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….
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…
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!
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…
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….
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….
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….
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? How to Tell a Trail Runner from a Hipster and Click here to Like UltraRunner Joe on Facebook
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…
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…