the Appenzell Alps. Breathtaking. Climbed up to Hoher Kasten summit, followed ridge line SW past Furgglenfirst to Saxer Lücke and down to Bollenwees and Fälensee Lake, then down the (often painfully steep) road past Lake Sämtisersee.
When you’re driving and a freeway exit says “Lichtenstein,” you exit. Burg Gutenberg and the royal castle.
Wait, what? Yes. Castles along the Rhein Gorge in Germany. Sometimes work brings me to unbelievable places.
An enormous set of avalanches built up quite the slide on the Aspen Grove trail. Speaking with some old-timers, they hadn’t seen anything like this in decades.
In the 90s as a teenage mountain biking was my primary hobby. I still have the same old ’95 Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail (no front suspension even!) and I finally took it out for a spin. First proper trail ride in over a decade. It was a lot of fun…except for the slipping and sliding due to the commuter non-trail tires I put on it a few years ago…and the bad brakes. Went over my handlebars once.
Over the past few months I have been pushing speeds on pavement and it has actually been a lot of fun. Today, I went a bit nuts and threw down just over 16 miles. That made for some PRs.
Over the past few months I have been pushing speeds on pavement and it has actually been a lot of fun. Today, I went a bit nuts and threw down a 25k PR.
Excited to see trails drying out and feeling up for some speed, I tried to PR on the long squiggly trails on the south side of the the mouth of Provo Canyon. PRs! Felt so good.
I get stuck on trails, doing them repeated times in a row. This set – exploring the VERY GREEN foothills between Shooter and the Rock Pile / Betty trails. Gorgeous in the Spring.
Nice jaunt up to the Taj trail. I have only done it once and was surprised by how much snow there still was at the top of the loop – lost the trail for a while and post-holed around. Still great fun.
Fun times trying to go fast around Johnson’s Hole.On Monday I did a double loop of the Johnson’s Hole and Great Western (Dragon’s Back) trails, once each direction. Afterwards I noticed that I wasn’t too far off from getting a course record, so I went back on Wednesday and redlined the clockwise loop, poaching the CR. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Work brought me to Santa Barbara and I took advantage of the warmer weather to get out for an early morning run. I headed up Mission Canyon to Inspiration Point. The town was socked in with low clouds and fog, so it was gorgeous to get above it. Short and sweet. Back to my hotel and showered before 9 AM.
I had bigger plans to do a big loop in the Santa Ynez Mountains, clockwise hitting Arlington and Cathedral and La Cumbre Peaks, then the Camino Cielo road to Angostura Pass, and then the Tunnel Trail back to Mission Canyon. Once I hit the trail I realized I wasn’t feeling it. My left heel is still feeling bruised and I didn’t want to push it.
Brought snowshoes, only needed spikes.
When you find yourself in Arizona in January, you go for some hikes and runs. Hit the Bursera Trail with the Mrs. this morning. I love the smell of creosote and wet desert in the morning!
I have lost a good amount of weight this year and on the trails I have noticed myself feeling stronger, getting faster, and breaking PRs. Here’s a few recent ones.
A few weeks ago I went out for a street run in the evening and accidentally got a 10k PR of 53:32.
This accidental PR made me curious, so the next week I went back out and tried to go faster. I did, clocking a 51:01 10k PR. I am really NOT a road runner – my fitness is so much more tuned to trails – so putting down mid 8:00 min/mile pace for miles on end is a real challenge. Or, it used to be. Again, with the weight dropped, I didn’t feel like maintaining this pace was as hard as it should be. I felt great!
A couple of days later I tried to crank out a flat 5k PR. My previous was 24:00 (last year’s Pima Turkey Trot) and I beat it by 30 seconds, coming in at 23:30 for a flat 5k. This one hurt a bit.
At this year’s Turkey Trot in Orem, I pushed again and shaved of 3 more seconds! Ha! 23:27 is my new flat 5k PR.
Curious about how this newfound strength would translate to trails, I have also recently picked a few old favorite routes and tried to bang them out faster than I have before.
I dropped about 7 minutes of my previous PR on the 10 mile out and back from the Indian Road Trailhead to Bridal Veil Falls.
I also redid a 6.6ish mile up the Lindon Squiggles / Crop Circles trails that I have done a few times. It felt so good. I cut 3 minutes off my previous PR. It felt great to clock 12-13 minute miles w/ ~300ft climbing per mile on the way up and then bomb the descent.
So . . . where should I go next? I have lots more old trail routes to revisit . . .
Family trip to Moab. We had a lot of fun and exploring Fisher Towers, the Kane Creek Area, and the Fiery Furnace in Arches. We found lots of petroglyphs (all well-known panels) and took a wrong turn in the Fiery Furnace and wandered around, lost but having a blast!
Every time I loop Battle Creek and Grove Creek Canyons I say, “why has it been so long?!” This time I took one of our plant and wildlife science professors with me. He studies aspen trees, among other things, and it was fascinating to see how he viewed the landscape and environment. His scientist eyes saw so much that I glanced right over. so much fun. I’m disappointed that I missed the autumn leaves, but it was still beautiful.
I have bagged Big Baldy via the SW ridge (steepest route), and via Battle Creek Canyon and the Baldy Saddle. Today I tried the final main option, up Dry Canyon to the Baldy Saddle. Dang oh dang. It is steep. 3.5 miles to the top with 3,500 climbing – not evenly distributed. Then, bombing back down. It was a gorgeous day but I was pretty beat up by the time I got back to my car.
I go through phases where I hit a trail system a bunch of times in a row, then don’t go back for a year. Well, this September was aparently my time to mess around some more on the (mtn bike) trails on the south side of the Provo Canyon, off FS 027 Sq. Peak Road. It was hot and these trails offer more shade than most. I had some fun, then went back and tried to do it all faster, then hiked there with my kids and wife, then went back again and pushed for PRs. I have been feeling stronger lately and it was fun to push so hard and today on the 20th I broke all my PRs for the trails.
Here’s 3 of the more noteworthy outtings.
I joined a couple other runners (Lisa and Cory) to sweep that last 25 miles of the Wasatch 100 course this year. It was a beautiful day, but hot. There seemed to be clouds all around, except for over us. Ha! By the end, I was pretty beat and cramped a lot for the last 10 miles.
With the family still out of town I took advantage of the open Saturday to try to summit Mount Nebo. After waiting out some hail in the car at the parking lot, I took off. Perfect temps, but the clouds looked ominous. Sure enough, right as I got to ridge overlooking Utah Valley to the West thunder started banging and a really strong cold wind picked up. Looking west towards the approaching storm I was right on the edge of it. There was a chance it would swing south of me, but there was a chance it would hit me on the exposed ridge to the summit. I don’t mess with lighting, especially on ridges. Some people coming off the ridge said they could feel electricity crackling around them and in their fingertips – so I think I made a smart choice to bail. Looking back up as I ran back to the car and drove off…I think I would have been ok. I think the storm swung pretty far south – but it was better to play it safe. Nebo’s not going anywhere. I’ll be back.
It was my birthday today and although I don’t usually go out on Sundays my family was out of town and I was all by myself. So, I gave myself a peak for my bday. My plan was to tag Cascade Mountain. But dang, the climb up from Big Springs to the Cascade Saddle just killed me. I was so hot, so low on energy. When I got to the saddle and looked at how far away the peak was, I knew I didn’t have it in me. Bummer. After resting for a few minutes at the saddle I looked south and thought that Freedom or Shingle Mill Peaks looked doable. I headed off, missed the trail turn off and ended up following some terraces and then shwhacking up to the saddle between the two peaks. The ridge going up Freedom looked too sketchy for a solo outting. Class 3 climbing. So, I worked my way up to Shingle Mill, finding some cairns to follow along the way. A fun little peak. On the way down I took the north ridge – much better route than what I took up. I bombed down to Big Springs a bit too fast, beat my quads up good.
I spied a waterfall down-canyon from Bridal Veil and realized it was probably accessible from one of the side trails I have seen popping off of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Sure enough, one did. After the waterfall I went along a pipeline trail that got pretty shwhacky. It wouldn’t have been bad except for BEES swarming around breaks in the line and the fact that it all looked terribly snakey. No snakes though.
My neighbor Cody and I tackled the loop up Slide and down Slate Canyons. We saw a small rattlesnake just above the Y. It was hot going up Slide. Up top is gorgeous though. Wow. The drop down into the Slate Canyon drainage (coming from Slide to the north) is just stunning. Lots of rutted out rocky trail though. Not nice on the ankles.
I have been scheming for a long time to get up on the south end of the Timpanogos Massif ridgeline via Provo Canyon. The most common route is via Slide Canyon. This was my first time up there. A shwhack for a lot of it, but gorgeous. I hit a headwall, was running out of time, and didn’t see an obvious way around. After looking at the map when I got home I figured out the way around (to the right) I should have taken. Just after that headwall/waterfall there is a scree slope up to the right that gets you on the ridge that takes you to the top of Sundance. I’ll be back…
Work brought me to Europe, something that has never happened before. Paris France, Krakow Poland, and Saarbrucken Germany.
It hurt. But I did it. South Fork Rd, down Provo Canyon. My first sub 2:00 half marathon. Lots of PRs on this one! Now if I could find a *slightly* steeper route…I could go even faster!
There are a bunch of canyons that go up the south end of the Timpanogos Massif from Provo Canyon. Some have “trails.” I’ve been wanting to go up them for a long time. I went up past a few waterfalls and up to where it turns into a long scree slope. To the left I went up a fork that cliffed out. I know other have gone up there, and I am pretty sure I spotted a route on the left side of the cliff headwall where a hidden staircase of sorts could go up and over. I’ll have to try it again when I have someone with me. Here’s a few pics from Lost Creek Canyon.
A conference placed me in Las Vegas. I do not like Las Vegas. So, to escape the strip I took a quick afternoon trip out to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which I had heard is quite nice. Wow. I tackled the 8 mile White Rock Canyon Loop – including the out-and-back up to La Madre Spring. I quickly remembered how much I dislike running in the heat.
Work placed my family and I in Moab with an afternoon free and open. We hit Arches National Park last year, but took the chance to tag a few spots we had missed last time. We were hoping to get a permit for the Fiery Furnace, but they were all gone by the time we arrived. Nevertheless, we tagged Delicate Arch and made our way up into the Devil’s Garden for Landscape and Navajo Arch. Gorgeous country.
An odd scheduling situation placed me at the mouth of Slate Canyon in Provo with an hour to kill. I haven’t explored south of Rock and Slide Canyons at all and have been wanting to. The trail was rocky and steep enough to be uncomfortable on the run down. However, it was gorgeous. I need to link it up with some trails on the backside next.
For how much I go on about how much I love the stretch of the Great Western Trail between the tops of Grove Creek and Battle Creek, I don’t get up there all that much. I recently realized how much I dislike coming down Battle Creek, and finally decided to try my usual up Grove -> down Battle loop in reverse. This also makes sense since the Battle Creek trailhead is closer to my house. My neighbor Cody was itching for some trails so we hit the loop and it was great. I think I’ll always do the loop in this direction from here on out. There was some snow along the top, but it was totally runnable and we were lucky to hit it when the mud was mostly dry. Dang. So beautiful.
It hit me the other day that I haven’t run a 50k since Bryce in June 2016 – almost 2 years ago. That kind of bummed me out. Life has gotten busy and I can’t bring myself to pay registration fees for races. I keep telling myself, “Oh, I’ll just run a 50k on my own for free.” But of course, I never do. I actually did try in December 2017, but it didn’t pan out.
Well, fast forward to a couple days ago when a fellow professor in my department mentioned that he was heading down to the Wedge. THE WEDGE?! Dang. I’ve been dying to get back down there. The Mrs. gave me the go-ahead, I drove down Friday night, slept in the back of the car, and at 6:30 AM on Saturday I was on the trail. I dropped aid station supplies at Campsite 5, as usual, and set out with a 50k plan in mind.
The 2 previous times I did the Good Water Rim Trail, I did the 16 mile trail from West-to-East, and then took the 5.5 mile road back to the start for a 21.5 mile loop. I haven’t been training, at all, but hoped that if I took it slow I could just to the 16 mile trail out and back for 32 miles – a 50k. Over the past year or two I bet my average run length has been 4-8 miles, with the longest probably being Timp summits. In other words, I hadn’t run this far in a long time.
I set out and tried hard to maintain a slow easy pace – in the mid 11min/mile range. It was hard. My body wanted to go faster. On the roads lately (I know, I know…roads?! But yeah, I’ve been putting in more boring road miles lately than I used to) I have been getting faster and faster – it has been exciting. So, consciously slowing myself down was a challenge. I hit the 9 mile aid station feeling great, resupplied, and headed out on the west 7 mile leg of the trail. About 1/2way there my legs started feeling pretty heavy and my pace slowed. I even caught a toe, fell, and bloodied my knee a bit. When I got to the end of the trail my friend (who left about an hour later than I did) caught up with me. Even though I wasn’t feeling great, I figured I could make back to the aid station via the 7 mile trail – and assess there if I would bail to the road for a quick 2-3 miles home instead of the last 9 miles back. I jogged and walked and jogged and walked. At the aid station (mile 23) I felt good enough to head out for the last 9. Those were a slow 9 miles, jogging, power-hiking, jogging, slow. But, I finished – a 50k. 51.5, actually.
It is the 5th time I’ve done a 50k and came in as my 3rd best time – right in the middle. The two slower the two times I’ve done Bryce. That’s understandable since Bryce is a lot higher in elevation and has a lot more climbing. Could I have done this one faster? Definitely, but I was out there simply to finish, to prove to myself that I could still do it.
Update – one day later, my legs felt great and I did a 10 mile bike ride with the family. Two days later and my legs still feel great. So, in terms of “recovery,” this has been my best 50k. I’ve never felt this good afterwards.
Lots of short runs lately, so I decided to see if I was up for a bit more mileage. A fellow professor joined me to run the Timp Trail Half Marathon course. We’ve had so little snow, I suspected most of the route was dry. I was mostly right – a couple patches of wet dirt, some mud, but not bad.
What was bad was my body. Not only did I get killer cramps in both calves and one quad, but one of my IT bands flared up. WHAT?! What is this? 2015? IT bands? Sheesh. In any case, it was a beautiful, but frustrating outting.
For supposedly being my favorite place in the Utah County Foothills, I don’t visit the Chris Fisher Flats meadow up above Grove and Battle Creek often enough. In fact, I realized it had been over a year. Wow. I think I’m done doing the Grove-Battle loop though. Coming down Battle has some no-fun rough spots…but some pretty spots. I can’t decide. Today I opted to go up and down Grove as I heard Battle was icy. It was just magnificent up top.
I live under the shadow of Cascade Mountain and one of my goals this year was to summit it. It is a long haul though – with a 5-7 mile approach to the saddle and then 3 miles up a trail-less ridgeline to the summit. That means a minimum of 16 miles roundtrip. With little water access, I was leaving this for the fall when the temps dropped. It looks like I waited too long though – or didn’t time it right.
Another history professor joined me for our morning start at Big Springs. About a mile up the Big Spring Hollow Trail we hit snow but it wasn’t bad – 2 inches max in the shady spots. We made it up the 7 miles to the saddle and the views were great. Unfortunately, the 1-2 inches of snow on the ridgeline made it pretty slick. All of the rocks that might turn ankles were slippery. Moreover, the main ridgeline was up in the clouds. We opted to call it a day with the saddle. Instead of going back down the east side, we dropped down into Rock Canyon. Gorgeous, but such a rough crummy trail in parts. It would be fine for hiking but annoying to run on.
I have been wanting to summit the modest bump of Little Baldy (just south of Big Baldy in Utah County) for a while and have been eyeing the west ridge for the approach. Tim joined on this ill-advised adventure, but the fall leaves promised good views. Indeed, the colors were popping. We went up from Dry Canyon, the wound our way up to the bottom of the West ridge. It was mostly clear – a trail faded in and out but there wasn’t too much schwhack required…until we got to the first summit (there seem to be 2). There was a cairn on the western-most summit, but I think the true summit is just northeast of there. Unfortunately, everything between the two summits was a schwhack! After the taller NE summit, we found a trail, then lost it, and schwhacked over to the Great Western Trail, which I knew was close. From there bombed down to Trail 051, but missed an important turn in the twilight and had to do a bit of guesswork to work our way down to the BST and then back to Dry Canyon. In all, it was a great evening, even if our scratched up bloody legs stung something fierce in the shower!
I summited a certain peak above Rock Canyon again – only my second time up there. The views are spectacular, but every time I go up or down Rock Canyon I tell myself I’m not putting it in heavy rotation. So rocky – not fun running. It is gorgeous though. This trip was planned when a visiting scholar wanted me to take them out trail-running. Max (who lives in Lincoln, NE where I spent 7 years) had a great time talking history, religion, Nebraska, and life. I rarely run with others but always enjoy it when I do.
Since friends have run some races in the Tushar Mountains and raved about how blown away there were by the place I have been dying to get up there. With the Mrs. out of town I took the kids on a little trip. Though our two hikes was aborted early without reaching either intended end point, we did enjoy some dirt road driving, old mining camps exploring, etc.
Wow. I will be back.
A couple fellow professors joined up for a run after our department meeting today. We looped from the Rock Canyon trailhead over to Slide Canyon, hiked up to the Y, past it and up past Apache Falt, down First Right Fork, and then down Rock Canyon. Over and up to the Y it was blistering hot – in the mid-90s. By the end as we descended Rock Canyon, it was on and off torrential downpour. Ha! It was fun to get out with colleagues, talk history, careers, etc.
Murdock Peak sits above the top of Millcreek Canyon, to the north. Most tag it from there. An alternate approach from Lambs Canyon requires access to private property roads, which I was lucky enough to have this weekend at a friend’s family cabin. We took some old forgotten and overgrown roads and trails. It was gorgeous.
We started at Salamander Pond/Lake and took an old road up past it. It was overgrown, but there was a clear double-track. Along the way we found random signs of recent traffic off the road, but not much on the road. Before reaching Murdock Basin, the faint track of the old road crossed a big meadow in the opposite direction of the northern summit ridge. Had we studied a map beforehand, we would have seen that it does indeed continue, and hook up with a trail that reaches the peak from the east. Instead, we schwacked up a game trail west to the ridge and followed a “trail” up the ridgeline to the peak. We came down what my friend had heard was the better route from Lambs Canyon, down the ridge to the west, and then a 90 degree turn down the ridge towards Lambs Canyon. Sure enough, there was a strong trail the whole way. It was a fun loop though.
Sinful, right? I have lived in Utah for 4 years and still hadn’t visited the state’s highest mountain range yet. With my two kids in tow, we trekked up to the Uintah Mountains for a hike. We did a loop in the “Lakes District,” clockwise past Crystal Lake, Cliff Lake, Petite Lake, Watson Lake, Clyde Lake, the Twin Lakes, Wall Lake, and many other unnamed ones. My kids, ages ~7 and 9 did great! The whole route was above 10,000 feet and they were total champs. We had some hot sun, cold wind, rain, and hail! I have heard that the Uintah trails are all very rocky. Yeah. No joke. There were very few stretches of smooth trail. But wow. I’ll be back again soon I hope.
I just couldn’t get enough – Timp was so beautiful last week. This time I did in the heat of the day and suffered for it. It was hot and I had a sour stomach for a lot of it. However, once up top I had the summit to myself and I saw some nice goats at the saddle on my way down. Well worth it!
Oh hallelujah! I finally got up Timp! I got dumped on by a huge rainstorm and freezing wind on the way up, and then baked in sweltering hot humidity on the way down. In other words, amazing. I was a slow day though. I stopped under some trees a few times to wait out the rain and some huge groups of people (way more than the 15 person limit for Wilderness Areas) created some long traffic jams at the snow crossings.
Last minute decision to head up to Davis County and run the ridgeline portion of the Great Western Trail between Francis and Thurston Peaks – the highest 2 in Davis County. This is the trail where I first cut my teeth on higher altitudes and have some very fond memories of the place. MVH joined me and it was a great evening run. We went out to Thurston, then dropped down to Smith Creek Lakes on the return. There were even some snow fields to cross still hiding up there.
I seem to be playing a lot in Provo Canyon lately instead of on the Orem/Lindon foothills/bench like I did for my first couple years here. Now that I look at some of these, I was clearly looking for routes with good amounts of flat. However, today I hopped over to the south side of the canyon to explore some mountain bike trails that I knew snaked around the hills east of FS Rd 027 (Sq. Peak Road). Fun times exploring!
Work took me up to Vancouver, British Columbia for a conference and I was able to squeeze a couple runs in. I wanted to get up to Squamish or Girabaldi, but time wouldn’t allow it.
First, I ran the seawall around Stanley Park. Pavement, but gorgeous. I am really like my new Altra Escalante shoes for the pavement. It was amazing to breath in familiar smells from my PacNW upbringing – salt water, kelp, skunk cabbage, evergreens, etc. Amazing evening.
Before leaving, I even got a little dirt in – some trails with a friend in Pacific Pride Park. It felt 100% like my hometown trails around Whatcom Falls Park.
For work I did a writing retreat to a friend’s off-grid remote cabin in the Murdock Mountain region of Nevada, Elko County. Not only did I get an incredible amount of work done revising my book manuscript, but I took a few hours to tag the local peak. I approached from southwest, up a jeep road. I hit the saddle west of the false west summit and the wind was just ripping over it. It was gorgeous though. Along the ridgeline up to the west summit, then down and up to the main summit – views for days. From there, I continued east for the descent and looped some other jeep roads back down. It was possibly the most remote adventure run I have done. I was the first person to sign the summit registry since 2015! Ha! I’ll go back and do the full ridgeline someday.
I have been eyeing Mt. Mahogany for a while – from the freeway, while climbing up Grove Creek, from Timpooneke Rd., etc. I decided I needed to do a full traverse of the ridgeline – in preparation (hopefully!) for a full Timp ridgeline traverse later this year. MVH came with, and it was a great day on the mountain!
We started at the Grove Creek Trailhead. To climb this south end of Mahogany, most take the Grove Creek Trail up to the bridge, then go straight up the scree north of that. That leads to the southernmost end of the Mahogany massif. For a cleaner “ridge” approach, we went straight up the SW ridge that begins at the Grove Creek trailhead.
It was steep, but fairly straight forward. There were a number of “trails,” and game trails. At the occasional cliff-band, stay left (north) and they are easy to skirt around. Steep though. 3,000 ft. climbing in 2 miles.
Once at the top, you are met with a beautiful set of verdant meadows – amazing spots for camping, though it would be a haul with lots of gear!
The summit was great, but I’m always amazed at how ridgelines that seem to only have one main pitch, always have multiple climbs. They are always steeper and longer than they look from the valley floor.
Coming down off the summit, continuing north, there was some fun snow to glissade down.
We made our way to the northern edge of the ridge where it drops down into American Fork Canyon. I jogged up and to the right to bag the north summit. Views for days. The descent down the NW ridge was steep – my knees didn’t like that.
Above the Orem Gun Range there is a great set of squiggle trails that lead up to Trail Nr. 051. Between there and Little Baldy I have noticed a series of green meadows that lead up in between the trees and have long wanted to explore them. So, I did. I did the climb out of the gun range a couple times, and messed around in those little meadows a bit. So quiet – I didn’t once see a single person up in them.
I have been doing my best to seduce a new neighbor (kind of old family friend) to the trails. So far, pretty good. I have taken him up the Lindon Squiggles, around the BST, the Dry Canyon – Altar/Rock Pile loop, the Johnsons Hole / Taj Mahal / GW loop, etc. Good times. I still struggle to believe all of these great trails are just a 5 minute drive away.
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Above Timpanogos Park there is a great set of squiggly trails (obviously built by mountain bikers) that some call the racetrack. If you loop a specific route, it is exactly 2 miles around. Super fun. I have done it a few times now in the snow, mud, and dirt.
Go put it on your phone or watch and try to follow it! Great route.
Racetrack Clockwise
Racetrack Counterclockwise
Work took me down to Emery County for a couple days of digging in the archives. On my way out of Castledale on the last day, I realize I was only a few miles from the Wedge. I figured it was my moral duty to go for a quick run before driving home. For something new, I started at the Wedge Overlook and ran WEST along the dirt road, and then a bit along the rim, then to the overlook that is directly across (south) from Virgin Spring Canyon. It was overcast and the canyon colors were a bit washed out, but still gorgeous.
I grew up snowboarding in NW Washington and had never skied. However, lots of my trailrunning friends have been posting pictures of backcountry ski-touring. I couldn’t let them have all the fun so I hunted on the used classifieds and put together a pretty good set-up. Some Surface Sherpa skis with dynafit speed turn tech bindings, some La Sportiva sparkle tech boots, and some G3 skins.
So, before I knew it, I was skinning up Sq Peak road and then realizing I didn’t know how to ski down. Thankfully the road isn’t too steep, so my rudimentary pizza wedge worked fine. The boots KILLED though.
After getting the boots adjusted I return to the same road, went up higher and felt great. The new snow, however, made the way back down very slow – lots of pushing and having to stay in my tracks. So, not much practice getting turns on the downhill.
3rd attempt I skinned up from the Lindon equestrian parking lot up to make-out point just north of Dry Canyon. The way up was great. Downhill was a disaster. I picked a broad treeless open slope because it would give me the space to do long wide turns. There was a lot of deep snow, which made turning hard and who would have guessed that not know how to ski at all would make going down difficult. It was embarrassing.
4 attempt I went with a friend from Tibble Fork Resevoir in AF Canyon up to Silver Lake Flat via the road and trail, and then took the road down. It was great. Steep enough on the way down that I didn’t have to push a lot but not too steep. I got some turns in and started to figure out the mechanics of it.
Finally, on an afternoon after work I ponied up some dollars and got an evening lift ticket at Sundance. It was great! After a few runs I figured out how to distirbute my weight from one foot to the other, carve back and forth, slow down, dodge trees, etc. There was a good 18 inches of fresh snow, which didn’t make for the best learning conditions, but it went very well. By the end of the day I could swish down greens and blues without much trouble. Huzzah!
President’s Day Weekend trip to Moab! It was wet and a bit rainy, but great. We did the Island in the Sky and Needles Districts of Canyonlands and Arches. Pictures will go on the family blog.
Every winter I start pounding out more pavement miles because I’m too lazy to run the snowy or muddy trails and every winter I get overuse injuries. So far so good this winter! I have mixed in some treadmill with some street runs, culminating with an accidental 1/2 marathon. I have only done a 1/2 on pavement once before. This time, I was planning to run from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Nunn’s Park and back – about 6 miles. When I got to Nunn’s I was feeling good and figured I should head another 1/2 mile up to Bridal Veil Falls to see it. It had been warm, the Provo River was surging so high, and I thought it might be fun to see. Once I got there, I figured I should probably just go all the way to Vivian Park so I could say I had done the full canyon trail up and down. When I got back to my car I was at 11.75 miles, so I figured I was ethically and morally obligated to run another 1.5 to make it a full 13.1 miles. I was a bit stiff by the end. A couple days later I did a 4 mile “recovery” run that started sore and ended great. The next morning all soreness was gone, so I am again converted to the recovery run idea for shaking out sore tight muscles.
Snow has arrived (finally!) in Utah. I have only ventured out a few times, but it has been pretty great.
In mid-November my back tweaked again (see my nightmare injury from Summer 2015). I decided to test it out on the Lindon Squiggles and foothills below Dry Canyon. It started beautiful and ended with a whiteout. I knew a system was moving in, but figured I’d be ok not venturing too far from my car. It was fun to get first tracks in the snow and my Altra Lone Peak 3.0 Mid Neos worked great!
A week or so later I ventured up Dry Canyon a bit – mistake. It was too tracked out and complete ice. Not wanting to descend the steep ice I cut up the Curly Springs trail Nr. 051 and came down the Squiggles. Much better on those back trails.
I hosted the 3rd annual Wasatch Mountain Wrangler Secret Wrangler Gift Exchange and someone was kind enough to hide a gift for me too. Like last year’s gifts, it took up new trails. Mill Creek, Pipeline Burch Hollow, towards Church Fork Peak. My childhood best fried was visiting and he joined me. The last pitch to the Church Fork ridge was a bit of a slow – he snowshoed up – but I didn’t put mine on until the ridge. We headed west a while, but didn’t trek all of the way to the peak. We were a bit short on time, and lazy. How beautiful though! AND, my new Christmas present Hillsound Ultra crampons were AMAZING. My Atlas snowshoes performed great too.
Phoenix’s South Mountain Park/Preserve was the site two years ago of my first time ever running a marathon distance – a 29 slog that hurt more than it should have. I was undertrained and paid for it. Of course, it was simultaneously amazing. Back in AZ for the holidays I set my mind to revisiting those familiar trails and proving that I had improved as a runner. I drew out a altered route that totaled 32 miles (50k). 3 loops from the Kiwanis Trailhead – the National/Gila/Pyramid loop, the Alta/Bajada loops, and a short 3rd one on Crosscut and Ma Ha trails.
I arrived before dawn, geared up, and started up the Kiwanis trail to Telegraph Pass. It is amazing how, in the dark, Saguaro cactus look like people creepily standing in your peripheral vision. It got light as I neared Telegraph Pass and crossed the summit road.
From the road I started the first loop. Climbing up the National Trail I turned right at the Pyramid junction and followed its length along the Gila Range down to the intersection with the Gila Trail. It was perfect running weather, nice and cool. However, my stomach was quite sour the whole trail.
I turned left on the Gila and followed it up into the Gila Valley. Last time I had climbed right up the Bursera Ridge, but this time I chose to go straight up the valley, which included a head-wall of sorts that separated the western portion of the valley from the east where the Lost Ranch is. As I went up and over that climb it started to heat up a bit.
I crossed the broad valley and started my ascent of the Pyramid Trail. It felt hotter than it really was. I could tell that my (again!) lack of training was going to cost me. By the time I reached the National Trail junction and headed down to the Summit Rd. and Kiwanis Trail back to my car/aid station I made the decision to call it a day. Back at the car, I had clocked a 1/2 marathon. With some stretching and refueling I was feeling ok. I could continue but I knew it would hurt and likely dampen the remainder of my week’s holiday plans. I called it, drove to my in-laws, took a shower, ate my weight in (pretty horrible) Boston Market food, and completed some Christmas shopping. Saving my legs even allowed for a hike with the family a couple days later.
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Not a bad way to start Christmas vacation.
For some reason my last few local runs have all been around the Johnson’s Hole area. There are a lot of dirt access roads for the aqueducts and water infrastructure up there – which makes for some nice easy miles, when I’m too lazy or beat up to bang out the singletrack. Here’s some recent routes.
I took the kids up to some boulders above Johnson’s Hole that have petroglyphs on them. Very cool. They are quite weathered due to their being out in the elements. My archaeologist friends date these to the pre-Fremont era, pre-1,000 AD.
Enthused by the area I went back to explore more. I did a double loop of the Johnson’s Hole / Great Western, one in each direction, then explored up-canyon on one of the lower aqueduct (Union?) roads, climbed back up to the Alta Aqueduct road. There I found the old 1857 Provo Canyon Guard Quarters, built during the Utah War and then manned for a while to monitor Native activities in the region. I also got in a good schwack and sliced my leg up on the scrub oak. It had been a while, I figured.
This run was particularly soul-invigorated. I was up in a region with TONS of access, trails, dirt roads, etc., but I didn’t see a single person. I felt so good to have the place to myself.
Today it was 75 and it is supposed to snow in a couple days, so I figured I should get one last sweaty run in.
Work found me in Nashville, Tennessee this week. I managed to squeeze in one run in the large Percy Warner Park. Fall leaves were bright and the temperatures were perfect. The trails were well-maintained but at times rocky. I was particularly surprised by how taxing the constant up-down-up-down was. Very hilly and tough to get into a good rhythm. The fact that my stomach was totally off (too much delicious fried southern food) probably didn’t help.
I found myself in St. Paul Minnesota for work and with a free afternoon. I made the most of it, taking a bus out to trail head and then linking the Battle Creek Regional Park(s) and Indian Mounds State Park trails back to my hotel. Good times.
I suspected there was still a lot of color up in the hills. I was right. From a distance, the flanks of Big and Little Baldy looked like they were covered by motley patches of multicolored lichen or something.
Work brought me down to Moab for a conference and I took the opportunity to squeeze in a couple evening runs after the conference activities wound down.
In Arches I did a loop up into Devil’s Garden. I was in a hurry and didn’t hit Dark Angel or Private Arch but I did hit a bunch of others. On the back side of the loop (the east side) there is a little sand to deal with but mostly super fun single track. It was a blast. I hit Landscape Arch, Wall Arch, Navajo Arch, and Double O Arch.
