Wedge 50k, Again Without Training
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…