I hurried to my car, tore down to Delicate Arch, and charged up hoping to hit it at sunset.
About 1/4 mile up I realized I had forgotten my phone in the car. By the time I got up to the arch, I had missed the sunset magic by about 20 minutes. I still managed to get a nice picture though.
The next night I headed to the Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands.
I have gawked at it in the satellite images before and just had to see it. There is a loop that goes around it (unfortunately, around its outside mostly and not up on a rim/ridge) so I hit that. The Syncline Loop. I saw a couple people in the first 1/2 mile and then was completely by myself for the remainder of the evening. It was simultaneously exhilarating to have the desert to myself and spookily quiet. I had hope to make it back to the start to run the mile out to the overlooks for the sunset, but AGAIN missed it – this time by about 30 minutes.
I scaled back plans to bag Mahogany Peak (via Grove Creek) today, and opted for the Grove -> Battle Creek loop. It never disappoints. My still faltering health did disappoint though. After 3-4 weeks with little to no running due to the cold+sinus infection of the century, I can still feel my lung capacity lacking and overall energy lacking.
Thankfully, autumn has hit and the maple trees were blazing red. Grove Creek was a bit more tame, but the Battle Creek side was breathtaking. I can’t imagine how they would with some late-evening alpenglow on them! In any case, stands of maple at the top of Battle Creek, up towards the Big Baldy Saddle (and on the Dry Canyon side of Baldy, which I can see from my house) are at peak red right now. In another 2-3 weeks, the aspens will start to pop, golden yellow. I can’t wait.
I have been out of commission for about 3 weeks with a cold turned sinus infection turned lingering cold. Yikes. I haven’t been this sick for this long in a while. Being sick in the summer is just cruel. Beautiful weather, but stuck inside.
I finally had to get out. I hit up Johnson’s Hole from Canyon Glen Park. I can’t believe I’d never been up there before. It’ll be gorgeous in the spring when the grass is green. I looped it up to the aqueduct roads for about 6.5 miles. It wasn’t that hot, but I felt pretty slow and low. Very quickly it became apparent that I am not as recovered from this illness as I thought I was.
Panorama from the Big Baldy Summit
I have never gone all the way UP Battle Creek (I’m always coming down) and I have never summited Big Baldy from the saddle. I did it once from the SW ridge for the vertical kilometer challenge. Plans to loop the North Timp ridgeline fell through, so I slept in until 9 and did this instead – Battle Creek to the Big Baldy Summit and back. It was warm and I felt sluggish. I have only done the Great Western trail south of the Battle Creek turn off once, when going the full 20 miles along the front side of the Timpanogos massif, and I forgot how beautiful it is. Along with the meadows north up to Chris Flat, it is just beautiful. Meadows, grass, aspens, etc.
The ridgeline from the Big Baldy saddle to the summit was longer than I thought – deceptive. On the way down I hooked up with a hiker who had just come down the Everest Ridge (ack!) and we ran down together chatting. Nice bloke. I love how (most) random people you meet way up on the trails turn out to be very friendly, down to earth, good people. I like good peoples.
I’ve said it before, but I really am pleased as punch with the easy access and quality of some of my backyard local trails. 3-5 minute drive to a trailhead and I can put in as few or as many easy miles as I want around the foothills. Add a canyon in for some elevation, or just putter around the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and countless offshoots. Here’s 3 recent ones.
I took another friend out for his first trailrun with me. Good times. I think he’ll get hooked.
I like this little 4.5 mile-ish route. Super close trailhead. A slow steady climb, a little squiggly descent, then back. Super fast and easy. For some reason, on this day, I decided to knock it out in the 102 degree hit midday, just to see if I could. I felt pretty good for the first mile, then the heat really started to sink in.
I went back and did the same route a week later, but at twilight. Faster, until it got dark and I had to pull out the flashlight.
I lived in Lincoln Nebraska for 7 years as a graduate student and one year of teaching. I didn’t run. Not once. I pulled out my mtn. bike a couple times, but only hit dirt once. We were back visiting friends and I decided to go run that dirt – along the Salt Creek in the Wilderness Park. It was about 4PM, in the 90s, and about 50-70% humidity. Oh my word. I haven’t sweat that profusely since my Rim2River2Rim at the Grand Canyon last October. Nevertheless, it was fun. The heat was oppresive and slowed me down, but it was fun to run in an environment from a past life – wondering what life would have been like if I had discovered running and trail-running back when I lived there.
I decided to treat myself to a Mt. Timpanogos summit for my birthday this morning. I have done the summit twice from the Timpooneke trailhead but never from Aspen Grove. I decided to make a loop of it. Up Aspen Grove, down Timpooneke, then loop back to AG on the Salamander Flats, Snow Gauging, and Lame Horse trails. A 19.5 mile loop.
I put out the call and two fellow Wasatch Mountain Wranglers joined – Keith and Tim. We started at 5:00 and caught an amazing sunrise as we climbed the trail out of Aspen Grove.
This side is steeper than Timpooneke, less runnable, but features some beautiful waterfalls, a few lakes and meadows, an old Forest Service ranger cabin, and views for days.
We spent a lot of time stopping and taking pictures, so I apologize to Tim and Keith for destroying their splits. But it was hard not to stop and gawk.
Once we climbed over to the saddle, it a wind picked up and it got a bit chilly. In the sun it was alright, but my hands got numb. At the summit, two other wranglers, Josh and Jade, caught up to us. They had started from the other trailhead and were pushing for a fast round trip. We sat around for a bit up top. It’s hard to just turn around and bomb back down when the views as so good.
Hat tip to Tim, as well, for picking up a ton of trash along the trail and on the summit. Littering makes me so mad.
Once we got off the saddle the temps picked up fast. Lots of hikers were moving up their trail a high fiving us as we ran down, thinking we were more hardcore that we are. When we explained the loop we were doing, we did get some raised eyebrows. Maybe we are hardcore.
About halfway down I rolled my right ankle hard. I heard an audible crunch. It ran of OK, though tender, until right at the bottom when I rolled it again. Sharp stab of pain. Oh boy…
At the trailhead I used the bathroom, drenched myself in water, refilled, and headed off for the return trails. Those were a tough 5 miles for me. Very runnable, but not for me. It was also fun to see a few new places.
The heat, returned GI distress, and the ankle. But, we made it and it was gorgeous. I will definitely make this loop again, but hopefully in better physical conditions. Happy birthday to me!
The reason I had registered for the Capitol Reef Half Marathon rather than the 50k was because I knew my family (and parents) would be with for the trip. So, I wanted to do a quick race and then have time with them. The morning after the race we hiked up to Hickman Bridge. Very cool and my kids and their grandparents were troopers, even as it started to really heat up.
That evening the Mrs. and I hiked Cassidy Arch. We were really taken aback. Whereas we assumed the trail would take up to its based, it dumped us out on top of the arch. The views were amazing, the trail was great, the temperatures low, etc. A perfect evening hike.
This was the first time I had registered and planned on running a half marathon. I did run one a couple months ago, but that was after dropping down from a 55k at the last minute. This meant that I went into it knowing that 13.1 miles was the target. With my 50k race I have made game plans, but that is a lot of miles to plan out, and I’m still pretty inexperienced so whatever plans I make tend to fall apart as the day wears on. With 13.1 miles, however, I felt I could make a careful plan.
So, here’s what it was: Go out very conservative for the first 4 miles of climbing. Pick a comfortable but challenging pace for the middle 5 miles of downhill. Pick up the pace for the last 4 miles and finish by going out strong and fast.
It almost worked out that way.
The Capitol Reef Half Marathon course is rugged. People had told me this of all the distances there put on by Ultra Adventures, but I brushed it off. I was used to rough trails here in the Wasatch, so how bad could it be. Well, it turns out that running rough trails for fun and running them for a RACE feels very different. In the racing mindset, the rugged and schwacky miles seemed to wear on me more than they do back home when I’m out for fun – both physically and mentally.
The first 2 miles of the course climb up the Great Western Trail for a total of about 1,000 ft. elevation gain. I resisted the adrenaline-induced urge to power ahead with the faster runners, knowing I had to conserve energy for later. This strategy served me well. At 2 miles hit the Government Creek trailhead area and veered east up a “trail” that climbed for another 2 miles and 1,000 feet towards. This part was quite rough and overgrown. Not runnable – at least not for me.
With the 4 miles of climbing done, I was excited to hit the downhill. Unfortunately, miles 5-6 wound past the Bullberry Lakes and down to Coleman Reservoir through an area that had previously been gutted by a forest fire. Now, however, aspen trees and dense ground cover were aggressively taking over. Though downhill (some quite steep and technical), it wasn’t very runnable. So overgrown.
At mile 6 we hit a water drop and a nice dirt road. I topped off my water, got some coke, and charged on. Miles 7-9 followed the road (Bullberry Trail) down to where we had started. It was warming up, but I was feeling ok. I still tried to hold back my pace a little bit in order to have something left in the tank for the finish. Looking back, I definitely could have and should have pushed this a tiny bit harder. These two miles (and the mile after the aid station) took too long.
Once at the aid station where we started, I got a bit more water and coke, some salt tabs, and took off. We ran the Teasdale TV Tower Road for about a mile until the Great Western branches back off. I suddenly felt sluggish and no energy. Once the route branches off onto a double track, my energy returned, though my pace didn’t necessarily pick up. It was a fun curvy up and down trail through some pretty red rock areas, but slower going than the dirt road had been.
I should have pushed the dirt road before a LOT harder as I wasn’t going to pick up much time on the double track.
Right before the finish, the route crossed highway 24 and I glanced down at my watch to see what my time was. It looked like it was right at 3:00 even. I took off, trying to sprint to the finish to come in under 3 hours. It hurt. Then, as I approached the finish line I saw the clock read 2:57:something. HA! I could have taken it easy.
In the end, I finished in 20th place out of about 50-60 runners. Had I pushed those 3 miles (7-10) on the dirt road a bit harder and shaved 3-5 minutes off my time, I could have picked up 5-6 spots. No worries though – I wasn’t in it to win, just to finish.
My plan to run conservative and save energy for the end mostly finished. I felt strong in my last few miles than I did back at the Zion Half Marathon. In all, a gorgeous, rugged, hot day.
A few short hikes and runs.
I took my 12 year old niece out for a trail run. She is getting into cross country and it was a lot of fun to give her a taste of the Wasatch dirt. We took the Buffalo Peak Trail from the Little Rock Canyon overlook, up to the peak, and then looped down FS 27 back to the car.
Then, I took my sister-in-law (a 50k-er like myself) on the Timpooneke Trail. She has in injured quad so we just went up to the 2 mile meadow.
Then, I took the Mrs. up the same trail as well. She had been up to Scout Falls (about 1.5 miles up) with our kids before. She tested out her new Altra Lone Peaks and loved them. It was so gorgeous up there.
While visiting at a family cabin near West Yellowstone, I took the chance to explore a bit on a trail I had hiked briefly back in 2007ish. The Sawtell Peak Trail in the Bitterroot Range / Centennial Mountains does not go to Sawtell Peak. Rather, it meanders west of it for a while right along the continental divide. This divide also serves as the Montana-Idaho border, so step on one side of the ridge line and you’re in Idaho, step on the other and you’re in Montana. Very cool. I hiked it a bit with the Mrs., plus our bro- and sis-in-law Gregg and Rachael. When we hit the ridge that goes west up to Jefferson Peak, I convinced them to leave the trail (which goes to the basin and a small lake just NE of the peak) to try and bag it. We didn’t make it far, but it was a fun adventure. On the way back I wanted to hit Browers Spring, the contested headwaters of the Missouri River, which is just about 1/4 mile off the trial, but we didn’t have time for that either. Next time…
My local trail-running club, the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers, adopted the Timpooneke Trail Nr. 053 and Mt. Timpanogos Summit Trail Nr. 054 – two of the most heavily used trails in the entire state of Utah. Last night I joined for the first organized trail work event, clearing out the first mile of trail with loppers and shovels. It was looking gorgeous and I knew I’d need to get up farther in the near future. Then, this afternoon a friend posted that he hit the summit and the trail was in good shape. So, before I knew it, I had geared up and hit the trail.
Starting out it was in the 90s, but as I worked through the first couple miles, up past Scout Falls, and to the big meadow at mile two, it cooled significantly. Actually, it was perfect.
The first snow was a small field in the middle of the big scree field around mile 3. After that, the next section was a sketchy mote (ice bridge) at about mile 3.7. My friend had warned me not to take the well-worn path right off the trail, but to follow his footsteps about 10-15 higher up to cross. When I got there, the main path looked good, but I followed his instructions and scrambled up higher. I’m glad I did. From the approach, the mote looks solid, but looking back at it (see below) you can see that it is completely undercut and quite thin.
Once I got up to the Timp basin, the peak was bathed in light – its breathtaking.
On the trip from the basin floor up to the saddle there were a few snow fields to cross. Nothing too sketchy. If you slid, you’d go a ways down, but no cliffs to fly off. On my way up I encountered a huge group of Mountain Goats – I counted at least 20.
Once I got to the saddle and looked up at the summit, I realized just how far up it is. I have only done this once before. I tried to make good time, but at that elevation I could feel my heart pounding. Its quite a scramble. The summit is just about 7 miles from the Timpooneke trailhead.
I didn’t linger at the summit long. It had had taken me longer than I had planned to get up and I knew that I would be chasing daylight. It was now about 8:30 PM. I had a headlamp with but really wanted to get down all of the snow traverses and across that mote before having to switch it on. So, I tried to huff it down. A couple of the snow crossing felt sketchier on the way down than up. I also glissaded down one on my butt. That was fun, but a bit faster than I had thought it would be!
I did make it down and across the mote before stopping to put my headlamp on. I put some music on the loud speaker of my phone to alert any animals of my presence – terrified of running into something in the dark. It was a bit spooky coming down the last 4 miles. I picked away at it fairly slow. The trail has a lot of rocks and roots to trip on.
I made it safely to my car – about 5 hours round trip, 45 minutes longer than my first trip up last year. Next time, without the snow or dark, I’ll push for sub-4.
Last year I ran the Bryce 50k as my first ultramarathon, finishing in 7:17. I returned this year hoping to post a better time and prove that I have, in fact, improved as a runner. Sometimes things don’t go as planned and it took me over an hour longer this round. I placed 70th out of 150 runners. Last time I was 30th out of 90. According to ultrasignup, I performed better overall this time – at 66% compared to the winning time. Last year I was at 61%. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who struggled in the heat! In all, it was a great adventure and *most* of my well-laid plans worked out ok. (See full gear list and music playlist I jammed to at the bottom). At 31.8 miles (51 km), its the longest run I have ever done. As always, Ultra Adventures put on a great event. This is my 4 race I have done with them and each one seems to run smoother and smoother.
The day started cool but pleasant. I wore short sleeves and was glad I did – many runners were peeling off layers within a few minutes of the start.
The course first climbs through King Creek Campground, then up and over some single track to connect with FS road 109. Again, I got caught behind a conga line of people which was fine on the climb – I wanted to go out easy – but a bit annoying on the descent. I would have liked to open up a bit.
FS Road 109 is probably the only “flat” part of the course. By flat, I mean climbing a few hundred feet over a mile and a half to where it connects with FS Rd 110.
There, we climbed up to the Blue Fly Creek area. These roads climbed a total of about 1,150 ft over 4 mile to where our course topped out at 9,150 in elevation. Not the more rewarding route, but there were some good views as it crested out.
I made it to the Blue Fly AS at about the same time I did last year. I tried to quickly mix some new Tailwind in my pack, grab a coke, and hit the trail. Immediately, we dropped down some steep and sandy technical single track on the Blue Fly Proctor Trail to reconnect with FS Rd. 109, which after climbs about 750 feet over 3 miles to connect with the Grand View Trail. Along this section, my old friend Matt Van Horn had left me a few notes of encouragement (he marked the course the day previous). It really brightened my spirits.
Once on the Grand View Trail (now at mile 11.5 of the course) we were running together with the 50 and 100 mile racers. I was feeling good. It was warm, but I was hydrated and happy. There is some beautiful singletrack, green meadows, pine forests, views of the Sunset Cliffs. The Paunsaugunt Plateau is just beautiful.
I arrived at Proctor Aid Station a little behind my time from the year previous, but not by much. Again, I wasted a bit of time there scrambling to refill my stuff, chug some electrolytes, eat a bit, reapply sunscreen, etc. Having a crew here would have been nice. I spent almost 15 minutes before hitting the trail again.
Almost immediately I felt “off.” I could tell that the heat was sapping my strength, but I haven’t ever had heat-induced stomach troubles before. Within about a 1/2 mile I had to stop and sit for a moment. I did this again a few times in the next couple miles, trying to allow my stomach to settle. It felt sour, threatening vomit. As I tried to press on, the trail drops through some canyons, and then traverses up and over the ridges between a number of canyons – Riggs, Johnson, Hillsdale, Wilson. These were rough miles. I tried to continue taking in fluids (with calories and electrolytes mixed in) but couldn’t consume as much as I needed to. With every sip or gulp my stomach roiled. Also, I could tell my core body temperature was too high. By this time it was in the high 80s – low 90s. At about mile 20.5, crossing Hillsdale Canyon there was a stream of water in a wash. I took off my pack and laid down in it. Soaking myself completely over and trying to cool myself down. It felt amazing.
I reached the Thunder Mountain Aid Station at mile 22.5 feeling very low. I sat down in a chair in the tent and tried to cool down. Unfortunately, they were out of ice. After about 20 minutes, I got up and prepped to leave. Then, my stomach objected and I used the composting toilet to alleviate some GI distress. I was glad to have gotten that taken care of there rather than a mile up the trail. In all, I was at that aid station for almost 30 minutes!
Climbing out I felt great…for about a 1/4 mile…then the nausea returned.
At mile 24 or so, we turned onto the Thunder Mountain Trail and commenced our 2.5 mile, 1,000 ft. climb up Red Rock Canyon. Its funny. Here amongst my Wasatch Mtn. trails, that isn’t too bad of a climb. It seems brutal, however, when placed at miles 24-27 of a race. I was dreading the climb, though looking forward to the scenery. It really it stunning.
While the red rock ridges are dotted with trees, I knew they provided even less shade than the spotty shade we had “enjoyed” over the previous miles on the Grand View Trail. The day’s heat was now peaking. I was taking in water and electrolytes (biting salt tabs and dissolving them sublingually to absorb straight into my blood stream), but no calories. My pack bladder had been full of Tailwind as my main source of calories. Coming into the Thunder Mountain Aid Station, however, I had been unable to keep drinking it. The flavor was putting my nausea over the edge. So, I had refilled with water, but had not mixed in any more Tailwind. This seemed to curb the urge to vomit, allowing me to keep hydrated, but leaving me sorely calorie deficient. I had eaten a bit of food at Proctor and Thunder Mtn. I had some gels or shotbloks in my pack, but eating them sounded horrible. Combined with the heat, I felt sluggish to say the least. I said a silent prayer for strength, and perhaps some cloud cover and breeze. The strength didn’t come as I would have liked but some wispy clouds actually DID blow in and an AMAZING breeze picked up for the entirety of the climb up Red Rock Canyon. There is a God! That partial cloud cover and breeze saved me. As I would crest up little ridge and have full exposure to the breeze I would stop for 10-15 seconds, squirt some water over my chest, back, and hair, and let the breeze cool me for a moment. Heaven-sent – figuratively and literally!
After the climb, the trail “descends,” traversing across a seemingly endless string of finger canyons – over a ridge, down and back into a little canyon, then back up and out, over a ridge, then down into the next one. My stomach settled somewhat and I was careful not to push it with too much water. Whenever I did take a few big guzzles, it would sour for a minute but subside. By this point, a few hot spots on my feet were beginning to blister – but not too bad. Some joints were causing more pain. My right hip ached a bit (like it has for months), but not bad. Worse was my left hip. It wasn’t on the hip bone like the right one, but farther down – perhaps attached to my left IT band. Who knows. But it was sharp and really bit.
I had the route navigation running on my Suunto Ambit3 Peak watch and finally saw the end waypoint. I crested the last ridge and dove down to the finish line. But wait! No finish line! Where it had been last year there was a table with some water and a sign saying the finish was another mile down the road. NO!!!!!
That was a real blow to the psyche. I tried to push down the road, walking, jogging, but too exchasted to try and fend off a couple other 50k runners were were hobbling past me.
Finally, with crowds in sight I start to hear chants of my name. “Hey professor!” “Yeah Brenden!!! Go man, Go!” A number of my Wasatch Mountain Wrangler friends (the Williams, Macdonalds and others?…sorry, it was all a blur) cheered me on, with Aaron running alongside me for a hundred yards. Its amazing what a physical boost that provided. I picked up my pace and actually “ran” a bit. Thanks guys!
I finished in 8:45:53. I reached the previous year’s finish at 8:31 – so about 1 hour and 14 minutes slower than last year. Wow. That heat!
At the end, it was hands down the hardest run I have ever done. Course-wise, its the toughest race I’ve done, and with the heat it was clearly harder than last year. Despite the slower time, I’m a stronger runner than last year. What an adventure.
Gear used:
Playlist during run:
It was 90+ and I knew that the BST from Indian Hills to Bridal Veil Falls would have almost no shade. 10 miles round trip. Sounds great, eh?
The Bryce 50k is coming up in 9 days and it is forecast to be hot, so I wanted to see how I fared in the heat. The trip to Bridal Veil was hot, but I had plenty of water. At the falls I took off my shirt, submerged it and put it back on ice cold. Nice! As I left to make the return trip I had a genius idea. On the way there I had drank both of the bottles of ice water in my chest pockets, saving the (almost) full bladder for the return. As I thought how nice the cold wet shirt felt and how it would probably be dry and hot within 5 minutes or so I looked down at the stream, looked at my empty bottles, looked back at the stream and then the light bulb went on. I filled both bottles up – not to drink, but to intermittently dump over my head, down my back, on my arms, down my chest, etc. It was genius and it seemed to keep my core body temp down. I did the return trip faster than the way out as well, and I was feeling great. I attribute it to the bottles of water. I think I’ll do this at Bryce. Have 2 empty bottles in my drop bag at mile 14. By that point it will be warming up. Then, take them with to cool me off. Refill at the mile 22.5, etc. I think it’ll be a good way to keep a bit cooler.
Sam, a peak-bagging trail junkie friend, has been bugging me for a while to come join him up in SLC and the stars finally aligned for me to do so – to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of Orange Trail Monkeys up on Mt. Olympus. This was one of the peaks on my bucket list last year, but I failed to bag it.
I knew these guys were fast and although Sam claimed he would be going slow, I still opted to start 20 minutes earlier than him. It was hot and steep.
People coming down were warning of lots of rattlesnakes, but I didn’t see any.
The trail just climbs and climbs. You climb about 3500 ft over the first 3 miles of trail.
Towards the top, a straight up section affectionately dubbed “Stairway of the Gods” was swarming with flies and gnats. I must have swalled 4-5. A few made me gag and almost throw up as I tried to spit them out.
From the saddle at mile 3, you hang a left and climb another 500 ft. over only .2 miles to the summit.
I was thinking they would catch me, and had seen them down below once, but they didn’t. I scrambled up to the summit and had it to myself for a good 10 minutes before the crew showed up. Sparklers, watermelon, and a loud happy birthday sung. It was a lot of fun.
We switched our headlamps on and made the descent, ending with some cake at the cars.
Steep but gorgeous. Worth it.
For the past couple weeks I have been thinking a lot about putting in smart miles rather than just lots of miles. Lots of miles usually just get me injured, plus I don’t have lots of time, so I’m trying to be strategic (and have even added biking to work once a week or so into the mix as a way to work on muscle strengthening and endurance without stressing my joints). Here’s some recent doings.
Two of them were deliberate attempts to put in smart miles.
On May 16, some quick miles to loosen up sore muscles after that Big Baldy madness.
Then, on May 23, I went up the crop circles trails above Lindon with the specific plan to work on slow climbing. This is a trail that has a nice long, but gradual, climb, then a downhill to complete a loop. I wanted to work on transitioning from aggressively power hiking climbs to slowly running them. I did the loop, then did it backwards, then went up and down the BST a bit. It felt great. I will add this on occasions to get some climbing in, but without the punishment of long downhills that sometimes stress my joints.
On May 20 and May 27 I took my next-door neighbor on his first two trail runs. He has been a hardcore hiker in the past (600 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, the entire Great Western Trail from Idaho to Arizona – the full length of Utah – twice) and puts in a lot of road miles. I convinced him to join me in the hills and I think I’m going to get him hooked!
The Dry Canyon -Altar/Rock Pile loop was great in the morning and things were looking so green!
Then, of course, taking him on the Grove Creek Battle Creek loop. Wow. It is so green up top!
I like maps and I like drawing routes on maps that I can only dream of ever running. I draw them and then challenge others to run them. See all of them at The Professor’s Trail and Ultra Courses.
The Big Baldy Vertical Kilometer Challenge is in my backyard and I tackled it this morning before work. Yowzers.
The SW Ridge of Big Baldy (above Lindon, UT – in-between Dry Canyon and Battle Creek Canyons) is crazy steep. From the Dry Canyon trailhead, it is just over a kilometer of vertical gain over just 2.2 miles of trail. The 2nd mile alone climbs almost 2,300 feet. In all, the climb is 3,330 ft.
I’m not a strong climber but knew I could make it to the top. If feeling strong, I was planning to double it from the meadow at the Dry Canyon / Curly Springs trail intersection in order to also check off the Big Baldy Double (Vertical Mile+) Challenge. (That didn’t happen). But I did do the vertical KM – in 1:36:53.
The Dry Canyon Trail climbs fairly steep for the first .7 miles to the meadow where the Curly Spring trail intersects. I dropped an extra bottle behind a trail there and continued about .3 miles to the turnoff up the SW ridge trail. That first mile climbed 869 feet. Not bad, I was feeling ok. And, that is when the real fun began. The next mile of tiny switchbacks and steep pitches climbed almost 2,300 ft. While climbing I got some great views of Timpanogos and Little Baldy and the valley. About 3/4 of the way up, some clouds rolled in and started to wrap around the ridge below and above me. Then, right around ME. I could see the wisps of cloud moving just a couple feet away. Very cool.
After climbing 1 mile up the ridge, I got to the very prominent false summit (there’s an old flagpole, now laying on the ground). Continuing north, you drop down a tiny little col and then climb NE up a saddle to the actual Big Baldy summit where there is a large stone cairn.
That adds another .2 miles or so. I took some pictures, turned around, navigated down the little bit of snow on the saddle, and then back down the SW ridge. Close to the bottom, I landed fairly hard on a hyperextended left knee. At the meadow, where I had hoped to grab my extra bottle and turn around for the double, I took a moment to feel out the knee. It wasn’t happy and felt like it might be swelling. So, I called it a day and headed back to the car.
It was a short but grueling morning. Very fun. I’ll be back for the double!
The loop up Grove Creek, up and over to Battle Creek via Chris Flat, down Battle Creek, and back over to Grove Creek is always a good choice. The first two miles up Grove Creek to the bridge have nice enough views. The next mile to Grove Creek Spring are steep, but gorgeous. The climb through aspens and meadows up to Chris Flat is gorgeous in all seasons. Chris Flat itself, even with short scruffy early-spring grass (not tall yet) is something special. The first mile of the drop down into the Battle Creek drainage – until the split where you chose to go down Battle Creek or up to the switchbacks to the Big Baldy Saddle are full of meadows and so green. The descent down Battle Creek has some beautiful stretches but the trail is rough and steep with large rocks littering the path. Not “fun” running. And, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail back to Grove Creek once you get to the bottom is just a mess of ATV trails. Despite this, its all worth it for those 2-3 miles up top.
Today’s run apparently was my fastest for much of the route.
Trying to put in some easy miles, keep fit, but not aggravate my sore injured hip and foot/ankle. Varied success. A couple of these felt great, a couple hurt. The last, the full Grove-Battle Creeks loop was magnificent and actually felt pretty good during and after. Thankfully, I haven’t turned my ankle any more. Hopefully things are on the mend.
What does one do after running a strenuous half-marathon? You go run some extra credit miles with a couple thousand feet of vert, of course!
After dropping distance from the Zion 55k and winning (not really) the Zion Half Marathon this morning, I found myself with a free afternoon. I was only a few minutes from Zion National Park, still had a valid annual pass, and felt like I had a couple more miles in me. So, for extra credit post-half marathon miles, I ran up and down Angels Landing. It was fantastic.
About 1/2 way up the cement trail, a rain storm hit and the desert walls and cliffs above quickly erupted into countless waterfalls. Every nook, cranny, trough, and rut in the stone walls revealed the waterfalls that had carved them there for centuries. It was magnificent. Granted, the misty clouds didn’t make for the best views up top, but it was a unique experience.
These next 4 pictures are essentially of the same rock wall, though angled and cropped a bit different. Watch as the small trickle of waterfalls turn into torrents.
This morning I accidentally won the Zion Half Marathon. Not really. But I was the first half marathon runner across the finish line. How did I accomplish such a feat? Its easy – just accidentally start 1 hour before you’re supposed to. Let me explain…
I was registered to run the 55k. It was to be my longest run ever. I was a bit nervous (hip and foot/ankle were still tender) but excited. I had a good race plan figured out and was feeling confident that I could finish, even if it had to be a bit slow. Then, around 3 AM, it started to rain. Hard. The dirt along much of the course is high in clay content and when it turns to mud and gets trampled on it becomes quite unrunnable. Treacherous and slippery, it would have made portions of the 55k route dangerous. Also, in those conditions the runners would have destroyed the trails. So, at the last minute the race was postponed while a new course was flagged (a contingency plan had already been developed, knowing rain was on the forecast). Due to the reroute, it meant that we would not have access to our drop bogs. They had already been hauled up Gooseberry Mesa and the road was so bad that no one could get up or down it to retrieve them and bring them to the new 55k aid station on Hurricane and Smith Mesa. Previously, I have carried too much stuff in my pack during races. But with three 50ks under my belt, I was feeling more confident about knowing exactly what I would need and when/where I would need it. So, I put significantly less stuff in my pack and planned to strategically use my drop bag. Finding out I wouldn’t have access to it was a big blow. Already worried about my hip and foot/ankle, and knowing what a nightmare that clay/mud can be (read here), I lost the mental battle before the race even started. I dropped down to the half marathon distance. (Side note: they ended up getting up to retrieve the drop bags and did get them over to the new course, so I could have had it. Oh well).
The 55k start was postponed twice, eventually kicking off at 8:00 instead of 6:00. I had spent the 2 hours huddled with the other runners in tents, trying to avoid getting too wet. When it came time for the race (the 55k!) to start, I didn’t even think twice. I took off with the rest. Unbeknownst to me, the half marathon didn’t start for another hour. Oops!
In any case, off I went up and across the desert to the northwest. The trail – an ATV 4×4 road – was in horrible shape. On flat sections it was a struggle to stay up right. On inclines and declines, it was darn near impossible. I didn’t fall, but was taking it pretty slow. If you were trying to really run it, I would anticipate a lot of spills. To make it worse, the clay stuck to your shoes so when you finally climbed up or down below the sedimentary layer of clay and hit some normal dirt, you were trying to run with 5 lb ankle weight of mud caked to your shoes. I scraped it off a couple times, but eventually gave up. I was a good inch taller though with it on my soles!
The route went 4 miles to Hurricane Mesa Road – an old asphalt road – on which we climbed about 2.5 miles to the top. There was an aid station and the turnaround point for the half marathon. As I climbed up the road and neared the aid station I realized that no half marathon runners had hit the turnaround and passed me going back down the road. That’s when it hit me. I had accidentally started with the 55k an hour early. Ha!
I turned around and headed back down the road, making a great 2 mile split. On the way everyone was giving me thumbs up and “heck yeah!”s and “good job”! and they tried to figure out who I was and how I was already on my way back so quickly. A few assumed I had given up and was heading back, giving me a conciliatory frown, but then quizzical look as they wondered why I was running so fast and fresh if I was quitting. Partway down I saw the actual half marathon runners on their way up. I told them good job and said they were in the lead. I don’t know if they understood me. I hope it didn’t freak them out. Here they are, thinking they were winning the race and some dude comes flying down the road ahead of them.
I trudged the 4 miles back to the start/finish, half expecting the actual half marathon winners to catch up with me and finish ahead, but they didn’t quite catch me. People really cheered at the finish but I quickly explained – nope. I didn’t win, I just accidentally started an hour early. The actual winner came in about 5 minutes later! So he almost did catch me.
I finished in 2:34:00 for 26th place out of 88 finishers.
The winner did it in 1:38. I don’t know how they moved that fast across the mud.
Wow.
For Extra Credit, I went and ran Angels Landing afterwards. In the rain. It was spectacular.
I hadn’t run since Monument Valley, worried about some nagging continued hip pain and new foot/ankle pain. With only 3 weeks between 2 races, I thought it would be better to be under-trained than over-injured. However, this weekend my family went out of town (so I wasn’t needed at home), the weather was beautiful, and the San Rafael Swell was a’calling me! I put out an invite to the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers and others and was joined by a new friend, Steve, for the 8 mile loop up Little Wildhorse Canyon and down Bell Canyon. An old friend (from my time in Romania in the late 90s early 00s) and his kids joined for camping. Annie and Brad MacDonald also swung by the campsite for a campfire. I was hoping to hit Horseshoe Canyon the next day to see the Great Gallery, but my hip and ankle flared up after the run so I just drove home. Bummer. Steve said it was amazing.
Monument Valley 50k was my first ultra of the season (and my 3rd, following the Antelope Island Fall Classic and Bryce 50k’s last year). Perennially under-trained and quasi-injured as ever, I was a bit anxious for this one. However, this was to be a special race. It is run within the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, largely on trails and back-roads only accessible with Navajo guides. Moreover, the course allows access to the top of Mitchell Mesa which gives some amazing views, albeit with abandoned uranium mines. From its northeast overlook, you get a view that is hard to beat. In any case, I was determined to walk the course if that’s what it took. I spent a lot of time taking picture instead of running, a select few are below.
It is part of Ultra Adventures’ Grand Circle Trail Series, for which I’m volunteering as an ambassador this year. Matt Gunn and his crew put on such good events. Wow.
The race started at sunrise. Local Navajos gave everyone a pinch of white corn meal to sprinkle eastward towards the rising sun, while Navajo prayer blessing was offered. Then, we were off, running down from the starting line at the View Hotel campground.
We ran down IR 42 about 3.5 miles to the course aid station at the foot of the Three Sisters formation. I had to grab a couple things from my drop bag, but tried to head out quick on the first loop.
The loop was about 5 miles, putting us back at the aid station by about mile 8.5. It went across some great single track with spectacular views. Also, we got a taste of some of the sandy terrain we had been warned of.
Back at the aid station, I swapped out my bandanna, put on a tank top and applied some sunscreen. The next loop was 10 miles and I knew it was heating up.This loop headed on a dirt road for a few miles and then transitioned to desert paths of deep soul-sucking sand. Oh man. It was slow going. I teamed up with a couple runners along the way, boosting spirits as we chatted. But man, the sand was rough. It was slow and it cut the efficiency of each stride – lots of energy wasted pushing sand. It went on for miles and every time we finally hit good dirt, the sand came back. Thankfully, there were some really cool rock formations and arches to behold.
We returned to the Three Sisters aid station again at mile 18. I was feeling a bit hot, but my energy levels seemed good. Again, I took more time at the aid station that I would have liked. Finally, refueled and supplied another runner I had met on the arches loop, Julie, said “Run out together?” That sounded great. I knew this next portion, miles 18-28, would be the hardest but also potentially the most rewarding. After about 2 miles of sand and washes, we arrived at the south side of Mitchell Mesa.
The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it look so tall. IT was about a 1,000 foot climb of 1 mile of trail. Rocky, steep, hot. The breeze that had been saving us earlier was coming from the north, so on the south side of the mesa, the air was still. And hot. Already 21 miles in, this climb was brutal, maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done – at least it felt that way at the time.
Once at the top of Mitchell Mesa we ran about a half mile north to an overlook. The view was breathtaking. I spent a few moments trying to take it in. But, as the pictures below demonstrate, you scope of the landscape is hard to take in.
I was worried about the descent. Coming up I saw how rocky it was and have been prone to roll ankles. To make matters worse, both of my quads began to cramp. After turning around at the overlook the slight decline to the south trail felt great. I picked up the pace and was excited to be moving at a good clip. However, I must have been low on electrolytes because I cramped right around the rim. They spasmed on the way down, but I made good time. The footing wasn’t as sketchy as I had thought it would be. At the bottom, I filled my water at the water drop they had put there and made ok time for a portion of the return to Three Sisters. Some sandy sections slowed me quite a bit but I eventually made it back to the Aid Station. I got some ice in my bottle and hydration pack and headed off on the road for the last 3.5 miles to the finish.
It rolled a bit, up and down, but ended with a series of very steep pitches. Not fun. I crossed the finish at a jog, 7:11:24. Without the sand, I think I could have dropped a good 45 minutes off that. I tried out new nutrition and it had worked great. Tailwind in my hydration pack and Sport Legs. A lactic acid supplement that is supposed to reduce muscle soreness. Perhaps it was the placebo effect, but my legs never got to the level of soreness that I usually get above 20 miles. So, that experiment was a success. As for the cramps, that was only after swapping out Tailwind (which has salt) for a bottle of Perpetuem as my main calorie source climbing the Mesa. I switched just to have a change in flavor, but forgot to add Salt Stick pills. Lesson learned.
In the end the race was great. It beat me up and the sand sucked so much more energy out of me than I anticipated.
Now, to recover and get ready for the Zion 55k in 3 weeks!
Sometime, when you have a pile of midterm exams to grade and it nice outside, you throw them in a pack, run up a trail and sit down by a waterfall to mark’m up.
Barring catastrophic weather, bad falls, rolled ankles or other injuries, getting attacked by wild animals, etc., even the worst trail-run is still pretty great. The BST and squiggly wiggly trails above Orem/Lindon (especially between Dry Creek and Battle Creek) are kind of my treadmill. A little vert, a little technical single track, some flat sections to really open up and run. A bit of everything. The trails aren’t spectacular, although the sunsets, alpenglow, tall grass (in the Spring) are sometimes beautiful. Not too flashy, somewhat. Venturing up the canyons cranks up the beauty level, but when time is short I usually stick around the less-spectacular foothills.
They are especially plain this time of year, mostly dirty brown. The trails are in rough shape following the snow melts, lots of new rocks in the trail, rutted up from bikes and horses and runners going in the mud, etc.
Even so – it is still a balm for my soul. I can feel the itch if I don’t get out for a while. After 4-5 days with no dirt, I start to get really antsy. So, having these trail heads 5 minutes from my house is saving me.
Here’s to boring, but wonderful, local trails!
3 Cheers!
Last year around this time I joined a large group run to the San Rafael to run the Good Water Rim Trail at The Wedge. I was hooked. This year another big group ventured down – about 30 of us – and it was great.
For the first 9 miles I tried to focus on keeping a steady pace – not going out too strong. I thought I was going more conservative than last time, when I felt I started too fast and then bonked. Looking at my splits, my 10 min/mile pace this time was a lot faster than last time. Oh well. It felt pretty good. At the 9 mile aid station I felt a lot stronger than last time (with the exception of a rolled ankle and hot spots on both feet – they never blistered, thankfully, but I was worried). I was just a couple minutes behind the lead group and stayed a few minutes behind them for the next 7 miles to the east overlook. Mostly, I ran solo. But that was fine. The scenery is spectacular. The east 7 miles are a lot rougher trail and that wore on me. I slowed, alternating running with fast walking for a 10th of a mile here and there. At the 16 mile overlook I jumped out to the road and followed it the 5.5 miles around and back to the start just like last time. By the end, my energy levels felt really good but my legs were just shot. So sore. Thankfully, no cramping though. I tried out fueling with just tailwind and it felt great. I popped a couple extra salt tabs when it warmed up. And, I mixed a bottle of perpetuem for the last 2 miles, but didn’t end up drinking much of it.
I thought I’d take a chance on FS 27, Sq*** Peak Road in the snow. Mostly firm, but enough soft spots to cause a few tumbles on the way back down from the overlook. I thought I’d leave a little blood for the mountain lions to taste.
I had been wanting to do the Grove Creek -> Battle Creek loop in the snow for a while. With my sister-in-law (also a new trail-runner) in town and wanting to do a run, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I asked around and knew that the climb between the two drainage – up and over Chris Flats – might be a bit sloppy. I figured we could tough out a mile of post-holing though. No problem.
Grove Creek was pretty good up to the bridge, and even a bit beyond. Once we broke out of the trees, however, the tracks lessened and post-holing began. Up to the spring, up to Chris Flats, and most of the way down into Battle Creek it was a sloppy mess. If we had hit it early in the morning before the sun warmed up the surface, we might had stayed on top more. Perhaps not though – it was soft pretty far down. In any case, it was an adventure. Rachael may never forgive me, but she did get some good pictures out of it!
GPS data got messed up on the descent into Battle Creek. There is no way we were moving that fast!
As is my custom, in the winter I start running lots of flat pavement in the name of convenience and trying to rest recurrent IT band problems (vert makes that worse). With some IT issues stemming from my New Years Revolution Run, I decided to hit the pavement. In previous years that is what CAUSED my IT band pain and also what caused stress fractures on my ankles. This time, it let to hip bursitis (I think). Woot woot! So… that means resting and not running as much + stretching and strength training.
I am considering dropping my yearly mileage goals and focusing on strength training more so I can run injury free. I sometimes feel like the push for weekly miles leads me to run when I have a free hour rather than hitting the gym. With little free time, I think “I can’t waste this hour at the gym, I need to get in my miles!” I wonder if more gym time (especially during the winter when getting time on the trails, which don’t seem to cause these injuries, is harder anyways). Plus, I don’t have to run in the inversion smog in the gym. Hmmm.
Its a bummer too, because I have increasingly been enjoying evening runs on the pavement. It is also so convenient to just pop out my front door and run for an hour with minimal gearing-up or driving to/from a trailhead. I am also getting hooked on the exhilaration of running flat and “fast.” Fast for me, at least. However, I looked back at when I started running in 2013 and my average pavement pace actually IS a lot faster than it used to be. Progress! Now I just need to learn how to prep my body to be able to do it injury-free.
Some fun (and freezing) road runs.
Some trails, which didn’t seem to aggravate the hip!
I was stranded in Springville for 2 hours while a kid was at a birthday party, so I hit the BST. It reminded me of the BST above Farmington and Fruits Heights.
Having seen some recent pictures of Grove Creek Canyon in the snow, I just had to hit it. Before work I trudged up to the bridge before work. Gorgeous.
Last year and this year I organized a secret Santa type gift exchange for my trail-running club, the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers. People signed up, I assigned them a person to hide for, people then hid gifts up in the mountains, and I then relayed the instructions/clues to the people they hid for. Last year it was fun and this year people enjoyed it again. Since I didn’t assign anyone to myself (that would be weird) a few very kind Wranglers hid gifts for me. Awesome people. I had fun finding them in Battle Creek Canyon, up the Church Fork in Millcreek Canyon (Grandeur Peak Trail), and Bells Canyon. Thank you Ben, Rebecca, and the mystery secret wrangler. You guys were very generous to hide some treats for me. I am seriously grateful.
SO FUN!
2015 was my 2nd full year trying to be a “runner” and it was full of a lot of “mile”stones. (see what I did there? Eh?! Eh?!) It really was big though. By the measures of some of my running friends, not so much. But for me, the guy who hates running, this has been quite a wild ride. I still can’t believe it.
Who have I become?!
I don’t even know who I am anymore!
Let’s review how I did with my goals. (here’s last year’s write-up)
Mileage:
Vert:
Summits:
Race and Adventure Runs
My 2015 Monthly Mileage
My 2015 Monthly Elevation Gain
Now, my 2016 Goals
Mileage:
Vert:
Summits:
Race and Adventure Runs
Friends! I am excited to announce that I have joined the Ultra Adventures team for 2016 as an ambassador.
This means I will help set up some races, run a few races, and try to convince all of you to come join! I don’t get kick-backs if you register off a referral, I just want as many people to come join the fun (and suffering) as possible. If you have been one of the many that comments on how beautiful the trails are in my pictures and posts, what are you waiting for?!
If I (the anti-runner) can slog through a 50k, ANYONE can train for a ½ marathon. Seriously. Get off the pavement and come join for a beautiful trail race in some of the most beautiful places in the country. You can read about my experience at Bryce last year – it was really amazing. Friends, both serious ultra-marathon athletes and casual runners, have all reported similar experiences at the UA events. If you have been toying with doing a race – at any distance – do it someplace beautiful.
In addition to hosting races in beautiful places, Ultra Adventures also promotes people getting out and seeing more through their Trifecta challenges. For each race, there are a series of additional hikes you can do in the area. If you complete them all, you can get a discount off your next race registration. I love that UA is willing to offer people discounts for going out and experiencing the places they are all passionate about. UA also promotes itself as zero-waste. Very cool stuff.
I’ll be at Monument Valley, Zion, Bryce, and Capitol Reef, but there are also events at Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Tushars, and Moab. If you have questions, message me about potential registration discounts I can offer.
As explained HERE, I did some fundraising for the Syrian refugee crisis by running a track race and having people pledge $ per lap. It was painful, but great. We raised a little of $1,200.
Held at the Olympic Oval, the track goes around the speed-skating track. It was fun watching Olympic medal winners zoom around as we labored slowly around the 344 meter track. This was the longest I have ever run flat. I was on pace to hit my 100 lap goal by the 2.5 hour halfway point, but then slowed considerably. Muscle fatigue, cramps by lap 70, IT band pain by lap 80. I made it 24.2 miles – 88 laps.
It was fun chatting with some fellow Wasatch Mountain Wranglers along the way. A good way to start out the year.
Home for the holidays, I took my Christmas present out of their box a few days early to hit some trails in my hometown. The Olympus 2.0 might be my favorite shoe ever. Seriously.
I hit my childhood mountain bike trails on Galbraith Mountain one day and Whatcom Falls Park another day. Beautiful.
I learned how to mtn. bike in the mid-90s on these trails. Back then, it was a quasi-legal affair (lots of signs saying no trespassing, but community rumor that it was ok) and we usually had the place to ourselves. Now, it is well-developed, signage everywhere, benches, trails with signs indicating they are maintained by sponsors, etc… Very odd.
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Stump Cairn
This is about 1 mile from my parents house and my favorite city park anywhere in the country. Here are some old RR bridges.
In hopes of rehabbing my IT Bands and increasing my flat-terrain endurance and speed, I have stayed off the trails for a couple weeks. (I want to be injury-free and flat-fast for my fundraiser on January 1 – read about it here to help Syrian refugees). One treadmill run and 3 on paved trails around my house. The treadmill was horrible. The ones around my house were convenient and actually somewhat enjoyable…but I missed the mountains. It is entertaining to chase strava segment PRs when on the pavement. See the Strava links for all of them below.
Today, however, I just couldn’t resist. It had snowed an inch or two over night and then snowed another few during the morning and early-afternoon. I just had to get up in the snow. I started at the equestrian trailhead in Lindon, went up the squiggles to the swinging bench overlook, dropped down to Dry Canyon and across the BST, then looped the lower BST back to the car. For most of it I could tell that people had been up in the morning, a clear trail being broken already, but another 2-4 inches had fallen on top of their tracks. It was the best of both worlds. I had a trail broken and packed but a nice soft layer of fluff on top to play in. I overheated pretty quick, stripped off some layers, ate lots of snow, and bumbled about. It was glorious.
Inspired by some recent calls in my church congregation to raise funds and supplies to aid the Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, I decided to start a little fundraiser of my own. I have an old friend who runs a non-profit organization that provides education opportunities to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. All funds raised will go to his Sadalsuud Foundation.
I am registered for the January 1, 2016 New Years Revolution Run at the Utah Olympic Oval. I will have 5 hours to complete as many laps as possible. 95.5 laps would be a marathon and I have set a goal to hit 100 laps. It is going to be horrible. I run, pretty much exclusively, as a way to get me up in the mountains to beautiful places. I am a trail runner, not a runner. So running in a circle for 5 hours, indoors, is going to be pure torture.
If you would like more information on how to pledge a $ amount per lap, visit this Facebook Event Page and message me.
Here is the current per-lap pledge total:
$11.60 per lap (updated 9 Dec.)
I have done a number of runs in the Orem/Lindon foothills on the side of the mouth of Provo Canyon, but not much on the south side of the canyon mouth. I remedied that this last week with 2 runs.
Starting at the Indian Hills trailhead I headed up the first mile climb and then another couple miles along the BST that travers up-canyon. The was ice in a few spots, but not bad. It felt great to be out. Once I turned around, my right IT Band flared up pretty quick and didn’t let up – getting especially bad on the last mile descent. More time on I the foam roller, I guess. Lots of tread mill. No hills.
On Saturday I planned to try out my new snowshoes for the first time up at Aspen Grove, if the snow was deep enough. Unfortunately, the anyone road was closed. About 10-15 minutes earlier, a oil tanker overturned, spilling 1,000 gallons of crude oil into the Provo a River. Very sad. Nobody was hurt. I’m glad I wasn’t a few minutes earlier or I could have been in the middle of it.
I wasn’t planning to run because of my knee, but decided to give it a try. I ran up the Sq*** Peak Road a bit, then dropped onto the Cactus Hill Connector and then to the top of Cactus Hill. The trail was untouched by human feet until the top of the hill. Just animal tracks on about 2 inches of fresh snow. So perfect. Down the west side of the hill there were a bunch of tracks from earlier in the morning, but once I headed back up canyon on the Smith Ditch a then BST I had taken on Monday, it was fresh tracked again. So beautiful. I bombed back down the road to my car. The knee felt *ok and it was so fun to be out on the fresh snow. But, for the next bit I need to keep it flat. Treadmill, I assume.
It hurt, but it was worth it. My two 50k finishes have now taught a number of important lessons. Foremost among them is this:
I can finish 50k ultra-marathons without much training, but it’ll hurt. Next time, train.
This was my 2nd ultra-marathon. You can read about my first, the Bryce 50k, and my thoughts about doing it again here.
Saturday started a bit chilly, with a slight breeze. I chose to just wear a long sleeve tech-tee (later a tank-top), some cheep gloves, a Buff bandana (later a plain red cowboy one), and a Patagonia Houdini windbreaker that I just love. On my feet I had my Altra Lone Peak 2.0s (2nd pair!), Injini trail socks, Altra gators, and some Zensah compression calf sleeves. For my pack and nutrition, I chose my Nathan VaporWrap with water, some Clif ShotBloks, SaltStick Caps, and an Ultimate Direction 20 oz. bottle with 2 hours worth of Hammer Perpetuem in it. My plan was to refill it with mix a couple times at aid stations. Finally, I got some good use out of my new Suunto Ambit2 gps watch. Love it! I could have shed the windbreaker by mile 2. Thankfully it doesn’t weigh much so having it in my pack wasn’t a problem.
I thought that I went out fairly conservative, knowing there were a lot of miles ahead. As it would turn out, I clocked PRs on all of the strava segments down to Split Rock Bay. Oops. I guess the excitement of race day got the best of me. As usual, my legs felt a bit stiff for the first few miles, but once I dropped down onto the bone road and climbed up lone tree hill to the Elephant Head aid station, I was feeling loose and good.
There, I made the mistake of asking the volunteers how many miles it was to the next aid station. I should have just memorized the miles they were all at, or written it on my arm with a sharpie. In any case, they said it was 4.5 mile. I had another hours worth of Perpetuem in my bottle, so I didn’t mix a new one. As it turns out, it was 9 miles. Oh well. It wasn’t too hot and I had some Clif ShotBloks, so I survived.
After Elephant Head, there is a nice 1+ mile downhill to Split Rock Bay. I didn’t want to blast my quads too bad, but knew that the downhills are where I could pad my time and augment my generally slow pace along the flats. I made it to the bottom, and continued to feel good as I worked my way south, and up the switchbacks to the saddle where we cross into the southwest side of Antelope Island.
Up to this point, it was all trail I had done before, but before I turned north here to return along the spring Buffalo Run 25k course to Elephant Head and White Rock Bay. I had never traversed the saddle to drop into this section of the island. It was gorgeous. However, right as I started to descend back towards the shoreline, an all too familiar pain in BOTH KNEES came out of nowhere. IT (Iliotibial) Bands. NOOO! I hadn’t had IT band problems for over 0 months (last January)! I was sitting at about mile 8 with 23 more to go. I couldn’t believe it. I hoped that with careful posture, some breaks for stretching, etc… I would be able to manage it. I picked my way down the hill and it was just excruciating.
So much for making good time on the downhills! Once down at the shoreline, the doubletrack degraded a bit into loose rock, sand, etc… for a couple miles until pushing up a 1,000+ ft. climb to the Sentry Peak aid station.
On the climb, the pain went away and I made good progress, passing a number of people. I ate a bit, stretched, mixed another bottle of Perpetuem and got some more water. Then, I headed south towards the shark fin looking peaks. The pain immediately returned on my knees and I knew I was in for trouble. Still 17 miles to go. Quickly, the trail cut east and descended over the ridge and down to the east side of the island. I could see the “ranch” down below and hadn’t realized how high we had climbed. The dirt road down was in good shape, and normally, this would have been my strongest section of the course. It was a 3 mile downhill, dropping about 1,000 feet total. Not too steep to be unrunnable, but steep enough to make really good time. IT Band pain, however, is at its worst on downhills, and wow, it was bad. I limped my way down a lot of it, wincing when the pitch went especially steep. At the bottom, I came up on a runner from Wyoming and we shared a mile or so together going into the Ranch.
The flat hurt my knees, but was bearable. At this point, I knew that there were any more major long downhill sections. The remainder of our course was the Mountain View 1/2 marathon course that had started an hour after our 50k. So. I had a 1/2 marathon ahead of me of flat-ish trail, lots of soft up and down rolling miles. I wasn’t feeling good, but thought I could make it. I alternated between running slowly (9-12 min/mile pace) and speed-walking (13-14 min/mile pace). I would run for 60 seconds until the pain was too much, then speed-walk aggressively to give my knees a break. That’s the dumb thing about IT Band pain. It can be unbearable at even a slow running pace, but the moment you switch to a walking gait – the pain disappears. In any case, the walking saved me. For the last 13 miles, I average about a 13 min/mile pace. I am not fast on flat miles, but this is much slower than I had hoped to go. With the exception of the slow descent from Sentry, I had been clocking faster splits than I had hoped for. And, had I continued for the last 13 at my previous pace, I would have finished close to the 6 hour mark – WAY faster than I had planned or hoped. But, it didn’t pan out that way and I had to swallow my pride as a lot of people passed me over the next 13 miles. Often, they would pass as I walked and then I would catch back up to them as I ran, and so on. In a way, this made it even harder to swallow. I knew that if my knees would allow, I would be running at a pace faster than most of them – doing the passing rather than being passed. I have no pretensions about being a good runner and was out there to simply beat myself, not them, but feeling strong and moving up in the pack feels good. I knew that I should have been, but just couldn’t oh well.
At about mile 20.5 I hit the wonderful 9 Mile aid station where I had a drop bag. I switched my long sleeve shirt for a tank top and swapped my buff for a fresh bandana. I remixed a Perpetuem bottle, ate a tiny bit, and was off. In all, I think I was there about 7-8 minutes, my longest aid station stop by far. But, my legs felt so fresh on my way out. Wow. What a difference that made. I soldiered on to the Lower Frary aid station where my good friend Matt Van Horn (MVH!) was waiting. He pushed me along for about 5.5 miles, literally running circles around me. He would run ahead, then run back to me and go way behind, then turn around and pass me and run ahead again. I hated him for goading me on, but was also so grateful. It was wonderful to have a smiling face. I’m sure he got sick of my perma-scowl as I tried to wince through the pain.
After hitting the fence-line and climbing up and over to the east side of the island at mile 28-ish, I told Matt to continue on to the finish and tell my family I was on my way. To make the course a full 50k, the RD looped our route north of the finish on the paved road a bit, then west down to the the dirt road along the lower campsites, then back south to the fence and up to the finish. The pavement hurt, especially on the downhill. But, with the finish line literally in sight, I tried to push. My family was waiting, lots of cheers, and my 5 year old boy even joined me to cross the finish line.
I finished in 6:45. That was 32 minutes faster than my Bryce 50k time. However, this was a much easier course. UltraSignup gives your performance a % ranking of how well you did against the top finisher. My 7:17 finish at Bryce put me at 61%, placing 30th out of 90 runners. My 6:45 at Antelope Island put me at 53%, placing 119th out of 199 runners. In the back of my head, I had sub-7 hours as a goal, so I am very glad to have done that. I can’t help but feel regret that my knees didn’t cooperate with the rest of my body. My legs were trashed by the end, but I feel that I could have gone another 30-45 minutes faster if the IT bands hadn’t been a problem. That would have put me in 80-90th place, with a 6:00-6:15 time. Well…I guess there’s always next year!
In the end, I am frustrated but grateful that I was able to push through and finish.
A couple weeks ago I was in Portland for a conference and found myself having the same conversation over and over again with professional colleagues and friends.
And that is how the conversation went, over and over again. It goes similarly when I am catching up with old friends or with family I haven’t seen in a while. Seriously – I’m not trying to be annoyingly self-deprecating and/or fish for compliments. I really don’t consider myself much of a runner.
Ok – get your eye rolls over with…..I’m waiting……ok. Now, let me explain.
I started “running” about 3 years ago, working my way up to a 5k and a 5 mile race back in Kearney, Nebraska in 2012. It was all pavement and it hurt. After a lifetime of hating running, however, it was exciting to actually do a race. Fast-forward to Summer 2013 when I moved to Utah and discovered there was this thing called “trail-running.” Having grown up hiking a lot, this was a revelation to me and I quickly dove in. However, I’m lazy and not very smart. Much of that first year of “running” was me getting over-use injuries from not knowing what I was doing. I kept at it though because I loved exploring trails, ridges, canyons, mountains, and beautiful places. Slowly, I also got hooked on the sense of accomplishment and physical exhilaration of doing hard things.
Along the way, however, I found myself in an uncomfortable place (and still do, to some extent). The trail-running friends and community I was interacting with seemed to be largely made up of people who ran ultra-marathons. 50k, 50 mile, 100k, 100 mile, and even 200 mile trail races! I was trying to be a “trail-runner” but unable to engage in the “So, what race is up next for you” conversation that usually accompanied interacting with them. It was awkward and I felt a bit sheepish. I freely admit that. I loved what I was doing, but wished I could do more. I really admired these people. What they did was amazing.
Slowly, as my strength grew, I felt like I actually could and wanted to try out a race myself. Not because I felt inadequate compared to my friends or out of any sense of competition. I just felt the desire to do it for myself. I did an ultra distance in December 2014 as a solo adventure run and then signed up for the Bryce 50k on June 6, 2015. It was an amazing experience. However, it didn’t fundamentally change how I felt about myself as a “runner.”
I was still slow, still under-trained, still a total noob amateur. And, I still am.
Increasingly, I am coming to the realization that I’m ok with that. I’m ok being a slowpoke, as long as I can keep on getting out there and seeing beautiful things. I love exploring. I love to be outside. I love the satisfaction and thrill of doing hard things. Official ultramarathon races are an exciting way to fulfill all of those motives for running.
This next Saturday, I will run my second 50k – the Antelope Island Fall Classic 50k. The weather is scheduled to be in the low-50s. Absolutely perfect. I don’t feel all that prepared but can’t wait to get out there. A friend said that doing 1 means you have run an ultramarathon. But doing 2 makes you an “ultramarathoner” as it means you’ve established a pattern of repeating the activity. I’m not sure about that…but I’m excited to see if I can beat my previous time. I’m excited to share the trail with others. I look forward to seeing friends, engaging in vigorous high-5s, and crossing the finish line.
Do I aspire to longer distances? Maybe some day. But I’m not in a hurry. Hopefully I have a lot of years ahead to get there.
A million thanks to new running friends that have entertained my efforts, and family that has put up with my new hobby.
Really, I have it good. There is a trail head for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail about 2 miles from my house. The trail isn’t anything over-the-top spectacular, but its great. I am so lucky to have nice easy trails so close. Also, it is perfect running weather. 50s. No overheating.
I found myself in Portland for a conference and was able to squeeze in a couple runs. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, I was so fun to run on trails that look very much like “home.” Soft dirt, thick undergrowth of ferns, moss growing all over. Forest Park in Portland did not disappoint!
Back in town, but with my family still in California I tempted fate and ran 12 additional miles (on top of the 30 I had already done this week). That is pushing it for me, but I wanted to take the opportunity to hit the Wasatch Crest to see the autumn leaves while I could.
I started at the Big Water trailhead where the Mill Creek Canyon Rd. ends. I climbed up to Dog Lake, dropped down to Mill D North, climbed up to Desolation Lake and the Wasatch Crest Trail above, took the crest north to Mill Creek, dropped that down to the Little Water Trail, and took that back to my car. I could fill this with lots of blow-by-blow commentary, annoyance at dogs with muddy paws climbing all over me at Dog Lake while their owners say “Oh…uh…sorry,” NOT seeing any moose like last year on Mill D, the temperature dropping bizarrely cold (and damp) when the sun went down as I came off the Crest and into Mill Creek Canyon, and how I put music on loud on my iPhone while running through scary woods in the dark – hoping to scare off any potential startled wildlife encounters….but I won’t. 😉
Here are some pictures. One great thing about hitting the aspens in late evening light is how the sideways indirect light just sets everything on fire. Already bright colors just explode.
Also, I hit the Aspen Grove Trail for the first time with a friend who was visiting from Ottawa. The trail is rougher than Timpooneke. I think I like the other approach better.
While still in Flagstaff, and on the drive home, I put in a few more miles.
I was in Flagstaff for a conference this week and had a free morning before the events started. How could I not venture over to the Grand Canyon?!
It was my first time and it did not disappoint. I started at the South Kaibab trailhead right around dawn and bombed on down. I had the trail mostly to myself, only passing a few hikers who must have caught an earlier shuttle to the trailhead.
The early morning light was just gorgeous. The red rock and green vegetation all seemed to take a deeper hue than was natural. The midday sun later washed the colors out quite a bit more. I had been warned that the trail was not terribly runnable – and much of it was not. It is hard to get a good rhythm or use a natural gait or stride between all of the wooden log steps, rocky terrain, etc… I did luck out in that rain from the previous days had left the trail nice and soft. Very little mud going down South Kaibab, just soft, slightly-moist, dirt. Also, a TON of mule dung. I have since been told that when the trail dries out, clouds of mule-dung-dust billow up with every step and you end up inhaling a lot of it. Yuck.
At 3 miles, I hit Skeleton Point and paused to take off some layers. At the trailhead it was chilly and I had a long sleeve shirt and windbreaker on. Those both went into my pack and I continued on in just a tank-top. It was still a BIT chilly (so I left my gloves on) but I was moving enough to be sweating and it felt nice to shed the layers.
I continued past Skeleton Point, down the switchbacks and then actually hit some nice runnable trail for a while as it wraps around to the left. I was pushing, hoping to catch up to the mules at The Tipoff, where I knew I would be allowed to pass them quickly. Unfortunately, I got waylaid taking picture of the morning light streaming in from behind some clouds to the east.
I did not catch them at The Tip-Off. There were some early hikers there, Japanese – I think, and they gave me VERY weird looks as I cruised by. I don’t know if it was because I was running or because I was wearing a tank-top at 7:30 AM. In any case, I continued on, finally catching the mules a bit later. They had me keep my distance until there was a wide spot in the trail. It only slowed me down for about 10 minutes – not bad.
After passing the mules (and another mule train heading UP) I started to notice how hot it was getting as I neared the canyon bottom. And HUMID! I could feel the humidity in the air – like a mist. Then, I looked up and saw what the sunlight and humidity was creating.
DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!
I crossed over the Colorado River on the black suspension bridge, and then ran up to Phantom Ranch for a VERY refreshing lemonade. I think it upset my stomach a bit, but it sure was tasty. I crossed back over the river on the Silver Bridge and started up the Bright Angel Trail.
After the bridge, you run along the River Trail, downstream. It felt great to actually open up my stride and RUN, albeit slowly.
By the time I hit the canyon where the Bright Angel Trail starts to climb, I was feeling the effects of the heat and humidity. For the next 3 miles, as I climbed up to Indian Garden I was sweating more profusely than I have in my entire life. It was, literally, a constant stream of drips off my brow and down my face. I refilled my waters, mixed a new bottle of perpetuem and soldiered on. At this point, 5+ miles and a few thousand feet of climbing left, I hit the mental state where you just want to get the thing done.
The psychology of this run was unique. I am used to running UP mountains, and then coming back down. Even if you are tired and wasted from the climb, the descent is always easier. Doing it in reverse was a mind-trip. Within a mile after leaving Indian Garden you get a view of the remainder of the climb ahead and it really sinks in what you’re going to have to do.
With about 3 miles of climbing left, the clouds that had been threatening to rain all day settled in and started to drizzle. It actually felt GREAT! I was overheating as I tried to make a strong steady power hike up. The cooling drizzle, however, quickly turned into a torrential downpour. This continued on and off for most of the remaining climb. I considered putting my windbreaker on, but just kept pushing. At this point, I was seeing a LOT of people. Going up, coming down, lots of day-hikers and back-packers. All of them giving me weird looks as I hiked past in my tank top, soaked to the bone. The rain made the hiking more difficult as the trail turned into a stream. Trying to keep along the edges of the trail to avoid the water slowed me down a bit. Worse, however, were the muscle cramps that started up. First, both of my calves started to cramp and spasm. Then, both of my quads. I thought I had kept up on my electrolytes, but perhaps I had fallen behind with all of the sweating. Or, perhaps it was just fatigue. In any case, I soldiered on.
Right at the top (1/4 mile left) I caught up to the only other runner I had seen all day – and the only person to pass me all day. In the days preceding the run, I had posted on a R2R2R facebook group for some advice and one other runner, Sierra, commented that she might do it too that day. Down at the river, I had seen her coming out of the restroom as I was going in, but didn’t make the connection that it might be Sierra. Then, part way up to Indian Garden, I passed her as she was sitting on the side of the trail taking some salt capsules. Later, she RAN past me and I finally realized who it might be. I called out and asked if she was from the FB group, and sure enough it was. “Oh yeah,” she said, “You said you’d be in a red bandana! See you at the top.” At that point, she was actually running, and I was just power hiking, so I doubted I would “see her at the top.” However, in that last 1/4 mile I did catch up to her. Her legs were cramping too. We hiked it out and shared the shuttle back to our cars. I wish I would have caught her earlier, as having a hiking companion up those last 3 miles in the rain would have been nice!
What a day! With the stop and rest at Phantom Ranch, the whole thing took me about 5.5 hours, which was faster than I had estimated it would take me. The Grand Canyon is a MUST-SEE / MUST-DO location for trail runners. However, it is actually not very good terrain/trails for trail running. I’m sure I’ll do it again though!
I have run 1/2 marathon distances a number of times, but never on pavement. It has always been on trails and going mountain pace.
I attempted this a week ago, but got rained out.
So, I tried again. This time I started at Big Springs Park and ran down to Orem. It was great for the first 9 miles – nice easy pace. I’m not fast. But then the last 4 were hot and exposed. Why did I do this in the middle of the day?!
A nice headlamp run up the Lindon Squiggles.
I made it about 30 minutes without the headlamp, but once I got up into some small stands of trees it got pitch dark. I forgot how creepy it can be up there.
Then, as I crossed the parking lot at Dry Canyon, a guy warned me about a rattler he heard near the trailhead. Sure enough, there it was in the middle of the trail. It was my first sighting this season.
The family spent a weekend at my in-laws cabin along the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in Island Park, Idaho (about 20 minutes southwest of West Yellowstone). It is gorgeous and this is the latest in the season we had been there. The leaves were stunning. The Mrs. and I took a little run along the river and then I doubled back when we got to the cabin and did it again solo. The place is crawling with grizzly bears, so despite the overwhelming urge to go explore the various ATV trails, I stuck to the main road.
Local legend and 17-18-time Wasatch 100 finisher and friend Phil asked me to pace him for the last 25 miles of the Wasatch. I thought that might be a bit more than I could handle, so he said, how about the 14 miles from Big Mountain to Alexander Ridge to Lambs Canyon. It is the hottest and most exposed section of trail and Phil was pushing for a sub-24 finish. This would push me to my limit, and he knew it would be tough for me, but I thought I could do it.
I was wrong.
It was a very hot day. I kept with Phil for the first 4 miles or so. I led up through Mule’s Ear Meadow and up to Bald Mountain. Then, he started to pull ahead on climbs, and I would catch up on downhills. We yo-yo’d to Pence Point. That was fine with me. I’m a better downhill-er than climber. That’s not news. The heat was really getting to me, but I felt that with some ice down my pack, I could continue on. But then on our way down ball-bearing hill, I rolled my right ankle – 3 times. It has been weak for a while and I have rolled it every couple weeks or so. Quickly, the distance between Phil and me grew. Then, as I was placing more and more weight awkwardly on my good left ankle, I rolled it. It made an audible pop. My stomach was already uneasy from the heat and exertion and the burst of pain doubled me over and I puked. A second, less severe, roll on the left ankle soon followed. I limped my way to Alexander Ridge. Phil was already gone.
I felt horrible. I sat for about 5-10 minutes, cooled down and then limped out. The ankles ended up walking off a lot better than I thought they would. By the time I got to Lambs Canyon, about 20 minutes behind Phil, they were sore, but I was jogging on them. Looking back, I suspect that even without the ankles slowing me down, the heat may have forced me to tell Phil to go on with out me. I think I could have hung with him a bit through, probably dropping on the long exposed climb out of Alexander Ridge on the Sheep Trail.
You know what hurt worse? My pride. And this is saying something, because I make no pretensions at being a good runner. I’m always touting my weaknesses and blunders. So, maybe it wasn’t my pride that hurt. Maybe it was just the shame of feeling like I had really let someone down. Phil had placed some trust in me, and I had let him down. I know he did it with the hoping of boosting my running experience, and grooming me to do Wasatch myself some day. Perhaps, he asked me to pace him more as an opportunity to give me a good learning experience than to benefit from my being there.
In any case, it wasn’t the best day.
However, it WAS a lot of fun to be out on the course and see people out there. When I arrived at Lambs Canyon the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers were out in force! And, they even cheered me a bit and told me to keep my chin up as I limped in, head hanging low. Those smiling faces actually meant a lot. There I was, proving that I could NOT hang with the best of them, and they were slapping me on the back and saying it was great to see me nonetheless. Good people.
So, to Phil. Thank you and I’m sorry. It was both a great and horrible experience.
Thankfully, the back pain from last month did not return and I was able to fit in a number of runs and hikes (not listed here, but on Strava) during the remainder of August.
I ran a bigger version of the squiggly wiggly. Lots of fun.
Some HOT BST action:
An awesome morning run up Grove Creek to Chris Flats. Bagged my first Mountain Goat sighting.
I even ran some pavement. Possibly the first time this year! Actually, it was kind of exhilarating to click off miles at a faster pace than I’m used to, but it was painful.
Plus, some nice blister pains during an attempted Big Baldy Summit. Woot woot.
With muscle relaxants doing their work, I was advised to try some easy slow runs. The Dr. didn’t have to ask me twice!
Thursday I hit the some Orem/Lindon BST. It was great to get out and move, but I did it in the heat of the day and the temps really got to me!
Feeling good, I tried a new place on Friday – up Provo Canyon and to Big Springs, on the backside of the Cascade Ridge. I went up the Big Springs / Shingle Mills Trail and down the Big Springs Hollow Trail.
Monday night I tried out some twisty mtn. bike trails above Lindon. It was a BLAST! Between all the twists and turns, there was a lot of flattish runnable terrain. I will definitely add this loop to my regular rotation.
My running “career,” now about 2-3 years old, has been a long series of overuse injuries. I feel strong, get excited, and run more miles that my body can handle. IT Band issues, stress fractures or tendonitis in my ankles, overly strained feet, the list goes on.
Now, it is my back. I have had back issues for 20 years or so, the most painful of which is when I get myofacial trigger points and muscle spasms. These happen a couple times a year and usually clear up within a week or so. Back in 2008-09 I had a particularly bad episode while on a research trip to D.C. I could barely walk and it severely dampened my sight-seeing when the archives were closed.
Running the Alta-Brighton loop about a year ago, I had another severe episode that was, to date, probably the worst ever. Strained back muscles – apparently not conditioned for the miles I was trying to put in – fatigued to the point that they contracted, formed trigger points, and spasmed horribly. I couldn’t move. It was bad.
A couple days after my 20 miler on 17 July, it happened again. This time worse than ever before. The spasms lasted about a week, but some severe pain which left me unable to sit lasted for another 2 weeks. During week 4, the spasms returned. Thankfully, muscle relaxants loosened the muscles, and the pain was gone with in a few hours of my first dose.
So once again I have been taught the painful lesson that I need to exercise (strengthen my core muscles especially) in order to go out and exercise more (on the trails). It kind of irks me. I thought the trail running WAS my exercise? No. For the distances I want to be able to do, I need to start viewing trail running as my hobby. And, in order to pursue it, I need to exercise and strengthen so my body can do it. Sigh. Currently the campus pool is closed, but when it opens I’m going to start hitting it for laps.
I was lucky to visit my hometown in NW Washington with the family and squeezed in a few fun activities. With the back injury, I was limited in what I could do, but here’s a few run/hikes and pics.
This morning I embarked on an “easy” route. Starting at the Timpooneke Campground (after being driven up there by Chris, THANKS!) I took the Great Western all the way around the West side of the Mt. Timpanogos ridge-line, back and behind Big and Little Baldy and down to Orem. It was fantastic.
First, you climb a fairly rocky trail for a mile, placing you at the affectionately named “Julie Andrews Meadow.”
Then, the trail parallels the Timpooneke Rd., crossing it various times, diving down and climbing up hills and ridges full of aspen and conifers. Just gorgeous.
Besides some GI distress, these were great miles. At this point, the GW also doubles as the Timpooneke-Chris Flats Trail Nr. 151. It eventually took me all the way to Grove Creek Springs – where I refilled my water – and then to Chris Flats.
On my way down to the Battle Creek Trail junction, 2 ladies with 2 boxers came around the corner and the unleashed dogs got very aggressive. It was scary and I had some choice words for them. Sheesh. If your dogs are trained to stay back, keep them on a leash.
From there, the GW climbs up to the Big Baldy Saddle, back behind Little Baldy, and then down to the rock-pile Altar I have frequented a few times recently. Instead of taking my normal descent route, I kept on the GW, which popped me out on the Aqueduct Rd. about 1 mile east of where I normally come out. By this point it was hot and I was beat. It was a long few miles to my car, which was parked at the Orem Gun Range.
When I got to my car, I had hit 18.7 miles. I decided to add the extra mile and a half for an even 20. It may have not been worth it. It was not a fun 1.5 miles.
Overall, it was a fantastic route. The only real problem was that for much of it the tall grass and wildflowers and other vegetation was so tall and thick that it was leaning over and covering the trail. This made it hard to see your footing and led to a few stumbles.
Perhaps it would be best undertaken in the Spring, before it all grows too high.
Twice now, I have run a 7 mile loop from the Orem Gun Range > Dry Canyon > The Altar/Rockpile > Orem Gun Range.
I think it will be my regular treadmill run. It has it all. Runnable flat-ish rolling trails, a good steep climb, and some fun technical descents. The mile drop from the altar down to the fire break road is such a fun single-track. The grass is about chest high or higher so your immediate peripheral vision is just a blur as you fly down the trail – it feels like a video game.
Plus, its pretty gorgeous. I would only change the amount of loose rock on the back side when dropping down to the Altar. I may modify it, park at Dry Canyon and do the loop from there. That would leave more of the nice rolling BST for the end.
Mt. Timpanogos is one of the more famous hikes/summits here in the Wasatch, especially in Utah County. Somehow, I never did it back in the early-2000s when an undergrad. This morning I resolved to correct this grievous oversight with an early morning summit before work.
I hit the Timpooneke trail at about 5:45 solo. Some trails a “ok,” but worth it because they get you to a beautiful destination. This trail was gorgeous every step of the way. I jogged and power-hiked up, slowed only by the need to snap pictures, and groan from some early-AM stomach issues.
s I made the climb up to the saddle I saw 3 people waiting at the ridge. As I approached, they waved and called my name. It was Mel, Lori, and Zac on their double-summit attempt (up Aspen Grove to the Summit, down to the Timpooneke trailhead and then turning around to do it all in reverse. They almost did it, but had to bail on the 2nd summit as a t-storm and lightning rolled in as they approach the saddle later in the day to scramble up for the 2nd summit. Bummer). In any case it was awesome to see some friendly and familiar faces. We summited together, took some pictures, complained about how windy and cold it was up top, and then scrambled back down to the saddle.
I saw another friend, Phil, on his way up for the upteenth time this week (this time with his kids in tow). A couple other Wasatch Mountain Wranglers also passed as we headed down and they headed up. I moved ahead of the trio as they too pictures and chatted – figuring they would catch up. They didn’t. But, WMW Jack did and we ran the last 2-3 miles together chatting.
Including some messing around up top, it took me about 4:20. Not bad. I hope to shave some time off next time I tackle it.
It was a gorgeous day. Just perfect. I’m already plotting to attach it again next week.
With the family out of town until late tonight, I swapped some morning hours for running and shifted work hours to late evening. With sore feet (strained muscles or bruised on the bottom of my right foot and extensor tendonitis on the top of my left foot) I haven’t been putting in miles. It has been killing me. I put on my old Altra Olympuses and laced them different to minimize pressure on the top of my left foot and decided to explore up Rock Canyon in Provo. 7.5 miles and about 2,800 ft. elevation gain in the first 3.8 miles up!
I hiked here some as a college student, but that was almost 15 years ago. I forgot how dramatic the canyon walls are. Just gorgeous. I also forgot that the first 2 miles of “trail” are pavement and then loose scree gravel. Boo.
Once I took the Sq*** Peak trail turnoff the trail improved, but got steeper. Thankfully I was in the trees and shade.
When the trail crested and started climbing the ridge to the peak, I was exposed to the sun but the temp was lower up at elevation and there was a breeze. Hallelujah. I climbed slow and stopped to chat with a few different runners for a while. I bombed down quite a bit faster.
The feet feel pretty good.
Exactly 1 year ago today (coincidence, not planned) I explored the Box Elder Trail with a friend and have been dying to get back. I put the peak on my list of summit goals for the year, and this morning I finally bagged it. I posted on some FB groups and an impressive roster of local runners joined. 15 in total (which is the group size limit) + 2 others who came a bit later and did the loop in the opposite direction (and happened to hit the summit right when we did. It was gorgeous. It was steep. The bottom of my right foot and top of my left foot have still been a bit tender from the Bryce 50k and subsequent week of hiking around Zion National Park…so I’m going to be really sore. We did it in just under 5 hours. I was pulling up the rear with a couple other for the climb up and the main group could have gone much faster. On the descent, I kept up with the main group. We went up the Box Elder Trail Nr. 044, wrapped it around the west side of the saddle between Box Elder Peak and South Box Elder Peak, climbed up said saddle, and then summitted via the south ridge. Yowzers. Miles 1-2 climb about 2,000 ft, then miles 3-4 “only” climb another 1,000 ft. By mile 6, as you get on the south shoulder and stare up the climb to the peak (see pictures below) you have climbed about 3,300 ft. Then, the 1/2 mile climb to the summit pops on another ~1,000 ft. Yowzers, that was tough. That 1/2 mile segment of “trail” averages a 36% grade. The peak, is at about 11,100 ft. I really struggled on the last climb. My legs felt ok, but my lungs and heart were struggling with the altitude. This was the highest I have ever been. I was a bit dizzy, heart pounding out of my chest, gasping for air. But, I made it. We took the north saddle down to the Deer Creek-Dry Creek Trail and followed that back down to the Granite Flats campground. I had some blisters forming on the descent and by the end my legs felt like jello. Small little climbs on the north saddle killed me. By the last mile, I was running sloppy – catching my toe, rolling my ankles, etc… Its a miracle I didn’t fall.
Well, it’s done. I finally ran an ultramarathon. The Bryce 50k is in the bag!
Distance: 30.7 miles
Elevation gain: ~ 5,349
Time: 7:17:34
Place: 30 out of 86 (100+ started but not all finished)
Other than a couple Ragnar Relays, I have run two 5ks and one 5 mile race. As adventure runs, I have gone 20+ miles a handful of times, and over 26.3 only once – none in the race context however. In other words, I not only have little experience in running 50k, but no experience in running a true trail race. I don’t have background experience in pacing myself, fueling, dropbags, aid stations, competing, etc… Also, recently re-flaring stress fractures on both fibulas and a bruising or strained muscle on the sole of my right foot and the general craziness of having just started a new job, bought my first house, and moved my family in the past couple months (and being lazy), my training had not gone well.
Thus, I was elated with finishing and the general good time and results. Hallelujah! The only real trouble, in the last 10 miles, was a clear result of my lack of training and experience. The next time I tackle a 50k, I am confident that I could improve my time by quite a bit.
My sister-in-law Rachael was also running her first 50k and we both got some cabins at Ruby’s Inn – arriving the night before the race. The morning of, we boarded a bus at 7:00 that took us to the starting line at Tropic campground. While walking to the bus I heard some weird noise that I eventually figured out was friend Phil Lowry calling me. It was good to see a familiar face.
At the start, the weather was a bit chilly with a chance for rain. Mid-40s. I was hoping to make it through rain free, but still wore a windbreaker over my short sleeve shirt (it came off within a few miles, though my gloves stayed on a bit longer). Race Director Matt Gunn said a few words, wished us luck and gave us a countdown from 5. We were off – climbing up through the campground, past several bathrooms I felt like I needed to use, and finally onto a single track. I was taking it slow, middle of the pack. Once on the single track, we climbed about 250 feet over the course of 3/4 mile and then dropped back down 250 feet down in a 1/2 mile to a dirt road.
I was stuck in a conga line on the up and down, and once on the road, I slowly started moving up, passing a few people. This was about mile 2, and the road climbed ~1,000 feet over the next 4 miles. Here, my background in climbing up the steep trails of Davis County proved useful. On the long climb, I picked an aggressive power hiking pace and kept it steady. I was surprised to find myself passing a number of people who were trying to jog the climb. I just power-hiked past. At mile 6, the climb gave way to a 500 ft. descent to the Blue Fly Aid Station. On the drop I passed a couple more that were being a bit more ginger on the descent. I didn’t want to blow my legs out, but just relaxed, leaned forward and tried to let gravity do most of the work. It felt great.
At BFAS I filled a bottle with 20 oz of water and mixed with the serving of Perpetuem I had carried in the empty bottle. So excited to be feeling so great, I didn’t top off my water bladder, or get any food or gels from the AS. Oops. I did take a few shots of tailwind though. Then I was off. The immediate descent – another 500 ft. in about 1 mile of trail out of Blue Fly was gorgeous with some nice modest hoodoos.
It was also nice to have some single track, although much of it was a deep rut with us running in the grass beside it. I stopped to tighten a shoe and a girl from Colorado that I had passed on the climb passed me, hollering back that she would see me soon when I passed her on the next climb. I caught up on the descent and as we exited onto another dirt road at mile 9. We chatted briefly and then I pushed ahead at a very modest pace on the flat road, switching back to aggressive power hikes when the climbs came.
2.5 miles and ~750 feet of climbing eventually brought us to the intersection with the 50 and 100 mile race routes, which we would share for the remaining 20 miles.
At the junction I encountered a hundred miler being limped along by two women. The female runner was in terrible shape and they asked the time relay ahead that they were bringing her in. It was sobering to see what a 100 mile race can do to a person, both physically and emotionally. A dire warning.
The next 5.5 miles to Proctor Canyon AS were gorgeous. Single track, meadows, some aspen and cottonwood, etc… I was cruising, but got waylaid for a good 5 minutes when my phone (which I use to track my GPS) died and I had to plug it in to my little charger and reboot it.
At the Proctor Canyon AS – mile 16.5 – I had a drop bag with more Perpetuem mix to last the rest of the race. I added more water to my bladder, reapplied some body glide and sunscreen, dropped my windbreaker and gloves in the drop bag and ate a few of the boiled potatoes they had there. It took me a long time. While there, a number of the people I had previous passed caught up and left before me. Lesson learned – having a crew makes aid stations much faster. Also, have a preset plan and order for what you are going to do at the aid station.
Out of the aid station there was a steep climb, where I caught back up to some of the people I had been leapfrogging, pushed pass the, and waited for the end of the climb. It came pretty quick, and then the trail descended down through forest. It was great single track, though a bit steep in a few places. The trail climbed up over some red sand hills. It was like a rouge-hued moonscape. Very cool.
By the time I reached the Thunder Mountain AS at mile 22.5 it had heated up and I was feeling the miles. From there on out, things deteriorated quick. My lack of training and experience in running these distances manifested themselves. Immediately out of the AS there was a steep steep climb. Near the top, I realized that I had forgotten to fill my water. Uh oh.
At mile 24.5 the trail hit the bottom of Red Canyon and the scenery was spectacular. Wow.
Unfortunately, it also commenced a 2.5 mile climb with 800 feet. My heart rate was spiking high, I was getting light headed, and then my quads and one shin started cramping. For me cramping is usually an electrolyte deficiency, but I had thought I had kept up on it. So, I popped a few extra salt tabs over 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately, I think this made my fingers swell – to an uncomfortable level. Here, one runner I had passed earlier caught up and charged past looking strong.
Near the top it started to hail. Small hail, but annoying and it stung. The remainder of the course constituted of 18 (Zac Marion counted) in and out of little canyons. You crest a ridge, descent down into a small canyon, cross over the bottom, climb back out the other side to crest the ridge separating it from the next canyon. Repeat 18 times. My cramps were bad, the hail was not fun, my fingers hurt (and hips and feet). I was so ready to be done.
With about 1/4 mile left, I saw someone on the trail ahead of me that looked like my former neighbor, Matt Van Horn. He had won the 1/2 marathon earlier and came out to run me to the finish. I hiked it. He went ahead to a ridge and said – this is it, run it in! I didn’t believe him. When I crested it, I was relieved to see the finish line. I ran down, crossed the finish line, clenched my fists and yelled. Hugged my wife, high five’d a few friends, wandered about wondering what to do next…
I felt like something between these two pictures:
What an experience. What a beautiful course. What a rush. Matt Gunn and UltraAdventures and all of his crew put on a great event!
This is the first true sporting event / serious physical challenge goal I have made as an adult. I am so glad I pushed through and finished it. Now…which long adventure run or race do I do next?
A week from right now I will be somewhere in the middle of my first ultra marathon – the Bryce 50k. Hopefully, I will be well hydrated, feeling strong, and loving the experience. Today, I should be putting in a few easy miles, but I’m not. Old stress fractures in both of my lower legs / ankles, and a possibly bruised foot are flaring up and I desperately want them to be pain free when I race next week.
So instead, I drove my new toy – a 1980 Vespa P200E up the Sq*** Peak road above Rock Canyon, sat down on a rocky outcrop overlooking Rock Canyon, and am doing some writing for a new book project. Well, I was…now I’m blogging, I guess. It is about 60 degrees, the hillsides are unseasonably green due to some record breaking rainfall, birds are chirping, etc… Heaven.
My word – how did I get lucky enough to live somewhere so beautiful. Everyday when I walk out of my house to the view of Mt. Timpanogos, or walk out of my office to the stunning views of the Wasatch Mountains beside campus, or drive 10 minutes up the canyon to idyllic mountain meadows and groves of aspen, I have to pinch myself. This place is ridiculous. The Wasatch isn’t subtle about its beauty. No modesty here. It slaps you in the face with it. And, not only is it stunning, but it is accessible. You aren’t separated by an hour-long drive through foothills to get to the Mountains. The mountains just pop up straight from the valley floor. Magnificent.
I have been lucky to live in some beautiful places. My home town – Bellingham, Washington – is nestled between the Cascade Mountains and the ocean. It’s about as close to perfection as your can get. An outdoors wonderland.
But what about Nebraska? I lived there for 9 years, and looking back, regret not having explored more. While there, my best friend from growing up would regularly post pictures of his adventures in the Cascades and I would be so jealous. Come to think of it, over the past couple years as I have posted my trail-running pics, a number of friends have messaged me saying how jealous they are. Jealous – just like I was while back in Nebraska. Did it have the kind of nature that rubs your face in how beautiful it is? No. It’s more subtle. And, I regret not having taken advantage of that. There were a lot of strikingly beautiful places and things about the Great Plains. Instead of just being jealous of my friend’s adventures, why wasn’t I out making my own?!
This is all easy to say now that I live in Utah. Do I prefer my mountains? Sure. But, I now realize that you can and must learn to love where you live. To this end I always try to find beautiful trails to run when I travel. And, I’ve found them! There are different kinds of natural beauty, but I think that the spirit-recharging power of wilderness and nature can be harnessed anywhere. I am learning that it is as much in your mind as is it in the landscape. Lots of people live here in the beauty of the Wasatch who DON’T climb up mountains to enjoy it. Pity. I guess it goes both ways.
In any case, enough rambling. Back to my writing.
Get outside people.
Find something beautiful.
Let it recharge you.
I am running my first ultramarathon in a couple weeks – the Bryce 50k (~31 miles). I have *almost run that far once, and it was slow. I have done a number of runs in the 20-25 mile range, but none have been races. Aside from 2 Ragnar relays, the longest race I have done was a 5 mile Turkey Trot back when I still lived in Nebraska. In any case, I have not trained very well and figured I should put in some longer distance runs in the next couple weeks.
Tempted by continually amazing pictures, I headed back up Grove Creek to the green valleys below the western slope of Timp.
I put out a post for a group run and one guy, Matt C. came. Great guy – great conversation. We headed up Grove Creek to Indian Springs, where I filled my 2 water bottles. Tasty tasty water.
I also accidentally stepped on this guy. 🙁
Then across to Chris Flats, beautiful as ever, and 1/2way down Battle Creek. There, we hit the turnoff to Curly Springs.
After climbing up out of Battle Creek canyon, I needed to pick up the pace and Matt and i parted ways – me pushing forward and Matt looking to drop a shortcut down to the BST.
I ran south to Dry Canyon, took that down to the BST, and followed the BST back to Grove Creek. 13.1 miles! It was fabulous.
2 easy run around the Orem foothills. The Orem Police gun range trailhead is just 2 miles from my new house, so this will likely be my primary set of trails. And, thankfully, there are a million of them. On top of the primary Bonneville Shorelines trail system, Mtn. Bikers have built a network of connecting trails. In any case, very close, very fun.
This last week my family moved from our beloved Davis County down to Utah County. I have really come to love the Davis County trails. Exploring them. Trying to promote them as many are sadly under-used. Apparently that will not be a problem down here in Utah County. Everything appears blazed out and well marked…….and spectacularly gorgeous! Here’s my last in Davis and first in Utah County.
For my last run in Davis, I hit Mueller Park. I had never run it before, favoring closer trails and one that weren’t dominated by mtn. bikers. Wow. That was a mistake. Otherwise, this would have been my #1 training trail. Nice slow gradual climb for 5 miles up to the meadow (you can keep going, but I didn’t) and bombing 5 miles back down. It was gorgeous.
That was last week. This week, for my first run in Utah County I hit the Grove Creek / Battles Creek Loop. WOWZERS!
My phone died, so it was closer to 8.5 than 5.5 miles.
Truth be told, I felt horrible heading up Grove Creek. A slow 3 mile bonk the whole way up.
When you finally climb out of Grove Creek Canyon, you are treated to a full panoramic view of Mt. Timpanogos…well…unless it is shrouded in clouds.
The valley above Grove and Battle Creeks is breathtaking, . You are at the foot of Timp, and it is a series of open grass and Aspen fields. I ran into some others who said it is nicknamed the “Scottish Highlands.” I was thinking “The Shire.” The traverse over to Battle Creek felt great – some flat! It is part of the Great Western Trail and constitutes the last bit of the Timpooneke-Chris Flat Trail #151.
The descent on Battle Creek was steeper than the climb up Grove, and a bit painful on my knee. Then, right as I was about to take the most gorgeous picture of some sideways sunlight streaking into Battle Creek Canyon and shining off the north-facing cliffs on the South of the Canyon…my phone died. Boo!
Back at the valley floor (Kiwanis Park), I took the BST back to my car.
2 runs, only 3 days apart. The first, up the Farmington Canyon singletrack to Sunset Campground and then down the road on Monday. A recovery run of sorts and it felt great. I PRd on the loop and a 5k PR on the way down! It was only in the 70s but it felt so hot. I was SWEATING!
3 days later, on Thursday, I headed up the Fruit Heights upper terrace from Shepherd Creek to Baer Canyon and back (about a mile north from Monday’s run). Note in the pictures…it was not hot and sweat in the 70s. A bit colder.
After running the Good Water Rim Trail at the Wedge area of the San Rafael Swell on President’s Day I immediately resolved to do a follow-up run at the canyon bottom. Today a few other Wasatch Mtn. Wranglers joined me on the adventure.
Overall it was a fairly “flat” route. 22+ miles, but only about 1,850 ft. elevation gain. That didn’t mean it was easy though. Those 1,800+ ft. were concentrated in a medium, small, and BIG traverse over ridges and cliffs between drainages. Check out the velo map below:
I was joined by 3 other brave souls – Dee, Ryan and Tyler. I had met Dee and Ryan briefly on other occasions, but not Tyler. They were all awesome, total troopers, and it was great to get to know them all better. Plus, they kept their cursing of me for dragging them on the trip to a minimum.
We hit the trail around 8:30-9:00. As usual, I felt sluggish. The first few miles are always the worst for me.
At about mile 3.5 we hit our first climb. It is right at the intersection of Cane Wash (coming from the south) and the San Rafael River. We would loop by here later, so we made a water drop. The river bends south and I think it gets too close to the cliffs on our north side for there to be a trail. So, the trail climbs over a nice sized knife-edge ridge.
From there, we continued along the river…missing the turn off for Virgin Spring Canyon. We doubled back a 1/2 mile and found it. This was the 2nd climb, and a minor one. The trail traversed along the east wall of the canyon – a ways up from the floor. This is probably because it hits a dead end that you’d need gear to climb. Once we passed that dead drop, the trail descended down to the canyon floor.
We misjudged where we needed to exit the canyon, and wasted a few minutes going up a side canyon BEFORE the one we needed.
After returning back to the canyon, conferring with map and continuing on, we saw the exit ramp we needed. A large boulder slide. If not for the cairns that led us up the south side of the canyon and gave us confidence that it was the right canyon – we wouldn’t have taken it. From the bottom (or the middle, or even almost to the top) it was hard to see how we would get out. Up south canyon wall, across to the boulder slide ramp, and finally a ledge near the top where we found another large cairn. Hallelujah. We followed that ledge around to the right (south) and eventually found more cairns leading us up to the top. From there, we could look down (east) into Cane Wash.
Again, it was 100% unclear how in the world we would descend the cliffs. Thankfully, my cell coverage returned at the top of the cliff and I could check the strava route I had drawn previously. Following that, we worked our way south, down a few drops and switchbacks (occasionally seeing cairns) and eventually to the canyon floor. Looking back up, it was hard to believe we had navigated our way down.
At this point, we descended Cane Wash back to the San Rafael River. Tyler wanted to move a bit faster and took off back to the car. Unbeknownst to us – he was also out of water, and eager to get back to his car and the waters and beer he had on ice. Good call Tyler.
Dee, Ryan and I made our way down Cane Wash and the deep sand was neverending. Oh man. I hated that sand. Dee ran out of water on our descent so I shared what was left in my bladder. Ryan caught up with Dee and I at the water drop where we were guzzling in the shade. Then, we took off for the last 3.5 miles to the car. It was only in the mid-70s, but felt so much hotter in the sun. I made it to the cars first, with Dee not far behind (fighting leg cramps, ouch!), and then Ryan.
In all, it was a really fun time. Doing it again would be so much easier, knowing exactly where to go. As a bonus, check out some of the stuff along Buckhorn Wash Rd. on your way down:
As it turns out, the last few weeks have been more mileage than usual. It felt good to hit the trails more regularly. Also a few hikes with the kiddos. Here’s the highlights:
I recently took a new job about 50 miles from home. This means long train commutes. Until my family moves, I am working Tuesdays and Thursdays at home. This means that if I put in extra hours on MWF, which I inevitably do while working 1.5 hours each way on the train, I have a little time to run during the days on T/Th.
Today, I decided to combine work + play. I took a large pile of papers that I needed to review, put them in my pack, and ran to the top of Flag Rock in Farmington.
At Flag Rock there is a nice bench. So, I sat and worked for 2-3 hours. It was amazing. Best day at the office ever.
When I finished working, I decided to keep climbing, rather than go straight back down. From Flag Rock the Centennial Trail supposedly goes all the way to Farmington Peak – above the Steed Creek Cliffs – intersecting with the Farmington Spine Trail. Knowing that rattlesnakes are coming out, I figured that this [likely] bushwhack wouldn’t be advisable for much longer.
Up I went. The trail was marked with flags, but the higher I got, the fainter the trail was. Finally, It was just a bushwhack following flags.
After the clearing, the flagging got spotty. They led up and around some small rocks cliffs that stand at the top of the ridge between Rudd Creek (to the north) and Hornet Creek (to the south). Above that, I lost the flagging fairly quick. Had I just continued bushwhacking up and slightly south along the ridge, I would have intersected with the Spine trail – maybe less than a mile away. Bummer. I should have soldiered on.
Instead, I cut south, bushwhacking down to Hornet Creek, making a very sketchy snowy crossing, and then eventually picking up the Steed Creek Trail at the north flank of the cliffs.
Then, I bombed back down to the car.
Steed Creek Cliffs “Hole”
If Centennial was better flagged and had a couple trail maintenance parties – head up with loppers and a couple picks – this could be a REALLY cool route to the top. You could loop it down the Farmington Spine, or Steed Creek. Speaking of which, Steed Creek needs to be flagged from the cliffs – up to the overlook and road at the top of the Spine.
My wife’s brother’s wife, Rachael, has been getting into trail running and asked if I would take her out on some trails while she is up visiting Utah this week. As you can imagine, she didn’t have to twist my arm. I decided on Antelope Island and she was excited to try out the Buffalo 25k course – which would be a distance and elevation gain PR for her. She crushed it.
We hit the trail around 7 and it was just beautiful. We took our time and had a lot of fun. Plus, we saw a ton of other runners out. The parking lot at White Rock Bay had 50+ cars when we got back.
For me, I did it a tiny bit slower than last time, but got a bunch of PRs on the south loop. Probably aided by the 7 minute mile I ran heading down the trail to Split Rock Bay. Zoom! 2nd best 1/2 marathon and 2nd best 20k times too. Pleased as punch.
Also – no stress fracture pain and no IT band pain! Woot woot!
I came home early from work tonight, with an upset stomach. After a while, I felt better and was feeling quite restless so I decided to go hit the trails for a quick run before dinner.
My plan was to climb the south switchbacks that lead to the Farmington Upper Terrace. It is about 1,000 ft. elevation gain in about 1 mile of trail. At the top, a local trail building colossus, Ryan, had recently cut and flagged a new trail up canyon to the trail that comes down from the Francis Peak trail and meets up with the canyon road at the 2nd switchback. The first time I came down that trail from the Francis Peak ridge, I had thought, “It would be nice if a trail cut down canyon here to meet up with the Upper Terrace.” Apparently Ryan read my thoughts.
As I reached the trail intersection to head up Ryan’s new route, I joined the Trail Puke club. Many ultramarathoners have GI troubles during long races and throw up a lot. I haven’t ever had any trouble – and I haven’t really run any long races. So, I don’t think throwing up at 1 mile is the best way to get into the club, but I’ll count it. Afterwards, I felt much better.
I followed the trail up but about 1/2 way along, the flagging split into a high road and low road. I took the high road and it soon thereafter got lost in a thicket of scrub oak. I was tired and surprisingly sweat by that point, so I descended, running another couple miles along various BST branches.
It felt good to be out, but my ankles hurt. Stupid stress fractures. Stupid tibias. Stupid basketball!
After the 21+ mile President’s Day run at The Wedge I was so excited that the tibial stress fracture (left and right, yay!) did not hurt at all. Zero pain. I was excited that this might be the end of my stress fracture troubles.
Then, 2 days later, on a Wednesday night, I somehow found myself playing a little pick-up basketball on a nice hardwood court in a pair of random sneakers. An hour later, I limped home – both sets of bones throbbing.
Stupid basketball…
I have explained before my aversion to group runs. I’m slower than most of the 100-miler ultramarathoning trail runners who I have the pleasure to know. So group runs quickly become solo runs. For Presidents Day, however, there was a group run that I just couldn’t resist. A 21-31 mile run along the Good Water Rim Trail in The Wedge are of the San Rafael Swell.
The group totaled 26 runners – a collection of Wasatch Mountain Wrangers, Orange Trail Monkeys, and their friends.
We started at 8:30ish at the Wedge Overlook (the southwest portion of the map above) and ran the 16 miles around the many squiggly finger side canyons to the opposing cliff walls. It is crazy because at about mile 2-3, you can see – just across the canyon – trail that is miles 15-16. It is so close, but you have to wind around so many side canyons to get there.
For the first 5-6 miles, I felt pretty good. I fell in with different packs of runners, chatting, enjoying the scenery. I did miles 6-9 solo, going into the aid station. At mile 9 we had dropped supplies. When I arrived, most were still there. I socialized at the aid station for a few minutes before they all took off. I took a couple extra minutes to change my socks and discard some layers (it had gotten nice and sunny).
The next 7 miles were a bit rougher. The trail was rougher, and I was getting worn down. I jogged, interspersed with some walking. I passed a couple who had stopped due to a fall and were patching up some cuts. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t fall at all. I made it to the end of the trail, mile 16, just as people there were turning around to return. Some turned around and did it in reverse for a total of 50k. Instead, I jumped out to the road (about 5.5 miles) that goes around to the north and back to the starting point.
I hit the road with a few others, letting 2 go ahead, and 2 others fell behind. I had some hip and groin muscle pain, and one IT band was thinking about flaring up – thankfully it never did. On the return a cold wind picked up from the north and when I swung by the aid-station, I put my layers back on. Brr! The last 3 miles on the road were a long steady uphill. Thank goodness there was a nice tailwind.
It was gorgeous and a lot of fun. Afterwards there was a big potluck-ish gathering and everyone goofed around and talked for a couple hours while runners came in. It was so much fun. I was also glad that my tibial stress fractures didn’t hurt AT ALL! Total miracle!
After a failed attempt a couple weeks ago to run the Buffalo 25k course out on Antelope Island, I tackled it again. This time with a couple friends, Glen and Spencer. I was again struck by how gorgeous Antelope Island is. It is stark. The vistas are enormous. Expansive. I don’t run many places where you can see the next 8 miles of trail all laid out ahead of you. Coming down on the bone road either going to or from Elephant Head, you can see a LOT of trail ahead. It is a deceptively big place. The run was grand, except for the 2nd 8 miles when my IT band on the right knee flared something fierce again. The beauty of the place, and the glory of being (somewhat) out of the inversion smog made it all worth it though.
I clocked a 1/2 marathon and 20k PR as well.
Last week, too lazy and unwilling to slog through a muddy local trail, I took a spare hour and put down a few miles on the paved trails in Farmington – plus a little gravel trail. That night, my right ankle started throbbed – exactly like the stress fracture I have on my left ankle.
It was one year ago – Jan/Feb 2014 – that I incurred a painful stress fracture on my left outer tibia by putting in too many miles too soon on the pavement. I was trying to avoid vert to rehab my IT bands (wow, life is cyclical) and overdid it. I don’t want to let that happen, so I’m trying something new.
Saturday:
I’m going to build my base mileage this winter on treadmills. I joined a $10 a month gym and am going to just suffer through it. I have done 2 runs so far, and no increased ankle pain.
Cons: I hate gyms. Treadmill running is pure torture. I miss the trails.
Pros: I get out of the horrendous inversion smog in the Salt Lake Valley. It is fast and convenient. It will hopefully prevent injury. I can use the other parts of the gym to do some strength training to strengthen my hip flexors and other muscles in order to rehab my IT bands and prevent them from flaring up.
Ugh. This is going to be a long few months.
Today:
While in Arizona for the last couple weeks I have been drooling over all of the beautiful snow-running pictures my Utah friends have been posting. So, having just flown back to UT (family still in AZ) yesterday, I resolved to go exploring. A number of people suggested Antelope Island for good snowy trails. I have been out there before (twice) but never to run. I was also excited to test out my new winter running gear: a Bjorn Daehlie Ambition Hat, Buffs neck/balaclava/bandana stretchy thing, Altra trail gaiters, Patagonia Houdini windbreaker, IO-Merino Wool Chaser half-zip base layer, etc… Long story short, the gear worked amazingly – all of it. However it was mid-30s, sunny, and no wind…and I got way overheated.
It was gorgeous and the trails were in amazing condition – nice softpacked snow. No ice. Little to no mud.
My plan was to run the Buffalo 25k course, but that was quickly altered to a short 7 mile loop up above White Rock Bay due to some extreme IT Band pain. The knee problem flared a couple weeks ago during my 29 miler in AZ and I didn’t have a foam roller down there to work on it. Clearly, it didn’t solve itself.
Regardless, it was gorgeous. A real stark beauty. And, I saw a ton of other trail runners out there – which is always fun.
2014 was first full year where I considered trail-running (or running at all) my primary hobby. Excited about the prospects of what I hoped to accomplish, I set the goals of running 500 miles and climbing 75,000 ft. At the time, it seemed like a lot. I still don’t like running, per se, and am primarily motivated by the excitement of exploring new places and challenge of doing hard things. Compared to my ultra-marathon friends, 500 miles is probably laughable.
So, how did I fare? I ended with 425 miles and over 81,000 ft. climbed. I was 75 miles short. Yarg! I partly blame February – where I didn’t run much at all due to a stress fracture on my left ankle. Truth be told, my mileage from January-April was less that I had hoped as the injury continued to plague me and I was worried about aggravating it and ruining my summer running plans. On the flip-side, I did beat my climbing goal.
I had also set the goal to summit the 3 highest peaks in Davis County (from the valley floor) – Thurston, Francis, and Bountiful Peaks. Which I did. I also pushed my “longest run ever” from 13.1 to 16+ to 20 to 29. I ran in the Zion Trail Ragnar and Wasatch Back Ragnar (ugh!) but look forward to some non-Ragnar trail races in the near future. I am pleased that I don’t think twice about going out for a 10-20 miler in the mountains.
Here is what I propose for 2015:
Why the repeat mileage goal? Well, running still isn’t a part of my daily routine. I don’t love simply putting in miles (on pavement), and I don’t want a mileage goal to force me to spending what precious free time I have out clocking miles on the road just to hit the goal. Moreover, I think it has been some of those road miles (attempting to keep up with my goal pace last year in January) that really aggravated my stress fracture and put me out for a while. I would rather be motivated by goals to summit peaks, explore new places, hit new distance PRs, etc…
I probably should have drawn an easier route for my first attempt at a marathon distance run – but it is just too easy (and fun) to draw lines on maps, tracing trails and ridge-lines, etc… In any case, I drew it, so I ran it: The South Mountain Western Ridges Marathon+. In all, it ended up tracking to 29 miles – almost a 50k. Phoenix’s South Mountain Preserve is located on the southern edge of town – a series of parallel ridges and valleys, lots of exposed rock, lost of Saguaro, cholla, barrel, yucca, and other cactus varieties, brutally hot in the summer, but quite pleasant in the winter. The temperature topped out at around 70 degrees. That feels quite a bit warmer than it sounds though, when you’re out baking in it.
For the attempt, I wore my Altra Lone Peak 2.0s, new Altra trail gaiters, Injinji smartwool toe socks, a trusty red bandanna around my forehead, a new Nathan VaporWrap pack with its 2 liter bladder full, 2 Ultimate Direction 20 oz. bottles in the front two chest strap pockets – one with water, the other with 2 single serving packets of Hammer Perpetuem mixed with water, some Cliff Shotblocks, a CliffBar, a small first-aid kit and sunscreen, an extra pair of Injinji socks, Salt Stick tablets to balance my electrolytes, my iPhone and a little charger to recharge it mid-run, and a pair of Black Diamond FL Z Poles strapped on the back. Now that I list it all out – that seems like a LOT of stuff. The pack did seem a bit heavy, but this was all self-supported with no aid stations, so I wanted to be prepared. Wait, I lied. The night before I dropped off 2 liters of water in the desert (by bike) around the mid-way point of the route.
I started at about 7:15 AM when the sun was up and it was light enough to see. I could have started earlier, but then would have had to pack a headlamp around the whole time.
I started at the trail-head at the western terminus of Chandler boulevard, and headed NE towards my first ridge climb – up the Pyramid Trail.
This is one section I had done before, and I took an easy pace. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t doing this for speed – at all – I was doing it to finish. Slow and easy. At the top I strapped the trekking poles on the pack and followed the ridge line trail to the intersection with the National Trail at Telegraph Pass.
With 4 miles behind me, I descended the switchbacks to the paved road, and entered unfamiliar territory – the eastern stretch of the National Trail out to the Buena Vista trail-head and back. There were some great stretches of trail, but quite a bit of ups-and-downs, sometimes difficult to get into a good rhythm. At the turnaround, I applied some sunscreen. This is the desert, after all. Along the way I passed a number of fellow-hikers, all of whom gave me a queer look, likely wondering why I was so geared up. When I got back to Telegraph Pass and was passing a group of college students hiking back up to the Pyramid/National trail interesection, one of the girls asked – “Do you have enough stuff?!” “I’m on mile 10 of 30,” I said. What followed was a lot of “whoa’s” and “F#$# yeahs” from the group. Offering a few fist pumps in the air, I continued upward.
With the out-and-back finished, I turned NW on the National Trail to follow it along what would be the longest of the ridge traverses. This stretch of trail is gorgeous – both in scenery and trail conditions. I was feeling good, and about to settle into a nice pace when my right IT band started flaring and then my left calf muscle started cramping. NO! At only 11 miles, I was not pleased. I stopped to stretch the IT band, popped an extra Salt Stick tab and soldiered on. I was a bit bummed that the knee pain was slowing me down on what would otherwise have been the best part of the day. Great trail over 4+ miles of gradual descent. It could have been epic. Oh well.
I arrived at the water drop, mile 15, with a decision to make. My planned route no took me on a 10 mile loop with 1,200 ft. elevation climbing up the San Juan Rd. valley on the Bajada Trail, up the SE flank of a large ridge and back the full length of the ridge on the Alta Trail. Conversely, I could cut that loop off, turn left and do the final ~5 miles of the planned route and call it a day with 20 miles. Maybe I should have.
I chose the originally-planned, longer route. Right as I hit the Bajada Trail I came across a park ranger – also trail-running – and chatted for a few minutes. Very friendly and glad to see people out using the trail system. Assured that the Alta Trail was in great condition, I moved on excited. Soon, however…actually, almost immediatley, spirits dropped. The Bajada Trail was a constant up and down in and out of washes – impossible to get into a good groove. Plus, I was hot. As the trail name implies, I was feeling “low.” Very low. Knowing that I was moving further away from my car and towards a huge ridge-line to climb, the thought of turning back was tempting. I found some shade a couple miles up the valley, switched out my socks for a fresh pair and continued on, across the San Juan Rd, and started up the Alta Trail climb. I hoped that the new trail would make my spirits “high”er (get it?) and for a moment I felt reenergized. Towards the top of the climb, however, I saw another piece of temping shade and took a the opportunity to sit. With my back against a cool slab of stone, I closed my eyes and dozed for about 5 minutes.
Wow. That felt great. I jumped, bounded up the trail for about 10 seconds, but the energy didn’t last. Nonetheless, I think the nap helped. I soon crested the major portion of the climb and was thrilled to see the trail now start to head SW – down the ridge-line and back to my water-drop. 20 miles done, 10-ish to go.
Unfortunately, this stretch of trail was in very bad condition. Lots of exposed rock (instead of nice dirt) and continually covered with scree, loose rocks, etc… Much of it was unrunnable. A lot of it was even difficult to hike. It was very slow. And, with the descent, the IT band pain flared big time. It was a long, maddening few miles.
I reached the bottom and was at about 23 miles. From here, each step brought me closer to the end. Hooray! My energy level was low, but the flatter (and nice soft dirt trail) back to my water drop at mile 25 was heavenly. Spirits were lifting. The end was coming close. From the water drop I turned south and headed for the Gila and Bursera Trails. The Gila ran along a valley back to my car, but I – of course – had planned to run the Bursera up one final ridge. It was all trail I had done previously, and I seemed to remember that it was in good condition. The descent in particular – which is a VERY heavily used portion of trail – I knew to be in good condition. It wouldn’t be like the NW strech of the Alta Trail.
I pushed on, fight off some more leg cramps and screaming right IT band on the descent, and made it back to my car.
Total distance – exactly 29 miles. I could have run down the trail and back to add another ~2 miles to make it a full 50k, but I was late and my family was expecting me home soon. So off I went.
On the road I stopped by a McDonalds drivethrough and ate the 2 most delicious McDs cheeseburgers I have ever had. A protein shake, bananas, chips, 1/2 a pizza, and yogurt later…was still hungry when I went to bed. The next morning, I was famished, at cereal, drank soda, got a huge hot dog at Coscto at 10:00, etc… Still hungry. By the next evening, my appetite subsided.
The damage? Sore and stiff muscles. ZERO blisters, ZERO stomach problems. The gear all worked so well. The Altra Trail Gaiters SAVED ME! With so much rock and sand and gravel and debris on the trail, I would have been shaking my shoes out non-stop if not for them. Absolute lifesaver. The Hammer Perpetuem seemed to work well, the Nathan VaporWrap was very comfy. The ultimate direction bottles were great. I’m sold on those.
High fives all around.
It was, hands down, the hardest physical feat I have ever accomplished. I don’t know how you 100-miler ultra-marathoners do it. But, I am glad to have done a marathon…and a bit extra. I won’t call it an “ultra” until I do it as a real race. I’m signed up for the Bryce 50k in June, and might do the Buffalo 50k this Spring. We’ll see how the recovery goes…
Tomorrow morning I will attempt my first marathon-distance run. I have chosen the western ridges of the South Mountain Park/Preserve located on the southern edge of Phoenix, AZ. The longest I have run before was about 20 miles. So, this will be a jump in distance for me. I know that the strava tool I used to draw the route over estimated the elevation gain (it is more in the 6,000 than 8,700 ft, range). Conversely, I suspect that the the imprecision of the strava tool might have underestimated the distance. So – I might be attempting a 50k. We’ll see. The stress fractures in my ankles acted up the last couple weeks so I cut all training and haven’t run in about 14 days – trying to rest them. While good for my ankles, I bet that won’t be good for my conditioning. Boo. Maybe the 2,000 ft. elevation drop from home will help out.
In any case, tomorrow AM – send some positive vibes to Phoenix. I’ll need them!!!
In one of my many other lives, I run a music blog, Desert Island Mixtapes (also on facebook).
I just posted my Best Albums of 2014 list.
Some good running tunes on there.
This year, I ran a LOT to the new Spoon album, Braid album, and S. Carey album. The S. Carey album in particular got heavy rotation when up in the high mountains.
Enjoy!
Just in time for Christmas and everyone’s wondering what to buy their running friends, I recently updated the Gear pages. You can there find the lists of what I have been using lately, some short- and long-form reviews on what I do and do not like. Enjoy!
I recently discovered that a fellow Western historian here in SLC trail runs and immediately set to planning a time to hit the dirt together. On a couple Tuesday mornings recently we have met at 6:00 AM and put in a few miles, talking about trails, races, and history. The company has been great and he hasn’t even seemed too perturbed by how slow I have taken some of the climbs. Seriously – I just can’t seem to muster much energy that early in the AM.
A couple weeks ago we started at City Creek, ran the BST west and north, then looped up to the 3 towers, down the backside to City Creek and back to the car. 7.7 miles @ 13:31 min/mile. Slow, but nice.
This week we started at Dry Canyon, followed it up to the very aptly named “Uncle F***er” trail climb to the ridge that leads up east to Black Mountain. We, however, turned west and followed it down, hitting the avenue Twin Peaks, then following the ridge to the BST. From there, Jed continued west to run back to his house. I turned east and followed the zig-zaggy BST back down to my car. I almost ran over a deer at one point (came around a blind corner and sent it and 2 others bounding up a hill). I have decided that I really like those stretches of the BST. 8.4 miles @ 13:32 min/mile. Slow, but nice. I also tried out a new higher capacity race vest that I plan to use for long self-supported runs. Nathan VaporWrap. So far, so good.
We are making a family tradition out of doing a race on Thanksgiving morning. We did it back in 2012, a 5 miler that seemed like the farthest distance I would ever run. This time the Mrs. and I did the Turkey Leg 5k in Farmington. It was a lot of fun. I should have eaten a little better in the morning though because I felt like the tank was empty. Still the 25:00 time was pretty good for me. Afterwards I ran home (also 5k) as extra credit to earn myself some more pie.
AND
Last night, as there was a mix of rain and snow falling, I decided to strap on my headlamp and go for a run up on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from Davis Creek, south (blog post coming soon, perhaps). I figured that higher up on the trail, it would be snow and not rain. Thankfully, I was right. Just snow…and some crazy thick fog banks that the trail kept on climbing up into and then descending below, and then climbing back into. But, that isn’t the point of this post. The point, is my feet.
For the snow, I have a pair of Montrail Badrocks. They are UBER waterproof and have nice grippy soles and lugs. Not knowing how slick it would be, I strapped them on. I got them last winter and only put about 20 miles in them before being laid up with injuries for most of February and March – but I enjoyed how they felt on the snow.
In the interceding 9 months, however, I bought a pair of Altras (the Olympus), and then another pair (Lone Peak 2.0), and then another pair (Paradigm). With the big toe box, zero drop, and MAX cushioning (which is why I picked those specific models), I found that the shoes solved a lot of my prior injury problems. In other words, I completely converted to the brand.
So, last night was my first time running in non-Altras for about 9 months. They felt fine, but I could tell there wasn’t as much cushion. Then, I woke up this morning. Wow. The soles of my feet hurt way more than usual, my knee and hip-joints felt a bit more beat up, even my back hurt more. Was it the shoes? I suspect so. My body has grown accustomed to that max cushioning on the Altras. Well, lesson learned!
As for the snow – maybe I’ll take an old pair of Altra Lone Peak 1.0s that a friend gave me (hand-me-down) screw some 1/2 inch sheet rock screws in there and use them!
This week I strapped on my headlamp and put in a couple runs on the BST / Firebreak roads above Farmington. I enjoy running at night – but not on narrow hemmed-in trails with lots of obstacles under-foot. This makes the otherwise boring Firebreak road sections of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail system above Farmington the perfect option. With the temperatures cool, I don’t overheat, I feel great, and only occasionally psych myself into thinking I see glowing eyes watching me. Run!
On Monday I started at Davis Creek and ran north. It felt great, I didn’t slow down and walk at all – just kept on going (albeit slow at times) and I PRd on a bunch of segments. Great run!
On Thursday I started at the same place, but went south onto some trails and dirt roads I haven’t been on before. It was snowing and there was a THICK fog bank that my route kept on climbing into, descending out of, climbing back into, etc… When I got back to my car I couldn’t see it until I was about 10 ft. away – it was that thick. Also – I swapped out my Altras for something with more traction for the snow. Read about that here.
My plan for this morning, since there still isn’t any snow upon the top of the mountains in Davis County, was to run to Morgan. Up Baer Canyon, over to Smith Creek Lakes, and then down Smith Creek to the network of dirt roads that lead over to Morgan. Unfortunately, someone mentioned that it is private land on the Morgan side. I spoke with the landowner and he wouldn’t give permission.
Bummer.
Instead, I explored up Shepherd Creek. I have heard that the trail goes all the way to Francis Peak, but as with most of our trails – I figured it probably fades out.
I followed it about 2.5 miles up, and there were still pink ribbons tied in trees ahead. So, I am optimistic that it might actually be a viable route to the top. I made it about 1/2 way. Coming down from Francis Peak, there is a visible trail on the ridge. Maybe 1.5 miles between where I ended and that trail starts up? It could be a fun future adventure.
In any case – the Shepherd Creek trail was well marked, but a bit rough. No bushwhacking, but it is not the most well established or packed down trail.
Where I ended the trail winds around the base of some cliffs and then climbed to their top – which was cool. From there, you could see a set of waterfalls/slides on Shepherd Creek. It would be fun to hike down to them.
Did I mention that I was dead tired with no energy – took it pretty slow. More of a hike than run.
I ran up the Farmington Creek Trail to the Sunset Campground, planning to take it easy on the way up and then get a PR on the downhill.
In the end, I got a PR on the last climb to the campground, but didn’t get my hoped-for downhill PR. Why? Because the trail was covered in 2 inches of leaves for a lot of it. That makes it hard to run when you can’t tell what the actual terrain is. Boo.
Beautiful as ever though, if a bit drained of the prior fall colors.
Knowing that the high-altitude season is quickly coming to a close (winter is coming!) I decided to do one last run up at the top of the mountains here in Davis County. I did a similar route last year at this time, but by then it had already snowed (and melted some) up at the top. We are still getting up into the 50s-70s this year in late October! So, it has been a nice month and I’m glad that the cold has held off.
In any case, I drove up to the Francis Peak FAA towers parking lot, eyeing the hunters that were out and about like last year, and went on my way. Francis Peak, past Thurston Peak to Chinscraper and back (with a detour to Smith Creek Lakes on the way out)
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I followed the dirt road north and then dropped down the east side of the mountains to hit the Smith Creek Lakes (and scope out a possible route down into Morgan County). There were a surprising number of ATVs and Jeeps on the path. It is rough going in a number of places and they were having to go so slow that I passed a number of them. From the northernmost of the Lakes, I took the trail I found earlier this year to traverse over the ridge west to the Great Western Trail. It is a great little traverse and a fun way to connect the 2 sides of the ridge. I followed that around Thurston Peak to the Top of Chinscraper and then took the Great Western all the way back.
In all, it was a great run. The wind almost blew me over a couple times – SO gusty up there on the ridges.
I was also surprised by how, seemingly overnight, the amazing fall colors turned to greys and browns. Still beautiful up there, but drained of color.
I had a lot of goals for running this season, and among them was to summit the 3 highest peaks in Davis County from the valley floor. I did Thurston and Francis Peaks back in July, so that left Bountiful Peak. I decided to bag it using the Old North Trail in Davis Creek Canyon. It is about 4.5 miles of, and 4,500 ft. elevation gain. Upness.
The first 2.5 miles up were great. But, about 1/2 between the Old North overlook and Midway Peak, the trail faded and the markings did too. Thus, the bushwhack began. I knew that the trail would fade out around there, but I was hoping that I could find a clear route to the top.
From there, there are 2-3 connected ridgelines that lead up to Bountiful Peak. Unfortunately, the ridges themselves are heavily covered with oak, scrub oak, aspen, and lots of scratchy thick underbrush. I followed the ridges, hugging the north side of them, but down the hill a bit. There were a surprising number of game trails that were easy to follow. When one faded, there was usually another close by to follow. They were still scratchy, and the route did still require a few short, but hefty, bushwhacks. I made it though.
To descend I ran down Skyline Drive to the Parrish Creek Trail and went down there. I was planning to take the Bonneville Shoreline trail the 3-4 miles back north to the Davis Creek TH where my car was, but I had a few hot spots that were about to go full-on blister. I had called a friend to meet me at the bottom (my phone was about to die and I failed to bring a cable to hook it to my little charger pod). He kindly gave me a ride to my car.
With my family out of town, I took my free evening time to hit up Big Cottonwood Canyon to see some autumn leaves before they were all gone. Some friendly folks from the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers joined in and we had a great run (Thanks Collette, Justin and Tyson!). As it turned out, a lot of the Aspen leaves had already fallen at the higher elevations, but our route eventually took us through a gorgeous band of trees.
We parked at Mill D North and took my car up to Guardsman Pass. The Wasatch Crest Trail goes from there, north, to Desolation Lake. We then turned down Mill D to the cars. about 11 miles total (we took a wrong turn at the beginning and almost dropped down the east side of the Crest, oops!). I would like to think I could have done it faster, but I kept on stopping to take pictures.
So yeah, lots of pictures below. I just couldn’t help myself. The evening sun coming in sideways against the Aspens – wow.
Sometime in the next couple weeks I have been planning to bag Bountiful Peak (before snow hits). The best trail options are the Farmington Spine or the Parrish switchbacks. I have long wanted to go straight up Davis Creek though to the. I have heard that the trail fades – just like the Bountiful Peak trail and the Centennial Trail (up from Flag Rock). However, after doing a little research, it looked like Old North might be a good option. It is a large ridge the pops up in the middle of Davis Creek Canyon. The trail up to the first ridge is apparently pretty good and from there the ridgelines look fairly clear – not heavy bushwhacks.
Before doing a full ascent, I decided to do some recon.
Up the Davis Creek Trail I flew. I decided to push hard and see if I could reclaim some of the course records on the Strava segments going up from the trail head to the Hell Hole / Pretty Valley split. I did get some PRs, but no CRs. I really pushed hard – but lets face it, I’m just not that fast.
I took the left split to Hell Hole.
After the brutal climb, the trail levels out for the last 1/4 mile to Hell Hole and even goes down a bit. I was so excited to be able to actually get a full stride in that I started to run…and immediately tripped and full-out face-planted on the trail. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to even try to catch myself. Scraped arms, nose, and knee. Ouch.
The Old North Trail starts after crossing Davis Creek at Hell Hole. I followed it about 3/4 mile up to the top of the first big ridge clearing. Some nice rocks. Inexplicably, a broad and ZERO bushwhack trail appears at the top of the ridge. It must be remnants of an old mining road or something.
In any case, the ridge goes northeast and then climbs to intersect a higher ridge at Midway Peak. That ridge then goes southeast to Bountiful Peak. I was hoping to make it to Midway Peak but right as I got up on the open ridge – thunder and lightning.
I made a quick retreat back down the 2 miles to my car.
It was a successful recon though – I will definitely go back up it to Bountiful Peak, probably in a couple Saturdays
.I’ll be sore though. It was 2,350 ft. in elevation gain over 2 miles of trail. Wow!
Here are a few recent outings:
A run up the newly worked on lower stretch of the Farmington Creek Trail by Ryan Lauck, up the first section of the post-parking lot single track, and then looping across the creek to explore the Aqueduct Trail back – a first. All with a coworker, Spencer, who just moved here and is quickly getting hooked on the trails.
5.0 miles in 1:33:34 @ 18:44 min/mile and with 1,170 ft. elevation gain
A night run on pavement. Zzzz.
4.3 miles in 38:00 @ 8:53 min/mile and with 0 ft. elevation gain
A night run up Centerville Canyon. Bad idea to do in the dark. Rough trail, LOTS to trip on and having to stop a few times to figure out where the trail went. Slow.
3.1 miles in 47:04 @ 14:58 min/mile and with 952 ft. elevation gain
A repeat of the 7 mile out and back from East Mtn. Park in Kaysville to Fernwood in Layton on the BST. I ran it faster than ever, getting PRs on all of the segments and even negative splits. I felt great! In my head I was thinking it had to be way faster than last time, but looking at the previous post it was only 2 minutes faster overall. Oh well – I’ll take it!
7.2 miles in 1:17:39 @ 10:50 min/mile and with 835 ft. elevation gain
Hats off to UltraRunner Joe for providing us this very important public service – a nice list helping to differentiate between hipsters and trail runners. There are some good points here, but I wonder if it is missing some possibilities for overlap. Joe – can you re-imagine this, but include some Venn Diagrams for us?
and
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This week I found myself in Ohio (Cleveland area) for work and decided to use a couple evenings to put in some miles. I was staying in Willoughby and narrowed in on what looked like a great park about 5 miles south of there – the North Chagrin Reservation. Indeed, it was a great set of trails – lots of forest – a number of deep ravines with creeks at the bottom – a perfect mixture of trail types, lots of constant up and down rolling. In fact, if you swapped out 90% of the trees and made them evergreens, the trail itself reminded me a lot of my hometown Whatcom Falls Park. Perhaps not in vegetation, but in overall topography, trail texture (lots of exposed roots), and so forth – it felt familiar.
I ran twice.
6.0 miles in 1:08:52 @ 11:33 min/mile and with 421 ft. elevation
6.2 miles in 1:11:52 @ 11:31 min/mile and with 224 ft. elevation
The Monday night run was mostly uneventful, other thn getting constantly lost as the different trail loops intersected over and over again. Oh, and I totally fell. There was a downhill section that I decided I should take fast and about 2 steps in I caught my toe. I sped up my legs to try to get them under me, but was quickly rotating forwards. What followed, given my speed, was actually pretty impressive. I planted a hand on the trail, tucked my right shoulder, and did and full somersault roll across my back and right back onto my feet and continued down the trail without missing a step, so to speak. I was impressed, in any case.
On Wednesday night, I knew it was forecast to rain. When I got to the trail head, indeed, it was a bit drizzly. However, given the dense canopies of tree above, I figured I would stay fairly dry. And, I did. For the first couple miles I suffered with the 100% humidity but got very few cooling drops of rain on my face. The, I hit a clearing in the trees and felt some nice cool rain. “Ah,” I thought, “I wish there were more breaks like this in the trees so I could cool off more.” Be careful what you wish for. About 30 seconds later a loud noise began above, quickly crescendoing into a deafening roar. Torrential downpour. It was coming down so hard that I couldn’t see the trail in front of me clearly. I took shelter beside a tree, but still was soaked through within a minute. It continued for 5 minutes or so, and then slowed. The previously dry-slightly moist trail was now a series of large puddles, linked by moving run-off and instant gooped-up mud. Fun. I soldiered on – fully soaked but happy to be out for a run. It slowed me down quite a bit and towards the end I could sense a couple blisters forming from the wet socks.
When I got back to my lodging, the coworkers I was going out to dinner with asked, “Do you still want to drive all the way in to Cleveland to eat? You know, since there is a tornado warning and all.” WHAT?! Thanks guys! None of them bothered to call or text me on the trail to warn me to get inside. Oh well. I survived.
It wasn’t even that hot today but I have sweat like this for a while. There are a few close-by trails here in Farmington that I have yet to explore so I picked one today. The fire trail 03 that goes south from just above flag rock down into Hornet Canyon.
I started at the Davis Creek TH and took the BST past Steed Creek and then up the south access trail to flag rock. This intersects with the ascent trail I usually take right below Eagle Rock. That part was bad and the nice rolling traverse over to the Patsy’s Mine cutoff felt great. Then the switchbacks. Baking in the sun. Ugh.
At the top I took the Centennial Trail up to where the fire trail turns. I wanted to see what centennial looks like, because it would be a very fun route to take to the top. Way overgrown. Bummer. I bombed down the fire trail 03 and soon found that it was more overgrown than I had heard. Lost it a couple times. To make matters worse, friends have been seeing lots of rattlesnakes lately and I wasn’t too excited about Bushwhacking. Luckily – no encounters – but I was nervous the while time. The lyrics to a Lateef and the Chief song about snakes lurking in the grass kept running through my head. (Read about they on my music blog, Desert Island Mixtapes).
The Hornet Canyon Trail was a bit of a let down too – lots of loose gravel skree. Doesn’t make for a fun descent. By the time I got to the car, it felt like I had gone a lot farther than 5 miles.
I blew through about 1.5 liters or water. I should have filled it with the full 2 liters.
Last night I went to a BBQ hosted by some of the Wasatch Mtn. Wranglers on the eve of the annual Wasatch 100 trail race. Yup. 100 miles up and through the Wasatch range. Starts in Kaysville, end at Soldier Hollow. Its bonkers. A part of me wishes that I could be out there running with them. But, the rest of me knows how much time these kids put in to training. Its nuts. A lot of miles, a lot of early wake-ups, a lot of entire Saturdays eaten up running. I love my trail running, and I love the idea of challenging myself to go 100 miles, but I don’t see it happening any time soon. Part scheduling, part laziness.
In any case, enough about me – good luck to everyone running. Wow! I’ll be checking your progress all day, and night and day. Hopefully I’ll see some at the finish line.
One thing that is a bummer about living in Davis County is that getting to the trails in east Salt Lake City is difficult – at least with my schedule. I have toyed with the idea of doing it as an early morning thing before work, but worried it would still put me to work too late. With summer turning to autumn and the specter of snow on the horizon I decided that I had to hit some trails up there this season. I asked the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers group on facebook for their #1 recommendation and a number agreed that the 10 mile loop between Altra and Brighton is the way to go. Wow. They were right.
I hit the trail at Alta around 5:45 AM and power hiked slowly up Grizzly Gulch for the two miles up to Twin Lakes Pass, over looking Twin Lakes Reservoir. This route takes you from Little to Big Cottonwood Canyon. Once the sun came up, I could see what I was in for.
Wow.
The trail heads down past Twin Lakes Reservoir and to Silver Lake at Brighton. From there, the trail loops around Silver Lake and treks up through Brighton to Catherine Pass. Along the way you pass Mary’s Lake and Catherine Lake. From Catherine Pass you drop down into the Albion Basin, into Alta and back to the car.
Wow. My most beautiful route to date. Unfortunately, a knot in my back that has been there for a long time started hurting more and more as I went – slowing me down quite a bit. Later that day it fully went into spasm mode, debilitating me for a few days. Ouch. Totally worth it though!
Music is a big part of my life. I did a solo singer-songwriter thing for years (250+ horrible demos recorded), I’ve had radio shows, and I run music blog (http://desertislandmixtapes.com). Fittingly, running has provided a great opportunity to put on new albums and listen to them front-to-back without much distraction. Music makes running a lot of fun. But, when things started warming up this year, and people began posting pictures of enormous rattlesnakes on the local trails, I rethought this practice. I saw 3 rattlers last year, and all three times they were right under foot. With narrow or overgrown trails, it is a bit unnerving to think that one might be at hand. Earbuds tucked in my ears mean that if one did start giving me a warning rattle, I wouldn’t hear it.
So – I tuned the music off. In fact, I haven’t listened to music while trail-running since May or so. And you know what – it hasn’t been all that horrible. I have actually really enjoyed the silence at times. I can hear the rushing water of a creek I am approaching, the clicking of cicadas, chirping of birds, rustling of wind in the trees, myself breathing heavily. The silence has also given me time to myself and my thoughts. I am a historian and writer by profession and taking regular time to think through complex historical problems I am working on during the day has led to a number of epiphanies and breakthroughs. So, maybe running sans music isn’t all that bad.
Well, until tonight. I ran up the Farmington Creek singletrack, up Farmington Canyon Road a bit, and then turned around to descend. Knowing that I would be looking at 5+ miles on a wide dirt road (no risk of not seeing a snake lurking about) I brought some tunes with. I put the ear buds in, hit play on Spoon’s new album They Want My Soul (great, by the way!) and headed down the road. It was great. And I immediately realized how much I had missed it.
(by the way – great run. 7 miles in 1:18:44 @ 11:17 min/mile and with 1,514 ft. elevation gain)
So – final verdict? I think I can have enjoyable experiences either way. I used to think that running without music would be horribly boring, and I have discovered that it isn’t. Sometimes, its preferable. However, sometimes nothing beats running with some good beats. Either way, I’m in the mountains running – right? Win win.
And, ironically, my falling and slicing my hand open happened about 50 yards into my run, supposedly when I was bombing down the road, running in the dark, too fast and distracted by the tunes!
I so enjoyed the BST on my way to Adams Canyon and back on Monday that I decided to put in some more miles on it. It is about 3.6 miles from East Mountain Park in Kaysville to Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. It isn’t the most exciting trail, view-wise, but it is a great place to clock miles. Lots of gentle ups and downs, and few shorter steep climbs and descents – but nothing too crazy. I have decided that my Altra Olympus shoes are great for this kind of trail – not to technical. I think this route may be a go-to for me when I want to clock some trail miles, rather than bagging peaks, stacking vert, or exploring UP canyons, etc… Close to home, relatively easy miles.
For the first 3 miles I was feeling sluggish – but on the way back felt great. This might be somewhat due to the fact that there is more climbing on the way there, but I think I generally feel best from about miles 4-8 on most runs. The first few miles are hard, and once my legs loosen up and I get in a rhythm, it feels better. Good splits for me towards the end. I would love to get all of my splits at 10:00 min/mile or lower. Maybe I’ll add this to regular rotation and try to drop my time each run.
I ran through sunset and flipped on my headlamp for the last 2 miles.
Last winter a lot of the local Davis County trail runners were trying to beat each others’ times up and down Adams Canyon. I never made it up there and figured today would be a good day. I unexpectedly found myself at home a bit earlier than usual, and swapped a couple afternoon hours of work for evening hours and went on a run instead.
The Bonneville Shoreline Trail from East Mountain Park in Kaysville north was a lot of fun – there is some fun singletrack that I need to come back and bomb around on my mtn. bike. On my way up, I had sunglasses on, which dulls some of the colors on the trail. As I came up a climb (looking straight down) and opened up my gait to get moving again, I ran right over the biggest snake I have ever seen – I saw it mid-stride and hurdled right over. I circled back around and got this picture. No rattle – just a Gopher Snake. Over 3 ft. long!
The trail up to the waterfall was a bit more of a scramble towards the top than I thought, I don’t know how some of those guys posted such fast times coming down that thing.
I joined some boy scouts on a campout up north and west from Bear Lake, at Bloomington Lake, ID. On Friday part of the group drove to the lake, while another group of us was going to do the quick 2 mile trail up to the lake. A couple boys ran way ahead and by the time we caught up to them, they had veered onto the wrong trail, UP UP and UP. By the time we regrouped, we thought we might as well continue and then bushwhack back down farther towards Bloomington Lake. It was gorgeous. This took us up to Worm Lake (not so gorgeous). The bushwhack over a couple ridges and down a steep grade was a bit rough on the boys. It wouldn’t have been bad if we had known it would be 6, rather than 2 miles. We didn’t have a enough water or food. But, we all made it, and Bloomington Lake was gorgeous. Wow.
With grey clouds in the sky, trails fresh and damp from overnight rains (no dust!) I started the day out with a quick climb up to Flag Rock. The south ascent is about 1,500 ft of climbing over 1.5 miles of trail. I was low on energy, but happy to be up there. When I got home to shower and head to work torrential downpours hit, so I got it in just in time!
Last year on Pioneer Day, a friend and I tackled Baer Canyon. It was only my 2nd trail run, and we were unprepared and it was rough. I thought I would continue that and make an annual tradition of pushing myself to do unwise things on Pioneer Day. On the top of my trailrun to-do list has been to bag Thurston and Francis Peaks. I have been to both, but only after driving up to Francis and then running the Great Western Trail. I wanted to do it proper, climbing up from the valley floor. I put out the word and was joined by a few nice gents – Bryan, Jeremy, and Steve. Bryan had to turn back (work, or something) after the first hour of climbing, but Jeremy and Steve stuck it out to the end.
We started at 5:00 AM with headlamps, and I immediately fell behind the group on the climb out of the Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. I don’t know what it was, but I just felt horrible. My stomach felt uneasy, and the climb really beat me up. When Brian turned back, I caught up to the other two and we stayed together for most of the remainder of the climb. We made it up the primary ascent, hit the delicious springs to refill our water along the traverse over to Chinscraper and then tackle that final climb up to the ridgeline.
As we neared Thurston Peak, we cut up a stream drainage where there was exposed rock and dirt to make an easier bushwhack up to the the peak. Its a bummer that someone hasn’t blazed a proper trail up to the top. Someone get on that. We enjoyed taking a rest, chugged some soda, ate, and then continued on south, back to the Great Western Trail.
Along here, I hit my stride on the GW, but after about an 1/2 mile got stopped in my tracks by simultaneous cramps in my right calf and thigh. Ouch. I had been careful to keep hydrated and intake calories, but I had completely forgotten to pop a salt capsule. I took two with water, rubbed them a bit, and then runned them out until they loosened while trying to catch up to Jeremy and Steve. They didn’t cause any more problems as I kept my electrolytes in balance.
I love this stretch of the Great Western – amazing views on both sides.
We took the steep road/trail up to the FAA towers on Francis Peak and stopped to refuel, take pictures, and plan our descent. Originally, I had planned on coming down the Francis Peak Trail, but had been convinced to take the Farmington Canyon Road down. This would put the mileage higher than I had planned, but I was excited about the prospect of hitting 20 miles – which would make it my longest run ever.
We started to scramble down the rocks just south of the peak marker to get back on the road when both Jeremy and Steve let out a sudden scream and help. Apparently, I had stepped right over (almost on) a large rattlesnake. As they followed me, they saw it slithering away, whereas I hadn’t even noticed it at all. After we got our nerves back, we got on the road and started down.
At this point, my left IT Band was starting to hurt, so I told them to go ahead while I stretched. I had about 8-9 miles of gravel road downhill ahead of me and I figured that with stretching the IT band might hurt, but would be manageable.
I caught up to them a mile or so down the road and continued my faster pace, moving ahead of them for another couple miles. Then, the blisters started. On the heal and arch of my right foot, two large blisters developed. This slowed me down and as we approached Skyline Dr. / Farmington Canyon Rd., they caught up to me. I was quickly realizing that this was going to be a much slower descent than I had planned so I wished them good luck and sent them on their way. So much for 8 minute miles the whole way down. Instead, I hobbled / limped / kind-of-ran / sometimes walked down to Sunset Campground and then took the Farmington Creek Trail down to its trailhead where my wife picked me up. It was really painful. Excruciating.
Jeremy and Steve took the road the whole way down, and my shortcut actually put me at the bottom ahead of them, even though my pace was slow.
In the end, I was exhausted and in a lot of pain but happy to have down 20 miles and to have bagged both Thurston and Francis Peaks. Though on speed PRs, a PR for distance and that was fun.
Altra was sponsoring an aid station at the inaugural Skyline 50 mile Mountain Marathon, and since my family was out of town, I decided to volunteer. We were stationed at the Public Grove Hollow trail head (FR 620) on Avon Pass Rd. above Eden, UT. It was a gorgeous day and it was fun seeing the runners come through. We were at about mile 12 of the race. After everyone went through, I had also volunteered to sweep the course up to the next aid station. The purpose is to make sure everyone is off the course and accounted for and then tell then next aid station that they can pack up and go. It was about 5.5 miles. I planned on refueling and filling my water and just running back to my car – for a total of 11 miles. That is a lot for me, but I knew that I could take it slow on the way back if needed.
Now – before I start my long rant, let me say that in the end I had a good time.
There was a great scene at the finish line and it was a lot of fun socializing and meeting some new people in the trail running / ultra community.
Very nice people.
By the time I hit the trail it was heating up (around 10:15 AM). I headed up Public Grove Hollow on FR 620, eventually branching left (west) when it turns north. It was a gradual climb, all on a ATV trail. The last 2 miles slowly descend (with lots of rolling ups and downs). Not bad. When I got to about 5.5 miles I didn’t see an aid station. Perhaps my GPS is just a bit off, I thought. There were ribbons on stakes and tied to trees marking the course, so I knew I was in the right place. I thought that maybe it was just a little further down the trail. I continued seeing ribbons until about mile 6. But after that they disappeared. Now I was getting worried. Was I supposed to take one of the side trails or branches of the road? I had looked down each of them for ribbons but hadn’t seen any. I continued on until about mile 7.5 and then turned around. By this point I had dropped in elevation down into the Devil’s Gate Valley area I hadn’t seen a ribbon for about 1.5 miles and figured that I had somehow missed the turnoff. By this point it was hot and I was getting low on water. I had been pacing my water consumption with the expectation that I could fill up before running back. With the temperatures now getting up into the 90s, I was worried. I met some motorcyclists and chatted a bit on my way back – they offered me a bottle of water. On my way back to where I saw the last ribbon I again checked the paths branching off – and nothing no ribbons.
I made it back to my car, but it had turned into a nearly 25 km / 16 mile run – my longest ever. In a way I was happy that I had been pushed to run so far. A (still slow) 1/2 marathon PR. Even with the extra water, I ran out at the end and was getting dehydrated – it was bad. Without that extra water, I would have been in serious trouble.
I drove my car down to the finish line to report in and apologize for getting lost and not reporting to the next aid station like I was supposed to. And this is where it gets interesting.
It turns out that I hadn’t gotten lost. I ran right to where the aid station was supposed to be and beyond. The problem was that the aid station had already packed up and left!!!
I suddenly went from trying to apologize to being a bit peeved. Wait a second! You guys knew that I was out on the trail, sweeping it to come report to you, and you just packed up and left?! I was dumbfounded. They knew I was coming. And, they had to have known that I would showing up asking for either A. a ride to my car, or B. Water and some food to fuel my return run. But no – they had just left. What is the purpose of sweeping the course if you can’t report to anyone when you get there? So, I ran right past it. AND – on their way out, they had removed a bunch of the flags/ribbons – which is why I hadn’t seen any after about mile 6. They could have left a note on the trail saying – hey, you made it, sorry we had to leave early, go ahead and turn around. Here’s a bottle of water. OR – since they were on freaking ATVs, they could have ridden up the ATV trail until they found me and told me to go ahead and turn around. Here I was, out volunteering to help ensure the safety of runners and then they just leave me out there to suffer on the trail, endangering my own safety.
This wouldn’t have been a big deal if not for the fact that it was HOT and I was 7.5 miles away from my car with almost no water. Without the good samaritan motorcyclists giving me water, I would have been in bad shape. I would have made it back to my car, but I would have been hurting.
If you can’t tell, I was a bit upset – I still am.
On the bright side – I made it. I had a slightly unnerving and stressful, but successful run.
On the Farmington 50 mile Challenge (and associated North Marathon challenge) that I put together there is one section of the route that I was concerned might not be as much of a trail as the satellite image suggested.
It is a short traverse from the northernmost (NE of Francis Peak, down the Morgan County side) Smith Creek Lake, west and over the main ridgeline between Morgan and Davis Counties – merging on the other side with the Great Western Trail. It turned out that the trail was fairly easy to follow and a great way to link up across the ridge. I built some cairns for teh runners’ help.
I ran Strava on the way there and for some reason decided to stop it. I then started it again on the other side of the ridge after I finished the trail work, so it all logged as 2 separate run.
3 miles in 35:20 @ 11:39 min/mile and 263 ft. elevation
&
2.6 miles in 33:47 @ 12:49 min/mile and 490 ft. elevation
Back in late-April the Mrs. allowed me a 3-months early birthday present – a pair of Altra Olympus trail shoes. I was about to run the Zion Trail Ragnar (read about how much “fun” that was) and hoped that the much raved about max cushioning would help ameliorate impact on some of my over-use injuries. I have now put ~100 miles in them over varied terrain and thought it would be worth a review.
Stack Height – 36 mm
Weight – appx. 11.6 ozOffset / Drop – 0 mmHeel Width – 94 mm
Midfoot Width – 120 mm
MSRP: $130
The max-cushioning movement has been picking up steam apparently over the last few years, and with a lot of ultra marathon runners swearing by the Hoka One-One shoes, the Olympus was Altra’s first foray into the max-cushioning market. Altra is known for 2 major hallmarks: 1. Zero drop; and 2. The wide toe box. The zero drop means there is no mm difference between the heal and toe – whereas most running shoes (and all shoes in general) have a raised heal. With some of their other shoes (I have put in a few miles in a hand-me-down pair of Lone Peak 1.5’s) this requires a transition and takes a bit for your calf muscles and Achilles tendons to get used to them. With the larger stack on these, however, I found little trouble making the transition. For me, the wide toe box was the bigger selling point. With more room for toes, the foot is able to splay out wider. I found this gave me better stability, but did lead to them feeling a bit sloppy when I was descending challenging terrain. As for the max-cushioning, I love it. They feel so nice – so squishy. I have run ~100 miles in them so far. I have taken them in mud and snow, dry rocky and dusty trail, even terrain and up mountains, and even 25 miles or so on pavement. These have been on short 3-4 mile run and longer 8-10 mile runs. 100 miles in, I have come to some decisions. They are great for easy – medium difficulty terrain, but are not the best choice for overly technical trails. I will continue wearing them on long runs (to save my joints and feet a bit) and on trails that don’t require more aggressive tread or tighter fit. When doing runs that involve climbing up and coming down – with little lateral traverses or “even” ground…I will pick a different shoes. Overall, however, I am quite please with the purchase. They will be my workhorse for a lot of miles.
Pros:
Cons:
I am now about a week removed from Ragnar and am starting to assess how the race affected my injury-plagued lower-half. In short, some prior injuries seem fine, some seem bad.
The plan moving forward? No running for another week maybe. Perhaps I’ll focus on some light conditioning and strength training and stretching around the house.
I am happy to report that I survived the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Race. The team consisted of friends and family, many of them more consistent runners that me. Nevertheless, I assumed role of Team Captain (in charge of nagging, mostly) and took the set of legs with the highest mileage. What was I thinking? I was most concerned about the stress fracture on my ankle – which had been feeling great as of late, and my IT band which has been a consistent problem as of late. With the high mileage and some very long stretches of steep downhill, both injuries had opportunity to act up. Thankfully – neither did!!! Every muscle and joint was sore and has been since, but those injuries have been ok. In any case, here are the 3 legs.
The leg was absolutely gorgeous. The leg climbed from the Pineview Reservoir up to Snow Basin ski resort. The climb was exhausting and I ended up power hiking portions of it. There was a 1 mile downhill section in the middle that felt amazing. I just opened up and bombed down it, getting a 1 mile PR and a couple shorter PRs too.
This was my night leg. I ran it from about 2:30-3:30. I started out a bit cold, but by the end was as hot as ever. I’m glad that I didn’t over dress. The leg went along Rockport Reservoir and would have probably been gorgeous in daylight. It was a slow steady climb for most of it.
Before this leg we were able to crash at a teammate’s cousin’s house on the floor and get a hot shower and breakfast. Wow – it made a huge difference. By the time I started it was about 2:00 and although it was only 70, it felt hotter. My last leg was 10 miles and dropped a total of 2,636 elevation over the course of about 7-8 miles of it. Had this been my first leg, I think I would have loved it – just bombing down. But, I had already run 13 miles the previous two legs and I was already beat sore. At a number of points on the descent, I had to stop and walk for a bit. There was about 500 ft. of climbing as well – almost all of which I power hiked. I was just spent. Towards the end, there was about a 1/2 mile of trail. I hit that and blew past a bunch of people who were carefully picking their way down the trail. I was in my element and made good time.
By the finish I had hit 9.9 miles, so I did the hand off and went an extra .1. I hit PRs for 10 mile, 15 k, 10 k, 2 miles, 1 mile, 1 k, and 1/2 mile. So, that made me happy.
I was also relieved that my dreaded IT band, which I was afraid would rear its ugly head on all of this downhill didn’t hurt AT ALL. Wow.
In the end it was a very good experience. I ran 23 miles, which is more that I usually do – way more. Will I do it next year? Honestly…probably not. I think I would rather train for a trail race. But who knows . . . maybe.
Did I mention that I created a set of trail-running challenges here in Davis County?
They showcase some great local trails and are designed for serious trail and ultra runners who want to attempt something unique.
A ton of vert and chance to get your name in our hall of fame.
If you want to check them out and consider tackling one of them, go here:
I wanted to get one last run in before this weekend’s Wasatch Back Ragnar race and tonight was my best chance. I drove up to the Farmington Canyon trail, planning to hike it up to the Sunset Campground and then run down the road for a loop. It went better than anticipated.
Amongst the other local trail runners, I’m just about the slowest. On Strava segments, I am usually at the bottom of the leader-board and the only times that I get a medal is when it is an obscure trail that so few have clocked on strava that I’m in the top 5 by default. BUT, not today. I didn’t plan on trying to go my fastest but did on all stretches of the trail. With my new trekking poles, I found my self either running or fast power hiking the entire way up. I really think the poles allowed me to keep a faster steady pace. On a number of the climb segments I placed 4th or 5th – even ahead of some elite locals I really look up to! On the descent down the road, I clocked PRs for my 5k (23:26), 1 mile (7:32), 1k (4:31), and 1/2 mile (3:35).
I was exhausted when I got back to my car, but it was well worth the effort!
This week a good friend and colleague – a fellow historian – was in town for a conference and wanted me to take him and his two dogs somewhere beautiful for a trail run. Since we were down in Utah County for the conference, I chose the Box Elder Trail towards the like named Peak. This was my first time up American Fork Canyon and will not be my last. Wow.
We started at the Granite Flat Campground and headed up trail 044. We climbed about 2,500 ft up 2.5+ miles of trail, stopping often to take pictures, catch our breath and talk history. My friend currently lives in Melbourne, Australia…at sea level. So, our hike from 6,500 to just over 9,000 ft. must have been killing his lungs. His dogs didn’t seem to mind though. We didn’t make the final 2,000 ft climb to the peak, choosing instead to sit and relax on a mint and wildflower covered hill on the north side of a canyon that would have otherwise led us up to the south saddle between the south and main Box Elder Peak.
It was a gorgeous day. Thanks to Taylor for sharing it with me!
Now, I have to schedule some time to go back and conquer that thing…
It was Saturday afternoon, the high was forecast to be around 70 so I couldn’t, in good conscience, not hit the trails.
I decided to try out my new trekking poles on the steep climb up the Davis Creek trail area.
I felt strong and did get a PR on the initial climb from the trail head to the split to the first waterfall, but not on the rest. Odd. I did stop and talk with a couple people so maybe that is what slowed me down.
I went up to the split where you can traverse over to Pretty Valley to the right, or go up to Hell Hole on the left. My plan was to do a loop. I went right, over to Pretty Valley, Up the south approach to Hell Hole and then back down to the junction. Feeling good, I turned around and did the loop in clockwise.
On my way down from Pretty Valley I could feel my left IT band a bit, but not bad. The ankles feel good.
They lied. Everything is not bigger in Texas.
For the last couple weeks I have been down in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, for a couple academic conferences and some research in a few archival repositories. Fun fun fun. And, rather than sit around bored in my hotel rooms at night when I didn’t have stuff planned with colleagues and friends, I went running. These were three of the sweatiest runs of my life. Wow. The humidity. Overall, it was a lot of fun to explore some new places. However, due to my IT bands and stress fracture on my left ankle…I am supposed to be only increasing my weekly mileage slowly – 10% per week, right? Well… I kind of blew that. Instead of going 7-9 miles max for the week, I did 15+ over 6 days. The IT bands got worse throughout, and now my left ankle stress fracture is a bit sore again – which it hasn’t been for a few weeks. It had been 100% pain-free for a while. And…it kind of feels like an identical stress fracture is developing on my right ankle. So… I may be taking it easy for a couple weeks now – maybe just keeping in shape on my bike until the Wasatch Back Ragnar at the end of June.
In any case – here’s where I explored.
Trail along Turkey Creek.
It was late about 6:30 or so when I hit the trail, which thankfully stays pretty well in the trees along Turkey Creek – so not much direct sunlight. Nevertheless, it was so humid, so sweaty. I felt like superman bounding up the “hills” along the trail. 300 ft over 4.6 miles…I guess the Wasatch has gotten me used to a bit more climbing than that.
This looked like a promising way to get out of the city, and it was way out there. Cell phone dead zone. I was expecting something a bit more dramatic when I saw the word “canyonlands,” but again I think Utah has spoiled me. The trails were nice, but a lot of it was exposed to the sun and it was hot. I went through 2 liters of water and still guzzled down a gatorade when I got back to the car. I also found it funny (didn’t get a picture! Yarg!) that on country roads, when there is a church ahead, they have yellow caution signs that say “Church.” I don’t know if Texas gets the irony in that. Yellow signs are for warning. Warning! Church! I didn’t realize rural Texas would be so anti-religion. 😉
This was about 1/2 between Austin and San Antonio (off west of San Marcos) and I decided to run it as I was driving between the two, leaving the archives in Austin and going to a conference in San Antonio. Knowing it would be the middle of the day, I packed a full 2 liters in my hydration vest and even put on sun screen. Thankfully, it was overcast. But wow – it still felt hot and humid. The trail is on a peninsula which appears to be made of limestone. Much of the trail was exposed sharp craggly (sp? even a word?) bedrock limestone. Sharp stuff. Oddly, it appears to be mostly used by mtn. bikers, and I could see that rock just shredding your sidewalls on the tires. In any case, the full Madrone Trail packs 7.5 miles of trail into a pretty small area. That means constant twists and turns and doublebacks. At one point I came upon a couple deer and they spooked – bounding off. Then, the trail doubled back on itself and I came upon the same deer again, about 60 seconds later. They bounded off…and the trail meandered back to where they had run to another 2-3 times. Sorry guys. Around 3-4 miles my left IT band was really screaming, and as you can see on the map, there are plenty of places where I could bail and hit the west side trail back up to my car. With the north loop done, I thought I would at least do the east loops…and then maybe go back to the car. Then, I decided I would at least do some of the big south loop…I ended up doing the whole thing. Towards the end I had that wonderful moment where you are so glad you DIDN’T turn back early, and instead pushed through for the whole thing. My legs disagreed over the next couple days. 😉
Ever since I moved to Farmington, UT, about a year ago, I have eying the “Farmington Spine” on maps and as I drive around every day. It is a ridge that runs from the mouth of Farmington Canyon, southeast, and all the way up to the road that connects with Bountiful Peak. I love running ridges, and this one looks like it would be easy to follow to the top. The trail maps show it, and people said it is fairly easy to follow going up, though a bit overgrown at the top. This is a chronic problem for all of our Farmington Trails. From the valley floor, most are pretty clear for miles 0-3 on the way up. Then, mile 3-4 is generally overgrown with scrub oak and the like, and difficult to follow at times. Then, the last mile – 4-5, is often above the tree line and much easier to bushwhack.
In any case, I decided to tackle it today, hitting the trail around 6AM. Besides wanting to hike it myself, the Farmington 50 Challenge that I put together sends runners DOWN the Spine. Fellow runners said that there are popcan markers nailed to trees that make going UP the trail pretty easy to follow. However, you can’t see those on your way down. So, I got a roll of pink ribbon and planned to flag the upper portions so it would be clear and easy to follow on the way down as well.
The trail is a climb! Wow. Unfortunately, the ridge wasn’t as spectacular as I had hoped. For much of it, you are either in a deep rut (5-20 ft. wide, 10 feet deep) flanked with trees, or up in the forest itself – so you don’t really get consistent views that some ridge-lines offer.
Towards the top, the trail was easy to follow – but overgrown. My legs got fairly scratched up. At about mile 4, you break out of the trees. To the right there is a small valley thick with trees – and other the other side, the western most flanking ridge that I wanted to follow up to the top. I flagged the path of least resistance up the open meadow until the trees to the right faded out and you can traverse over to and up to the top of the ridge easily. That ridge climbed and then dropped down to an old jeep trail that had a wrecked and shot out old 70s car at its terminus.
From there, I just followed it to the intersection with the road that goes SE around the Steed Creek basin and up to Bountiful Peak. It was getting hot at this point, but the views were worth it. I turned west, and followed the road to an overlook (the point above the Steed Creek cliffs).
I considered going down to the cliffs, and then following the Steed Creek trail to the BST and back to my car. I decided, however, that it would be best to run back down the Spine to make sure that my flagging was sufficient. It is a good thing I did, because at various points I need to add or move flags to aid trail identification on the descent. My left IT band, as usual, was hurting by the end. It was great though.
I would like to do this once a week or so – waking up around 5:00 and getting in a good trail run before work. This morning I drove down to City Creek, parked at the Morris Reservoir, and ran the Avenue Twins. I ran part of the BST up to the back ridge that overlooks City Creek to the north, and then followed that ridge around, East, and up to both of the Avenue Twin Peaks.
It was a beautiful morning.
From the southern Twin Peak, I bushwhacked straight down south to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. There appeared to be remnants of trails going down, and it got me back on the BST fast. I think took the BST NW back to the north ridge, ran that NW to the overlook into City Creek Canyon where it ends, and then skidded down a small trail to the trail that hook up with Morris Creek. My left IT band was hurting by the end, but more distressing was that about 1/2way through, a large knot/muscle spasm developed in my left lower back. Incredibly painful throughout the day.
It appears that summer temps have arrived. I ran up the Farmington Creek Trail to the Sunset Campground today and wow, it was hot! I hadn’t taken that trail all the way up yet, and it was a great one – a perfect short run. A little vert, but mostly nice rolling trails – and a fun fast descent on the way back to the car! Ankle feeling great – ZERO pain – IT bands still acting up around mile 3-5.
3.8 miles in 48:47 @12:58 min/mile and 1,282 feet elevation
On the 24th of July last year, I took a friend and co-worker on my 2nd ever trail “run,” and we hiking up Baer Canyon. It killed us, neither of us was in good enough shape to do it, and probably not coincidentally, he hasn’t joined me on another outing since. Until tonight! I took him up to Flag Rock in Farmington which is a short, but steep hike. It was a lot of fun – hopefully I can get him hooked. My ankle felt great, and IT bands weren’t too bad. I have been rolling them with the foam roller a lot.
3.7 miles in 1:11:01 @ 19:04 min/mile and 1,528 ft. elevation
With an official diagnosis of ankle problems, a fibula stress fracture, and a strong suspicion that running on pavement severely aggravates it, I decided to hit the dirt today and test out my theory. I started at the Farmington Pond, ran north on the BST to Shepherd Canyon, up to the Upper Terrace, and took that back to the car. Its a great loop. My left IT band hurt towards the end, but my ankle did not. Often the pain is delayed, really coming over the next two days…..and……no pain. The ankle felt great in the days after. So – I am officially swearing off pavement for now. And good riddance! I have also started taking vitamin D and calcium supplements, which the doctor said will help promote bone healing, growth, and strength. I doubt they are kicking in this quickly, but it can’t hurt – right?
4.6 miles in 55:18 @ 12:08 min/mile and 898 ft. elevation.
So…you know all of that ankle pain I have been whining about since January? The pain that I thought was my peroneal tendon. Well, I was wrong.
With Ragnar behind me and another Ragnar coming this summer, I decided to get serious and go to the doctor. The pain hasn’t really been bad at all. Actually, I only really feel it anymore if I push on it. But, I figured it was worth looking into. The doctor said my tendons are all great, but I have a low-risk stress fracture on the outside of my lower fibula – just above my ankle bone.
So, what does this mean? He said it is minor and low-risk. I can continue to run on it without major risk of it fracturing further. Doing so, however, will prolong the healing period and make the pain last a lot longer. Well – that’s better than tendonitis, I think.
And here is the interesting thing. As my knee IT bands have been flaring, I made the decision last night that I would stay on the flat pavement for a while and get them back in order. Moreover, I would do what everyone has always suggested and start with low mileage, working up slowly each time – instead of putting in too many miles, too fast and getting these over use injuries. Oh yeah – the stress fracture can be caused by rapid upping of mileage and over-use. Duh.
Well, I ran 5k last night – actually a great run. 3.6 miles in 30:34 @ 8:36 min/mile. That’s a great pace for me. I even got a PR for my 1k and 1 mile distances. However, when I awoke this morning, my ankle actually kind of hurt. Kind of bad. Like it used and like it hasn’t for a while.
And this all reminded me of January (here and here) – when this whole ankle pain burst out of nowhere. Guess what I was doing? I was worried about my IT Bands, and putting in flat miles on the pavement. And, more miles than I was used to. A ha! The light bulb goes on. Miles on the pavement – caused the stress fracture – aggravate the stress fracture.
So – that’s that. I’m done with the pavement for now. I will roll my IT bands like crazy, stretch, and try to find flat trails for some short runs. My ankle has hurt after my last few trail runs – but immediately hurt after 5k on the pavement. So, back to the dirt I go. I’m going to try hard and keep my mileage low -play it safe.
Meh. I didn’t like the pavement anyways!
I penned this for the kind folks over at Trail and Ultra Running.
They run a great site. Get to know it if you haven’t already.
Full disclosure – I am no ultra-runner. I have yet to run an ultra-marathon (or normal marathon) and don’t know if I ever will. But, trail-running in general is taking over my life. It dominates my daydreams, works its way into vacation plans, and surely drives my family nuts. Dirt is a dangerous mistress. Don’t believe me? Just talk to an ultra-runner and try to get them to talk about anything other than trail-running. It’s an unhealthy obsession – a wonderfully unhealthy obsession.
This is a cautionary tale. Words of warning, not to be taken lightly.
Don’t flirt with dirt.
You are not strong enough to resist its seductive grasp.
This tragedy has its roots in the dirt and trails of NW Washington where I grew up. I got hooked early as a teenager, mountain biking on some of the country’s best trail systems. The trails were a mere 5-10 minute bike ride from my backdoor and I spent a lot of hours on that dirt – rain or shine. Plenty of time was spent hiking and camping in the area as well. So, my predisposition to dirt-addiction goes deep. But not once did it ever occur to me to run on those trails. Ridiculous! I hated running, and to be honest, why run the trails when I was pretty good at biking them.
Fast forward about 15 years. I am now living on the Great Plains, with little to no close mountain biking opportunities, but desperate for some physical activity. I had begun swimming laps for exercise and had the thought that if I could figure out how to run, I could do triathlons. I biked, I swam. Running would be the necessary evil to compete. I started running, and for the first time ever, got past the “this is so miserably hard and painful that I never want to do this again” stage and actually started to enjoy it…So much so, that I upped my mileage too fast and got some serious IT Band troubles. Arg. Nevertheless, a possible interest in being a “runner” had developed.
Fast forward again to June 2013 when I moved Utah and next door to a venerable local runner Matt Van Horn. In an odd twist of fate, we were from the same hometown and he and my families actually knew each other (our parents had a great time catching up) but he had moved when I was still in elementary school. I found out that he was an ultra-runner and did this thing called “Trail Running.” The concept blew my mind. WHAT?! You can RUN on TRAILS?! How had I never thought of this? I love trails. Maybe running on them will help me get over the fact that I kind of hate running.
And here is where I went terribly wrong folks. I tried it. I a couple run/hikes up popular local favorites Flag Rock and Baer Canyon in Davis County, Utah. What a naïve fool I was. The moment I stepped foot on those trails and picked up my pace from casual hike to a jog or run, I was hooked. This was amazing. I could get exercise and not do it on exhaust-choked city streets. I could explore trail systems (like I have always loved) but do it at a pace fast enough to actually cover a good amount of territory in a single quick evening outing.
So here is my warning and my desperate plea with anyone reading this who is thinking about going out for a nice afternoon job on a dirt trail. DON’T DO IT! If you make the mistake that I did, and gingerly put your little running-shoe clad foot on that trail and start to job, you won’t be able to stop. I haven’t been able to. More stupidly self-inflicted knee injuries and ankle injuries aside (that’s a cautionary tale for another day), I keep on going back.
To flirt with dirt is to lose your life to it.
I got home from work and it was just too nice to not go out. My knee was a bit sore, and I knew I would regret it (I don’t) but I went anyways. I was planning on parking at Famrington Pond and running the BST/Farmington Upper Terrace loop, but when I arrived at the canyon I saw that the gates were open. Yeah! Up the canyon I went.I parked at the end of the pavement and ran up the Farmington Creek Trail past Halfway Creek and Corduroy Creek, looking for the right-hand turnoff for the Old Aqueduct Trail.
It is a beautiful canyon. It was my first time running up that trail and I think it is going to be a go-to trail for me. Not too steep, nice and easy, well-maintained.
Also, some old cars wrecked in the forest. I don’t know they were pushed off the canyon road above, or if they were from back when that trail was an old road bed.
In any case, I couldn’t find the Old Aqueduct turnoff. I took a right-hand turn up past the big waterfall and it quickly devolved into a bushwhack. Ah…just like old times.
When I got home and got in the shower, I discovered that I not only did my inaugural bushwhacks, but also the inaugrual bloodletting. All those little scratches really sting in the hot water and soap! Hurts so good!
3.5 Miles in 46:08 @ 13:18 min/mile and 994 ft. elevation
When I got back to the car, I drove down the pavement to where maps show the other end of the Old Aqueduct Trail. I walked a log across the creek, and bushwhacked up the hill until I found a good solid diagonal trail. It took me to the ridge where I followed it up to the Farmington Spine Trail proper, and the intersection with the Old Aqueduct. I ran it for 100 yards or so just to check it out and then worked my way back.
It was a fun little climb and now I know how to get up there. My IT Band on the left knee was just screaming by the end. Boo.
1.1 miles in 24:16 @ 22:27 min/mile and 461 ft. elevation
A couple months ago, a member of the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers Facebook group posted that they needed a runner to add to their team for the Zion Ragnar Trail Relay. The fee was already paid, just come and run. My family was scheduled to be out of town on the race weekend, so I figured that I had nothing better to do and secured a spot on the team. I hadn’t done a Ragnar before and from what I knew, understood that it wasn’t really my “scene.” Huge corporate sponsorship/product shilling, running in costumes, black eyed pees blasting over speakers, etc…. I am a bit more low key. But a lot of people love it and I think that is great. I especially like that it seems to get people who otherwise may not try running out there. I also see how the group/ team experience could be a lot of fun for friends/family to go out and do something really challenging together. That’s awesome. It just isn’t why I have really come to live running trails. If you go to a non-Ragnar trail race – like an ultra marathon – you will notice a VERY different scene. Less spectacle. Less EDM remixes of “Livin on a Prayer” blasting at a gazillion decibels, less meat-market skin fest.
But I digress. Back to my actual race report. I was the first runner for or team, scheduled to start at 2:00. I arrived, dropped off my gear, drove 5 miles back down the road to the parking lot, took the shuttle back, picked a campsite, set up tent, got dressed and headed over to the big start/finish area. The team captain, Joel, arrived and I pointed out where our spot was about 60 seconds before I took off – just in time. My first leg was the Green Loop – the easiest of the three – 3 miles. I kept an easy pace, quickly relaxing how out of shape my ankle-resting had rendered me.
3 Miles in 31:01 @ 10:22 min/mile with 381 ft. elevation
That left me about 6 hours before I would run again. Much of that was spent trying to keep blowing dust out of my eyes and trying to recharge my phone – which the roaming/searching for signal had quickly drained. I also got to hang a bit with the rest of the team – a super friendly family + friends. They made me feel very welcome. They made what could have been an uncomfortable and awkward weekend I to a very welcoming one. Thanks guys!
At 9:00 I got ready for the Red Loop – the hardest leg, 8+ miles. With my headlamp readying I excitedly took off. This is where I noticed some trouble. It had been dusty all day and there was a little dust that billowed up on my previous loop, but now it was choking. With the 800+ racers that had pounded down the red loop by this point, the dirt was compacted, but rather pulverized into a fine talcum powder-like dust 1-2 inches deep in places. All those feet had also deepened many portions of the trail into a narrow trough/rut with 1-2 inch deep edges on either side to roll ankles on as you tried to tight-rope walk the narrow path. The dust was the real problem though. The constant stream of runner had not only pulverized the trail from dirt into dust, but never left it long enough for it to settle back down. The air was filled with it. My eyes stung and it was hard to breath. Also difficult was the fact that the headlamp light reflected off of it in the air and made it difficult to see though the cloud.
This was frustrating and I couldn’t help but think of the parallel to Donald Worster‘s seminal 1983 study, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. Worster’s history examine the 1930s Great Plains environmental and economic disaster know as the Dust Bowl. Employing Marxist theory he outlines how capitalist interests and market created a situation that led to crisis. Capitalism led farmers to overflow the Plains. The region had been enjoying an abnormally wet period, the soil was rich, and yields were astronomic! Huge profits. However, when climate oscillated toward more typical aridity and then devolved into a deep and long drought – the crops died. Where once the millennia-old ecology of long, mixed, and short grass prairie grass weathered regular droughts, there was no longer the deep cover of grasses and interconnected root system. There was only exposed dry soil. And, it all blew away. Worster’s analysis is narrow, and his application of Marxist theory and focus on capitalism doesn’t quite explain the totality of a very complex situation, but revealing and an important work.
I see it as analogous a bit to what happened at the Zion Ragnar. Boasting that this was “the biggest trail Ragnar ever!!!” (Met with lots of cheers) the race organizers sent 2,400+ runners out on the trails. Trails that never see that magnitude of feet in such a compressed time period. And, it destroyed the trails. Dust dust dust. Bigger is better led to deteriorating trail conditions. Later, like in the Dust Bowl, it would lead to disaster. But again, I digress.
I ran my 8.5 miles. The last 3 or so where made much more enjoyable by meeting someone on the trail and chatting about history. It turns out, she had just created a nonprofit organization to so some historic site preservation in the St. George area and we had lots to talk about. Towards the end, my left IT band flared, but I finished the loop.
8.4 miles in 1:42:43 @ 12:15 min/mile and 950 ft. elevation
From there I went to my tent and tried to get some sleep. At 2:00 it started to rain. Around 4:30 I got up to get ready for my next, and last, leg on the 4.5 mile yellow loop. It would be cold, wet, and certainly muddy, but I was excited. 2 hours later, I was still waiting, soaked to the bone and very cold from standing around. The runner before me texted around 6:30 and said he was dropping. Be had also been waiting 2 hours for the guy before him to finish the red loop. The trail, however, had become un-runnable, he said. This coming from a guy who runs ultras like the Wasatch 100 worried me. I had been watching people come in and hearing that things were bad. The moisture had turned that 1-2 inches or powder dust into 3-4 inches of slimy greasy clay-like mud. It was difficult to even walk on in flat sections, let alone run. On ascents, runners were having to pull them selves up by grabbing bushes on the side of the trail. On descents, people were saying it was scary – sliding, falling, etc. 30-45 minute loops were taking people 2 hours. The 8.5 mile loop, which took me 1 hour and 45 minutes was taking people 3+ hours. If the race had been smaller, maybe the trail wouldn’t have been so badly damaged and it would have been just a muddy course – not an un-runnable morass.
So tough up, right? Just go slop it out! Did I mention that temps had dropped and the rain had turned to snow? Yeah. Snow. Coming down hard. At least an inch from 5:30-6:30 and getting harder. Now, people were coming in hypothermic and a 4 hour struggle to finish their loop. A runner on a friend’s team got sent to the Kane County hospital with severe hypothermia and a core body temperature of 94 degrees! I watched one lady come up to the bonfire, crouch down and desperately try to warm up her fingers – sobbing that she couldn’t feel them. We suggested she go to the aid tent or the lodge – where it was toasty warm.
I went in and got our bib, thinking I should give it a shot. I took off and after heading down about 3/4 mile of trail, turned around. The trail was impassable. I could barely keep upright and it was mostly flat by that point. Having stood on the rain/snow for 2 hours , I was soaked and suddenly aware of how numb my fingers and toes were. I turned in my bib and headed to camp. As I was telling the team that I had dropped as well as the runner before me, word spread through the camp that Ragnar had cancelled the rest of the race. VERY smart call. In the end, search and rescue went out and made sure all 10-22 missing runners were found and accounted for. I spare the details, but getting out of there (snow was really pounding now) was a mess.
I was disappointed that I didn’t get to do all 3 loops. I was racing for free, but suspect that those who had paid for 2/3 of a race were more disappointed. More frustrating, however, was my feeling that it could have been prevented. The rain and snow was an act of nature – but if it had fallen upon trails not so badly damaged by the 300+ 8 person teams, it would have still been runnable. It would have been cold and wet and muddy. But it wouldn’t have turned into a dangerous situation where people were stuck out on a 3 hour loop, when only prepare for a 45 minute one.
Like the Dust Bowl, decisions made by man turned a bad situation into a crisis. Drought would have ruined a lot of farmers, but the Great Plains wouldn’t have blown away and become an ecological and economic disaster at the scale it became.
At the Zion Ragnar, it would have been a tough one and lots of people would have dropped regardless – but many would have been able to soldier on and have stories to tell of it. Maybe it wouldn’t have been cancelled and people wouldn’t have been sent to the ER with hypothermia.
So, how do I end this? First, I had a good time. It was fun. The running and camaraderie, that is. The Ragnar “scene,” not so much. The size of it wasn’t my scene. I know Ragnar is a business and wants to maximize profits, but I wonder if they restricted the size of the Trail Relays and kept them a bit smaller, a bit more low- key, a bit more intimate – if runners would have a more enjoyable time. I think they would. Of all the trail runners and trail ultra marathoners I have talked to, most avoid Ragnar because they don’t like the scene. If run differently and on a smaller scale, I wonder if some would be excited about the opportunity to do a relay race together. Profits would be much smaller, but rather than most of the serious trail-running community avoiding Ragnar, maybe they would participate. Perhaps. Maybe not. I don’t know. I’m just barely getting into trail running and getting to know the community.
So would I do a trail Ragnar again? Probably not. It was a good experience and I’m glad I did it. Very glad. I had a lot of fun. I am bummed that my only day-time loop was the non-scenic one, but oh well.
ALSO – I ran in brand new Altra Olympus shoes. They were amazing. I’ll so a gear review about them later.
One of the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers organized a group run up city creek for early in the morning – something I tried out two times back in November before the winter (and injuries) really set in. I really enjoyed it then – getting an early run in, showering at work, feeling more awake at work than I usually do in the AM – it was great. My ankle was feeling ok so I decided to give it a shot. I trailed Matt Miller and Cory Hill down from Morris Resevoir and started back up the west side of City Creek. At that point – I no longer tried to keep up. I simply don’t have the climbing legs yet! I was exhausted. Moreover, my shins and right calf were really aching and the ankle was beginning to feel fatigued. I didn’t want to push it. I pushed up a ways and then turned back. Not my best run, but it felt so good to get out there. Unfortunately, my ankle has been more painful for the couple days after the run than after my last few. I probably need to cut back a bit. After the Zions Trail Ragnar in a couple weeks, I think I’ll go into the doctor and get an official diagnosis.
6.1 miles in 1:13:21 @ 11:57 min/miles with 1,199 ft. elevation
I was planning to rest my legs for a planned group run up City Creek Canyon Friday morning before work, but I just couldn’t resist tonight. It was in the low 70s, and beautiful. Moreover, I knew that I had a long night ahead of me cranking out some pages on a book manuscript that I owe to my editor by May 1st. I short little run seemed like a good way to clear my head before diving into a long night of writing.
Last fall, I did a number of runs up to Pretty Valley – a 800 ft. elevation climb over about 1 mile of trail south from the Davis Creek Canyon trailhead. I pushed hard and got PRs on all of the strava segments – so that was nice. My feet and shins took a beating on the descent though, and I’m glad it was only 2.5 miles. I need to rest these doggies!
2.6 miles in 31:30 @ 12:19 min/mile and 788 ft. elevation
It is actually really interesting to study the 3D rendering. The colors represent severity of grade, so the darker the red, the steeper the climb, the darker the blue, the steeper the descent. Green = nice and flat. This is a great visualization of why my legs felt so beat up – it was all climbing and descent, very little nice “running.”
Some people swear that one of the best ways to recover is to run more. I haven’t tried this before. But, as I was walking around the house cursing how sore and tight my legs felt this morning, I had the thought, “You know what might loosen these tight muscles up a bit? A run.” Crazy, I know. But I gave it a shot. The plan was to just to 2 miles or so, nice and slow, but I ended up doing about 4.5. I was exhausted and I could tell I was fatigued, so it may have defeated the purpose, but at least my legs don’t feel tight anymore. Followed it with lots of stretching.
Parked at Davis Creek Canyon, and ran the Bonneville Shoreline to where the BST access trail drops down to Farmington Pond – right at the big water retention pond. And back.
Also – I was joined by MVH, at least at the beginning and end. He took a detour at the start and then caught up with me as I was returning. I think he went a bit farther down the BST too – maybe all the way to Skyline. I waited for him at the car and we drove back eating delicious waffle wafer cookies. Yum.
4.7 miles in 48:52 @ 10:27 min/mile pace and 366 ft. elevation.
(I picked the BST because there wouldn’t be elevation, but I guess all the small ups and downs add up)
Oh oh – and I also tried out a pair of Altra Lone Peak 1s for the first time. Everyone here swears by the Altra zero-drop thing, so I picked up a hand-me-down pair and am going to try them out. Apparently it takes a while for your calf muscles and Achilles tendons to get used to them, so I’ll work them in slowly, alternating with other shoes.
5.6 miles in 1:31:29 @ 16:23 min/mile pace with 2,270 ft. elevation
I had to work from home today (long story) and around 3:00 saw that the forecast for tomorrow was rain. Boo. I was planning on running tomorrow. So, I decided to swap out my last hour of work for an hour later tonight (or tomorrow) and squeeze my run in this afternoon.
I parked at the Shepherd Creek trailhead and decided to climb up the first mile or so of the Francis Peak Trail. It is about 1,500 ft. in a mile and my legs were burning. As I hit the split where the upper terrace cuts south and Francis Peak goes up, it started snowing. That was unexpected. There was still a few inches of old snow at the top as well. Knee-high post-holing at the top. Brr. I should have worn my super waterproof Montrails but alas, I had my brooks cascadias on. Got pretty wet.
At the top of the first section, there is a clearing which the lady I met on my way up (her husband is the trial chief for this section) said is called Quarter Rock – its a 1/4 of the way to Francis Peak.
From there, I took a trail that drops south down into Farmington Canyon. It was steep, and lots of loose gravel. I wouldn’t want to climb it. When I got down to the 2nd switchback of Skyline Drive, I took the road down to the 1st switchback where the pavement is. Looking back, I wish that I would have trekked West across the face of the Mtn., to hook up with the Upper Terrance. Looking on the map now, I think I could have done it and there may actually already be a trail that does, but I missed it. Bummer.
Instead of taking the pavement, I took the trail that runs north of it along the face of the hill. It was a rough trail – lots of loose rock, always at a sideways angle (bad for my left ankle) and sketchy in parts. Towards the bottom, however, I did get to admire the trail-building handiwork of Ryan Lauck. Seriously, this dude builds 5 star deluxe luxury trails. Check out these stairs and reinforced walls:
Not too shabby. When I hit the mine (below), I climbed straight up what must have been a deer trail to the Upper Terrace and took that back to Shepherd Creek Canyon.
At the bottom, I swung by the section of trail that I helped cut earlier in the week – looks great.
Overall it was a fun excursion. Lots of vert and not lots of miles, but that is ok because I got to explore some new places.
The kids were in bed, the sun was on its way down, my ankle felt “ok” and there was a fresh 1 inch of snow on the trails above town, with a little rain/snow still spitting – what a perfect time to go for a run.
I strapped on my Montrail Badrock, which I had intended to be my snow/wet mud shoes but have hardly used and drove up to uber-rich neighborhoods above Fruit Heights/Farmington where there are a few trail-heads into Shepherd Creek and other canyons north. Knowing the sun would soon be down, I put on my headlamp and took off. The soft fresh snow gave a great cushion to the trail, and other than deer and bunny tracks, mine were the only feet to have touched the few hours-old snowfall.
I climbed, veered north and ascended a rocky ridge that overlooked the canyon just north of Shepherd Creek Canyon.
At this point, it became hard to distinguish which trails were actually trails, and which were just animal tracks in the snow. I pulled google maps up on my phone continuous and looked at the satellite images to try and gauge where I should go. I climbed the north ridge of that small canyon briefly, before crossing and bushwhacking my way back down the other side. The snow actually made the descent down what I assume were loose gravel slides nice and cushioned.
I could have done without the multiple rock outcroppings that looked like perfect perches for Cougars to be staring down at me from. Shiver.
I made my way back down to the car, by which time it was dark. Unfortunately, I had only clocked a mile. So, I crossed over to the south side of Shepherd Creek, took that trail up until a branch descends down to the creek. As it was pitch black, covered in snow, and I had never been there before – I decided it would be a good idea to try and get down to the creek, cross it, scramble back up the north side to the power lines and explore them back down to the original trail I had just descended previously.
Not the smartest choice, but it ended up going well. It was fun to get out in the dark – though terrifying at times – and great to run some fresh beautiful snow.
1.8 miles in 27:09 @ 15:17 pace with 870 ft. elevation
Over the past couple weeks I have been reading about active release massage and how it might be able to solve my ankle trouble. I have begun to suspect that the lasting pain on my peroneal tendon is from scar tissue that built up. Apparently, you can break up the scar tissue by massage it and so forth. So, along with rolling and stretching out the muscles that the tendons attach to, I have been doing it for the last couple days. Painful, but hopefully it will do the trick.
Today is was about 60 degrees and overcast. We had nothing going on this afternoon and I just couldn’t take it anymore – staring up at those mountains by my house, know that the snow was melted from all the lower ones. They were calling to me. Beckoning. Begging me to come run them. Taunting me even. So, I gave it a shot. This was the first trail run since a 4 mile run on the BST south from Farmington Canyon almost exactly 1 month ago.
I parked above Farmington Pond and took the trials north up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and took that north to the Shepherd Creek Canyon Trails. It felt great to be back on dirt, stretching my legs. I could tell that my lungs and legs were out of shape though. So, I have work to do. At Shepherd Creek I climbed up to the Upper Terrace and took that back south to Farmington Canyon. Whereas the BST was a mix of trail and dirt road, the Upper Terrace was all single-track. Delicious delicious single track. The switchbacks down into Farmington Canyon weren’t the best – lots of loose rock and gravel. I came up Farmington Creek a bit, bolder hopped over to the south Bank and then ran the Canyon pavement down to my car. All in all the ankle felt ok. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. My left knee, which I suspect is still the IT Band, flared a bit. I need to get serious about my daily stretches and rolling of the muscles. I need that under control for the Zions Ragnar Trail relay next month. About 4 weeks and counting!
4.3 miles @ 12:35 min/mile and 851 ft. elevation.
So…I have still be really nervous about my ankle. But, equally nervous about getting out of shape. So, I have put in some miles on my mountain bike.
11 March 2014
All pavement, but first time riding the Lagoon Trail up to Farmington Pond
7.4 miles in 36:11, 12.2 mph average and 24.4 mph top speed
20 March 2014
I only have about 45 minutes, so I through my bike onto my car, parked at the bottom of Farmington Canyon and rode up to the 1st switchback where the pavement ends. That non-stop climb burns.
3.1 miles in 23:42, 7.8 mph average and 36.7 mph top speed, 750 ft. elevation
25 March 2014
This time I rode 4 miles up Farmington Canyon. My legs felt great and I was hoping to make it a full 5+ up to Sunset Campground, but I ran out of daylight. Yarg! The climb was tough, but the way down was almost just as bad. Flying down that dirt road on my hard-trail (no suspension) bike was PUNISHING on my wrists, hands, forearms, etc… Ouch.
7.9 miles in 1:05:37, 7.3 mph average and 35.3 mph top speed, 1,661 ft elevation
Panorama looking south
One thing I noticed a couple weeks ago when I went for a short 4 mile run on the BST above Farmington was that after taking a full month off to rest my injured ankle, I was OUT OF SHAPE. Actually, its scary how fast I had lost my lungs, legs, and overall endurance – not that I had much to begin with. My ankle is feeling a lot better, but I don’t want to chance reinjuring it. So, in hopes of keeping my overall fitness going, I jumped on my mountain bike today to head for the hills.
I made it about a mile from my house when I realized I had forgotten my water. Turned back, got it, started again. I had thought about driving to Farmington Pond and starting from there – saving my legs the 2.5 street miles to get there, but was too lazy to load my bike up in the car. So – streets it was. The climb up Farmington Canyon Road was slow and hard. Man, I’m out of shape. I was happy that I didn’t really have to stop at all, but I creeped along pretty slow as I climbed about 1,300 ft. straight with out stopping from the turn off onto E 600 N (from W 600 N), up to N 100 E, and from there up the Canyon Road proper. The steepest sections are the pavement climb up to the first switchback. After that the dirt road is harder to ride on, but not as steep – so it was a bit easier going. I didn’t make it too far up – only about 2.5 miles up the canyon. This made me wish that I hadn’t started at my house and had instead parked at the Pond. Oh well.
On the way down I quickly realized that my brakes were busted. I had adjusted them before leaving, but apparently didn’t do it right. That made for an interesting, and sometimes terrifying descent. They worked, but not well. When I hit the left turn off for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, I decided to get a little actual trail miles on. I grew up mountain biking on the trails of Galbraith Mt. in Bellingham, WA – some of the best trails in the world. The BST is a bit of a let down. And, getting run off the BST multiple times by 4-wheelers and motorcycles was not great. At Steed Creek, I hung a right and hit a short section of actual single track, then hit the streets and made my way home.
15.2 miles in 1:43, average speed 8.8 mph, max speed 32.9 mph, 1,693 ft. elevation.
Oh – and my ankle doesn’t feel aggravated. Phew! My legs are a different story.
I decided to make this my first gear review because I just saw that (at the time of this posting) Amazon has a great sale . Only $67 instead of the regular $90-100.
Grade: A- / B+
This was one of the first pieces of running gear I purchased after moving to Utah last June. I had never carried water before while running, but the combination of heat and desire to go longer distance up on remote mountain trails convinced me otherwise. Oh, that and disastrous trip up Flag Rock in 90 degree + heat with no water. I spoke with a couple people, and although it was pricey, bought it on amazon. I took it for its first spin on my hike up Baer Canyon a couple weeks later and was in love. Seriously. I have continued using it on longer runs and have very little to no complaints. On shorter runs I have started using a Nathan Trail Mix Hydration Belt, that is, when my wife isn’t stealing it for her runs.
Pros:
Cons
Very exciting news. Today I was added to a fellow Wasatch Mountain Wrangler‘s team for the April 2014 Ragnar trail relay down in Zion’s. Woot woot!
This last month has been incredibly frustrating. Again, right as I was feeling good about running, an injury. As I posted previously, I injured and reinjured and reinjured my left peroneal tendon. So, in hopes of being able to come back 100% when the weather warmed and the trails cleared, I haven’t run for the last month. There have been some nice days too – weatherwise – so it has been frustrating to sit at home.
I parked at the Farmington Pond and ascended the trail up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail / Firebreak Road and took that to the Steed Creek Trailhead, which was conveniently exactly 2 miles away. I could feel my ankle being a bit tender, but not bad. I took it easy and didn’t push too hard. At 2 miles, I hit finish on my GPS, thinking I would just walk back. I ended up turning my GPS back on for the way back and walked/jogged. IT was in the 50s, but the BST is in full sunlight, and I got surprisingly hot and sweaty. I feel a real sense of forboding of the hot summer months to come…
When I got home I could feel some soreness, but nothing too bad. Time will tell. If I wake up tomorrow limping, I’ll know I hit the trails too soon. Fingers crossed.
2 miles @ 12:08 min/mile with 402 ft. elevation
AND
2 miles @ 11:45 min/mile with 97 ft. elevation
Spring Evening Above Farmington
I went to a doctor who is here on-site at work and had her look at my ankle. She could feel some scar tissue on my tendon, indicating that it had been damaged, started healing, and then re-damaged. Yup. I’m an idiot. So much for keeping on pace to hit 500 miles this year. I’m out for a while.
Tonight I decided to give my ankle a try. I hadn’t run on it for 8 days. I started partway up 400 N in Bountiful and ran up past the LDS Bountiful Temple towards Mueller Blvd., then I turned around, and bombed back down 400 N. and a ways up 400 W. I clocked some of my fasts miles going down the hill. At about mile 2 my IT bands started hurting, but oddly enough, as I flew down the hill, the pain went away. Nice!
My ankle was a different story. I could feel it hurting the whole time, but oddly, it hurts most when I stop running and just walk. In any case – it is hurting now. This may have been a mistake.
It was nice to get above the inversion smog though – which has been really bad.
6.3 miles @ 9:15 min/mile and 378 ft. elevation.
Above the inversion
My left peroneal tendon is really hurting. I am limping around. I have tried wrapping it, but that makes me walk weird and is causing other aches and pains. Boo.
When I got back from Arizona, I decided that I would try to rehab my IT Bands. They hurt the worst going downhill, so I thought maybe staying flat – on the pavement trails around my house – would help. Over the course of a few weeks, I did 6 flat runs. I would do stretches on the trail every 1/2 -1 mile for 20-30 seconds on each side. It actually worked pretty well and by the 6th run I was feeling very little to no IT Band pain! Hooray! And, it was actually fun to pound the pavement and work on my speed and pace. I posted some of my fastest paces ever. Concurrent with this was the New Year and I decided to make a resolution. I wanted to run 500 miles this year. This motivated me for these 3 weeks to keep on getting out there and clocking miles and was probably my most runningest (not a word, I know) month ever.
Jan. 1: 5.2 miles @ 9:10 min/mile
Jan. 4: 6.2 miles @ 8:48 min/mile
Jan. 9: 4.2 miles @ 9:35 min/mile
Jan. 11: 3.7 miles @ 9:03 min/mile
Jan 15: 5.0 miles @ 9:34 min/mile (with MVH)
At this point, my left peroneal ankle tendon began hurting. That’s right – the right ankle was feeling fine, but now my left ankle started hurting. I think it was, again, from doing a few runs on uneven snow. Stupidly, I ran through the pain a few days later and blasted out a PR for a 10k. I was excited about that, but woke up the next morning in extreme pain – totally limping around.
Jan 20: 6.3 miles @9:02 min/mile (10k PR)
Ok, I have been seriously limping around AZ all week. That last run was a mistake. I should have taken it easy. But, I just could resist. Well…today was our last full day down here in the valley of the sun…so I thought I would throw caution to the wind and run again – suffer the consequences later.
I had my wife drop me off at the Pyramid Trail TH with the plan to meet up with her, my kids, and some of our cousins later as they hiked up to the Lost Ranch Mine Ruins for a picnic. I went up the Pyramid Trail to the top of that peak, and then followed the ridgeline NE to where it connects with Telegraph Pass – almost all the way to the radio towers, then lopped back SW on the opposing ridgeline to the north on the National Trail. I then dropped down the Lost Ranch Ruins Trail and arrived at the old ruined farmhouse right when the family did. Perfect timing! As with the last run, the conditions were amazing, and the trails were in great condition….except for the descent down the Lost Ranch Ruins Trail – that one was a mess. Super steep and lots of loose rock.
My foot hurt the whole time and BOTH of my IT bands were hurting from about mile 4 onward.
6.3 miles @ 13:16 min/mile and 1,710 ft. elevation
After eating, we took the kids up to a little abandoned mine and then made our way back to the cars…SLOWLY. Kids like to drag their feet.
Top of the Pyramid Trail, looking East
Kids exploring the mine
My boy showing off his muscles
One positive to having family in Arizona is visiting there for the holidays. My word – 60s-70s feel glorious. I have a problem though – my right foot is still quite painful. So – do I take advantage of the warm weather and trails, or be a good boy? I opted for the trails. Today I started at my sister’s house (on the south side of Phoenix’s South Mountain in Ahwatukee) and accessed the trail system there. I took a dirt road out of her neighborhood East to run the Southernmost ridge that runs WNW to ESE above her house. I took the Pyramid Trail up West to the Bursera trail and followed that along the ridge until it drops down the backside into a valley and connects with the Gila Trail. That loops around the far SE end of the ridge, where I followed a trail under the power lines back over to the backside of my sister’s neighborhood. It felt amazing to be running shirtless in the sun on new trails – Saguaro cactus all over the landscape. Just beautiful. Unfortunately, my IT Bands really started hurting on the descent down the backside side of the ridge at about mile 3.5. And, the foot pain didn’t go away. While running it actually didn’t hurt to bad, but whenever I slowed down to a walk – or when I climbed back in my car – it throbbed bad.
7.5 miles @ 12:03 and 1,083 ft. elevation
Top of Bursera Trail, looking SE towards Ahwatukee, Chandler, Tempe
Descending Bursera down to the Gila Trail, looking West towards the Gila River Reservation and Sierra Estrella
Ok, I did something to my ankle yesterday. The outside arch of my right foot KILLS! Stuff online suggests that it might be a pulled peroneal tendon – which wraps around that outside part of the foot. The ankle is sore a bit by the ankle bone – also where the tendon goes. In any case, I bet that running on the snow is what did it. It is not just an uneven surface (dirt and trails is always plenty uneven – and not a problem) but it is an uneven surface that unpredictably sinks or depresses under your footfall. It is hard to gauge what its going to do for every foot fall, so I wonder if the brain has a hard time tensing up the right muscles to prepare for impact. In any case – I’m totally limping.
A couple months ago I won a pair of Montrail Badrocks from Max King on facebook. They just arrived and I got them specifically for wet. snowy, or muddy conditions. So, I grabbed my neighbor Matt and we did an EARLY morning run up Farmington Canyon, which was snowpacked. It was my first run on the snow and the shoes did great. Unfortunately, my knees did not. I gave them an almost 2-week rest, but wasn’t very diligent at using my foam roller on them. Also – I was feeling pretty lazy or something, and just had to power hike most of the way up. I’m sure it was MVH’s slowest time ever going up the canyon.
6.9 Miles @ 15:14 min/mile and 1,533 ft. elevation
Also – did I mention that it was about 15 degrees. Here is my solution for the cold weather.
It’s my bandito look.
Farmington Canyon in the Snow
After last year’s Turkey Trot I thought it would be fun to make it a tradition. I ran from my parents house up the the old RR track trail system to Whatcom Falls Park and back. I can’t believe how lucky I was growing up here. This was a 1.5 mile jog from my house. Nuts.
Also – IT Bands not happy.
3.9 miles @ 10:31 min/mile and 340 ft. elevation
Pedestrian bridge selfie on Alabama Hill
Lower Falls in Whatcom Fall Park where I used to cliff jump as kids
I grew up in Bellingham, WA and spent a lot of time hiking and mountain biking in the AMAZING sets of trails in the Chuckanut Mountains that creep into town from the south and east. These trails are amazing. The Galbraith (Lookout Mountain) trail system is world famous for Mtn. Biking trails. I spent so much time up there as a teenager, but didn’t realize how good I had it until I moved away.
I never ran those trails though. I hiked the Chuckanuts south of town, backpacking up to Pine, Cedar, Lizard, and Lilly Lakes to camp overnight. Also did Oyster Dome and the Bat Caves a number of times. Amazing trails, amazing views of the San Juan Islands. Beautiful Stuff.
Well, for Thanksgiving my family drove up to Bellingham for the week and my #1 goal was to fit in a trail run in the Chuckanuts. I had my dad drop me off at Larabee State Park and told him I would call about 30 minutes before I descended down to the Pine & Cedar lakes trailhead. I had gone over some maps and thought it would be about 10 miles.
I climbed up the Fragrance Lake Trail first, absolutely giddy with the familiar surroundings, soft dirt under each footfall, dense foliage, etc… I felt at home. I pushed past Fragrance Lake up to Cleator Road, thinking that if I followed it, it would put me up over the ridge to Lost Lake – a lake I never made it to as a kid. Well, I followed the road up, up , up, and finally got to the ridge. Down the other side looked too steep to climb though. IT turns out, if I had just followed the ridge NNE, I could have dropped right down to Lost Lake. Instead, I followed it SSW, eventually descending down the chinscraper trail to where the actual Lost Lake Trail hits…you guessed it…Cleator Road. If I had originally turned right on Cleator, instead of Left, I would have hit this trailhead in about 50 years. Oops. All told – this added about 2 unplanned miles onto my route. No worries. I hit the Lost Lake Trail, from which you can see SW to the ocean for a bit. Then, I took it along the bottom of the ridge I had just traversed the top of in the opposite direction. I made a quick stop to take a look at Lost Lake, then then continued on.
To get to the Pine & Cedar trail I jumped on the Raptor Ridge trail (taking a picture at the overlook) and then followed it to the intersection with the trail that would take me down to where my dad would pick me up. At this point, I look at my GPS and realized that if I instead turned right and went to Pine & Cedar lakes, and THEN down to the car…the total mileage might hit 13.1 – a half marathon. Granted – I hadn’t moved at half-marathon pace and had taken a lot of breaks to take pictures and such, but no matter. Off I went.
The lakes were beautiful as I remember them being as a kid, but the trail down to the trail head was STEEP. I remembered it being steep, but not this steep. And, my knees didn’t like it. By the time I got to the bottom BOTH IT BANDS WERE SCREAMING. NO!!! The dreaded IT Band was back – and now in both knees. This was disappointing.
My family pulled into the parking lot, literally, right as I finished but I made them follow me out to the road so I could hit the requisite 13.1.
13.2 miles @ 13:33 min/mile with 3,789 ft. elevation!
Amazing run. Amazing place. I can’t wait to get back.
Real trails are covered in leaves and moss
Real forests have huge upturned trees
Lost Lake
Real trails double as creek beds
Raptor Ridge
Pine Lake
Following on the smashing success of last weeks pre-dawn run up City Creek Canyon to Ensign Peak, I thought I’d go for a repeat. This time I took the trail on the SE side of the canyon, following it to the East and up to both of the Avenue Twin Peaks. Aside from a dog who brushed against my leg and freaked me out, the run up was uneventful. On the way back, I followed the north ridgeline (which looks down into City Creek Canyon on the backside) as far as I could. I reached the end of the ridge at a knoll and the trail kind of just stopped. I thought I might be able to descend and find something down on the City Creek Canyon side. Mistake. I ended up bushwacking back SW until I hit a small gulch which I followed back up to the main trail system.
7.5 miles @ 14.01 min/mile and 2,148 ft. elevation
In the gulch I did find these though. There are apparently quite a few spots up there with wrecked cars.
I was another fun run, but the last AM one I was able to do before winter set in.
SLC from the Avenues Twin Peaks
So, I was wondering how I could reduce my DOMS – Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. You know, how on the 2nd day after a big workout or run you are crippled with stiff sore muscles. Well, if I wasn’t such an idiot, or had just done a little reading, I would have learned that you should ingest certain things to RECOVER from strenuous activity. Namely, protein. So, right after the morning run two days ago I chugged a protein shake. And guess what, I wasn’t sore yesterday and am not very sore today at all. Hooray! I wish someone would have told me about this sooner. It would have seriously helped some rough sore periods a few months ago.
Fitting in a good trail run is tough when you have a family that A. Demands your time; and B. With whom you really want to spend quality time. The most obvious solution is to run at times when I would otherwise not be spending with family. Or, when I would otherwise be sleeping. I decided to try out waking up early and hitting a trail with a headlamp. I am 100% an evening workout type of guy. Waking up early to work out sounds miserable, and any time I have tried to institute such a policy, it usually doesn’t even make it to day 1. The alarm goes off and I balk. But, I thought that going on a trail run might just be FUN enough to get me out of bed.
I was right.
I awoke early, and rather than running a local trail, coming home to shower, and then driving down to work in bad rush-hour traffic, I decided to drive down to City Creek Canyon, near where I work, doing a run in the pre-dawn morning and then showering at work. I borrowed a headlamp from my neighbor, and hit the trail at 6:00 AM. I went up the trail on the NW side of City Creek Canyon, looped it West and eventually around to Ensign Peak and back.
7.2 miles @ 13:01 min/mile with 1,584 ft. elevation.
It was one of the funnest runs I have done.
I’ll have to say it was smashing success! I was showered and in my office by about 8:15 or so, feeling awake and energized.
Pre-Dawn Light over SLC
Awake!
Ensign Peak
So far, as most of my runs had been solo – I was sticking to the Davis Creek Canyon drainage – just because that is where I had gone before. This Saturday morning I hooked up with a guy I met online (sounds bad, right?) on a FB page of other local trail runners. He showed me up the canyon just north of Davis Creek – the much bigger Steed Creek Canyon. The trail was much better traveled, and the view from the top of the cliffs was great. If you follow it past the cliffs, which I will have to do next time, you can supposed hook up to Bountiful Peak and some other trails that lead back down other canyons. SUPPOSEDLY. I hear the tops of all the trails are overgrown.
4.2 miles @ 20:18 min/mile and 2,177 ft. elevation
Went out with the plan to bang out a 5k PR. Unfortunately, according to the GPS, I only went 3.3 miles instead of the needed 3.5-3.6. Oops. Good pace though – got PRs on a couple segments or road/trail.
Apparently never content with running trails I have already explored, I set off on this Saturday morning to explore another new route. I had previously failed in following Triumph Trail up the north side of Davis Creek Canyon, but had since believed to have spotted where I took a wrong turn. So, with a new set of running tights to protect against some chilly morning air, I set off.
The first part of the trail I already knew, and had even taken my kids up it to the lower waterfall. Previously I had veered north on one of the BST firebreak roads too early, and attempted an ascent up the open face north of the canyon, when it turns out that the turnoff to the Triump Trail is just right before another trail breaks right, down to the waterfall. I followed Triumph up to the left (north) and quickly found the trail was well established and easy to follow…for a while.
The trail was steep, and the higher I went, the harder it became to follow the trail. Soon, it was lost amidst rock faces and hillsides of impenetrable scrub oak. Thankfully, someone had recently tied pink ribbons along the trail, so with some surveying ahead – even though it took a while sometimes – I kept finding a ribbon ahead and moving towards it.
By the time I reached the “top” where a the trail hit a prominent outcropping of a ridge, I had climbed about 2,200 ft. in about 1.8 miles of trail. Pretty steep. My legs were sore, but worse, the trail was completely lost. I kept on see an occasional pink ribbon and older pop can bottom nailed to trees – but the terrain between them was overgrown with no trail. I fought my way higher up the ridge for a bit, hoping to find a better stretch of trail, but to no avail. The time I had available to run was also about up – my wife needed me back at the house.
That’s when I panicked a bit.
I did NOT want to pick my way back down the steep, rocky, overgrown and poorly marked trail I had just crawled up. So, I decided to just cut straight down the drainage to my right, which I knew eventually funneled to the Old North Trail and Hell Hole – from which point I knew the trails and could quickly get back to my car. The descent through the pines was a bit scratchy and my legs got covered in burrs (see below) but as I reached the bottom of the drainage – where I assume a creek sometimes runs – a trail popped up on my left. What a blessed sight. I jumped on it. started running at full stride. I came over a small ridge and immediately recognized I was at the point on Old North where I had previously once ascended to. Hallelujah. I bombed down to the car and made it home just in time.
Only 3.7 miles @ 19:32 per mile, but a full 2,229 ft of elevation!
It did take me a good hour to pick all of these off though:
Part way up Triumph, looking down Davis Creek Canyon
As I have mentioned, I know that trail running extends my endurance. A slower 6 mile in the hills is way easier than pounding out 6 miles at my top pace on pavement. So…I decided to test my legs out and really see if my endurance on the streets was improving. I decided to run a straight 10 miles. I had never done this before, so it was a big deal for me. It was hard, but I’m very glad I did it.
I followed it up a few days later with a evening pavement run – experienced my first ever side ache, but clocked my best 5k time ever.. 3.5 miles @ 9:11 min/mile. So, maybe my speed endurance was improving.
With the family still out of town, I took a longer excursion up to the top of Farmington Canyon to run the Great Western Trail from Francis Peak to Thurston and back. I had done this once before, and wanted to get it in again before the canyon road was shut down. As I drove up, however, I noticed an oddly large volume of 4×4 pickup trucks going up and down the canyon. Then, I noticed people in orange vests…and it hit me – ELK SEASON. I wonder how much like an Elk I look like while running….
At the FAA towers I asked a couple guys if they thought I’d be ok on the trail, and they assured me I’d be fine. Lots of hunters were traversing the ridge on the trail, and no one was shooting on the trail as there were lots of other hunters hiking it. Fair enough. I took off.
It was beautiful. A bit chilly, but not too bad. I chatted with a few hunters along the way – all nice folks. I made it up to the actual marker at the top of Thurston Peak, something I didn’t do the time before. The main trail doesn’t go to the peak, and it was a bit difficult to find the side “trail” that did, but I made it up and down.
The run back was eventful. As I came back down to the Great Western Trail and returned running south, I head a gunshot echo. It spooked me, I won’t lie. I kept running and a bit later came across a trail of blood going up a snow covered section of the trail. 1/2 way up, a dude and his wife were quartering the haunches off of a dead elk. Pretty gruesome scene.
Looking south from Thurston Peak
Right past where the Baer Canyon trail connects with the GWT, a side trail cut up to the East, and I thought (from a map I looked at before) that it might go over the ridge and drop down to some small lakes I saw on the map – Smith Creek Lakes. It didn’t. But, I made note to explore them from the main split in the road a little farther south next time I was up here.
Looking South 
In all, a great afternoon. 8.9 miles @ 14:56 min/mile and 2,133 ft. elevation
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Back from my conference in Tucson, my family was out of town – so I had to take advantage of having free time to myself. Up till now I had only run solo. Even in Kearney on the streets – I may have run one time with my wife. My next door neighbor said he was up for a run, even though he runs full-on 100 mile ultras. He agreed to not make fun of my slow pace. I was also a bit concerned because my left ankle still hurt a bit. The ankle was tender, but didn’t cause much trouble.
Although he lives next door to me in Farmington, MVH had never been up the Davis Creek watershed much. So, I had fun showing him a few trails – he couldn’t believe he hadn’t run them before. We went up the main Davis Creek, over to Pretty Valley, and then across to the Ford Canyon Overlook and back.
4.7 miles @ 18:08 min/mile, 1,508 ft. elevation.
Davis Creek Canyon Sunset
(MVH on the right)
In October I had a conference to attend down in Tucson, so I decided to drive. My plan was to find a place to run somewhere in the middle of the drive and I chose an obscure canyon that gets easy access to the Colorado River. It is Soap Creek Canyon, south of the 89a and the Vermillion Cliffs. The night before I couldn’t sleep so I just hit the road around 3:30 AM – arriving at the trail-head around 11ish. When I pulled off the highway and saw just how remote this was, I had second thoughts – but forged ahead in any case. You open a gate in the fence, close it behind you, drive over some desert to a makeshift parking lot / trailhead. And, then you head down the canyon. It begins as a shallow wash, slowly deepening. Eventually you enter the south fork of the canyon proper and soon have a lot of canyoneering decisions to make. There are no places that require all-out rock climbing, but lots of small drops and cliff faces to navigate. There were cairns to follow, but I had lots of concerns about heading down the wrong drop. At one point, there was even a rope descent. I passed 2 guys heading in the opposite direction – they had camped down at the river. That was comforting because I was becoming increasingly aware of how remote the place was. So far the terrain was dangerous enough to possibly cause a break if I fell, but not too bad. The ever-present paranoia of rattlesnakes had me more worried. By the time I made it to the Colorado River, it had taken longer than I had planned, I was getting worried about sunburn and anxious to get back to my car in one piece. I quickly dipped my feet in the river, geared back up, and made my ascent back up the canyon.
About 1 mile back up disaster struck – I rolled my left ankle hard, hearing a pop even. A few minutes later, I rolled it a second time. I had 4 miles to climb, and lots of rock faces to scamper/scale up. This was bad. About another mile up, BOTH of my calf muscles cramped violently. It was debilitating. This was trouble. I slowly made my way up. I eventually caught up with the 2 hikers, and they were glad to see me. Expressing that they were concerned at how little gear I was packing -worried that I would run out of water. I showed them the 2 liters my pack held and they were relieved.
Thoughout the ascent any time I did more than a walk, my calves cramped and brought me to teh ground. So – I walked out the last 3 miles or so. Scarier was when they cramped mid-rock climb up the various 10-15 ft. tall cliff drops. By the time I got to my car I was exhausted and relieved.
10.7 miles @ 13:5 min/mile and 2,442 ft elevation
Looking back, it was probably a foolhardy and stupid route to do solo. I would probably do it again – but only because I know the trial now.
As for the cramping calves…this is an excellent example of stupid rookie mistakes. When I got to my sister’s house in Phoenix later that night (after a great dinner with a colleague in Flagstaff at Satchmo‘s BBQ), I did some googling and quickly deduced that I had run low on electrolytes. I was hydrating, but sweating quite a bit and doing nothing to replenish them. Stupid stupid stupid. Lesson learned.
Panorama of the Vermillion Cliffs, looking North 
Looking down the Soap Creek Wash
Weird curled up dried mud all of the creek bed
Canyon Deepening
The Mighty Colorado River @ Soap Creek Rapids. This is just downstream from Lee’s Ferry
Looking up-canyon at the split between the North and South forks. Apparently you can do the north fork, but it requires repelling.
LOTS of climbing up boulder fields like this
Handy rope for a particularly hard section with no good alternative routes
I was feeling good on the trails. THRILLED about going 6-9 miles. But, I was realizing that there was a bit of self-deception. My PACE on the trails was slow. That is normal for trail running. A bit slower overall – fast power hiking on big climbs, etc… You aren’t running at a full street pace the whole time. So, I was wondering if I could put in 6-9 miles on the pavement. I suspected not. I decided to shoot for a 10k. It was boring, and long, and hard, and killed me. A 10k PR in fact. Way more tiring than a slower 10k (even with elevation) on the trails. I’m glad I did it though. 6.3 miles @ 9:22 min/mile, 0 ft. elevation.
BORING!!!
High on the excitement of feeling a little bit familiar with the Davis Creek trails, and having looked at the map a lot, I decided to explore further. I went up towards Pretty Valley, but cut East up the hill on what I thought was going to be a trail. It was not. More scratches and lesson learned. If it looks like it “might” be a trail…that’s about all it is – it “might” be a trail. But it is not, with surety, a trail. I dropped back down to the main trail, went through Pretty Valley and pushed all the way to the Bountiful Peak Trail, up that to the Ford Canyon Outlook. Gorgeous. It had rained a few days before, however, and all the of the long grass alongside the trails was wet. This soaked my socks all the way through. At the outlook I took them off and had to wring them out. Well worth it though. On the way back I dropped down to the creek, across to the BST and looped that back around to my car. 6 miles @ 17:47 min/mile, 2,002 ft. elevation.
3D rendering of the trail and elevation, looking East
Pretty Valley, looking down into South Farmington
Panorama from the Ford Canyon Overlook, looking down on Centerville to the SW
Another hike with the kids We hiked up the Davis Creek trail to the first bench, which is pretty steep, and they did great!
Despite my declaration that I would use Flag Rock to train my legs, I looked up at the hills and couldn’t help but go explore something new. The trails up to Flag Rock or Steed Creek are more heavily traveled than the smaller trails going up the much smaller Davis Creek Canyon. I started up the Mtn. face north of the creek – trying to find the “Triumph Trail” I found on the Farmington Trails Map. I did the first part with the kids before, up to the BST, but not further. Needless to say, I didn’t quite find it after the BST. Or, I found it, and then lost it. And bushwhacked and got bloodied up in the process. Dry sun-scorched scrub oak is very scratchy. I climbed about 900 ft up over a mile of trail, then descended, crossed over the creek and went up into the trails south of Davis Creek. I ran to Pretty Valley – a great trail – and then took a trail labeled “Davis Creek Trail” up quite a ways before turning back, coming down the traverse a bit, and then heading up a trail to Hell Hole and a couple hundred yards up what I thought was “Old North” on the map. It turns out I was correct. I didn’t follow any of the trails up as I high as I should have, but it was fun to explore. I also got obsessed with the idea of following one of them all the way up to Bountiful Peak…but as I chatted with people on a couple facebook groups, most people said that the trails fade out and turn into bushwhacks the higher you get.
The moral of the story – just because a map shows a trail does not mean there is a trail. In fact, I suspect that the Farmington Trails committee might just be drawing them to coax all of us up there to go run and blaze the trails for them. Ha!
In any case, it was a really great afternoon exploring. 5.9 miles, 24:13 min/mile pace, 2,753 ft. elevation.
3D rendering of the climbs – looking East by NE
Falls leaves in Davis Creek Canyon
“Pretty Valley” or Little Valley. A few campsites here – really gorgeous.
On the Bonneville Shoreline Trail just north of Triumph Trail and Davis Creek, looking south across a field of flowers
Obligatory Selfie with Davis Creek waterfall in the background
I quickly decided that I needed to convert the wife and kids to the trails as well. My girl is 5.5 and son was almost 3. We went up the north side of the Davis Creek drainage on the “triumph trail” up to the overlook of the lower waterfalls. They did alright for being so little. We did see one rattlesnake, which the Mrs. was not thrilled about.
One thing I was quickly realizing is that if I could strengthen my lungs and legs, I could go farther and enjoy more trails. I decided that I would try to regularly run the trial up to Flag Rock. It is steep and short, about 1,400 ft. in 1.5 miles up. So – great for training my climbing legs. It was a great run, much better than the first time I tried with sans water. 4.9 miles, 16:13 mile/min pace, 1,500+ ft. elevation.
A 3D rendering of the trail and elevation
Old Glory a’waving in the Wind
A few days before there had been a fire up on the hillside. It still smelled like burnt wood.
In early September 2013, my next door neighbor and I went shoe shopping for me. I tried on a few different pairs of trail shoes, but couldn’t commit. A couple days later he came over with a pair of Brooks Cascadia 8s. He had only used them a few times and they were only a size bigger than what I usually wear, and it turns out that lots of trail runners and ultramarathoners buy a size or 1/2 bigger because your feet swell at long distances. Excited about the “new” shoes (they were in great condition) I set off for some runs.
First, I drove up Farmington Canyon to the FAA towers and ran the Great Western Trail to Thurston Peak and back. It is a beautiful ridge – Morgan County on the East and Davis County on the West. Really spectacular.
It was also my longest run at 9.1 miles. My pace was probably around 12:00-14:00 min/mile, although the messed up GPS said faster. This may be the run that sealed the deal for me. I was up in the mountains where I love to be – covering more miles than I could on a slow hike – and loving it.
Panorama from the parking lot at the Francis Peak
Looking SW as a shaft of light shone down on my new home
Obligatory Selfie to prove I was there
I was seriously beat up and sore after Baer Canyon. Extreme DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness. So much in fact that I I didn’t run again for 2 weeks. And, after that, I only did bike rides for the next 3 weeks, here, here, and here.
I think part of the problem was that I was using OLD trail shoes from years before. In any case – I did see some pretty sites out in the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
3 minutes later I was engulfed in clouds of bugs – seriously couldn’t breath. I had to just put my head down and ride blind. That worked well until I glanced up to see that I was about to run into a deer.
Enthused by that first trail run, I planned my next attack. Now living in Utah, I get July 24th off – Pioneer Day. I convinced a coworker to join me and we made an attack of Baer Canyon. Unbeknownst to me, this is a notoriously steep and difficult trail. They hold a killer race there every year called the Bair Gutsman. Indeed, it was a steep hike. Over 4,000 ft. in elevation over a 5 mile climb. The last face you climb to come out on the Great Western Trail / Francis Peak Road was rough. Fellow hikers told me that it is called “Death Row.” By that point I was exhausted and took it slow. At the top I encountered ANOTHER rattlesnake – 2 for 2 – and snapped a few pictures looking down into Morgan County on the backside. The trip down was almost worst – tough on the legs and knees. It was great and felt great to do. Unfortunately, my out-of-shape body wasn’t prepared. I honestly struggled walking up and down my stairs for a good week after. Ouch.
Still Climbing. Will we ever get to those towers?!
After the Scare with Dehydration on Flag Rock, I picked up a Nathan HPL 020 Hydration Vest. LOVED IT. It holds 2 liters of water, doesn’t bounce around at all and has room for snacks.
Panorama looking East into Morgan County from the top. See the Francis Peak FAA towers on the right (south).
Looking West Down Baer Canyon Towards Fruit Heights, Kaysville, and Farmington
My Kids were Very Concerned about my bloodied knee. After descending the “death row” steep trail you hit a short section of flat trail that traverses north across a creek bed. It felt so good to stretch my legs out in a full stride that I just took off….and tripped and did a full superman into the dirt. Ouch.
On the evening of 8 July 2013 I went up for my first trail run.
It was in the 90s, and the evening sun was beating on the exposed face of the Wasatch Range that I decided to ascend. I took the trail closest to home – a set straight up from Farmington to Flag Rock – an outcropping about 1,500 ft up from the valley floor with a large American Flag. I started “running” and quickly realized that my Nebraska lungs (and legs) weren’t prepared for the climb or lack of oxygen in the air. To make matters worse, about 1 mile in, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. With the snake behind me, I figured I should soldier on, but was incredibly paranoid for the rest of the run. I even picked up a walking stick to use to ward off future snake friends, should we cross paths. I was a little freaked out. To make matters worse – I quickly realized that I needed water. I had a large bottle in the car, and had figured that the 3 mile hike/run wouldn’t require water on the trail. The 90 degrees quickly sapped by strength and the trail turned out to be 4.7 miles.
When I got back to the car I chugged the full 24 oz. bottle.
Though hot, dehydrated and freaked out about snakes – it was fun. And, I was immediately hooked. I got a great workout (the whole reason for trying to run in the first place) and got to be in the mtns. Win win.
On my way to the top, on the north trail. The entire time I was taking moments to crouch and hide in what little shade the scrub oaks provided.
The Flag
Me, dehydrated and red-faced.
Here’s where the rubber really hits the road…or should I say, dirt.
Over 2012 and into mid-2013 I had begun to run on occasion. I enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction, and general pleasure in attempting to be healthy, etc…
But I did not enjoy running. I almost started to enjoy it in October 2012, but the IT band pain quickly put a stop to my enthusiasm.
Then my family and I moved to Utah. Our next door neighbor just happened to be from my hometown of Bellingham, WA and we bonded over that and music and other stuff. Then, I found out that he runs ultra marathons. Big 100 milers up in the mountains. And he’s good. Talking with him was a revelation. What?! I can run…on trails?!?!
Growing up I did a lot of hiking and mountain biking in NW Washington. I love trails. I don’t know why I never thought of it before – running on trails. I immediately sensed that this might be a “type” of running that I could really fall in love with. Boy, was I right.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, but my days in Nebraska were numbered. I started the month with the plan to run at least once a week, but by months end was in the throws of flying to Utah for job interviews, accepting a new job, frantically planning the move, etc… I did clock 3 runs over the course of the month. 3milers. No complaints at the time.
In all, Nebraska was good to me. Despite its reputation for being incredibly flat, our town of Kearney was all hills – especially in my neighborhood.
Here’s a composite image of my Kearney runs. Click to go through them individually.
I’d like to think it was because I was trying to be conscientious about rehabbing my knee…but I was probably just being lazy. Plus, winters in Nebraska can be cold and windy! Maybe 10 miles total over the course of 3-4 months. Oops.
For October I gave my knee time to recover, but didn’t really do much to fix it. I should have stretched it lots, but didn’t.
Then we decided to run a Thanksgiving Morning 5 mile turkey trot. I did a run each of the 2 weeks prior (5 miles at 9:02 min/mile, and 4.7 at 9:44 min/mile), and the knee gave me trouble each time. Stretching mid-run helped, but it still hurt.
Race day was cold and windy. To make matter worse, the first 2 miles were a steep descent. I have come to find out that illitibial band problems are exacerbated by downhills. Needless to day, I had to stop and stretch lots – but I finished. 5.5 miles at 9:05 min/mile. Not horrible for me.
And, the apple pie I ate when I got home never tasted so good.
Julianne and Me post-run.
The planned 5k race was 29 September 2012, so I decided to give my knees a break and only do bike rides for the month. 7 days out, I went out for a 1 mile jog. Knee felt fine, but I didn’t want to push it.
The race was early on a Saturday morning. At the fire of a cannon I took off, adrenalin pumping and pushing me to run faster that I ever had before. I posted a PR 5k time and pace (7:45 min/mile) and felt great. I was exhausted but the excitement of the “Race” atmosphere made me run fast. And no knee pain! It was great.
Julianne and me before the race. It was a bit chilly out.
Going wakeboarding later that day probably didn’t help the knee injury….
In late July I got a pair of brand new, real running shoes. Some Mizuno Wave Inspire 8’s. They felt great. Maybe too good. Feeling emboldened with my new foot gear I went out for a run on August 7th, and instead of stopping at 3-4 miles, just kept going. A full 6.3 (10k!) by the end.
The problem was that with each mile I felt better and better. It was exhilarating. A full 10k and it felt great. Even better, I clocked a 8:29 min/mile pace, which for me was great. An awesome improvement from the 9-10 min/miles before.
A couple days later I put in a 4 mile run at 8:27 min/mile, again feeling great.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was upping my mileage faster than my body could handle. On August 15 I went out for, what I assumed would be, another PR run. About 1 mile in I got a sudden sharp pain on the outside lower corner of my right knee cap. If I walked the pain went away, if I ran it killed. WHAT?!
I walked home, got online and diagnosed my symptoms. My Illiotibial Band. Arg.
I was so frustrated. Right as I was starting to honestly enjoy running, my body says “I don’t think so!”
I took the next month+ off, only doing bike rides.
Sometime in July 2012, my wife and I decided to run a Breast Cancer benefit 5k to be held in September. This meant we needed to figure out how to run.
I put in a few 3 mile runs over the course of a couple weeks, pace at 9:18 min/mile, 9:38 min/mile, 9:56 min/mile, and 9:43 min/mile. I was pleased as punch.
These runs were a mix of running/walking. I was lucky to go a straight mile w/ no breaks.
Unfortunately, I also incurred the first of many stupid injuries. I was running pavement wearing old, worn-out Nike Alvord trail shoes I had used for hiking previously. They were the only athletic shoes I owned, and while technically trail “running” shoes, they didn’t work well on pavement. And, after 4 runs, I got a bad case of shin splints. Ouch. Couldn’t walk for a few days and had to switch to riding my bike for a bit.
Something had clicked though. I was kind of enjoying it – even though I hated myself mid-run as I panted and gasped for air. The July heat probably wasn’t helping.
By February 2012, I had moved to Kearney, NE. On a particularly cold evening in February – we’re talking single digits – I thought:
“Man, its crazy cold outside. I should totally go out and run. That would be nuts.”
So, out I went. I strapped on some old trail running shoes I had around for hiking and general outdoor use – some old Nike Alvords. I put on a beanie, cotton long-johns, sweat-shirt, gloves, and hit the road. It was cold. The frigid air hurt my lungs – made me cough. And, my long-johns had lost all elastic in the waistband (very old ones from snowboarding days) and kept on falling down, sagging in the crotch, and pulling my shorts down with them. Very embarrassing.
I think I made it 2 miles, and that included a lot of stopping to walk.
On Facebook I wrote,”I am not a runner. I abhor running. Yet, for some reason, I found myself outside in 28 degree weather running tonight. What is wrong with me?!“
I was sore for the next week. But I kind of liked it.
In 2004 I moved to Lincoln, NE. Not much mountain biking in Lincoln, if you can imagine. Not many mountains to hike either. This was problematic. In fact, this is precisely teh circumstances that may have compelled to take up running. But, they didn’t.
I hate running.
No, instead I took up lap-swimming.
And occasional biking on pavement.
I grew up in NW Washington as an active kid. Lots of hiking, camping, rock climbing, swimming, snowboarding, etc… A possibly unhealthy amount of mountain biking. Lots of mountain biking.
But no running. I hate running.
I tried to stay active in college as an undergraduate in Utah. But still no running. Well – maybe once or twice over the course of 7 semesters, but they were disastrous attempts.
Running is the worst.
